On Feb 4 (Superbowl Saturday), I was heading out of MHT to Las Vegas through DTW on flight 1885 due to leave Manchester at 4:09pm. Arrived at the airport to be told of a 20 minute flight delay, but all connections should be fine, so I cleared security, headed to the gate and sat down to watch part of a DVD while waiting. Around 3:50, I looked around and noticed the whole area was cleared out! I asked a roaming TSA agent where everyone went and he said, "Oh, I think they cancelled this flight." YIKES. I headed back through security to the ticket counter where lines had formed and chaos was beginning. The monitor posted a 2 hour delay. Some people were being rebooked on United, most rebooked for the next day. I was last in line and listening to all the discussion among the agents. "Plane still in line for de-icing in DTW"...." Looks like they pushed the time back again". . . "Hold on, I think they're going to just cancel it". "Things are really backed up in Detroit", etc.

I get to the gate and am told the plane hasn't left DTW, it was in a huge line for deicing, proabably will not even make it into MHT tonight. They offered to rebook me for in the morning. I ask, can I just hang around in case the plane does get here and goes out at some point tonight? I'd at least like to get to DTW, even though I'm fully aware I'll be sleeping on the floor there with the Superbowl in town. The agent says OK, books me as a back-up on the last DTW-MSP flight in case I get to DTW in time for that, or the early flight out of Boston the next day in case the plane never makes it to Manchester tonight.

As I'm sitting down on the floor across from the counter and calling my husband to tell him he'll probably have to drive back up here and pick me up in a few minutes, the agent starts wildly waving his arms at me, "Ma'am, Ma'am....come here, there's been a mistake!" I gather my stuff quickly and scramble over to the counter.

Says the agent, "There's been a mistake, that plane isn't sitting on the de-icing pad in Detroit, it's actually in the air....in fact it just landed! Go get on it!"

So I head back through security with the 6 or 7 other people that were still hanging around and board the plane. We all (less than a dozen of us on the plane) made it to DTW in time for our connections......but those agents just rebooked that entire flight!! About 40 people were rebooked on other carriers or sent home!! They called it a "computer glitch"..but how could that have possibly happened? I sure hope the people who came back the next day didn't hear that the plane really came for them.

I think there's a lesson in here somewhere.

As a NW PLatinum I always call the PL Elite line first when these situations come up. Although they may have booked you on the other airline flights too in this case. But at least your not waiting in line, and if you are, you already have the Plat line taking care of you.

Ive been on both ends of this. Plane is coming- it doesnt, and Plane isnt coming -it does.

Its kinda of like "FC is checked in Full" - At least 100 times over the past 10 years I hear that, tell the agent I'll wait, and guess what, there is an open seat, and since almost everyong else got on after the FC-Full announcement, Im usually in good shape.

The worst is when they tell you "its on its way" to string you along so you dont ask for another airline. Thats when you got to make a choice.

Ive learned over the years that if I get into DTW in the spring after 6pm and there is fog at AZO, its probably not lifting until the following morning. Just get a 1 way rental and save the 3-4 hours of waiting in Detroit. Many of us in west Michigan know this, so there are usually others thta are willing to go with.

And that lesson is: ground staff at out stations are usually the least reliable source of information about ops. The elite phone lines, nwa.com or even flight-tracker websites like flightaware.com are all better. (A person could've logged onto flightaware, input the NW flight number of your incoming service, and learned that it was descending toward MHT while the agents there were rebooking everyone.)

If I've learned anything it's that counter and gate agents often say things authoritatively that turn out to be false, either to compensate for a lack of real data or to make pesky passengers go away: from "F has checked in full" to "We're not changing any seat assignments right now because the aircraft is out of balance" (this from a CO GA boarding a near-full 757!) to "That aircraft is still in Detroit waiting to be deiced, it may not even get here this evening." Sometimes it's not lying, exactly -- it's just not wanting to be seen as tentative.

Operate like a good journalist. Get everything from two sources.