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Delta’s computer mishap last week stranded thousands overnight in airports. I was sympathetic: in 1978, we slept four days on the floor of London’s Gatwick.
Hoping to fly home to my first job as a newspaper reporter, I was one of nearly 50 stranded customers when French air controllers struck, diverting vacationing Londoners to buy higher-priced tickets aboard Delta’s then-new London-Atlanta flight.
Someone (other than me!) had the bright idea to call the media. It’s the only time I’ve been quoted in The New York Times. It worked: Delta squeezed all of us aboard the next flight.