I’m heading into the proverbially windy urban zone.
I look forward to catching up with friends even at the cost of dealing with flights and airports.
UPDATE
It is still hard for me to get my head around all the dogs in airports and on flights. And some of them are big enough that they should be ticketed.
UPDATE
In the jammed lounge we had the enjoyment every few minutes of flashing strobe lights and a tinny announcement. Not sure if I can upload it from my phone… 22-12-26-atl-lounge-emergency.m4a
It worked, sort of. I found a new thing my app will do.
Gosh, how I enjoy traveling.
UPDATE
SO! With a measure of irritation I head all the way back across the airport for the flight and hear over the speakers in the concourse…
UPDATE
The flight was delayed to begin with and boarding delayed by assistance for 8 people in wheelchairs and only one chair guy – one by one.
On the other hand I got upgraded.
UPDATE
As the seemingly endless boarding process … stasis? … continues, I’ve gotten a couple games of chess in with the plane’s system. It’s not bad.
Here’s a position. Black to move,
And Delta told me after I got on the plane about the problem at the airport several hours after I discovered it first hand. Thanks, Delta!
UPDATE.
Still here! The pilot says there are “load issues”. I suppose they are rearranging things in the hold. I’ll resist additional observations using “load”.
UPDATE:
And the saga continued.
They decided to unload the plane from the middle, or at least not the forward hatch. Hence, being in 1a it took a sometime to get off the plane. Remember: there were some 8 wheelchairs involved.
Getting into the terminal was an experience unlike any I have had in these USA. I might have been in, for all I could tell,…. I dunno.
The hunt for my bag began. The monitor said the my fight’s luggage would come in at carrousel 2. 2. I walked past 11 and 10 – which had Delta signs – and into an area that seemed like it was the outlet for customs and international flights. Many dogs were by now out of their carriers and two of them had begun litigating some dispute. I saw a sign for Domestic Carrousel 9 and headed that way thinking, obviously, that, give the way of numbers, 2 would be after 9.
When I reached the dead end an ingress from the flight arrivals area where a woman – quite definitely not born anywhere near these USA was seated with a palpable attitude of indifference I had no more clues as to the location of 2.
“May I ask where carrousel 2 is, please?
“Carrousel 2 is not be here.”
“Where is be it?
“There! There! Is be there!”, pointing back the way I came.
I made my way back through the dogs and swarms of travelers from the once rifted supercontinent of Gondwana to 10 and 11. Having spotted two guys in uniforms who looked like they handled the unclaimed luggage I asked,
“Where is carrousel 2.”
“There is no carrousel 2.”
“The monitor says that that’s where my flight’s bags are going to be.”
“Oh yeah, we know about that. But they’ll be here.”
“Here? Not 2.”
“Here.”
“Isn’t that a little confusing?”
I looked around and, although I had literally been to the end of things where 2 is not be, and come all the way back, there were very few people I recognized from the flight. I suspected that most of them were finding out that 2 is not be there, too, and wonder what is be to do next.
“Yeah, well, we told them about it. But the bag will come here.”
“The monitors here mention three cities but none of them where I came from.”
“Yeah, that’s another problem. But all the bags come here.”
I thanked them and moved to is be between the two lone options, 10 and 11.
My phone whimpered and I spied a text from Delta that my bag was arriving on carrousel 11.
As I turned and stepped toward 11, I heard a rumble behind me. Bags were coming down the chute to carrousel 10.
I collected my bag and made my way back through the uncased-dogs and denizens of the subcontinent. Never was I so happy to exit an airport terminal.
Tonight.
Chinese food and conversation with friends.
Loading ...
Rainforest ceiling looks like the walkway between concourse A and T (or T and Baggage Claim) at ATL. You know the joke, perhaps. Some men were discussing their friend’s dubious character, morals, and/or ethics at the deceased’s wake: “I don’t know if he will go to Heaven, or Hell, however, he connects through Atlanta”
Fr, do you travel in your clerical dress? Or do you travel incognito in mufti?
When I was 15 years old I got my pilots license on my birthday, I had been flying with my instructor and dad since I was 8. My first big flight was to ATL to visit some family friends who lived there. They had to come to the airport to pick me up since I did not have a drivers license yet.
ATL was big back then but not as big as now. That was a different world back in 1977. The flight was uneventful and I spent the weekend and flew back home.
Now I do not look forward to Atlanta either flying or driving.
“I collected my bag …”
I think you were very fortunate.
I used to enjoy traveling by plane, adventure and new places and all that stuff. Now I do everything I possibly can to avoid being treated like a criminal while stuffed into an aluminum tube and having my bank account emptied for the pleasure of it.
Apparently there are now GPS based luggage trackers so you can know where your bag is at all times. However they seem to require a monthly subscription to a service so probably only justifiable if you are a frequent flyer.
Father, sorry you had to endure all that inconvenience, but you made the experience into an interesting read nonetheless. I’m sure you you would have preferred that to have been a purely fictional account experienced by an imaginary Fr. Z! Regarding carousel numbers, I’ll have to keep in mind that Delta now mixes decimal and binary numbers when reporting them to passengers. :)
Perhaps Delta has adopted a Roman numeral carousel system :)
Fr. Z:
Did you feel like you were at a multipurpose dog kennel in Atlanta? A new version of a corporate superstore? On second thought, maybe I should not be giving the corporate world new ideas.
Merry Christmas!
A very enjoyable and funny travelogue.
Father Z if you ever write that book it is going to be hilarious, I laughed out loud reading this. We have to laugh as we have to watch it all deteriorate. Laugh or go crazy. Merry Christmas to you and all here.
Oh Father, I hope it was not too traumatic b/c you gave me my first laugh of the day with your witty comments. I used to go through ATL a couple of times a year to visit the folks in VA; long cross country flight, ugh!
I agree about the dogs all over the place. What is hard to stomach is the dogs in grocery stores. Regardless of the signs as you go in the doors! I do believe people have replaced having babies with owning more dogs!
God bless you and safe travels.
“Because we’re Delta Airlines, and life is an [effing] nightmare!”
https://youtu.be/sIU-uV00hhY
Sounds bad. At least you were indoors.
I had to do a pick up at the airport of people coming from ATL in the middle of the blizzard.
What is normally a pleasant 35 minute drive on mostly country roads turned into a 95 minute white knuckler. The flight was a little over 2 hours late.
The bag carrier got frozen so not only were their bags not showing up on any carrousel , 2 or otherwise, but nobody’s, from any flight, were.
While waiting in the cell phone lot I observed several people have to get out of their 4X4s in -2 degrees and 20 mile per hour winds to let their dogs relieve themselves. I found it humorous until I realized the only way for me to relieve myself was a port-a-potty. I’ll spare you the details.
2 hours of waiting for the bags (now 2 a.m.) produced nothing. 95 minute white knuckler home, finding sleeping apparel for my guests and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Dear Fr. Z.
Thank You for this outrageous and extremely funny discourse on air travel in The USA. You have made my Christmas !!!
May I, respectfully, suggest that, whenever possible in future, you give great thought to possibly travelling on THE TRAIN !!! One assumes that AmTrak could oblige with, possibly, less aggravation.
Plus, why not collate all your interesting anecdotes about your flying sagas ? Once done, you could then publish them as a Travel Book and collect enough dosh (money) to make it a viable proposition and, also, to facilitate a lengthy stay in Rome ?
in Domino
some of them are big enough that they should be ticketed.
I say give them a seat and let them ride for free. I’d rather sit next to a large dog encroaching on my space than a person. At least the dog means I can have a conversation with him over over who’s a good boy and if he would like to go for walks with the leash, etc.