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Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - I

Our expertly-planned, carefully-coordinated and highly-anticipated Christmas ski trip to Denver took a bumpy start: We totally underestimated the time we needed to pass airport security during the holiday travel season. As a result, I barely made it to my first flight to Cincinnati and my friend missed it. So he got rerouted to another flight to Atlanta and we were supposed to meet in Denver that night. Having landed in Cincinnati, I was told due to incoming severe weather, my flight was the only one to Denver which didn't get cancelled. I felt so lucky, having no idea that a nightmare was about to unfold.

After being airborne for about an hour, our pilot told us that Denver airport was closed due to a major blizzard and we had no choice but returned Cincinnati. That was the beginning. Because we wasted our time flying, we found ourselves in a very bad position of rebooking flights to Denver: Almost every seat was gone by the time we got back. After wasting time with the two poor and unhelpful Comair reprensentatives at the rebooking counter and phone calls with my friends in Baltimore and Atlanta, I finally realized that I should have gone to the ticketing counter outside of the airport security zone because they had much more rebooking power and resources.

I was right. Not only they had more power and resources, they were friendlier, too. Thanks to a very kind and helpful Delta representative, I got a three-leg flight to Aspen two days later and a standby status for the earliest Denver flight the next day. He also gave me a discount hotel room at Drawbrige Inn. It was a huge relief for a stranded passenger like me and I would like to thank him again for taking care of me when it was most needed.

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