Today was supposed to be a leisurely travel day. A midday flight from one polis to another (Minneapolis to Indianapolis), 90 minutes in a plane, a time zone shift and a wonderful dinner at St. Elmo steakhouse before heading to the Kentucky Derby tomorrow.
Then I got to the airport and realized that I was missing something: Tickets to the Kentucky Derby.
Sure, I had purchased Derby tickets, and I had them in my possession at one point. But somewhere in between recent travels and never being home I forgot where I put them and didn’t even think about bringing them along with me as I swapped one set of clothes for another.
Had I been a good passenger who arrived at the airport well in advance of the scheduled departure, this might not have been a big deal. Instead I played TSA Pre-Check roulette and arrived at the airport 55 minutes before the flight would leave.
After parking my car, I grabbed my carry-on suitcase and computer bag to walk to the terminal and did a final check – did I forget anything?
OMG – WHERE ARE THE TICKETS?
I call Mrs. Jeffsetter to see if she has them, no answer. I text her while getting in my car to make the drive home, just in case she did not have them.
As I am speeding out of the parking area, I receive a text back that Mrs. Jeffsetter does not have the tickets. We loosely know where they are, but I better get home ASAP to retrieve the tickets.
I live 25-30 minutes away from the airport on a good day. Not enough time to get there and back without some creative driving, so I better get there fast. The time on the clock reads 12:05 as I leave the parking ramp. The flight leaves at 1 PM.
Weaving through traffic, I place a call into the Delta Platinum line to see if I can get moved to an alternate flight that same day. While they cannot confirm me onto the 3PM flight, they have placed me on the standby list and I am the #1 priority. The agent thinks that I have a good chance of making that flight.
But I don’t want that flight, I want to get to Indianapolis with my wife and friends, and I want to eat a glorious steak at St. Elmo. I need to make this work.
12:20 I arrive at my house. I am not proud of what I did to get there in 15 minutes, but this was important.
12:22 I find the tickets exactly where I expected them to be and by 12:25 I am back on the freeway.
12:30 I am passing Downtown Minneapolis on my way back to the airport. Things are looking better than I could have imagined. I should have just been getting home by this time.
12:40 I enter the airport driving loop and carefully throttle down my speed to avoid a ticket. This entire time I am voice-texting with Mrs. Jeffsetter and she vows to hold the flight for me if at all possible.
By 12:42 I am parked on the 9th floor of the Blue ramp at MSP airport (this is NOT where you want to park in a hurry). I needed to be at the Green ramp to get into TSA Pre-Check. I sprint down the ramp exit (normally reserved for cars) to the 6th floor of the green ramp and then sprint to the elevators down to the skyway level. I take a breather while the elevator brings me to the third floor and then I sprint across the skyway to the main terminal.
12:45 I am in the line for TSA pre-check. I am breathing heavy enough that I don’t mind asking other pre-check customers to allow me to jump ahead of them in line. They graciously allowed me to skip ahead. Upon clearing security, Mrs. Jeffsetter notifies me that the plane has just arrived, and there is a great chance I’ll make the flight if I can get there soon.
12:53 I make it to Gate G14, after sprinting my way through the terminal and pausing occasionally to catch my breath. Mrs. Jeffsetter and our two friends are still waiting to board the plane. I receive a notification from Delta that the flight is now delayed until 1:20 PM. Wife and friends have a beer waiting for me and give me a standing ovation as I hand over the tickets to a more responsible party.
1:00 I finish my beer, take a minute to compose myself, and get on that plane. I earned this trip to the Kentucky Derby!
2:00 The flight is in the air and the wifi starts working. I connect my computer and start writing this blog post while using up one of my Delta “have one on us coupons”. Life is good once again.
This was totally my fault, but…
This whole incident was entirely my fault. I admit that readily. I should have brought my tickets and been more prepared.
But I also have a problem with airlines and the way they withhold information from customers.
Delta knew that their incoming flight was going to be late. When a plane is in the air, they know that it will be coming in by a certain time, and this plane was not coming in on time. There was no way that the 1 PM departure was realistic. They probably knew this as early as 11 AM because of the previous flight schedule.
They knew the flight would be late for nearly 2 hours before notifying their customers. One of their customers put their own health at risk to catch the flight at the scheduled time when they didn’t need to.
Couldn’t an airline benefit from doing a better job of notifying customers when they know unequivocally that it will be late? Why wait? What is there to gain by letting us know at 12:53 that the flight is delayed by 20 minutes?
