Stay or Go?

By Chris
In order to keep my car available for the week, Teresa dropped me at the
airport early this morning. I'm still here! They say a battery is dead,
and ther is no replacement in this part of the world, apparently. They're
funny how they handle these things. About 20 minites before depart time,
the first announcemt came. Never a good sign. “We'll be delayed about 10
mins. ... But we will get back to you with an update”. When an airline rep
says we'll get back to you with an update, that is relly code speak for
“you folks with any experience ought to get on your phone and re-book
before all 175 on the plane figure out we are in trouble”. Now it's a game.
Do I take a chance and switch to the next flight, 2 hours later? That
could backfire, if this one is delayed less than 2 hours. I decide to wait
a minute. Wrong move.
The “get back to you in a minute”. Turned into, “we're looking for a
battery, it could take several hours” Darn! Now all 175 are in line. No
need for me to do that. They will rebook me automatically on something.
No way that all the people are getting on the next Atlanta flight, which is
probably full already. I've put Teresa on hold to come get me. Everyone
is on cell phones trying to out-maneuver each other (it's usually quicker
to call the airline from your cell phone than to stand in line). They're
not answering though. So, I sit and wait. Now it is getting interesting,
because the 10 am flight crowd is arriving, and people are telling them
“the flight to Atlanta is delayed.”. Well, it's not THAT one that is
delayed. Now they are getting in line too, for no reason. It's becoming
very likely that I could now drive to Atlanta before this gets sorted out.
Because, even if they get the battery for the plane here by 2, they will
surely cancel this flight to get that plane back on track. But they are
not telling us that yet.