I'm not an employee, just someone who travels quite a lot. In years past it was primarily business travel as the company I worked for had a presence is several states which required me to travel often. I also do a great deal of leisure travel Believe me I understand, and have already stated so, that getting changed from a non-stop to a connecting flight is inconvenient but I think you are making way more out of this than it really is. So you leave a little earlier or get there a little later. Or both. As I pointed out before with the options you had on DL/NW alone it would have meant a total shift of your travel times by only a few hours. If you absolutely had to have a non-stop flight that option was available as well just on another airline.

Now you advise us that since you felt that time shift was beyond what you feel you should have been expected to put up with you've decided to travel the evening before. Great. Glad you found something that worked for you. But don't also feel entitled to be compensated for the change in arrangements to your hotel and car. The date change was your decision. You had viable options and no one forced you to change to the day before. Accept the fact that those extra expenses are a result of your decision and move on.

At least not in this situation. He want's it his way and nothing else. Anything short of reinstating that non-stop flight at the exact time it was originally scheduled is not going to be good enough and any alternative is just downright poor customer service. I guess Delta should have chartered him a jet!

nitetrain, you were alerted of the change about 3 months in advance, that's actually pretty good given that most people don't find out until the night before (I think Jim has already pointed that out). But my question is... how does the 2 hours difference put you out? How is it an inconvenience? Why do you need to change hotel/care rental? Sure you wanted to be there a bit earlier, but 4:30 pm is actually still pretty good to get the car, get to th ehotel, and enjoy Tampa's night life which is pretty comfortable. If getting there before 4pm is that much of a big deal, I'd say take the refund, and ask for further recourse (such as frequent flyer miles, travel certificates, etc).

But if you do decide to keep the trip, having that connection will be the least of your worries, if winter is as cold midwest as it is in the east. You'd have to worry about snow and ice, and possibly crazy east coast weather, which could affect air traffic for your trip.

But ultimately you were given advance notice, something most people hope/hoped they would get. But ultimately enjoy your vacation.

Domestic air travel: Conciliation is the name of the game
 

Nitetrain: Much to the amazement of some of the "airline" people on this board there was a time in my life when I was even LESS open to "conciliation" (compromise) than I am now. I found it necessary to mellow a bit for a very practical reason---I was using too much antacid.

Unless one owns their own plane, and has a vacation condo in Florida, a significant amount of conciliation has to be on the table. The alternative is to experience every single vacation trip, which involves air travel and/or hotels, as a mini-horror story. Is it right for someone to promise to get you somewhere at 1 pm; take your money, then tell you, two months later, you won’t arrive until 10 pm? Certainly not. But that is how airlines do business. When changes like this do take place there is, almost never, a choice that can restore things to their previous state. In reality what usually exists is a choice among several bad options. Obviously, the key to “survival” is to choose the option likely to produce the least “pain.”

Good luck, and hope you have a good time in the Tampa Bay area.

Saw this in another thread and couldn't resist... this is a customer who is less than happy about all the emails they were getting from the airline. Sounds like a case of spamming to me!

Justme

You can't tell the difference between marketing emails and information about a schedule change? You are in far too deep to see anything from a customer point of view. You've been Delta'd good an proper...

I guarantee when that customer provided their email address it was so that they could be notified of schedule/seat changes. The airline used it for other purposes and the customer was not too happy about being bombarded with emails regardless of their information. This is exactly the scenario Delta is trying to avoid by not sending you an email every time a little change is made.

If a customer in Europe provides an airline with their email address for the purposes of being notified of any schedule changes or other key information, and it is used for marketing purposes, the airline would face prosecution and fines for breaching the Data Protection Act. As Delta operate in Europe, they must have systems in place to distinguish between "marketing" messages and messages for the purpose of the business relationship. I do much of my business online, including all my travel arrangements and banking. I never receive marketing emails from them because by law they must ask me if I want to receive marketing materials or not.

I think you are now suggesting something which is not true. I do not believe that Delta, who operate in many European countries, are breaking the data protection laws in Europe.

I don't know what the law is in the US in relation to this, but regardless, Delta must have the capability to distinguish, otherwise they could not allow Europeans to buy tickets from Delta.com. You cannot send marketing emails to customers without having their consent. This consent cannot be "implied" by agreeing to have communications from the company related to the transaction, eg banking, buying a ticket, etc. In other words, Delta would have to ask the customer to tick a box if they are agreeable to receiving marketing materials. They must also ask for specific separate consent to pass these details on to any partner organisations.

I believe in the USA they can offer an "opt-out" option rather than required to have an "opt-in" for marketing, etc. It's been a while since I've bought a ticket on an airline with which I don't already have a frequent flier account and have already "opted-in" for promotional and marketing e-mail. Next time I buy a ticket on Delta I'll do so without first logging into my account and let you know what "opt-out" or "opt-in" options are presented to me.

Actually, you are the one who's not correct with that statement. Please re-read that post - the other poster said that SCHEDULES are not finalized until one month out. They didn't say anything about being confirmed. And it is a fact that an airline's flight schedule is not final until 4-6 weeks out. That means that until that time, it's subject to change.

Also, I believe Jim was the one who made the statement about the airlines doing this to screw the passengers out of the lower fares.... your argument holds about as much water as a sieve. The fares don't start going up typically until 20 days out. And most flights have very few seats booked ore than a month out - generally about 20% of the seats or so. That still leaves plenty of discount fares available.