Dear Delta friends,
I hope you're having an enjoyable Christmas and New Year holiday season despite the unseasonable weather and the horrible tsunami disaster news.
Now in its 35th year, the three-week Delta ATL Holiday Military Lounge normally serves 4,000-5,000 people annually. This year, it surpassed that top number by Christmas Day. This means that the ML is running a bit low on donated food for our guests.
The lounge will be open daily 0600-2200 EST through 05JAN in the California Room (B North Concourse, opposite Gate B33). If you're at or near ATL between now and then, please consider dropping off nutritious finger foods -- packaged cheese and meats for crackers or croissants are especially popular; veggies with dips, naval oranges, grapes and bananas go fast -- in dated thowaway containers for adults who have to stay in shape and kids who don't need sugar to get more excited. Of course, holiday goodies are always welcome and scarfed down.
Please pass the word along. Thanks!
My holidays usually have been working ones because of low seniority and the subsequent difficult passriding. Since I've retired, I still visit family members before or after the season for the same reasons. So, I volunteer at Delta's ATL Holiday Military Lounge instead. This year, I did so on 17-19DEC and 24-26DEC (I'm working 31DEC-02JAN too) at 1600-2200. However, I didn't work Christmas Day because circumstances on Christmas Eve changed that plan.
The Midwest storm that closed CVG on FRI turned ATL into a huge sea of people rerouted through there to get home for the holidays. Flights were backed up; thousands of people flowed through the concourses. Normally, the ML closes at 2200, but I had so many military people and dependants still there who were unable to get hotel rooms for the night that I decided to keep it open as a makeshift barracks. So, I commandeered pillows, blankets and some RON kits; had Counter Control make announcements for overnighting military passengers; and took in the responders first come, first served. I still had a few spots left on the floor at 2300, so I got some other people off the brightly lit B North Concourse into the darkened room and distributed the remaining pillows and blankets to those I couldn't take in. I spent the rest of Christmas Eve reading, drinking coffee in a lighted corner and occasionally patrolling the concourse. (DL agents aren't on B Con midnights, so given the number of people sleeping there I wanted to insure at least one person with DL Care Team and Red Cross First Aid training was around who knew something about ECHO and the ATL emergency response plan.)
The ML normally opens at 0600, so when the scheduled people (usually injured or pregnant employees on light duty at that hour) came in then, I turned things over to them. They understood that I wasn't coming in for my 1600-2200 volunteer shift later that day. (I'm dedicated but not stupid, people.) I woke up the sleepers with early flights and gave them their updated gate numbers; they gave me hugs and a "Merry Christmas" as we left the lounge together. I was home by 0815 and in bed by 0830; I woke up around suppertime.
This was one of the most satisfying Christmases I've ever had because I did something on my own initiative that was in the spirit of the season and greatly appreciated by customers of my struggling former employer. No "attaboys" are needed, thanks. Here's the sad part: you and I wouldn't consider what I did as extraordinary, but today's airlines and their employees would.
This occurrence is an example of what Delta has lost in legally, politely but firmly dumping veteran employees and in not actively recruiting ground retirees to staff real-need positions as volunteers. Their experience and sense of duty, dedication and responsibility are virtues that can't be replaced in crunch situations by automation or cheaper new-hires; nor can the frustrated passengers who are experiencing these differences as abysmal customer service.
An example: as of last night, ATL's DL Baggage Claim area was littered with hundreds of bags unclaimed by local passengers (and passriders) stranded up north by weather and flights seriously overbooked by DL's over-automated Revenue Control system. Local news coverage showed overworked agents with no time to organize them or secure them by matching tag numbers with their rightful owners' stubs. Think about this: volunteer retirees could, would and should be doing this during peak travel periods.