Are your travel plans private?
Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on Delta’s emergency contacts settings.
My travel anxiety started early. I was riding a rollercoaster of what-ifs. What if there is a snow or ice storm and the roads are bad? What if there is a 100-car pile-up on I-94? What if there is a backup in the TSA lines?
Chuck, being the smart and savvy husband he is, humored me and changed our airport shuttle pickup time. We were now leaving a full 30 minutes earlier than necessary.
Naturally, as we were shuffling out the door, our phones pinged. Delta: “Your departure gate has changed.” Delta (seconds later): “Sorry, the flight is also delayed by two hours.”
Ugh. The shuttle driver was in the driveway, with the trunk open, waving to us enthusiastically as if we were long-lost friends. We couldn’t say ‘go away and come back in a couple of hours,’ so we loaded our bags and hopped in.
As we buzzed down I-94 towards Detroit Metro Airport, I got another text. It wasn’t Delta. It was my son, Avery.
Avery: “Mom, are you going to Atlanta?” Me: Yes. Why?”
He shared a screenshot of a Delta message about our flight change.
Questions were flipping like flashcards. Was my Delta account hacked? Who else was getting updates about my travel plans? Had a bot merged my Delta account with my son’s?
I know it sounds paranoid, but there is precedent for this. My dentist’s office once managed to merge my records with my son’s, and for a solid minute, I argued with the hygienist that it wasn’t me who had my teeth cleaned a week ago. That was my son. So, naturally, you can see why I thought Delta might have merged our accounts.
Then it hit me: The Emergency Contact information.
Back in May, for an international trip, I’d listed him as the person to call if things went sideways. Apparently, Delta interprets “Emergency” as “Let this person know the gate changed from A12 to B4.”
Now I was annoyed. How dare Delta text him! What if this were a covert trip? What if I told everyone I was headed to Florida for a conference, when in fact I was headed to California for a facelift and a tummy tuck? Sure, I’d like him contacted if our plane is hijacked or crashes, but not for something mundane like a gate change.
Watching the snow flick past the car window, my annoyance shifted to sadness. I suddenly felt old. My 30-something son is now the emergency contact. The inevitable shift from caregiver to care recipient had started.
I know I should be happy that I have a child who worries about me and checks on me. But it was impossible to block the memories of my mother’s ruffled feathers when she perceived her independence was being clipped. Had I been nice to her? Had I been patient? Had I been empathetic?
Shit, I really hope so.
One delay after another generated a dozen or more text messages from Delta. My son finally texted and asked if we were stranded. I assured him we weren’t, and that Chuck sorted it out.
Since my son had been along for the ride thanks to Delta, when we finally landed at our final destination, 12 hours later, I sent him a text saying, “Just thought I’d let you know we are done with air travel for a week.” He replied with “LMAO.” Then a second text, “At the Red Wings game.” I interpreted this as, “Thank GOD you are done traveling, and please stop texting me.”
Here is my advice: pick your Delta emergency contact carefully.
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Here to say I laughed out loud about the Tummy Tuck & Facelift trip😭
The hypothetical scenario about the "tummy tuck" made me laugh - what a perfect example of why Delta's oversharing might be problematic! It captures that universal fear: what if the thing you're trying to keep private is the exact thing that gets broadcast to your emergency contacts?
But the deeper thread here really resonated - that shift from being the caregiver to becoming the person who needs an emergency contact. That moment when your son appeared in your Delta notifications felt like a symbolic changing of the guard. It's one thing to intellectually understand aging, but these small moments (a gate change notification, really) hit differently.
I'm curious about the tummy tuck reference specifically - was that just a random example, or does it reflect a broader anxiety about procedures that traditionally carried stigma? It's interesting how we've normalized talking about certain surgeries while others remain "covert California trips." Either way, Delta definitely needs better granularity in their notification settings!