This is a joke so don’t be offended and my wife, who is blond, is WAY smarter than me. So, what is the difference between a blond and a dead light bulb? The dead light bulb is a little brighter.
That, my friends, is about the same as your Delta Points blogger setting off on a mileage run in the middle of a snow storm because all his upgrades cleared – how dumb am I – seriously? There are only a few readers who understand my pressing need to get “up in the air” and this was one of those times. And as I write this from 36,000 feet and 500+MPH via GoGo some are now smiling while others are saying – no way!
And I am most happy I did. But let me set the stage. Most stress out about trips. Since I was on a mileage run or a trip to “no where” everything was fun and whatever happened it was “all good” I was on the 3rd of 5 flights from SBN to DTW. The first two canceled – ruh roh – maybe time to rebook. After all, I did blog about the FREE change and could have flown say Friday on better flights and earned more points (did I mention all my upgrades had cleared – MJ?)! I pressed on.
Let me digress for a bit (you mean unlike the rest of the post?). No really, hang with me here. The relationship between our mother ship Delta and their regional partners is at the least unique at the best a travesty. They treat them worse than a twice removed step child! OK that is a bit harsh, maybe a 3rd removed step child. You get my point. Here is what happened. All morning alerts hit my phone that my flight was delayed. I had almost a 3 hour buffer so all good but then once my flight was ready to depart – NO CREW! Why, oh let me tell ya, SkyWest had told the crew that the flight was delayed from 1-ish to 5-ish but we were ready to fly at 3-ish. Ugg. We did fly at 4-ish with lots of time since my 5-ish DTW-LAX was also delayed (if you are thinking I am a fool for flying this day I understand).
Also, what does any of this have to do to with the price of tea in China or the snacks in the Skyclub DTW in our case. Hang on, getting there.
Once I made it to DTW I headed to the “A” club to see all the upgrades to justify the horrid, punitive, sad, depressing, frustrating (you get the idea) change to charge $29 to let my wife join me in the Skyclub after 1MAY (really later since I am DM but for others it is THE DATE). Are the changes worth it? I had to find out.
I greeted an old friend at the Skyclub who is just about the best Delta rep I have ever met in my life. It was fun to catch up and then up to try all the things you see above I hurry so I could make my DTW-LAX-SAN outbound.
Let me tell ya the new Merlot is better than the swill they had before. The 3 bean chili is tasty but perhaps not the best choice for people about to board a plane (sorry all in 1st class). The other snacks are OK but the chip and dip needs more fire. The massage is by a rep from “Be Relax” and was very nice. I tipped him as he went “deep tissue” and I liked it (M-F 2-6PM btw).
Then I headed to the gate and things went sideways (did I mention I was not smart for pressing my DeltaMileageRun in a snow storm?)!
To be fair, my first delay was NOT WEATHER RELATED (I hate it when Delta says it is weather when it is NOT). When I went to my next gate, the plane went mechanical and I went from an already delayed arrival to one where I had 5 min to make my connection in LAX to SAN. Not gonna happen. Back to Skyclub where they rebooked me on the direct to SAN and my upgrade cleared. In fact, one 1st class seat flew empty (shocking). But, that flight was delayed also due to clearing from an international flight (as you can see from above cleaning was not a priority).
I will post tomorrow if I made my 31 min connection back home to DTW but one thing I was looking forward to was the braised beef dinner that sounded so good. Sorry, it was “meh” at best.
The sorbet dessert was even less than meh. Ah well, at least GoGo worked GREAT and even with an issue I had they fixed it in no time. Impressive GoGo and thanks!
I am just about to land in SAN – the rest of this story you will have to wait for tomorrow to see how it all turns out – René
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All of your upgrades cleared? I had no idea.
I first had the braised short ribs dinner on an HNL ATL flight. It was delicious. I have ordered it twice since — once on ATL HNL and then ATL SAN and both times it was awful. Beats me how the same dinner can be so different out of the two different kitchens.
Aw man Rene! That looks like Ciao Bella sorbet, which is amazing. Save it for me next time!