Phx,
You have hit on something I agree with. The standard of service you can expect from Delta is comparable with the standard of service you would expect from second hand car salesman.
I wonder how far you would take this "check everything they tell you before you fly" rule you advocate. Should they check that Delta do in fact own airplanes and the timings they have advised are real? Is anything an airline tells you reliable? If so, how is a customer supposed to decide which information should be checked or not?
The real issue here is not the behaviour of the customer. The customer checked the immigration requirements for the UK as this was their destination. They booked the flights and were offered a routing which was via Atlanta. When advised the routing was via Atlanta the customer had the foresight to ask the airline whether they needed a visa to change planes in Atlanta. Given that Delta is the dominant carrier in Atlanta and transports millions of people every year, it was perfectly reasonable for the traveller to ask this. Delta then gave poor advice to the customer, WHICH the customer relied upon.
These are all things which fall under the category of "stuff happens". Delta made a mistake.. and lots of companies make mistakes. It is what happened next that creates the problem.
All Delta had to do was make a good faith effort to "make it right". All they had to do was listen to the tape.. if the customer is right then take responsibility for the problem and do what they can to fix it.
Instead, Delta stonewalled the customer with rebukes and resorting to "its in the small print" type bull****. The ticket was purchased on the phone and the customer in that situation is dependent on the honesty or reliability of the salesperson.
There is little Delta can do about the ridiculous, paranoid regulations imposed by the US government in relation to transit passengers. However, they are in an alliance with AF, and anyone with basic knowledge of routes could have come up with a possible solution by re-routing the customer via CDG. They instead preferred to treat the customer with contempt AND hosility and accept no responsibility for their actions.
The legacies are arrogant monopolists.. but in the long run they will come unstuck. They increasingly rely on revenues from their international routes and the gap between their service and that of their international competitors is widening, which will be reflected in the numbers of passengers they can attract.
The fact that people on this website will defend them no matter how egregious their conduct reflects one thing... at this point, Americans are getting the standard of service they deserve.
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