Last week, I traveled to Texas. My best friend and long-time travel partner had a conference in San Antonio, and we decided to extend her work trip for a girls’ trip and convinced two other friends to join us. I had frequent flyer miles and was able to get a ticket for just the taxes and fees through Delta. Woohoo!
When we dropped our bags at the Delta counter, I checked on the mobility transport. I was told the wheelchair request was already on my reservation, and a team member showed up within 3 minutes to wheel me to the gate. Easy peasy! The Richmond airport is always pretty easy, but there was zero line at security. Extra easy! The staff were friendly at check-in, wheelchair assistance, security, and the gate. I was able to pre-board with no issues.
We connected in Atlanta, and though there was no wheelchair waiting, it came pretty quickly. The Delta staff were friendly and called someone. Atlanta is a huge airport I used to avoid if I needed to walk between gates, but for wheelchairs, I have found it to be one of the better airports. The wheelchairs are good, clean, with flexible size and arms lift up easily; the floors are fairly flat throughout the airport with elevators and a concourse train to move about. After being dropped off at the gate, we discovered there was very little food near our gate. My friend “stole” a wheelchair and pushed me (Atlanta airport is okay with patrons operating wheelchairs, whereas some airports are not.) Once she figured out the chair brake, she said pushing was like I wasn’t even in the chair. We managed pretty easily and I carried our stuff. What an adventure!
Dinner was from Nature’s Table. The staff were all nice and looked at me and handed stuff to me, instead of the person pushing the chair. Thank you! We also stopped by a convenient store, the CNBC Smart Shop, by our gate E32 had wide aisles and was easy to move around, and customers used a register/kiosk to ring up and pay for their items. For someone seated, these are not always user friendly, but I found this store to be easy to shop. I was able to pre-load again. The plane from Atlanta to San Antonio had wide seats and a spacious aisle which helps when standing or moving around people.
A woman was waiting for me in San Antonio with a chair, and she was super friendly! It was a pleasant ride with a smooth riding chair and floor. All the staff were helpful. (My suitcase was damaged in route, but the Delta counter staff replaced my suitcase quickly.) We easily crossed the traffic outside to meet a Lyft driver.
Travel to Texas gets an A+! Thanks, Delta!
