Delta Flight Attendant Wouldn't Help
 

My daughter was flying today from Chicago to Dulles in Virginia. Her Delta flight was delayed and caused her to only have 30 mins to get to the next flight. She knew she might have issues and alerted the flight attendant and asked her if she could get off first or be one of the first to get off so she wouldn't miss her flight. SHE SAID, "NO." I cannot believe it.

She has been traveling for four months with her job and just wanted to get home for the holidays. The flight attendant told her that her next flight was way across the airport and it was approx 2 miles to get there. My daughter ran so fast she could barely walk b/c she has things to carry too. When she got there, they had given away her seat, closed the door and wouldn't let her in, although she was there before take off.

Then they made her stand in line with about 25 others to get a hotel slip. They put her on a 0730 flight in the morning, but I am skeptical that she will even get on it, as they probably already overbooked that one. I told her to complain about the flight attendant and the airlines delay.

Delta is not the only one to overbook their flights on a regular basis and this is getting rediculous. I wish the entire world could boycot the airlines and not fly for an entire year....shoot, just a month would be enough.:(

Hi Deborah,
At times, I too wish that the entire world could boycott the airlines and not fly for an entire year!

I’m sorry to hear about the trouble that your daughter experienced during the connection. The gate agent has access to information which would indicate that she was attempting to make a connection and her inbound flight was delayed. Technically, you need to be at the gate before boarding—but that was impossible with the delay. I know that these time-sensitive situations must be difficult to judge for a gate agent, but in this case, it sounds like the agent made the wrong call and assumed it was impossible for her to make it before the flight departed. Sometimes you can’t blame them—but I at least hope that agent was at least sympathetic. Sympathetic agents are sometimes better than non-sympathetic ones who throw you on the aircraft at the last minute.

No one should ever have to wait in a line of 25 other passengers to receive accommodation paperwork. That is just not fair—especially after experiencing that.

I know her final destination was IAD airport, but can I assume this connection was in Atlanta? If so, just my opinion, but passengers do quite frequently ask to deplane first during a connection. In Atlanta, more than half of the passengers are generally connecting to another flight. The request has been used and abused many times. You may want to suggest to her that she asks the passengers—not the flight attendant—if she could move ahead of them. If the flight was significantly delayed, non-connecting passengers would surely be willing to give her the right of way.

I hope she made it this morning and that your family can enjoy your Thanksgiving together. She deserves a nice break after dealing with that mess.

If your daughter is upset about the experience, please invite her to join our forum and tell us about it. Also, she may wish to contact Delta. From my experience, they have the most generous Customer Relations department. We’d love to hear back, so please let us know if it all worked out.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Matt

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I created an account just to reply to this.

Deborah,
When a flight is delayed, Your daughter is not the only one delayed. Everyone else on the flight is delayed. So why do you think your daughter should receive special treatment getting off the plane first? Everyone on the flight is looking to make connections.

I hear people complain about this all the time. Just another story of when someone hears the word "NO" they freak out.

Even if everyone is changing (highly unlikely...but lets say the large majority are), in a delay some will have missed their connection, some will have plenty of time and some will have very little time. Delta is notorious for it's poor customer service and the attitude of its staff....there is no chance of a sympathetic hearing from a Delta FA. The only choice is to choose another carrier.

So you can guarantee me this won't happen on any other big airline?

Not at all, but you can guarantee it will happen on Delta. It is a toxic anti-customer monolith and abuses its dominant position in many markets. Frankly, it should never have been allowed out of bankruptcy, but should certainly be broken up.