A day of Airport mishaps for The Travel Addict - long overdue

The airports in question:

• Milwaukee
• Atlanta

Delays, Boarding, Cancellation, Weather, Breakdowns, Misinformation

Ever been last to board?

Ever ran to catch a plane before the door closes?

A short story of ridiculousness, but it could happen to anyone, however this scenario is highly unlikely.

Safe travels everyone.

http://www.malcolmteasdale.com

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Travel Addict Podcast.

(00:02):
Your host and fellow traveladdict, Malcolm Teesdale, is
here to take you into the heartof the world's most fascinating
destinations.
He talks with passionateglobetrotters and fearless
explorers who share their wildjourneys and cultural insights
from around the world.
Or sometimes he just chats byhimself, describing enriching
travel experiences.

(00:22):
So buckle up and let's hit theroad, because the world is
calling and we're answering.

SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
Hello everybody, Malcolm T-Sdale here, The
Trouble Addict, by myself todayfor a change, so I do have
something to say.
And it's about a recent trip Itook.
I was in Wisconsin during themonth of January, and I was
making my way down to the Turksand Caicos Islands.
Alright.

(00:47):
So anyway, Wisconsin in January.
So the weather was not too good.
Suffice to say, there's um a bitof snow in the air, and anyway,
uh not the day I left, butanyway, I checked in and got on
the plane, and it did start tosnow.
Or was it freezing rain?

(01:08):
But anyway, the pilot got on tomake an announcement and said,
Well, based on the currentweather, we are going to have to
have the plane de-iced.
Now, I've been through thisprocess once before.
Not me personally, but the planeI was on.
But anyway, I was thinking,well, hopefully it won't be
delayed much because I have aflight change in Atlanta.

(01:30):
Anyway, it was delayed.
We had to line up to be de-iced.
And eventually it was done.
But we were delayed well over anhour for our departure.
So the plane took off, and onway to Atlanta, I was thinking,
I'm not going to make myconnection.
Which would be bad because fromAtlanta to the Turks and Caicos

(01:56):
Islands, there was only oneflight a day, so it could be
bad.
Suffice to say, we arrived inAtlanta and uh had the uh bit of
a long wait to get to the gate,which was on DC Concourse.
And but by the time the planepassed to the gate, I had

(02:18):
exactly 20 minutes to make mynext flight.
Okay.
And of course I had the app onmy phone saying which gate uh my
next flight was departed from.
Uh fortunately it was only oneconcourse away.
I was landing in D, and myconnecting flight was at E.

(02:38):
So I got off the plane.
Everyone, a few people in frontof me, I said, I'm in a hurry.
So anyway, got off in Dconcourse, and I was sort of the
end gate on the concourse, so Iran.
First time I ran for a while,but I was I had to handle the
boots with me.
I ran to the center of theconcourse and went ran down the

(03:02):
escalator, ran down theescalator on D, and then I
decided to get on the train.
And they have a good transportsystem at Atlanta, the plane
train they call it.
So I had to wait about a minutefor the train to come.
It came, got on, got off at E,ran up the escalator, and looked

(03:24):
at my watch and said, Well, I'mnot gonna make it.
So anyway, I started to run downthe concourse at E, and I could
see the gate in the distance.
I started waving.
Anyway, they saw me coming, andI was effectively the last one
on the plane.
And of course, probably thepassengers thought, uh, this

(03:47):
guy's lagging, blah blah blah.
Anyway, they gave me a few weirdlooks, but I found my seat and
sat down, puffing a bit becauseI just ran a fair bit.
Well, we stayed at the gate, andthen the captain came on and
said, Well, basically, the preplane's broken.
Mm-hmm.
So, what he had to do was umbasically said, I'll come back

(04:11):
with you in about five or tenminutes when we have a plan.
I'm not sure exactly what wentwrong, but I think it was a
smoke detector on the plane.
But anyway, he came back on andhe said, Well, everyone has to
get off the plane.
The plane is not going to goanywhere.
So, we all got off the plane,and the captain did say, Go to

(04:33):
another gate on eConcourse.
So it wasn't that far away.
All right, so we got off.
So I was thinking, you know, Iran all that way, and now the
plane was cancelled.
I was the last one on the plane,and you know what?
All my years of flying, I'dnever been last to get on a

(04:53):
plane until that day.
Funnily enough.
Anyway, went to the new gate one-con course, and the plane
wasn't there yet, but apparentlythat's where it ultimately was
going to be.
And it was estimated to bedelayed quite some time without
anything significant.

(05:13):
So it looked on my app on myiPhone, so it reflected the
delay and all that stuff.
So um there's a CenturionLounge, I'm like Centurion
Lounge on E.
So I decided to go there andjust chill out for a while.
And uh it's about five minuteswalk to the other end of the

(05:36):
concourse.
So I went in the lounge thereand had a cup of coffee and just
um relaxed there for a while.
So anyway, I was sitting thereand for a while, and then my
phone rang, and it said, Mr.
Teesdale, I said, Yeah.

