Daily Fit Tip: Fly Delta and lose weight.

We've all had crummy experiences while flying, but with Delta 'crummy experience' seems to be a theme. Late departures and late arrivals, which always ends up forcing me and the others around me to run full speed across enormous airports trying to make connecting flights. The amount of sprints I've completed while flying Delta are probably the reason I stay so lean. My air travel was no different this past weekend.

Now, I understand that air travel and flight schedules are often subject to delay. We'd be fools not to know it's a possibility. I'd at least like the airline employees to be considerate and motivated to do what they can to improve the situation of their customers. Compassionate even. My flight out of Chicago was delayed about two hours Monday morning, which was to make it impossible for me to make my connecting flight home. Unfortunately this was going to force me to miss my four year old daughter's special preschool program, which was really important to her. I give her the news in the morning and as expected, she was devastated. I'm bummed and torture myself over missing it throughout my entire two hour Chicago to Atlanta flight.

As my friend and I debark the plain we check to see which gate our flight home will be leaving from when we are surprised to see that the original flight we were booked for has also been delayed (surprise, surprise!) and is now boarding. With that, while carrying laptops, purses and more we run full speed across what I believe they listed to be about seven football fields in length to Terminal D. We bolt and weave to gate D26, and arrive exactly at the moment the ticket lady changes the sign from boarding to closed. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

As we huff and puff, we politely explain to this woman that we're scheduled for this flight, blah blah blah, ran all the way here, and we're desperate to get on. This large woman, acts completely disinterested in our situation as she smacks her lips chewing some food like a cow at her little ticket desk. It takes about 40 seconds for her to chew whatever disgusting thing it was that we could see thrashing around in her mouth, when she finally responds with a "gates closed". Yes, we see. But the plane door is still open, people are still climbing aboard (from the ground) and plenty of bags are still being loaded on to the plane. Isn't there anything you can do? "Nope" , she says as she looks to the ceiling and eats something else.

We beg and plead for a while, as we clearly can see the plane is not prepared to go anywhere soon. She's already told us seats are available on the plane, so why can't we get on? My friend and I plead for a few minutes and tell her about the preschool thing, and she continues to chew. When I suggest that there has to be a greater decision making authority than her, she just rolls her eyes. She also tells us she'll have to do extra paperwork if we board. Finally, after about 8 minutes of this nonsense and the plane STILL on the ground with the door open and bags being placed, she begins to stroll towards the plane. I promise you folks, she could not have strolled, waddled, slithered any slower if we were paying her extra to take her time.

No joke, it took her about 10 minutes to go the teeny distance between the gate and the plane. She returns, the plane is STILL in the same position and she tell me "the pilot says no". And she continues to smack her lips and roll her eyes. Nice. During her lengthy expedition, we had asked another ticket lady to get a supervisor which took her ten minutes too. Finally, after I go looking for him, Ross, who is 'lead supervisor for Delta Concourse D in Atlanta's Heartsfield Airport comes out, and basically says "too bad". Plane still in the same door open, bags loading position.

Now, I'm not one of those crazy customers who kicks and screams to get her way. I'm usually quite a go-with-the-flow type of girl. If my gate lady would have instantly looked me the in the eye, compassionately apologized and gave a "Gee Whiz, I wish there were something I could do", I probably would have just said "Darn it" and went away. But this lip smacking sloth had to be one of the most uninterested unfriendly people I've ever met. Her coworkers around her were equally sluggish, uninformative and rude. Just gross to tell you the truth. It's one thing for an airline to have delays. It's another for the employees to act like they don't give a damn. I was insulted and irritated by the neglect. Bottom line is....businesses shouldn't treat people this way. As we sat down, other passengers at the gate fed me their stories of disgust with both Delta and it's ATL employees.

So. The morale of this story is: if you want to burn lots of calories running, fly Delta. The odds are you will have to. If you want to gain weight like the majority of the workers at ATL Delta Concourse D, work for Delta. Since they all acted in the exact same way, there must be some special policy that requires Delta employees to resist moving quickly or at all, and encourages them to eat on the job. A match made in heaven for frustrated customers, right?

***Although I'm obviously extremely irritated with the group in Atlanta, I'm positive there are a lot of hardworking, considerate and fit folks working for the airline. I don't mean to throw stones at every one of their employees.