Looking at the dateline, you and the picture, you may wonder what I am doing filing a report from Denver, Colorado the day after I left for the United Kingdom. 
Funny story, that! Yesterday afternoon, after sitting on the concourse for three hours and then waiting some more, the flight to Detroit was announced as being late. But I am getting ahead of myself.
My flight to London consisted of a flight Denver to Detroit and then a connection from Detroit to London Gatwick. The layover in Detroit was about an hour and a half. Because my ultimate destination was international, I had to be at the airport at least 2.5 hours early for my flight (as per the TSA guidelines) and since I was on a shuttle, that worked-out to about 3 hours before my flight. I sat there reading my book and sipping my diet coke to pass the time.
The plane that I was taking to Detroit arrived and disgorged itself of its passengers around 14:00. About twenty minutes later, we should have started boarding for the flight. The gate agent announced that we would begin pre-boarding and then made a second announcement almost immediately that the pilot had found a problem with one of the tires on the plane. They were going to have a technician look at it and there would be a status update in about twenty minutes.
Now, Denver is not a hub for Northwest Airlines. The number of flights I can get out of Denver on NWA is fairly limited. There were however, at that point, three Northwest planes sitting at their three gates. I walked over to the phone bank and called the reservations line to see if I could preemptively re-route myself either on the flight to Memphis and then up to Detroit to catch my flight or on the flight to Minneapolis and then on the other flight to London out of Minnesota.
"I'm sorry sir," came the answer to my queries, "the flight you are on is not showing as delayed or cancelled at this time so to change your routing at this point, would incur the change fee and would require you to bay the difference between your charge and the current fare."
"You don't show that the plane is delayed?" I asked. "But they just announced that it was going to be late at the gate. So you may not know it, but anyone in the concourse does."
"I'm sorry, sir." Came the reply. "You'll have to wait until your plane is delayed and then we can re-route you."
"By then there will be no possible re-routings available." I replied.
Five minutes after the second of the two flights left the gates - the two were not the one I was set to board - the gate agent made the announcement that our flight was to be delayed by four hours while they flew another plane in from Minnesota.
I was fourth in line to be re-routed and as I had predicted, there was no way to be re-routed to be in London this morning. So instead, I awoke in my own bed in Lakewood and had a nice, leisurely morning walking around and taking pictures of the fine spring morning in Colorado. Ah! Springtime in the Rockies!
Oh well, I suppose I should shut-down, and get ready to go. The shuttle should be here soon. I'll post this when I get to London.
I hope that wherever you are this morning, you're having a lovely day!
Don Bergquist - 21 April, 2007- Lakewood, Colorado USA
Funny story, that! Yesterday afternoon, after sitting on the concourse for three hours and then waiting some more, the flight to Detroit was announced as being late. But I am getting ahead of myself.My flight to London consisted of a flight Denver to Detroit and then a connection from Detroit to London Gatwick. The layover in Detroit was about an hour and a half. Because my ultimate destination was international, I had to be at the airport at least 2.5 hours early for my flight (as per the TSA guidelines) and since I was on a shuttle, that worked-out to about 3 hours before my flight. I sat there reading my book and sipping my diet coke to pass the time.
The plane that I was taking to Detroit arrived and disgorged itself of its passengers around 14:00. About twenty minutes later, we should have started boarding for the flight. The gate agent announced that we would begin pre-boarding and then made a second announcement almost immediately that the pilot had found a problem with one of the tires on the plane. They were going to have a technician look at it and there would be a status update in about twenty minutes.
Now, Denver is not a hub for Northwest Airlines. The number of flights I can get out of Denver on NWA is fairly limited. There were however, at that point, three Northwest planes sitting at their three gates. I walked over to the phone bank and called the reservations line to see if I could preemptively re-route myself either on the flight to Memphis and then up to Detroit to catch my flight or on the flight to Minneapolis and then on the other flight to London out of Minnesota.
"I'm sorry sir," came the answer to my queries, "the flight you are on is not showing as delayed or cancelled at this time so to change your routing at this point, would incur the change fee and would require you to bay the difference between your charge and the current fare."
"You don't show that the plane is delayed?" I asked. "But they just announced that it was going to be late at the gate. So you may not know it, but anyone in the concourse does."
"I'm sorry, sir." Came the reply. "You'll have to wait until your plane is delayed and then we can re-route you."
"By then there will be no possible re-routings available." I replied.
Five minutes after the second of the two flights left the gates - the two were not the one I was set to board - the gate agent made the announcement that our flight was to be delayed by four hours while they flew another plane in from Minnesota.
I was fourth in line to be re-routed and as I had predicted, there was no way to be re-routed to be in London this morning. So instead, I awoke in my own bed in Lakewood and had a nice, leisurely morning walking around and taking pictures of the fine spring morning in Colorado. Ah! Springtime in the Rockies!Oh well, I suppose I should shut-down, and get ready to go. The shuttle should be here soon. I'll post this when I get to London.
I hope that wherever you are this morning, you're having a lovely day!
Don Bergquist - 21 April, 2007- Lakewood, Colorado USA
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