What up Mojo Travelers? Hope you’re off to a fantastic week and exploring the world, cherishing every precious moment of this summer and the few weeks we have left before the start of school.
This week we continue our journey from Mexico to South Africa with Delta Airlines. In my last post I covered the departure from Mexico City and did a short review on the Comfort + seat on board the Delta Boeing 737-800. It was overall a great flight and we ended the disembarking process. Let’s pick up where we left off because this “gReAt” trip is about to take a turn for the worse!
Arriving Into Atlanta
We landed and parked in Terminal F. This is both my arrival terminal from Mexico City and will also be my departure terminal to Johannesburg, South Africa. As soon as we got off the aircraft, a wheelchair assistant was waiting in the Jetbridge. She was not smiling, did not greet us, did not tell us her name, and rushed to seat my fellow passenger into the chair. At least she spoke English. Throughout our time with her she would continue with this unfriendly behaviour, no smile, no politeness in her tone, and a terrible attitude towards assisting us with any questions or problems we had. Of course I was not asking her airline related questions, but airport questions which she should be familiar with, like “Can we stop at the bathroom?” , “Where would you recommend the best food court?”, “Is the airport always this busy for this time of year?”. These are not unreasonable and I think it is necessary to smile, and engage in casual conversation with your customers, considering that American culture dictates that we tip her after she pushes us around. I think it’s fair to work for your tip, and if not, then work for the reputation and customer service of the airport and company you work for.
The Wheelchair Assistant
Once we got to the Jetbridge, she asked to see our full itinerary. I felt as if she was overstepping as this was not her business and she only really needed to know where my next flight was departing from. I explained to her I only had one flight remaining, I also explained that I would need to recheck my bags and her eye-roll said it all. She was not pleased to hear she would have to accompany us for extra time to a recheck in the gate. We continued to pace towards immigration and we got to skip through since we had a wheelchair passenger. Immigration was surprisingly efficient, they were managing the crowds well and had a good flow going, hats off to the Immigration team, Terminal F at Atlanta.
The Transit Process
After pacing through immigration, we had to wait at the carousel for our bags. Our wheelchair assistant was not very patient as I was checking to see if there were any damages to my bags, by the time I looked up, she had placed halfway across the hall and left the rest of my group behind. The walk to the Terminal-F exit is short and works well. If Atlanta is your final destination, turn right, if you are continuing onwards, turn left. Once you turn left, you will walk down a short hall and find some Delta check in counters to your right, and a baggage recheck carousel to your left and straight ahead of you is the next security area that lets you back into the terminal you just arrived at.
We needed to visit these check in counters to our right as our bags were not tagged all the way to Johannesburg, South Africa. However, if you do find yourself in this situation, this is the moment to get comfy because there are ZERO agents working this desk.
We first stood for 15 minutes, waiting patiently, then I happened to see a Delta personnel walking past and I first asked if he could help me by rechecking my bags, which he said was not possible, I then asked if I could go to the Arrivals sections where there were Check in agents actively checking in passengers and recheck my bags there. To which he replied, no because they do not handle recheck in and will direct me straight back here. So the wait continued! Mind you, there are no seats in this area. There is no other help desk in the vicinity. There is no telephone to call for airport assistance. There is no active personnel walking past every 10 seconds, seeing any airline personnel is “once in a blue moon”.
Eventually the gentleman circled back about another 15 minutes later and he came to tell me he would make a call to see why there aren’t any agents here and he disappeared. By some miracle, about 10 minutes later, a single agent arrived to assist us. We were now a total of about 8 passengers standing in a line waiting for assistance. This Delta agent began her process of signing in which took her about 5 minutes and then began assisting us. We were greeted again with a cold, irritated attitude that made all the customers feel as though this agent is doing us some sort of favour by assisting us. Finally she reprinted our tags, reprinted our boarding passes and smashed my bags onto the carousel to go through. This single process of rechecking my bags cost me 50 minutes in total, and 40 of those minutes was simply waiting for someone to appear. Yeah, Delta is definitely not in a rush!
