I can’t say enough about the Delta Shuttle. Here is my latest story.
Thursday evening is the business period of the week for the New York to Boston leg of the Delta Shuttle. The 5:30PM flight is tough to get on as is the 6:30 and so on. I have been in NY for the past 4 weeks and head home Thursday night. I usually book my flight early enough so I get on the 5 or 6:30 flights but this week due to a strange situation I had to cancel my 5:30 and couldn’t get another flight until 7:30.
This afternoon I decided to take a car at 4:40 and head to LaGuardia and see if I could make an earlier flight. It was a very long week and I wanted to try to get home. I got to the airport a little after 5 and had this exchange with the Delta ticket agent.
Me: Hi, I am on the 7:30 shuttle to Boston but was hoping to go stand-by on the 5:30.
I handed her my driver’s license, she dropped it.
Ticket Agent: My hands are so slippery today.
Me: It’s a sign of intelligence.
TA: Heh. I’ll put you on standby, it doesn’t look good though.
Me: Thanks, wish me luck.
TA: I’ll keep my slippery fingers crossed.
I got to the gate and it was the usual pandemonium. They had already boarded the ticketed passengers and there was a huge crowd of well dressed adults standing in a large roughly formed semi-circle around the gate. People were telling each other war stories
Passenger: I am on the 7:30 and am going to be here for this flight and the next (6:30, they leave every hour on the half hour) trying to get to Boston.
Passenger: I am on the 8:30.
Passenger: Since Accela went down all the flights are full.
Passenger: I did this two weeks in a row, I’ll never get out.
So I looked at the board and there were 63, Sixty three, standby passengers. On the board it says how many seats there are, how many have checked in, and how many are open. The board said this
Available Seats: 120
Checked In: 114
Seats Remaining: 6
I then looked at the list of standby passengers, expecting to see my somewhere in the 50s, but had to keep looking. I looked and looked and there I was, at number 6. NUMBER 6. How the (expletive deleted) did that happen?? I had just checked in. I guess I am starting to get some exposure in the Delta Medallion system.
So I called Patti and started talking to her. I thought there was no way I would make even though I had a good standing. As I was talking to her, mapping out my plan for getting home at 9:30 or so, I saw other passengers come up with legitimate tickets and board the plane. No freakin way I would make it.
After a few minutes, about 10 minutes before the flight was suppose to take off, I looked at the board and noticed there was 1 unclaimed seat. I then looked at the standby list and saw that I, DOB/D, was number ONE, numero UNO, on the list. Vote for Pedro I was close.
About one second later I heard the gate agent called out the two sweet sweet words I was looking for…”David Dobrindt”. Stunned, I looked up and half expected to hear he say someone else’s name.
I walked past the mass of suits and dress slacks standing there and said in a meek voice “Did you call my name?”
Sweet Mother of Mercy, they did.
I quickly hung up with Patti, handed them my ticket, and let them scan me through, and walked down the gangway.
How did I get this lucky. This doesnot happen to me. Ever.
You have no idea how happy I was at that point. I would get home to put my daughter to bed. I would get to watch the full Yankees/Red Sox game. This was unreal. I quickly told the gate agent that they just made my week and walked to the flight attendant checking carry-on bags. I always have a carry-on but as you can imagine all the over head compartments were full. I was so freakin happy at that point that I filled out my own slip and put it on my bag. After all, why not speed things up a little, I was the last person on the plane.
I then had a quick pleasantry with the flight attendant on the plane and looked for the open seat. Usually I hate middle seats but at this point I could have cared less if I sat between a sore infested crack addict and a decomposing corpse. I was on the plane heading home. Now that I think about it, I might have kissed the little old lady in the window seat who smiled at me as this handsome well dressed man took the middles seat, smiled and said to her “Good stuff.”
I love the Delta Shuttle more than anything I can think of other than some select human beings. In fact, if the Delta Shuttle were a woman, I might have married it instead of Patti. It has its flaws but otherwise has everything I could hope for in an airline and then some. If it were a woman it would be tall, blond, fair skin and light eyes, sweet personality and always surprising me with the small things. And she would be as reliable as my buddy Jay is when it comes to putting back beers. I love the shuttle for everything that it is and for making me sing out loud to the famous James Taylor song but with edited words…
…“How sweet it is to love the Delta Shuttle.”
I had an awful week but getting on before 60 or so other people made my day. Thank you Delta Shuttle, I owe you a drink.
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