[rolex50]

I was flying on a Delta flight from San Jose to New York, with a stop in Atlanta. This was a business trip and I was flying first class. When I arrived in Atlanta I was in a hurry because they don’t leave much time between flights. I had bought some bottles of alcohol at the duty free that I was told would be separately transported due to my first class status but that was a lie. I ended up breaking a bottle while trying to pack it into my already full carry-on that they told/made me check. I was hesitant to check it because I had very important documents for a meeting with a new client the next morning but I clearly had no choice and my plane was leaving within the hour. When I got to New York I was told my bag was in Boston. I explained that it was very important that I have my bag in the AM for an important meeting. I was assured that the bag will be sent out first thing in the morning and that I would receive a phone call twenty minutes beforehand as a heads up so I moved my breakfast meeting to a lunch meeting. At 11am I got a call that a courier would have my bag to me between 1pm and 5pm (which is clearly very different from what I was told). I couldn’t wait for my bag so I went to the meeting completely unprepared and lacking important documents. My business is only a month old and this client could be the difference between survival and failure. This fiasco cost my business hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. The icing on the cake was when I got home after the meeting my bag had arrived and it was broken. There were also two cartons of cigarettes missing that I had bought in the duty free. I sent Delta a long email explaining the situation and was simply told to follow some procedure for damaged luggage. What they couldn’t understand was that I couldn’t care less about the $200 bag, the $60 bottle of alcohol, and the two cartons worth about $60, but rather the fact that I lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. I understand that I cannot expect that money back, so all I was asking was for the money for the stuff that was stolen and broken and possibly a first class ticket voucher for being a loyal customer and first class passenger. Both requests were denied and I now finally have a moment to express my displeasure. I will never fly Delta again and I will strongly recommend to everyone I know never to fly them again!