The Wedding Part 1: Getting There

As I have posted a few times in the last month about my upcoming wedding, the big day happened this last weekend in South Lake Tahoe, CA. After almost seven years with my fiancé, we decided to tie the knot. Reba, my wife, did most of the planning and made sure everything was taken care of. But nothing could prepare us for the beginning of the trip.

The Start of the Day

We woke up around 7am on Friday. Our flight didn’t leave until 10:55am, so we were not too rushed as we had packed most of our stuff the night before. It was just a matter of adding a few last minute items in our luggage and then off to pick up my daughter and head to the airport.

We realized we took an extra 30 minutes, but not to worry as it was still just past 9am… still plenty of time. But then I needed to head back to the house to get my daughter’s birth certificate (she doesn’t have a drivers license yet). Ok grabbed that. Wait. Reba’s daughter Earth called. They were already at the airport and had forgotten a bag for Ayla (Reba’s granddaughter). So we drove the three blocks to their house to get the bag.

Checking the time… 9:45am.

Ok. A bit concerned about the time, but still confident. On the freeway and at the airport a few minutes after 10am. Not a problem as long as we are at security by no later than 10:30am. Waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to the terminal… waiting…. waiting…. more waiting.

Finally at 10:25am, we arrive at sky cap to check out bags. “We are sorry, but you will need to take your bags through security and check them at the gate.”

Ok, now starting to stress.

There is no line at security, with maybe 5 people waiting to go through the x-ray. This is good. Opps… forgot that I had a bag full of body wash and sunscreen that’s more than 3 oz. each. It gets tossed into the overflowing trash heap of other liquids that follow the dumb ass reactive banning of any type of liquid consumables.

Literally running to the gate, my daughter without her shoes on, beads of sweat running down my face, all of us have dry mouths…. we arrive at the gate.

10:48am. The flight leaves at 10:55am.

Denied

“We are sorry, but this flight is closed.”

What The Fuck! We stand there for a few minutes arguing with these snooty bitches who act like they own Delta Airlines.

“You will have to go over to the information counter to catch a later flight.”

Now at the information counter, the gentleman looks up our tickets and starts asking stupid questions about how we obtained our tickets [purchased from Delta.com, as it shows on the boarding passes we printed out].

“Because it was your fault you missed your flight and not Delta’s, you will need to pay $1,205.00 to be on standby for the next flight to Reno, which leaves at 3:25pm”

My response: “Are you fucking serious? Bullshit!” At this point, both Reba and I are livid and just in shock. My daughter is now putting on her shoes and wondering how she’s going to spend the next 4 hours in the airport.

Reba is now walking away from the gate, grabbing her printed boarding pass. During the time we were waiting for the parking shuttle bus to this point in time, she has been on the phone with Earth, who is on the plane with Ayla and her boyfriend Charlie.

Earth has been telling the crew on the plane that they can’t leave. “There are three passengers that still need to board. I am going to my mom’s wedding and she won’t even be there for it.” At this point, we have left the gate area and are heading up the escalator, considering going back to the car and driving to Tahoe.

11:05am. Reba’s cell phone rings again. It’s Earth.

“They are paging you at the gate. Go back to the gate now.” Reba hands me her phone as all of us run back to the gate.

We arrive back at the gate. At this point, I hand the cell phone back to Reba.

Snooty bitch #1 tells us “We are sorry, but the plane has left the gate. You cannot board.”

Our repeated response back, “No it hasn’t. The pilot is on the phone with me now and is telling us that we were paged back to the gate.”

“No one has paged you.” I look over and the phone is ringing and no one is picking it up.

“Uh… the phone is ringing. That may be the pilot calling you,” I said to Snooty bitch #2.

11:09am. Finally, the lone male at the counter picks up the phone. “You need to talk to the pilot.” He hands the phone to Snooty bitch #1. In a dejected tone of voice, she looks at us and says, “Let’s see your boarding passes”

Access Granted

As they open the door for us, they repeat their disgust with us that “we have held up 70 people from their flight.” We simply keep quiet, go through the door and run down to the gate to board the plane.

At this point, we are expecting all sorts of evil eyes from the already boarded passengers. Instead, we are met with a smiling crew ready to help smooth things over for us. It is this crew that renews my faith in Delta and keeping my continued traveling business with them. And while part of the reason was our fault we were running late, not all of the blame rested with us. We could have saved 20 minutes if the gate staff would have not copped an attitude and let us on the plane, as it was obviously still at the gate. Not to mentioned the shuttle bus driver who took his time getting out to pick us up.

Regardless, we were on the plane and headed for Reno, Happy and relieved.

“She’s the one. She got them on the plane”
 

Together and happy
 

“We made it. Now where’s our gin and tonics?”

Continued in Part 2: The Big Day