Shocking treatment from an airline – in a good way!

by | Aug 11, 2008 | Travel

A couple weeks ago we flew up to Long Island to attend my Aunt Joy’s E&L Gallery. Generally, we try to fly into Islip-McArthur airport, instead of LaGuardia or JFK, since it is much closer to my parent’s house on the East End of Long Island. For this trip we couldn’t get a reasonable price on Southwest into Islip, so we flew Delta into LaGuardia. Our trip up was surprisingly uneventful even with the somewhat stormy weather in NY that day.

Of course, that meant we were due for some delays, and we got them in spades on the return home. That Sunday saw some wicked storms in the NY area – in fact, we later found out that after we had left for the airport my parents house was struck by lightning! Our flight was at noon, and even though the weather was ok around LaGuardia, we fully expected our flight to be delayed due to the earlier storms. Surprisingly, we boarded and pushed back from the gate on time… and then the airport basically shut down due to a line of storms just south of us. Our flight attendant was great, proactively handing out waters and snacks, and even brokering magazine and newspaper exchanges. Three hours later the airspace opened, and we were inexplicably sent to the head of a line of at least 40 jets waiting to takeoff. All in all, it could have been a LOT worse.

Fast forward two weeks and we receive two $50 vouchers in the mail from Delta, with an apology for our delays. Huh? Sweet! Now, following the flight I sent a short email of praise about the flight attendant, but I never complained about the delay as it was a very clear weather issue. I don’t know if the vouchers were sent to everyone, but we were happy to get them. Nice job Delta :)

Our Itinerary

2024 Trips

San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Madrid, Spain (Mar)
Valencia, Spain (Mar+Apr)
Palma, Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Long Island, NY (July)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Bari, Italy (Sept)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
Grand Rapids, MI (Nov)
London, UK (Dec)
Manchester, UK (Dec)

2022 Trips

Florida (Feb)
NC Mountains (Apr)
Washington DC (Apr)
Valencia, Spain (May)
Hilton Head, SC (May)
Pacific NW (Jun)
Long Island (Jul)
Florida (Sept)
Chicago (Sept)
Poland (Sept)
NC Mountains (Nov)
Euro Xmas Markets (Dec)