Ghost Passenger

• Lori Palminteri
• Uncategorized
• October 19, 2022

“Well you and I both know that the house is haunted
And you and I both know that the ghost is me”

-Dearly Departed, Shakey Graves

It was the first time in my entire life I missed a plane. Hell, it was the first time in my entire life I was even late for a flight. Usually, I’m in the airport an annoying three hours beforehand due to my crippling anxiety about being tardy. But partly due my excited anticipation for the family trip to Orlando, I struggled to sleep the night before. Finally, between the hours of 2am and 3am, I drifted off to sleep. My alarm was set for 5am, as my flight was at 7am. Alas, I slept right through the alarm, deep in REM sleep and my eyes opened at 7:15am.

Fuck.

I missed my flight.

As I began to freak out, I started crying and texting my family. I raced to the airport (bags had been ready to go for days). I did get a flight to Orlando, though it cost me a pretty penny. Whatever. This was my fault and I take responsibility. It added a hefty price tag to an already expensive trip, but I told myself the mantra I have long believed: it’s just money. It’s not real. You can always make more of it. You have your health, you have time, you have your loved ones. You have everything that truly matters. Don’t let money own you. Those owned by money are made miserable by it and I vowed long ago that money would not be my obsession, only an accessory to living a life that I want.

After I had purchased my new flight, I was instructed to call a number on a card given to me. Because if you miss a flight, Delta will automatically cancel your return trip unless you let them know you got a substitute flight. So, that’s what I did. I called the number and talked to a man who not only said my flight would not be canceled but actually put me on a later flight without charge.

Great. I had never received a confirmation email about that flight, but it was on my Delta app so I didn’t really think twice. I was already properly stressed out.

Now, I had been put on a 2:40pm flight (it was around 8:30am at this point) but I had been put on standby for an 11:30am flight. So, I did what any American would do and got some breakfast with a Bloody Mary. Lucky for me, I got on the 11:30am flight. Once in Florida, I made the definitive decision to not let this bother me. It’s just money. It doesn’t matter. You’re here with family and truth be told I wouldn’t miss my nephew and nieces faces at Disney World for some hundreds of extra dollars. It’s just money.

The week goes on and my family laughs and loves our amusement parks. To be a kid again. Then, just two days before my return flight, I check my Delta app and much to my surprise, there isn’t a return flight on there. What the fuck? Where is my flight? It’s vanished.

Now, my anxiety builds again. I start freaking out and call Delta. I tell them my story and they go, “well, we canceled your return flight because you missed the second flight.”

“What? No, no, no. I was on the plane.”

“We have no record of you being on our flight.”

“That’s literally impossible. You scanned my ticked [on the app]. I was on flight DL1096 departing from gate 84 in Terminal C at 11:30am, sat in seat 22B.”

“We have no record of you being on that flight.”

“I literally do not understand this. Do those scanned tickets mean anything at all or are they just for show? How can someone be on a plane and you not know it? Is that some sort of safety breach?”

I’m put on a long hold and then I talk to the a supervisor who tells me the same thing.

“Once again, I was on your plane. I’m not a ghost. I was there.”

They asked for my boarding pass which I had thrown out (who keeps those things??). I’m then placed on another long hold. Finally, the supervisor returns and tells me they found me. I was on the flight.

Thank you.

BUT. She said because I missed the first flight, I was supposed to be booked on another return flight, I wouldn’t just be put back on the original flight for the round trip.

“Okay, fine.” I said, “but that’s not what they told me at the airport. I was told to call that number and spoke to someone at this number (800-325-37320) at 8:41am for 26 minutes who confirmed I was all good. Don’t you record all these phone calls. YOU gave me bad information. Delta messed up. I take responsibility for missing the original flight but this is your mistake and you must fix it.”

“We’re sorry ma’am. There’s nothing we can do.”

“No, no, this is horseshit,” I was losing my temper as I would now be paying 3X the amount I originally paid.

“You’ll have to email a complaint to see if you can get refunded.”

I said some further unkind things, as Delta is my go-to airline and this is literally the first time I’ve ever had a problem with them.

Truly and honestly, I got fucked over and this is really unfair. Furthermore, finding a proper email to complain to is next to impossible.

In the last half a year, more than not people have been sharing nightmare stories of flying on pretty much every airline, globally, not just in the states. I don’t know when or how flying became a worse experience than the NYC subway, but it is truly unfortunate. If anyone reading this knows of a way I could remedy this and get SOME of my money back, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Otherwise, I will simply let it go. And maybe Delta will no longer be my go-to airline.