[Deltawoes]

This concerns travel by my daughter who was refused checkin for a ticketed flight. My daughter was ticketed on Delta Flight 4576 out of Fayetteville, NC today, 29 April, 2007. Scheduled departure time was 0615. My daughter arrived at the airport at 0535, 40 minutes prior to departure time to check in. This was the first Delta flight out of the day. No one was present at the Delta counter, nor anywhere in that area. The woman who daughter was visiting and who brought her to the airport, checked through the lower level, walking to the baggage claim area and only found one person present. That person was an airport employee who said that she had to go to the Delta ticket counter. They went back to the counter, and again no one was present. They waited a few minutes until someone came out. They presented her ticket info and tried to check in. The Delta representative stated that she could not check in since Delta policy, as stated on the ticket was check-in must occur 30 minutes prior to scheduled departure. The implicit task here is that Delta must have a representative present at the ticket counter to accept the baggage and complete the check-in. The representative didn't appear until a time that made it impossible to meet the 30 minute requirement. They asked if the reason for the refusal was that the flight was full and was told by the Delta representative that there were plenty of empty seats on the aircraft, but as stated clearly on her ticket, Delta policy is that check-in must occur 30 minutes prior to departure. My daughter was told that her only option was to take a later flight. She was booked on a USAir flight departing Fayetteville, NC at 0930, 3 hours and 15 minutes after her original Delta flight departed. I spoke to Sunny, and his supervisor, Randy North at Delta Airlines (1-800-221-1212) this morning who stated that since Delta "pushed" the ticket to USAir, it told her that there was a problem. She stated that the Delta ticket counter should have been manned beginning @ 0530. That was not the case. I do not know when the Delta representative arrived at the airport, I DO know that there was NO Delta representative to be found anywhere in the vicinity of the Delta ticket counter until it was impossible to meet the 30 minute check-in requirement. My daughter, the lady she was visiting, and one other person were required to wait an additional 3 hours and 15 minutes in order to correct for a problem that was not of their making. I have to drive 73 miles to Louisville Airport to pick up my daughter. I was enroute, 20 miles from my home when I received a phone call from my daughters friend that stated that my daughter would be in 2 hours and 45 minutes later than planned since she had been required to depart on a different flight, on a different airline. I turned around and drove back home. As I write this, my 17 year old daughter is enroute late, via a different airline (USAir), via different routing to Louisville. I have had to cancel plans I had this afternoon since I will be approximately 3 hours late returning to my home due to a problem of Delta's making.

I posted a complaint over e-mail on Delta’s website. I was told by the Delta supervisor, Randy North that it may be 30 days before I receive a reply. I am also posting our experience on www.deltacomplaints.com, in order to inform others of our experience.

On a related subject, in todays environment of heightened safety concerns over air travel, I am concerned about the safety concerns of having an airport open to people to wander around in when no one is to be found. There were ticket counters unattended, baggage areas unattended, and my prior experience at Fayetteville airport is that the upstairs security checkpoint area to the aircraft boarding area is also often times unattended between scheduled departure times.

[dragonfire6.delta.com]

Maybe you should have spent you time waiting inline for the representative, instead of walking through baggage claim. Seems logically to me.

[ChrisH]

If Delta did not accept responsibility for this matter, they would not have booked your daughter onto USAir. When an airline books you onto another airline, in this case, Delta booking your daughter onto USAir, Delta then has to go pay USAir for that fare, the same as if your daughter had called, and book that same ticket, with USAir. Airlines do not do this, unless they are at fault for you missing a flight.

ALSO, as far as areas being manned for security. Airline employees are not security guards. Airports employ their own police officers, and security guards. If there was lack of security at any area, that needs to be taken up with the airport administration, not Delta, or any of the other airlines.