Coming to America
Not the Eddie Murphy film.
Yesterday, I was supposed to get the 10:40 Delta flight from Frankfurt to Atlanta, then connect to Charleston, SC. and arrive by 7 PM. My wife had to take care of her mom, which meant she couldn't leave until later, and couldn't leave before 2 PM, so she got on the last connection, which was Frankfurt to Amsterdam to Atlanta, which put her on the 10:45 PM flight to Charleston, getting in around midnight. Oh, well, at least we were to arrive on the same day.
Of course, due weather conditions in North America, my Delta plane left way late from America, and thus would be way late leaving. The new departure? 4 hours late, now at 14:30. In other words, my wife and I were now to leave Frankfurt at virtually the same time, by different routes, only to meet up at the Atlanta airport to now take the midnight run to Charleston. In a stroke of unjustified optimism, before bringing my wife to the KLM check-in counter, I brought her with me to the Delta ticket counter and asked if she could be re-routed to fly with me on the delayed nonstop to Atlanta. It was full, but due to the delay, there was a cancellation. The woman at the ticket counter was Pakistani, and when she said she'd see what she could do, I thanked her in Urdu--the ONLY word I know in Urdu! But THAT got me a huge smile, and her comment that if anyone could do it, she could. It took 20 minutes, but she DID it. She had to rewrite my wife's whole ticket (non re-routable and non-refundable, so you KNOW that airport ticket agents have an override in there somewhere, in case of delays, etc. IF they want to do it).
So, we got to fly together to Atlanta, breezed through immigration and customs, rechecked our bags to Charleston, went through security again, and took the train to the E terminal. The Delta lounge was so crowded, they were checking everyone's creds, but my platinum-for-life on Air France (part of Delta's group) did it. Great food and comfy chairs. We got to Charleston at midnight, and got to the hotel at 1 AM.
They had NO RECORD of my reservation. I said, come ON, you guys, I made that reservation 2 months ago, and I have been coming here every year for the last twenty at this time of year! Oh, I will get the manager. The manager couldn't find me, either (new ownership and management). He had an accent, so I casually asked where he was from. "Oh, Mexico." I switched to Spanish, and a room "became" available, from which I am now posting this.
The next time someone says language instruction in school is a waste of time, tell them that the best advice one could give them would be to never take a trip that involved air travel or a hotel stay, unless you own both the airline and the hotel you intend to stay at.
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Glad you made it safely and that you were able to make the arrangement you made.!
Welcome to the this side of the pond~ have a pleasant stay. 
