Turkey Travelogue: Delta sucks

Before I get started on the fun stuff, I want to get this part out of the way.

The short version is this: Delta Airlines is horrible. It really sucks. Our experience with them was, at best, extremely frustrating. Next time you're flying, if it is possible to use another airline, by all means, do so, even if it costs a bit more. I'll certainly do my best to avoid Delta in the future. They ruined the first day of our trip, getting us to our destination 9 hours overdue, cost us a huge chunk of change by causing us to miss our Turkish Airlines connection, and then also failed to get us home on time at the end of our trip. If you'd like to read all the gory details, go ahead and click through the jump...

[To be clear, the problem with Delta isn't the good people who work for the airline -- the agents and stewards and pilots who do get us to where we're going (though some of them are understandably surly). It's the management and bloat at the top of the corporation that has reduced this once proud fleet to a bunch of old, rickety rattletraps with flaky indicators, broken toilets and a hopeless inability to meet a schedule, even in fine weather. No matter the amount he makes, Delta's CEO, Richard Anderson, is ridiculously overpaid.]

Date	Local time	Elapsed time	Intended Itinerary	Effective Itinerary	Notes
Tues, May 13	8:00am	00h 00m	depart Chattanooga by coach
	10:00am	02h 00m	arrive Atlanta airport
	12:30pm	04h 30m	board Delta flight #0134
	12:45pm	04h 45m	Delta flight #0134 departs for New York (JFK)		No such luck!
	03:00pm	07h 00m		Delta flight #0134 departs for New York (JFK)	Two and a quarter hour departure delay is "to check an indicator light" for the first hour, and then because they needed "to find three wing walkers to drag us out" of the gate. Clearly, they need more wing walkers in Atlanta.
	03:35pm	07h 35m	Delta flight #0134 arrives in New York (JFK)
	04:30pm	08h 30m	Delta flight #0072 departs for Istanbul		(The flight we're supposed to take to Turkey.)
	05:00pm	09h 00m		Delta flight #0134 arrives in New York (JFK)	We arrive to discover that our connecting flight to Istanbul has only just departed, after waiting a half an hour for us. We're told Delta intends to reroute us through Milan.
	07:00pm	11h 00m		board Delta flight #160 for Milan, which is supposed to depart at 7:15pm
	07:45pm	11h 45m			After sitting on the runway for 45 minutes, we head back to the terminal for "a computer software update."
	08:00pm	12h 00m			We're back at the gate and are told that it will be "just a half an hour" before we leave.
	08:30pm	12h 30m			No word on our departure, but we're told that the software upgrade is because the Milan airspace routes have been changed.
	09:12pm	13h 12m		Delta flight #160 finally departs for Milan	The last time we had anything to eat was at 11am, when we grabbed an early lunch at the Atlanta airport.
	10:05pm	14h 05m			Food finally makes it to our part of the plane. BTW, in the back of the plane, there is only one working bathroom and in the midsection of the plane, one of the bathrooms has a broken toilet seat. Also, several passengers report that the first five channels of music do not work.
	09:55am	18h 55m	Delta flight #0072 arrives in Istanbul		(flight duration of 10 hours, 25 minutes)
	11:20am	21h 20m		Delta flight #160 arrives in Milan	(5:20am eastern time)
	01:00pm	22h 00m	Turkish Airlines flight #324 departs Istanbul		We had to pay a substantial penalty when we had to reschedule after missing this reserved flight.
	02:00pm	23h 00m	Turkish Airlines flight #324 arrives in İzmir		(7:00am eastern time)
	02:15pm	24h 15m		Alitalia flight #706 departs for Istanbul	That's our first on-time, as-scheduled departure. Of course, we're no longer with Delta Airlines -- we've been switched to an Italian airline.
	06:15pm	27h 15m		Alitalia flight #706 arrives in Istanbul	The Italian airline scores an on-time arrival.
	10:00pm	31h 00m		Turkish Airlines flight #0344 departs for İzmir	The Turkish airline departs on-time. Also, during the one-hour flight, they managed to serve us a complete meal consisting of a sandwich, a beverage and a chocolate mousse.
	11:00pm	32h 00m		Turkish Airlines flight #0344 arrives in İzmir	A coach gets us to our hotel within the hour, making the total length of our journey a little less than 33 hours, quite a bit longer than the 23-24-hour journey we had scheduled.
	Just a note here: our arrival time in İzmir was supposed to be 2 in the afternoon, but we didn't actually make it there until close to midnight. We had planned to use that time to explore İzmir a bit, as our time was fairly well scheduled for the rest of our stay there. This is time we couldn't make up elsewhere in our itinerary. It was simply lost to us.
Sunday, May 18	10:30am	00h 00m	Turkish Airlines flight #315 departs, on time, for Istanbul
	11:30am	01h 00m	Turkish Airlines flight #315 arrives, on time, in Istanbul
	Turkish Airlines was an amazing, effecient outfit. The staff kept very busy and managed to serve meals on one-hour flights. Delta often struggles to serve water in that amount of time (of course, Delta is hobbled by their attempts to sell "premium" snacks and drinks, which slows down the whole process quite a bit).
Thurs, May 22	9:00am	00h 00m	depart hotel by coach
	9:30am	00h 30m	arrive at the Istanbul airport
	11:30am	02h 30m	board Delta flight #0073 for New York (JFK)
