Atlanta, GA: Awaiting a flight

12APR08 Houston Intercontinental, Houston TX (IAH)

Clearing security was easy and then we headed to the gate. We got to the gate at about 1:30p and saw a bunch of people standing around. It was not looking good as I'd predicted.

They were able to clear two standbys who were ahead of us and we waited. Then one more lady got cleared, but had a friend who was not. They had confirmed seats on the 4:30p and the later 7:20p one respectively. The one who got cleared did not want to leave the other one but did eventually.

A lady came up to the counter and and said she had been waiting all day. She produced four standby boarding passes and a Delta ticket to the lady. I started thinking that Delta must b having MD80 issues as well. They do use the MD88 into Houston, but nothing had been reported about their issues, just American Airlines'.

Finally they had one more seat left and the lady who was next gave it to the lady whose friend had boarded before. What a nice gesture I thought. The lady said that she was on the 4:30p so it was O.K. Wow!

Dejected, we left and went to the Presidents Club after the flight had pushed back.

We had to wait for a bit as a guy was trying to gain admittance, but did not have the proper credentials. I started to say to my traveling companion that I should just have him be my guest as well. So after he walked away, I asked the agent if it was O.K. and she said, so I ran and got him. He was on the 9:05p to Sao Paolo, Brazil (GRU), so had quite a long wait.

He graciously accepted and entered with us.

We checked the flights and decided that the 4:30p was not going to work either. I called my sister and she said that she was in Austin, TX with my dad, her husband and her son as he had a basketball game. So going to Killeen, TX (GRK) was also out. Maybe I could go to Austin, TX (AUS) and meet up with them there I thought. But alas, I decided against all that. At about 2:30p, we left the Club and headed home.

On our way home, I stopped at the Lee Road plane spotting area and got the pictures below. I also did a movie which I will add soon as well: