Monday evening my wife and I flew home from visiting my son in Ohio. We got to the airport with plenty of time to make our flight only to discover it to be delayed. Normally we try to get nonstop flights but a layover in Detroit turned out to be less expensive. It also worked better with my work schedule as I could attend early-morning meetings on Monday with India. Unfortunately our flight out of Columbus got delayed by an hour and we only had a 45-minute layover.
Before boarding the flight we had 2 options. The first was to take the flight and hope that our connecting flight to Salt Lake also had a similar delay. The second was to spend the night in Columbus and take the early-morning flight out non-stop to Salt Lake. I felt like the second option admitted defeat before we even tried to get home and opted to get on an hour-delayed flight.
We arrived in Detroit and could see our connecting flight had yet to leave. As we guessed, it also had a delay and for a moment, we thought we could make it. We didn't as it pulled away from the gate about 5 minutes before we got there. In all my years of flying, I have only ever missed 2 connections resulting in me having to spend an extra night on the road and Monday night turned out to be one of them. Considering I have flown over 2 million miles, that is not bad.
My wife and I walked to a Delta Airlines customer service center and immediately talked to someone who could help us out. He quickly found our travel record and saw that I had attached my mobile phone to it. He sent a text with a link that opened a webpage offering us a selection of hotels to choose from. The first one, I didn't recognize the name and skipped over it. The rest I recognized as familiar brands such as Sheraton, Marriott, and Hilton. I knew I would not get any frequent-stay points and so it doesn't help to choose one where you have status. I picked one close by and started walking out of the airport.
The hotel had a free shuttle bus from the airport and so we walked to the shuttle pickup location. I decided to call the hotel to make sure we didn't need to schedule it and was told the driver was on his way. Soon enough he showed up and we made our way to the hotel. Upon check-in, I only needed to provide the confirmation number given when selecting the hotel for the evening. Furthermore Delta provided $48 in dining credit that the hotel restaurant easily took.
I did all of this on my smartphone. Not once did I need to pull out my computer. I also didn't have any paper voucher that could easily be lost. It all just worked. My wife and I had an enjoyable stay in Detroit complete with a late-night snack.
The next morning we caught an 8am flight to Salt Lake and made it home without any more adventure. Sure my wife missed a doctor's appointment and I barely made it home in time for my first meeting of the day, but we got home. My wife rescheduled her appointment and I only had to move a few activities around. Would I give Delta high marks for taking care of us? Yes. Am I upset about the inconvenience of taking an extra day to get home? Again yes, but circumstances being what they were, we did okay.
I am making a mental note to pay a few extra bucks and take nonstop flights when available. I am also very pleased with how the airline handled the problem. I've had another airline not be nearly so accommodating for a problem they caused and have not flown them in over 10 years nor do I plan to fly them ever again. But that is a story for another time.
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