Travel Tip of the Week: Never let your phone die

Last week I violated one of my previous tips (always go to the gate) because my phone was dead.

I was flying Airtran and they’re batting 500 on mechanical issues for me this year.  My flight from CLT to ATL was delayed due to a mechanical issue delaying the ATL-CLT inbound.  When I finally got to ATL I was told by the gate agent that I had already missed my ATL-MCO flight although my phone said it was delayed and I might make it.  The problem is that my phone was quickly dying on me so I waited for that agent to rebook 8 of us misconnects and I charged my phone.  The agent was having printing issues so it was taking over 15 minutes to even start rebooking us.  I decided to grab the other guy heading to MCO and we went to Customer Service in the other concourse since that’s where the MCO flights were departing.  Good thing  I finally did because we got to the next MCO flight 5 minutes before they closed that flight.  If we had waited in D for the printer to work we would have been at the mercy of the final flight of the night.

…If my battery had been charged I would have just headed to C, but I figured an open outlet and an agent dedicated to my flight was worth something.

4 Comments

  1. Better yet, when traveling a solar charger might be helpful. It’s good to have a back-up plan if you lose your phone as well, since a lot can happen when you travel.

  2. The last time i flew Airtran, MSY>BUF via ATL, we were delayed leaving MSY because the President was leaving. Well, we arrived late to ATL and we were told as we walked into the terminal that we missed our connection to BUF and would have to rebook at cust serv line. Ahhhh, well at the line, which had about a dozon or so people, one of the reps yelled ‘Anybody in line going to Buffalo??’ Ahh, yeah us , ‘well get to Gate (something) right away!!!’

    My daughter and I ran and were able to make the flight.

    Whats the point here?? Well, it turns out the pilot on our MSY>ATL flight was the same pilot for our ATL>BUF flight and the BUF flight was held until the pilot arrived from MSY.

    The right doesnt know what the left is doing!?!?

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