	12:45pm	03h 45m	Delta flight #0073 departs for New York (JFK)		This is the only Delta flight of our trip that departs on time. In the back of the plane, one of the bathrooms is taped closed and labeled "defective," and it looks like a long-term closure. At 2:00, they start a movie, but a whole section of the plane has no sound to go with the movie. At 2:15, they start the movie over, but some people still don't have sound. The person sitting in front of me cannot turn off the light above her seat -- it is stuck on. Another person reports that the entire back of the plane smells like urine. I take her word for it and avoid the back of the plane for the rest of the trip.
	4:00pm	14h 00m	Delta flight #0073 arrives in New York (JFK)		(11pm Istanbul time)
	4:45pm	14h 45m			Our flight docks at the gate after sitting on the runway for 45 minutes. The pilot points out that this is an "early" arrival, since we were scheduled to arrive at 4:50pm.
	6:10pm	16h 10m	board Delta flight #0137, which is supposed to depart at at 6:40pm		Upon boarding, the pilot tells us that we'll have to sit on the plane for 45 minutes before departing. He does not provide a reason. There is no air on the plane. It is hot, stuffy, and we're not allowed out of our seats while we're waiting to leave. No bathroom. No food. No water.
	6:55pm	16h 55m			The pilot announces that we'll be delaying our departure to wait for 20 connecting passengers from an international flight. The irony is not lost on our group, which was abandoned when our connecting flight was late arriving in New York last week. We also note that there are nowhere near 20 seats available on our plane for connecting passengers. The plane is already completely full. In the end, no new passengers get on the plane.
	7:00pm	17h 00m			The AC goes off for 5 minutes. It gets hotter and stuffier. Then the music playing over the PA gets stuck and starts to play the same noise over and over and over again. It's like they're really making an effort to actually torture us.
	7:07pm	17h 07m			They make us sit down, buckle in and turn off electronic devices. The passenger in the row ahead of mine discovers that the floor under her seat is very wet. She points this out to the steward and he (in a rather irritated fashion) says he has no idea why that might be and all he can do is get her a blanket.
	7:09pm	17h 09m			They say they are working on the "audio problem" (the music is still stuck on repeating that one noise) and would everyone please turn off their call buttons? The music finally goes off a few moments later.
	7:24pm	17h 24m			We start to move away from the gate. Movement is brief and we stop again.
	7:28pm	17h 28m			We start to move again, and again, it is brief. We stop.
	7:34pm	17h 34m			We start to move again, and again, it is brief. We stop.
	7:37pm	17h 37m			We enjoy a few moments of sustained taxiing.
	7:40pm	17h 40m			One hour past our scheduled departure time, the pilot says there are 30 planes in line ahead of us, so we'll probably be late arriving in Atlanta. The video screen comes on and G-Dog figures he might as well watch a movie. He selects one and it asks for a credit card number for paying a fee. It costs $6 to watch a movie on a freakin' 5x4 inch screen? You have got to be kidding. G-Dog mutters something about how even crappy hotels give you HBO for free and turns off his screen. I attempt to tune in CNN, but instead get a seemingly endless DISH network commercial.
	8:10pm	18h 10m			The pilot says we are now #15 in line and it will be another 20 minutes. We've been on the plane for two hours at this point, and we're still sitting at JFK airport. Two hours sitting on the tarmac. No food, no water, no bathroom, no standing, and there's still no air -- two hours, for the third time in a week. I'd cry, but I think I'm too dehydrated.
	8:15pm	18h 15m			The pilot says there are five planes ahead of us. The steward walks by and I ask him when can we have some water. He tells me it will be 20 minutes after takeoff.
	8:32pm	18h 32m		Delta flight #0137 departs New York (JFK)	(3:32pm Istanbul time)
	9:19pm	19h 19m			A stewardess announces that they will have premium snacks and beverages for sale soon. On neither flight today have there been magazines, safety instructions cards or air sickness bags in the pocket in the seat in front of me (or anywhere in my row, for that matter). I am reminded of this because it is 9:19 and if I don't get some water soon, I think I may be sick.
	9:28pm	19h 28m			A stewardess chucks 12 grams of peanuts at me. I suppose I should be grateful, but what I really, really, really want is some water.
	9:31pm	19h 31m	Delta flight #0137 is supposed to arrive in Atlanta		(4:31am Istanbul time)
	9:35pm	19h 35m			I finally get some water, 3 hours and 20 minutes after first being trapped inside this metal tube. Prisoners get better treatment than this. Now that I've had some water, I turn my attention again to the entertainment device on the back of the seat in front of me. The CNN channel is still playing the same DISH network commercial, so I try the "games" option. I'm told that it costs $6 to play anything other than an in-flight trivia game. I'm really glad I brought a book.
	10:17pm	20h 17m		Delta flight #0137 arrives in Atlanta	(5:17am Istanbul time)
	10:57pm	20h 57m		depart Atlanta by coach	(5:57am Istanbul time)
	01:00am	23h 00m		arrive in Chattanooga	(8:00am Istanbul time)