My Worst Airport Experience

August 6-7, 2023:

My best friend from middle school, high school, and part of college passed away recently. It was completely unexpected, and I feel awful for his family and will continue to pray for them. When I received the funeral details, the timing couldn’t have been worse for me as that day was filled with different meetings and events that I was supposed to be attending. I debated whether or not to make the trip down to Florida, knowing that if I did, I would miss everything going on in Georgia. I didn’t have the energy or mental strength to make the five-hour drive, but when the opportunity to fly down came up, I decided that it would be best for me to go. The only flight available would be a late-night direct flight from Atlanta, taking off just before midnight.

I was dropped off at the airport several hours before my flight as I know the domestic terminal in Atlanta is usually a disaster. It took about an hour to get through the TSA line. I know that because the couple behind me started timing it as soon as they got in line. I’ve seen the TSA line get much longer than this before, so I was optimistic that this airport experience wouldn’t be too stressful. (It took me 2 hours to get through TSA when I was flying to Los Angeles a month ago). I found my gate pretty quickly and sat down to rest while I waited on my plane. The outlet by my seat didn’t work, but I wasn’t too concerned as my phone battery was around 60%, and this would only be a 45-50 minute flight. I had noticed that every gate I passed had had significant delays, so I was expecting that same outcome for my flight. When I got the notification that my flight had been pushed back an hour, I wasn’t shocked at all. Now, my plane would be taking off around 1:00 AM. Eventually, the clock struck midnight, and the entire airport’s atmosphere was about to take a significant shift…

They suddenly announced that my flight to Pensacola was canceled. Many frustrated travelers stood up and started trying to find the customer service desk to get their flights rebooked. I didn’t want to be in the middle of this madness, so I pulled my phone out and went straight to the Delta app to check for another option. That’s when I got the message that there were no other flights available. Around this time, I heard a man behind me explaining to someone else that the next flight to Pensacola would be on Tuesday, but with the funeral being held on Monday, this would not be an option for me. I decided to start following the Pensacola crowd to the customer service desk, and then I had a shocking realization… They didn’t just cancel the Pensacola flight; they canceled EVERY flight. Every gate, every airline, every destination! As I continued walking toward the customer service desk, I watched the flight boards on either side of the terminal that read “CANCELED, CANCELED, CANCELED…” Judging by the large exodus of people walking toward the customer service desk, I knew that the line would be terrible. But I never expected what I actually witnessed.

I found the desk and saw the line leading up to it, and the end was out of sight. I started speed walking to try to reach the end of this line, but it kept going. I have never seen a line this long in my life, and it would even be outrageous for a Disney ride! It took me over 8 minutes of fast speed walking before I could even see the end of that line. I know people like to exaggerate when there’s a long line by saying it’s a “mile long,” but I can confidently say without any question that this line was AT LEAST a half mile long, if not more. I finally reached the end of it, but I knew there was no chance I’d ever reach the front. I quickly called the Delta support number and got an automated message asking what I needed help with. I said “rebook a canceled flight,” and then they kindly sent me a text with instructions on how to cancel a flight, along with a copy of their cancelation policy. That was super helpful! 😑 So I tried to rephrase it, and they finally sent me a link to rebook my flight. But just like the app, it only said there was nothing available. I needed to speak to an actual representative to explain my situation. You can’t just reschedule a funeral…

I got on an eternal hold, and as I was listening to the haunting hold music, I knew that there was no way I’d end up on a flight anytime soon. I started making my way toward baggage claim so I could find the rideshare area, while still on the eternal hold with Delta. And the entire airport was a chaotic mob of angry passengers. Think about this: Atlanta, the busiest airport IN THE WORLD, canceled EVERY flight all at once! There were THOUSANDS of people scrambling, trying to figure out what to do. And I was stuck in the middle of it all. I finally made it over to the plane train to get to baggage claim, and it was another sight that I had never seen before. The train arrived, and it was so packed full of people that when the doors opened, there were passengers literally spilling out the doors like a fluid. It looked like a scene straight out of a zombie movie where the doors open and piles of zombified bodies fall out! So that wasn’t an option: I then decided to just walk between terminals. But that soon hit a roadblock as well… literally.

