Obviously, delays are going to happen, no matter what airline you fly. Maintenance will occur, weather will occur, etc. It is unfortunate that Delta delayed the other flight by 40 mins to accomodate passengers, but refuses to let you board an airplane for 5 mins, that was still sitting at the gate. Unfortunately, however, things, with any company, are not always uniform. Technically, flights are closed for boarding at least 10 minutes prior to departure, which means the agent refusing to let you board, in ATL, was technically in the right, but the agents at your first flight, which was delayed 40 mins, to allow customers to board, were in the wrong, which led to that agent in ATL having to deny you boarding, in the first place.
Keep in mind that agents can only go by what is in the computer. If it says "weather", whether it was, or not, they have to go by that. The type of delay determines what they can or cannot offer you, such as hotel rooms, vouchers, refunds, etc. Agents are only given so much authority, so if her computer says "weather", then there really is nothing she can do, except get a supervisor to approve something further. She shouldn't have argued with you, and should have turned the situation over the a supervisor in the first place. Keep in mind that agents just work for the airline. They are told what they can, and cannot do, and ultimately, do not have much authority, or control over the situations that passengers like to blame them for, and take out on them.
It is your choice not to fly Delta again. Keep in mind, however, that it is a cycle. For every person, like yourself, who has a problem with an airline, there is someone else having that same exact problem, with another airline. You will not fly Delta again, so you go fly that other airline, while that person will not fly that airline again, so they go fly Delta. This is why the airlines do not care much, and you get those type of responses from them. Because, ultimately, you flying them, or not, isn't going to hurt them, because there will be somebody else, who normally doesn't fly Delta, who will now, because they had this experience on some other airline, and will not fly that airline. It is a cycle, and one that keeps the airlines in business, not to mention that many of those airlines are, in fact, partners. So, you stop flying Delta, but end up flying one of their partners, who is operating a code share flight, thus Delta shares in the profits anway. Only way for things to change, is for people to stop flying altogether, period.
|