After this disaster of a wait, we passed through security with our unfriendly wheelchair assistant and took an elevator upstairs. As you enter the F terminal, you will meet at the central food court. Our wheelchair assistant took us straight to our assigned gate and parked us off. She asked our wheelchair passenger to take a seat in one of the chairs and then began rating herself with 5 stars and excellent service on her ipad, and asked me to sign at the end.
I addressed this and jokingly said: “What if I was not happy with the service?”
And with another eyeroll, she said: “Oh, sir, that is just to count how many passengers I handled today, the ratings don’t matter”.
I find that to be absolutely ridiculous, absurd and rude, but what choice did I have and I wanted to get rid of her and her unfriendliness.
Exploring Atlanta Airport
We now officially had 11 hours to wait in transit at the airport. Terminal-F is among the newer/more modern terminals I have visited. It is big, spacious, airy, fresh, clean and feels very open to the outdoor lights and sights.
We first went exploring to see what food and beverage options there are. There is the main central food court in the centre of Terminal-F which includes a McDonalds, Panda Express, Arbys, some asian restaurants, one non-chain brand coffee shop and a central bar. There are tons of tables and chairs and it is kept clean and comfortable.
Walking around the terminal there are a lot of shops, the usual stuff you’d expect, Book stores, tech stores, travel related item stores such as bags, neck pillows and more.
This airport is a plane spotter’s heaven. Throughout the terminal there are humongous windows, covering all areas outside and tons of view of the aircraft and ground crews performing their duties.
There is also a shared prayer facility. It’s a small area for passengers to go and pray, all faiths are welcome. I did however see an airport staff member inside, eating her lunch and watching tiktok’s, definitely not the appropriate place for that but I’ll overlook that.
We also went to explore some of the other terminals, and to do so, we used the underground trains. They are super fast, efficient and work really well. It’s great, however there are moments that they run into issues. Walking to transfer between terminals is fine too, I did it a few times and the hallways are really empty so it’s no issue if you want to do it. If you are in a rush, stick to the train.
Boarding to Johannesburg
After many passing hours, and after the sun had gone down, it was finally time to board our next Aircraft to Johannesburg, South Africa. We’d be flying on board an Airbus A350, flying again in the Premium Select cabin. There were a total of two gate agents handling the passengers for this flight.
Their accuracy with announcements was really appalling, they would announce boarding was to begin in 5 minutes and would request passengers to begin lining up and 10 minutes would pass and passengers would begin to sit down again. In general there was a lot of unnecessary waiting.
Two gate agents for a flight this big is a little ridiculous from Delta, their main problem was lack of communication and roles as one agent was scanning boarding passes and working with passengers who needed new ones, the other was running up and down the jet bridge to check with the crew on certain issues. Finally the boarding process began and in total chaos. They had no stanchions to establish lines and simply called out groups expecting people to make a line.
Upon arrival at the aircraft the crew gave a very unfriendly welcome and directed passengers to their seats as quickly as possible. It was a pretty full flight and we were looking to depart about 15 minutes behind schedule, but I was just happy to be on the move.
The Seat
I was just about getting comfortable and had begun exploring my seat, grabbing as many photos as possible and capturing the moment until………..things started to fall apart.
The Chaos Begins
Everything was moving pretty swiftly, the aircraft doors had been closed, the in-flight safety video began, the cabin lights were dimmed and we began pushback.
I could hear the roar from those A350-900 engines and we were ready to rock and roll, when I began to notice……..we had been standing on the taxiway for a very long time.
At first I assumed it was due to heavy traffic and began searching for a movie. Just as I got my headphones on comfortably, the Captain came on the PA with an announcement.
