Recently I was to catch a 6:00 a.m. flight to see my daughter. I arrived at the airport at 5:00 a.m. and checked in curbside. There were at least 60 people in line in front of me when I got to security and they would not open another line. My name was paged several times by the airline. The last page indicated I had 3 minutes to get to my gate. I arrived there before the 3 minutes were up. I walk with a cane and it was quite a struggle to get there in that amount of time but I made it. I was not allowed to board, even though the plane was still there and the canopy had not been pulled away. The gate agent was rude and unwavering. I think they must have given my seat to someone flying stand-by...maybe another Delta employee?? To get on another flight he required me to pay an additional $25. I was put on another flight that was to leave at 8:00 a.m. It was delayed until 9:30 and delayed again until 10:30. Upon boarding we discovered there was a problem with an auxiliary engine and we sat on the plane for an hour. After overhearing the pilot say that the plane was falling apart, I didn't care to fly with him or on that plane. The flight was ultimately canceled(thank goodness); however, it was too late to get on any other Delta flights that day. The gate attendant didn't want to refun the additional $25 but reluctantly did, or so I thought. It still has not shown up on my credit card. The gate attendants didn't really even want to talk to me about rescheduling, being I was a second-class citizen since I had booked the original ticket on Hotwire. I finally had to book a new ticket on Southwest flying into a city 3 hours away from my daughter with my luggage on the original Delta flight. Might I add this cost an additional $550? Why did my luggage get to go on the original flight and I didn't? I didn't think luggage could be on a plane where the customer wasn't for security reasons. Initially my complaint was with the rude treatment I received from the gate attendant, his refusal to be helpful, and his deception over the refund. Ultimately though my complaint is with TSA who upon realizing that the number of lines open for security were inadequate refused to be accomodating to many, many passengers who were missing flights that morning. After the fact, I was told I should have been there 1 1/2 hours early, not the posted time of 1 hour. I hope I do not have to choose Delta as my carrier again...what a shame for an airline already in financial distress.