Back in February 2022 it began to look as if international travel might be possible again after two years of pandemic shutdown.
That was good I thought.
That was good my wife thought.
That was good my daughter thought.
That was good my daughter-in-law and son thought.
Good, we all thought, because, for 20 or so years, until 2020 and 2021 - pandemic years - I had almost always spent at least a month in Paris, maybe more, but November for sure - 13 November being my birthday - and I wanted to re-commence that tradition, and the others of my family here mentioned, wanted to join with me on this my 80th birthday year.
They had been with me for that day in 2012 for 70 and they wanted to be there for the tenth anniversary of that fun occasion.
So, Delta airline reservations were made.
(My wife, daughter and I have a vestigial relationship with Delta from the IBM eighties, when Delta was not only the best airline, it was also a company worth working for).
My daughter and my wife made reservations on Delta: RDU to CDG, non-stop (our daughter lives in North Carolina and it seemed fun for my wife and our daughter to fly together).
To that end, I made a reservation for my wife: SEA to RDU non-stop, round trip, First Class.
My son and daughter in law made reservations on Delta appropriate to their circumstances as residents of the great state of Tennessee.
And we all sat back and savored the thought of our reunion in Paris in November and my birthday.
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It took a while for things to begin to unravel.
My wife and daughter were first.
They got a courteous email from Delta telling them that their non-stop to Paris had been changed to a two-flight connection and that the flight from RDU would arrive at the connection after their connecting flight had departed.
"We apologize for any inconvenience this might incur" Delta added with empathy.
At that point they - my wife and my daughter - decided that they had enough time to think about this and, more importantly, to figure out how one contacts Delta to fix such an obvious aberration, so they put in abeyance any action on the problem; who knew if you swatted that fly right away a new fly would probably replace it.
Delta still had their best people working for us: not too long after getting the "you're stranded in Boston" email my wife got an email saying she no longer had a non-stop reservation to and from Raleigh; she was going to experience the not at all non-stop pleasure of being routed on her return link to Seattle through Detroit on her way home.
After not too long my wife and daughter drew the obvious conclusion: there was no way in hell that they were going to Paris in November 2022.
We were all disappointed, but life goes on, until it doesn't, I guess.
The time, probably money, and irritation involved with unscrambling that Delta mess just weren't warranted.
That left my son and daughter in law with their Delta travel arrangements.
I'm writing this instead of being at la Citrouille for dinner with Joe and Ann Claire tonight (we were planning a dress rehearsal for the 13th); they have been living in an airport bar in Boston for the last 24 hours, courtesy of the Delta extended-obfuscation-to-ultimate-cancellation gambit.
The final Delta Air Travel bricks of the Noel's birthday in Paris edifice began to turn to dust about 18 hours ago.
Joe texted me that their 4 hour layover had become a 7.5 hour layover.
The texts continued; the delays mounted; the repair part was on a plane to arrive at ...
Anyone who has ever flown knew at the outset of those delays what the final result would be.
Of course, Delta knew; they are in the business; they invented the rules of the game; and those rules specify that it is required to obfuscate until you summarily cancel.
Delta cancelled about 0400 Paris time.
Interminable lines queuing in front of unoccupied Delta "Service" Desks, and smart-phone-battery- draining waits on Delta customer service phone numbers ensued.
The population of Boston temporarily grew by one Delta plane load.
And I'm writing this instead of enjoying a dinner at la Citrouille with the more travel persistent members of my family.
The good news is Hotels.com has their best people working on getting an exception to the no re-fund rule of the hotel across the street where I made reservations for Joe and Ann Claire and had to cancel because there be no Ann Claire and Joe.
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