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FISCHER: The friendly skies

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

Last week I was lucky enough to experience the chaos caused by the CrowdStrike computer outage as I made my annual pilgrimage to San Diego for Comic-Con.

Up to that point, the widespread problems caused by the faulty update to CrowdStrike’s security program seemed like a far away issue to me. Even as I was getting a ride to the airport I came across an article about the thousands of canceled Delta flights and read it thinking that sure, thousands of flights had been canceled, but thousands more hadn’t.

FISCHER: The friendly skies
Travis Fischer

Upon arrival at the airport in Minneapolis, the impact of the computer outage was immediately apparent. The terminal was bustling with rows of help desks and the security line was thicker than I have seen it since before COVID.

Even before I was able to print out my boarding pass, the kiosk asked me if I’d be willing to volunteer to take a later flight and how much money I would accept to do so. A portent of things to come.

Now, all of those things could have just been attributed to an overly busy morning. However, getting through security and seeing people on air mattresses every 30 feet or so made it clear that this was no ordinary disruption.

Still, I made my way down to my gate to wait for my flight, confident that this global computer disruption wouldn’t matter to my simple little direct flight to San Diego.

And, to be fair, it didn’t.

It was a leaky fuel line.

Mere minutes before the boarding time, the announcement came that the flight would be delayed. Not long later, we were told that it had been canceled completely.

From there on, me and my fellow would-be passengers would be in the thick of it. With thousands of canceled flights across the globe leaving tens-of-thousands of people looking for seats, figuring out alternate options cannot be easy.

Little did I know it at the time, but as I was in line for the help desk, the Department of Transportation announced an investigation into Delta’s handling of the disruption and Delta itself made a mea culpa statement.

I spent four hours in line, waiting to see if I was wasting my time. The Delta app recommended booking flights for the next day and as I watched my options dwindle down as those flights filled up, I was tempted to cut my losses. It would be inconvenient to stay the night in Minneapolis on Delta’s dime, but it wouldn’t be undoable.

However, every flight option offered to me included two layovers and that fact alone kept me from pulling the trigger. Trusting that three flights to get to San Diego would go off without a hitch was a bridge too far.

I wasn’t confident that the lone person at the help desk would be able to offer me anything better than the app, but it’s not like I had anywhere better to be at the moment, so in line I waited.

Fortunately, one of the neat things about going to Comic-Con is that it’s pretty easy to spot other people also going to Comic-Con. And if there’s one thing people that go to Comic-Con are accustomed to, it’s waiting in long lines.

I quickly made a line-buddy and we spent our time sharing stories, talking about current shows, and comparing travel plans while the line shuffled forward.

Eventually we made it to the front where the help desk worker, who had finally gotten some help of her own, found us some better options.

In my case, it was a flight to Denver followed by a five-hour layover before taking a United Airlines flight to San Diego. I’d be getting in late at night, but I’d be there without having to find an air mattress of my own.

The flight to Denver started boarding just minutes after my ticket was printed, so I had to rush across the terminal to make sure I got there in time.

I actually got there before the computers had fully processed me, resulting in a few tense minutes of not knowing if I’d be allowed on the flight or not. Thankfully, it worked out and I at least made it one time-zone closer to my destination.

The long layover in Denver wasn’t too bad. After a $50 Tex-Mex dinner, which I hope to expense to Delta, I found my gate. And then the gate was changed because I was there five hours ahead of time.

In the process of finding the new gate, I was told there was a chance that I could make an earlier flight on stand-by. With nothing to lose and nothing better to do, I walked all the way across the terminal to see if I could get lucky and shave a few hours off my trip.

At the gate, I found other hopeful travelers from my original flight also trying their luck with stand-by. Most of them were also headed to Comic-Con, so the time went quickly as we waited to see how many of us could get on board.

Then that flight was delayed. And then delayed again. And then delayed a third time.

By the time they started boarding there wasn’t a whole lot of time difference between that flight and the one I’d already been booked for. Which was good because every single person scheduled to be on the flight showed up, leaving all of us on stand-by to walk back to the other side of the terminal.

It all worked out though. The later flight ended up landing at the exact time as the Delta flight carrying my suitcase. I know this because my line-buddy from Minneapolis had gotten a seat on that direct flight and we had been texting each other throughout the ordeal.

The trip concluded with a friendly race to see which of us could get off the plane and to baggage claim first.

I won.

Twenty hours after leaving Charles City, I walked out of the San Diego airport ready for a vacation.

Was it a long day? Yes.

However, it could have been worse and I’ll credit Delta and United Airlines, and especially its staff, for the work they did making the best out of a bad situation. At every stage of the day every employee I encountered was friendly and helpful and that mitigated a lot of frustration for everybody.

— Travis Fischer is a news writer for the Charles City Press and hopes he’ll be able to get back home to work this week.

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