Panasonic LX100 at an effective 33mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wherefore art thou, Delta 120?
Toyosaki Seaside Park, Okinawa, Japan
( a random sky/plane photo taken during last week's trip to Okinawa )

Doh!

I was supposed to leave tomorrow on a flight to America, but 22 hours before I was set to walk out the door, I got an alert from Delta Airlines, which I mentioned last month in “Delta Airlines: Gauging the Quality of Your Customer-Service Representatives, Done Right”. It turns out that one of my flights tomorrow is suddenly scheduled for three hours later, and that destroys the whole itinerary.

Their web site said "We haven't yet found flights to reschedule you on, but don't worry, we'll get you where you need to go with as little disruption as possible." This had the opposite effect; I worried.

I called Delta in The States, and the wait time to talk to a human was “greater than two hours”. Geez!

I hung up and called their number in Japan, and when I selected “English”, I was connected immediately with someone. Judging from the accent, it was likely a call center in the Philippines. The first thing he asked after bringing up my ticket was how he should address me. I answered “Well, Jeffrey is fine”, to which he replied “Very well, Mr. Jeffrey, how can I help you?”. 🙂

The itinerary had been really good (airport-to-airport in just 17½ hours; the previous best had been 18⅓ hours, but often it was 19~21 hours), so I asked about just taking the same set of flights the next day....

“You are lucky Mr. Jeffrey”, seats were available on everything, so that's what we did. I just hope that the flight that got pushed back (Delta 120 on 08MAR) doesn't get pushed back again on 09MAR.

I then had to update my reservations for the airport shuttle here, and a rent-a-car in America, and tell everyone about it. As it stands now, the dust has settled again. Keeping fingers crossed that it stays that way.