TPA to ORD, Just When I Started to Believe Again in Delta

Just when I was about to believe:

1) Loaded the MD 90 in TPA and then just sat for 20 minutes with no word from the cockpit.  Finally a gate agent comes in twice and offloads people.  Nobody else is loaded.  No verbal explanation from anybody. 

2)  Door is closed and again we sit.  Cockpit comes on and says due to weather in ATL, we have a wheels up time in another 30 minutes.  Actually it's more like 20, but now we will be at least 45 minutes late into ATL.

3) Naturally my connection to ORD is on time and I knew I was in for a battleground upgrade on the DC 9.  No time to stop and even look at the monitor, I stuck the BP under the reader and no upgrade came out.  So I sat in Economy Comfort.

4) ATL gate agent comes in frantically looking for one pax and I overheard him say that he had one open seat in first.  They page the pax over the PA and no response.  So instead of running back up to the computer and checking who deserved this upgrade, the GA closed the door and we flew out with one empty seat in first.  That hasn't happened to me in over 20 years.

5)  Arrived at ORD and taxied right past our gate and out into the mess of arriving taxiways.  And I thought what on earth could this be.  At least the captain had the stones to tell the truth, "Due to lack of ramp employees, we can not pull into our gate as no one is available to guide us in".

So, even though we landed 20 minutes early, we pulled into the gate 10 minutes late.  This stuff is too good to make up.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1556/history/20130707/1845Z/KTPA/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1306/history/20130707/2127Z/KATL/KORD