Today was supposed to be a leisurely travel day. A midday flight from one polis to another (Minneapolis to Indianapolis), 90 minutes in a plane, a time zone shift and a wonderful dinner at St. Elmo steakhouse before heading to the Kentucky Derby tomorrow.
Then I got to the airport and realized that I was missing something: Tickets to the Kentucky Derby.
Sure, I had purchased Derby tickets, and I had them in my possession at one point. But somewhere in between recent travels and never being home I forgot where I put them and didn’t even think about bringing them along with me as I swapped one set of clothes for another.
Had I been a good passenger who arrived at the airport well in advance of the scheduled departure, this might not have been a big deal. Instead I played TSA Pre-Check roulette and arrived at the airport 55 minutes before the flight would leave.
After parking my car, I grabbed my carry-on suitcase and computer bag to walk to the terminal and did a final check – did I forget anything?
OMG – WHERE ARE THE TICKETS?
I call Mrs. Jeffsetter to see if she has them, no answer. I text her while getting in my car to make the drive home, just in case she did not have them.
As I am speeding out of the parking area, I receive a text back that Mrs. Jeffsetter does not have the tickets. We loosely know where they are, but I better get home ASAP to retrieve the tickets.
I live 25-30 minutes away from the airport on a good day. Not enough time to get there and back without some creative driving, so I better get there fast. The time on the clock reads 12:05 as I leave the parking ramp. The flight leaves at 1 PM.
Weaving through traffic, I place a call into the Delta Platinum line to see if I can get moved to an alternate flight that same day. While they cannot confirm me onto the 3PM flight, they have placed me on the standby list and I am the #1 priority. The agent thinks that I have a good chance of making that flight.
But I don’t want that flight, I want to get to Indianapolis with my wife and friends, and I want to eat a glorious steak at St. Elmo. I need to make this work.
12:20 I arrive at my house. I am not proud of what I did to get there in 15 minutes, but this was important.
12:22 I find the tickets exactly where I expected them to be and by 12:25 I am back on the freeway.
12:30 I am passing Downtown Minneapolis on my way back to the airport. Things are looking better than I could have imagined. I should have just been getting home by this time.
12:40 I enter the airport driving loop and carefully throttle down my speed to avoid a ticket. This entire time I am voice-texting with Mrs. Jeffsetter and she vows to hold the flight for me if at all possible.
By 12:42 I am parked on the 9th floor of the Blue ramp at MSP airport (this is NOT where you want to park in a hurry). I needed to be at the Green ramp to get into TSA Pre-Check. I sprint down the ramp exit (normally reserved for cars) to the 6th floor of the green ramp and then sprint to the elevators down to the skyway level. I take a breather while the elevator brings me to the third floor and then I sprint across the skyway to the main terminal.
12:45 I am in the line for TSA pre-check. I am breathing heavy enough that I don’t mind asking other pre-check customers to allow me to jump ahead of them in line. They graciously allowed me to skip ahead. Upon clearing security, Mrs. Jeffsetter notifies me that the plane has just arrived, and there is a great chance I’ll make the flight if I can get there soon.
12:53 I make it to Gate G14, after sprinting my way through the terminal and pausing occasionally to catch my breath. Mrs. Jeffsetter and our two friends are still waiting to board the plane. I receive a notification from Delta that the flight is now delayed until 1:20 PM. Wife and friends have a beer waiting for me and give me a standing ovation as I hand over the tickets to a more responsible party.
1:00 I finish my beer, take a minute to compose myself, and get on that plane. I earned this trip to the Kentucky Derby!
2:00 The flight is in the air and the wifi starts working. I connect my computer and start writing this blog post while using up one of my Delta “have one on us coupons”. Life is good once again.
This was totally my fault, but…
This whole incident was entirely my fault. I admit that readily. I should have brought my tickets and been more prepared.
But I also have a problem with airlines and the way they withhold information from customers.
Delta knew that their incoming flight was going to be late. When a plane is in the air, they know that it will be coming in by a certain time, and this plane was not coming in on time. There was no way that the 1 PM departure was realistic. They probably knew this as early as 11 AM because of the previous flight schedule.
They knew the flight would be late for nearly 2 hours before notifying their customers. One of their customers put their own health at risk to catch the flight at the scheduled time when they didn’t need to.
Couldn’t an airline benefit from doing a better job of notifying customers when they know unequivocally that it will be late? Why wait? What is there to gain by letting us know at 12:53 that the flight is delayed by 20 minutes?
This is the not so glamorous side of travel.
I know that this has happened to many others, do you have any crazy stories of trying to catch a flight like this?