I planned a trip to LA this weekend for a meeting and to celebrate one of my best friend’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Jimmy!) and thought it would be a quick trip to and from SFO.
I decided to book through Delta, despite having status on American and United, because I found a round-trip, Delta Comfort+ ticket for $136.40, whereas United and American were pricing economy in the $180 range. Also, I wanted to take advantage of Delta’s partnership with Alaska, which is soon ending, and credit the miles to my Alaska account, as I go for status with Alaska this year.
I really regret choosing to fly with Delta for this flight, though. The headache began when I landed in LA, and saw that Delta credited the miles I earned to my Delta account, not to Alaska (even though my ticket had my Alaska frequent flier number on it, and I called in advance to confirm the miles would be credited to Alaska). They told me this was non-reversible, then said it was, and then put me on a conference call with Alaska to fix their mistake. When they told me there was 25-minute wait to speak to a representative, they said the could fix it without me staying on the line, but, so far, I’m still waiting for this to go through.
Having seen what was going on in the news, I was happy my flight was at 11am from LAX to SFO, knowing that the later my flight was, the higher the odds that I’d be grounded due to a protest. The flight departed at around 11:35am, though it managed to land around 12:30pm (the expected arrival time).
Although reports are that Delta’s computer system crashed later in the day, there were absolutely issues on my flight. After landing, we were stuck on the tarmac for over an hour, due to a “technical glitch” (there was nothing more announced on my flight). Since the flight from LA was only around 50 minutes, the extra hour on the plane almost doubled the flight time.
I decided to take public transportation from the airport back home, and on my way to the airport’s BART station, I had to pass the International Terminal, which was full of anti-Trump protesters. Even on the BART ride home, many people had signs reading “No Ban, No Wall.”
The Delta computer glitch was a hassle but, overall, it was an interesting day to fly.
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