(05:58):
Well, they said, Where are you?
The plane's about to leave.
Well, I said, wait a minute, myapp or my phone says it isn't
leaving for at least anotherhour or so.
And well the app was correctwhen they said, Well, can you
get here quickly?
So I quickly got off and youknow what, I ran back down

(06:22):
e-concourse yet again.
I looked on my app, it wasshowing the wrong departure
time, and as I ran down theconcourse, the monitors down the
concourse also had the incorrectdeparture time, but they showed
a different time than the one Ihad.
Well, I eventually got to thegate, and they weighed me on,

(06:46):
and for the second time in myhistory, I was the last to get
on a plane.
And you know what?
The same people were there, of acourse, and you know, they
started laughing, said this guyagain, you know, but they were
waiting at the gate.
The gate showed a differentdeparture type than my app and
what was on the monitor down theconcourse, so I had a good

(07:08):
excuse if anyone wanted to pickan argument with me.
You know?
This stuff happens.
Anyway, I got on the plane, andum guess what?
The rain started coming down inAtlanta, storm came in, and we
were delayed another hour.
Isn't that something?

(07:30):
Well, it eventually took off.
I was half expecting to begetting off the plane again.
Well, it did eventually takeoff, so suffice to say we were
sort of delayed getting intoTurks and King's Island, but
that didn't matter.
But I had this grand distinctionof missing, or I should say not

(07:51):
missing, but being the last oneto get on a plane twice, and it
happened at the same airportwith the same flight number, but
a different plane.
Now, who else out there hassomething similar to this or
exactly something like this?
I don't know, but it's so damnweird, and I want to when I try

(08:14):
to explain it to someone, theyjust laughed and they said,
Well, it's gonna happensometimes, not losing luggage on
the plane.
Now, you know, Atlanta, AtlantaAirport.
Now, it's the busiest airport inthe world, and I have to say,
it's actually run quiteefficiently.

(08:36):
Yeah, it's a very efficient forthe amount of people going
through that airport.
Now, I've been through manyairports in the world.
Some I don't like, some are justutterly confusing, and some are
just too chaotic.
But Atlanta being the busiestone is run quite efficiently.
However, what helps the processin Atlanta, they have a thing

(08:57):
called a plane train.
Now, there's several concoursesin Atlanta: T, A, B, C, D, E,
and F.
So there's lots of planesleaving.
I don't know how many a day, butit's a just a humongous amount
of flights leaving there today,and the place is like a zoo.

(09:18):
So, you know, when you get onthe plane train, it's a good way
there's a quick train.
But when the train stops at astation, it says, next up is
concourse A, as in Apple, or B,as in Bravo, or C as in Chavley.
And I thought about sending anemail to Atlanta Airport.

(09:42):
I said, Why don't you justchange this up every now and
again to make it sort ofinteresting?
So I've written it down.
I've never sent it off to themyet, but I thought of some great
suggestions, you know.
And they have sort of changed upa little bit because I'm now
advertising like C for coffeeshops, I think.

(10:02):
But I suggested saying thesethings like A as in accident, B
as in breakdown, C as incollision, or our next stop is D
as in derail.
E you could say B as inearthquake.

(10:25):
Would it freak people out?
Would there be losses?
You just don't know.
Anyway, I thought that would bea great idea.
Just do it at least one day, youknow, as a quirky thing to do.
And I guess people might think,well, it's fine.
It's Atlanta Airport, how badcan it be?

(10:45):
Well, anyway, that's my thought,and I had this thought after
that day at Atlanta wheneverything went wrong, you know.
And for all the thousands ofpeople who've traveled through
Atlanta, everyone, or mostpeople must have had a time when
things didn't quite work out.
Effectively, it's runefficiently, as far as I know,

(11:06):
but some things have to go wrongperiodically, like luggage gets
lost, flights come and go, getdelayed, you know, planes break
down.
Well, based on that day, I hadwhat happened in Wisconsin with
the de-icing of the plane, andalso me being last to get on a
plane twice on the same day atthe same airport is just

(11:32):
bizarre.
Anyway, I just thought I'd leteveryone know about that.
Yeah, you can laugh or whatever,but I had to laugh at the end of
the day because sometimes thingsjust go wrong.
And you have to suck it up andmove on.
So that probably meant that,well, I'm done for a while, it's
like say a few months beforesomething stupid goes on again.

(11:53):
Anyway, folks, uh just thoughtI'd let you know that Teesdale
here sometimes he does haveproblems travelling, which all
well and good.
I expect it.
Things have gone wrong before,and they'll go wrong yet again.
Take care, everyone.
We'll speak to you soon.
Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 (12:10):
That's it for this episode of the Travel Addict
Podcast, where we chase sunsets,flirt with danger, and
occasionally make questionablechoices in foreign lands.
Until next time, may yourflights be on time.
And your travel stories justscandalous enough to leave a few
details out.
Check out Malcolm's websites atmalcolmteesdale.com and

(12:31):
travelingenglishman.com.
Save travels and enjoy life,everyone.