[Camille]

Our flight with Delta

We arrived at the St. Thomas airport at 6:20 a.m in order to be prepared for an 8:30 a.m flight to Atlanta with final destination Omaha Ne. We found ourselves in a line that continued to get longer and longer with no Delta representative in sight. The counter was closed and the kiosk was not operational. Finally after standing in line approximately 45 minutes and asking several St. Thomas airport officials where the Delta people were, 3 representatives showed up. They said that the flight from the states didn’t come in until very late and therefore they wouldn’t be leaving until 10:30 a.m. Useful information to have had before hand, however, this was not the worst part of the trip.
Since we were leaving so late this would cause us to miss our connecting flight to Omaha Ne. The Delta rep in St. Thomas re-booked us on a flight to Omaha that would leave at 6:30 p.m and therefore give us plenty of time to make the connecting flight. Although this put us at a different arrival time than originally planned we decided to not worry about it. We arrived in Atlanta at 2:30 p.m in anticipation of leaving at 6:30 p.m.
However, there were storms and our flight was postponed. The storms subsided and we expected to leave on an 8 something flight since the 6:30 flight was cancelled. The 8 something flight turned into a 9:15 flight. The Delta rep at our gate appeared friendly, personable and concerned at first but then it became obvious she couldn’t care less about anything other than her own comfort level.
Frustrations began to rise, especially for people who had been waiting for 10 – 12 hours with needs to get home. It became apparent there were no planes coming and this was a ploy to keep the customers either from revolting or going to another airline or just a terrible inability to conduct proper customer service. We were told a flight crew was the problem, then we were told the air craft was the problem, then we were told that the flight crew was here but if we didn’t get on the plane in a hurry they could opt to use their “too many hours” reason to not fly anymore that night. They did of course opt to use that…which we knew they would. Here begins the major problem:
The Delta rep at our gate who is probably 25 with no other responsibilities than her one job announced we needed to get in line since the plane was cancelled. Someone asked the question, “get in line for what?” (actually a legitimate question which shouldn’t have had to be asked). The rep said something to the effect, “I don’t have to take any attitude, I will help the next 5 people and the rest of you go down to gate 40 across from Wendy’s.” This was inaccurate directions by the way.
In any event we went to the ‘help’ area for Delta and stood in a line of 100 people waiting to get some direction about what would happen to us next. By the time we were helped, the hotels were booked and there were no flights until the following morning. It is obvious that had our Delta rep at our gate assisted us rather than acting the Princess and not putting up with “attitude” we could have at least obtained hotel accommodations.
There was nothing Delta did for their customers...absolutely nothing. Even the supposed “kits” we were given to help us for having to spend the night in the airport were faulty. I tried to brush my teeth with the provided toothbrush and it fell apart in my mouth. I was just grateful I wasn’t using it on a child that could have choked on the bristles.
One week prior, I had flown on Midwest airlines. The weather had turned and we were unable to get out of NYC. Midwest provided me with a hotel, a food voucher and a voucher for a future flight with them.
Delta is the worst airline I have ever flown. Your representatives are cold, calloused and unconcerned. There was a woman at least 80 or more years old in a wheel chair that was told, “Sorry, if Delta won’t do anything for you than we can’t give you something they don’t provide.” In other words your own employees acknowledged Delta’s lack of concern for their customers and that mindset has infiltrated your chain of command. There is an old saying that a fish stinks from the head. Sniff your head Delta, it is rotten. I am denouncing Delta to all my friends and family, I am using every social network to get that point across. I will do everything in my power to make sure that no one I know or care about gets involved in any flight that you may have anything to do with in order to ensure their safety and well being.