I first hopped on one of the moving sidewalks to try to pass much of the craziness, but then the moving sidewalks had to come to a quick hault because there was literally nowhere for the people at the end of it to go. In fact, the entire terminal came to a complete stop because there were so many people trying to navigate through it at the same time. I’ve never seen a traffic jam this extreme before in a terminal that was literally built to accommodate thousands of people at once. We were at a complete standstill, and let me remind you- I’m still listening to this awful hold music! Some people are panicking, while others have become enraged. The standstill finally started moving, slowly. I finally reached the baggage claim area of the airport, and it looked like a hurricane shelter. There was no wall space available as everyone had started claiming their spot to spend the night in. People were even laying out on the luggage carousels because there were no other spots available. No outlets were to be found whatsoever, and the one time I happened to spot an outlet hidden behind a trashcan, it didn’t work. Suddenly, after over an hour on hold, my phone reached 15% and started to shut down. I knew I had to hang up if I wanted any chance of finding a way out of this situation.

Unfortunately, because this was a last-minute decision to come to the airport, I hadn’t had time to charge my battery packs, so I literally had no way of charging my phone. I slowly shoved my way through crowds of people to find an even-more-crowded rideshare area. I pulled the Uber app up on my slowly-dying phone and put my apartment in only to find out they were hiking the prices way up. It was $109 to get back to my apartment when it would normally cost $30-40! I would’ve considered it due to my desperate situation, but I questioned if my phone would even last long enough for me to be connected with my driver. I didn’t want to pay over $100 and then not get a ride due to my phone dying. So I quickly sent out a dramatic-sounding group message to everyone at MMO, asking if anyone happened to be awake that could come pick me up from the airport. At this point, it’s around 2:00 AM. I knew that if no one could make it, I’d have to fight for a spot on the floor to try to spend the night in. Sure enough, 10 minutes go by, and it doesn’t look like anyone had seen my message. I shoved my way back into the airport and started searching for any available spot to sit for the night. Then a friend finally sent me a text asking if I still needed a ride!

I quickly explained my situation, and she kindly agreed to come pick me up. As my phone was taking its final breath, I sent her a pickup location and made my way there, not knowing if she had even received it. My phone finally died, and I had no means of communication left. I made my way out to the pickup area, just hoping that she would know where to find me. I stood in between the two pickup lanes, so I could scan both of them looking for her truck. Countless people came up to ask me if I had a phone they could borrow, so I realized I was not the only one in this situation. The pickup line at the south terminal (Delta) was really long for 2 AM, and from what I later heard, the north terminal (all other airlines) was much worse. After about 30 minutes of waiting and scanning every truck that came through, I finally saw hers, and I made it back to my apartment right at 3:00. The following morning, I found out that every flight was still getting canceled, even into the day. I’m not sure exactly what the issue was- I heard maybe an electric storm? But whatever it was, I knew there was no possible way for me to make it to the funeral. The only option left would be to drive, but given I was already exhausted before the whole airport experience and getting only two hours of sleep, driving five hours would not have been a safe idea. I have peace that I did all that I could to try to make it.

I don’t know who exactly messed up in this situation- did ATL handle it poorly? Or could it have been the airlines’ faults? I’m not sure- probably a mix of both. But this was certainly the worst airport experience I’ve ever had. It tops getting abandoned in Moldova, being even more abandoned in Ecuador, and getting interrogated in New York. I didn’t even share all the details as I was trying to quickly summarize this story. And I had to miss the funeral through no fault of my own. This just shows that you can never predict what might happen when traveling, and you always need to try to be prepared for the worst possible outcome. There were many who were transiting through Atlanta and had to deal with this situation. Fortunately, I have friends in the area and was able to get help, but I know most of the thousands that were affected did not. While I wish I could’ve made it to the funeral, I’ll take this as a sign that I wasn’t meant to go. I will continue to pray for Tim’s family and ask that you do too, if you have a moment. Thanks for reading.