He explained that the engines had started fine but while doing a control check, it seems that the nosewheel steering was malfunctioning and they were trying to solve the issue. At that moment, they thought it was an issue related to the ground crew and they suspected that they had not removed the steering pin. They were in the process of calling the ground crew back and having them check everything.
About 5 minutes later he returned on the PA to let us know that the steering pin was not the issue and they did not know what was wrong and we would have to return to the gate and have maintenance try to find the issue. We then proceeded to wait another 10 minutes for a tug to pull us back in.
After the aircraft taxied to a different gate that we had originally departed from, the engines shut down, the jet bridge was connected, the main cabin door opened and we continued to wait. For the next 40 minutes, no ground or maintenance crew actually came on board. We simply just sat……waiting.
At the 40 minute mark, the crew came around to pass out water and little bags of snacks (aka a small bag of Cheez Itz). This was also the point where we finally saw one maintenance member step on board to visit the cockpit. I was highly confused, either this maintenance personnel just arrived at the aircraft or has been performing repairs underneath……but without talking to the crew at all. I am not sure how you can attempt to fix a problem without visiting the crew who faced and reported the issues, but that’s that.
After no announcements, 1 hour of waiting and no sign of progress from anyone, some passengers began to become a little rowdy. A few stood up for a walk and assembled in the galley, they began arguing with the crew about why there were no updates, why we were not being transferred on to another aircraft and why it took so long for a maintenance member to arrive on board the aircraft.
The cabin crew began to give some really ridiculous answers. They told the passengers that because it was so late at night, most of the maintenance team had gone home and the one’s on duty were working on other aircraft. They also said that there was no update from anyone as they were working to figure out what the issues were. In response to the questions “How long can you keep us on this aeroplane?” a crew member responded: “Legally we can keep you up as long as it takes, provided we feed you every two hours”. This implied that apparently, the Cheez-Itz were our meal for the next two hours.
They also made probably the most ridiculous claim I have ever heard and even more so from an experienced flight crew. They said that none of us would be leaving the aircraft as technically we had been scanned out of the United States and if we were to get off, we would have to go through immigration to re-enter and that this was not possible as immigration was closed for the night, so no matter what, we would be staying on board and leaving that night, and even if the crew timed out, Delta would replace the crew, but passengers would stay on board and we WILL go tonight.
Why is this ridiculous? In all my years of travelling, I have never heard anyone, especially a crew member, say that we cannot return to the country we are departing as we had “left the country”. I have been on countless flights in both the USA and Europe that technically departed and returned to then let passengers off and wait while alternate arrangements were made. This is one of the most misinformed statements I have ever heard and the crew must have thought we were some real fools to believe that. It makes me question either the attitude of the crew members or just how misinformed are Delta crew members that they say things like this.
After two hours and 10 minutes of standing at the gate, we finally hear from the Captain who announces, they have fixed the issues and are in the process of refuelling and will be departing in the next 15 minutes. True to his word, 15 minutes later, the doors closed and we were all filled with hope!
Boy did we get excited, because exactly 3 minutes after the door closed, we heard the following words: “Cabin crew disarm doors for arrival”. WTF? All the passengers let out a loud “Arghhh” and a few swear words came out in Economy.
This time it was not a mechanical issue, this time, the Crew had timed out.
After the doors were reopened, a Delta Gate agent came on board to announce that the flight was officially cancelled and we would not be departing tonight. She mentioned that there are no replacement aircraft available, no new crew and they did not have the staff to unload bags tonight. (You should have seen the confused look of the crew’s faces).
She explained that we would be given hotels, meal vouchers and would be rebooked on a new flight. She didn’t specify when, she simply said “A new flight”. Remember those words for later.
She went to explain that we could not enter the terminal yet though as the terminal was actually closed for the night and there were no staff, so we would need to wait until some staff arrived and could assist us with hotels. And so the wait began……..that’s all for this week, come back next week, it gets worse. How could it possibly get worse, you ask? Trust me, I didn’t think it could either.