This is the not so glamorous side of travel.
I know that this has happened to many others, do you have any crazy stories of trying to catch a flight like this?
great post, and yes, a very valid point! I’d love to hear the airlines’ perspective (read: spin) on why they don’t post a delay until the very last minute, if even then. And they all do it! Just imagine if you’d stayed at MSP thinking there was no way you’d make it home & back in time, resigning yourself to buying new Derby tix, only to see the inbound flight come in late and yours be delayed as a result.
Get over yourself. You are the one who out yourself and others at risk to make the flight. I can only imagine how many lives you put in jeopardy as you drive like a maniac to get the tickets you forgot to the derby just so you could eat steak. Sheesh,
God reading that gave me anxiety. So much that I just logged in again to check to see that my KLM seats stuck. Now I’m nervous about everything. ;)
Haha, I get that way sometimes myself with international itineraries. Just double check everything and I’m sure you will be good to go.
Eh…they’re still there. They say confirmed on KLM AND on Delta. Now I just have to hope they don’t pull a fast one on me and swap out to the old WBC. Not gonna be happy if I have to climb up the seat all night long.
Hey I am also based in MSP and would love to learn how you made in and out and back in the airport in record time. Parking at MSP has become one of the most difficult tasks nowadays. It is faster to go through security than to find a parking spot.
Regarding the plane schedule, I believe there are some apps that would tell you where your plane is coming from and then you can see how that flight status is. Try flightaware.
I have come to know that airport like the back of my hand. This time I just wanted to park the car and not look, so I drove up to the top floor (the uncovered part) and there were tons of spots. If you fly out on a Tuesday, then pretty much every spot is taken. I usually weigh the cost of Uber vs. daily parking and decide which one does more damage before flying. I don’t know if I have any tips other than weekends have a lot of open parking and beginning of the week does not. I’m just lucky this was a Thursday I guess.
There are definitely apps that do this, but I was under the gun and didn’t have time to even look at the phone. Just glad it worked out!
I may be selfish since I only drive to MSP when I am on a business trip but every time I drive there I wish they increase the price for parking so we will have more spots available. I hate parking outside the main terminal and have to take a shuttle. When traveling with family for vacation I always get a taxi since I prefer to leave my car safe at my home and the price of a round trip from my house to MSP is usually cheaper than the price of leaving my car at the airport for the number of days we will be out.
The real question nobody is asking is, where you wearing your Derby hat the whole time or was Mrs. Jeffsetter holding your hatbox for you?
Jeff,
That’s an incredible story. Glad you gave us our tickets last week. We’re in Chicago and will join you in Louisville tomorrow.
With regard to the airlines I have found them to be extremely lacking in informing passengers about changes until almost after the fact. Let’s hope that airlines will do a better job of informing customers in the future.
Jim
I think you ought to be thanking Delta! Imagine if you had left later for the airport with the revised departure time, forgotten the tix, and then the aircraft arrived early and the departure time updated. Ruh-roh!
Oh I would have rushed either way in that case. I’m just glad it worked out. After talking to a veteran of the flight industry, I learned the reasoning behind flight times a little better. They said that they purposely don’t post times so people don’t go elsewhere and make themselves late.
If find it hard to believe someone who travels 100 days a year doesn’t know that most airlines and especially Delta suck at providing notifications of delayed flights even if they know for 2+ hours that the incoming plane is going to be late. Part of that is because especially at a hub, the operations folks are going to be trying to find an alternate aircraft to take the place of the late one to prevent or reduce cascading delays. I’m sure you’d be equally upset to get a delay notification alert, slow down to get home and then arrive back at the airport to see your flight departed because the ops folks shifted the schedule and “found” a plane.
I do like some of the other carriers apps which typically identify the incoming flight and provide status on it. I’ve used that before on United to reduce anxiety when running late to the airport.
You find it hard to believe that a person who travels often thinks airlines could improve something?
Umm.. did you really want to drive dangerously and put your fellow drivers (and yourself)in peril? Change your flight to a later one!!!!
Nobody was in danger. All other flights were sold out for the day and if I missed it the plans for 5 other people would have been messed up too.
Holy shit, Jeff!!! Close call. I once went to Vegas and forgot my concert tickets at home and didn’t realize until I got to Vegas. Luckily I had purchased them online through Ticketmaster so they just canceled the original tickets and reissued new ones and had them waiting for me at the Venue….. Have fun at The Derby!!