[Dog Lover]

When my family was not allowed to board a Delta flight with our pet in Istanbul on 22 July, Delta made no offer to deal with this situation even after being told this was their mistake and that we had a confirmed pet space We were being relocated to Puerto Rico by the government. I personally confirmed this pet space with Delta in June prior to our flights. Delta admitted this mistake after this incident took place. Delta made no offer to place our dog in a kennel until this issue could be resolved or allow my wife and children to fly on a later flight after this issue was resolved. Without the help of my wife’s relatives who live in Istanbul, we would have to have given up our pet. They drove all the way out to Istanbul airport 45 minutes from their house to pick up our dog at 4 AM in the morning.
On the morning of 22 July, I lost work time when I had to make multiple calls to try and resolve this problem. On the night of 21 July when this issue started and again on the morning of 22 July, I was passed between Delta Cargo and Delta Passenger Services multiple times even when asking for supervisors.
When my wife was leaving Turkey, we left her Turkish cell phone on so I would have a way to call her in Istanbul. Additionally, since the cell phone was in her sister’s name, we agreed to send her money to pay the bill after we left. As a result of all the phone calls we made on the night of 21 July EST and in the 10 days that followed, we ran up 250TL (Approx $149) on her cell phone plus purchased 4 AT&T calling cards ($88) used for calls to Delta representatives and my wife’s relatives concerning when our pet would travel. The individual with Delta who assisted us was in Seattle, WA and the time difference was 10 hours. Well, the Delta representatives in Istanbul only worked until 5 PM (I believe) making it very hard for him to even contact them. Additionally, the Delta reps in Istanbul spoke very limited English and my wife and I (Because we both speak Turkish) were put in the impossible situation of having to make these calls and arrangements for our pet. I don’t have the receipt, but I offered to provide Delta with a statement of the amount from my sister-in-law until I was told it probably wouldn’t make any difference in their decision to pay or not pay me for this expense. I then told them why should I even bother if that was the attitude of Delta.
Then, on 25 July, we were told Delta had arranged everything and we should tell my wife’s relatives to bring the dog to the airport on the morning of 26 July and it would be put on the Delta morning flight at 11 AM bound for New York. My wife’s relative took time off from his work to bring the dog to the airport and spend 3 hours there before finding out the dog wouldn’t be able to fly because Delta hadn’t arranged everything. When we were told the dog wouldn’t be able to be shipped out on 26 July, we realized a new health certificate would be needed and had to ask my wife’s relatives if they could take the dog to a Turkish vet and get a new health certificate. When he took the dog to the vet, he found out we couldn’t get a new health certificate without sending the dog all the way back to Adana, Turkey. Because they didn’t have a lot of money, they sent the dog back to Adana by bus (12-15 hours away). Unfortunately, they didn’t send me the receipt although they told me how much they spent. Since Delta chose not to reimburse me for this expense, I guess they believe the dog was shipped back to Adana for free.
Again on 28 July, when Delta finally shipped my pet, at the last minute, they called my friend in Adana and then my wife’s relatives to obtain a copy of one of their passports for the pet shipment. The broker Delta used needed this for Turkish Customs, but failed to tell anyone this until 2 hours before the flight. My wife’s relatives made a third 1.5 hour round-trip to the airport to provide a copy of their passport or our dog would again be stuck in Istanbul. My friend had spoken with the broker personally the day before to make sure what paperwork would be needed and this was never mentioned. Where was Delta in trying to deal with this broker and this issue? This was unacceptable. As a result of all of this, we sent $150 in cash to my wife’s relatives to cover their time and expenses. We didn’t send a check because they would have no way to cash it. We didn’t send an international wire transfer because it would cost from $30-$50 dollars more. Delta refuses to reimburse us because we have no receipt.
If I hadn't had a friend who could pay the almost $300 for the customs fees in cash since Delta informed me they couldn't pay cash, my dog would still be stuck in Turkey. Another friend had originally shipped the dog to Istanbul at an cost of $87.69 on 21 July so the dog could travel with my wife and children on 22 July at 0550 in the morning Istanbul time.
I have never asked for any extravagant amount of money to compensate me for all of this or the 3 hours I had to take off of work when my pet finally did arrive. However, Delta wants to short change me after all my family and I went through. They offered me $400 in cash and 350 dollars in travel credits. This doesn't even equal the amount of money I spent.
Lastly, I would like to close with another quote from the Delta website concerning pets as cargo;

We provide safe and reliable year round transportation for your pet.
Your pet will travel from origin to destination with the same priority as Delta DASH shipments.

I don’t believe Delta came even close to providing safe and reliable transportation for my pet. These quotes can be found on at the following website address;

http://www.delta.com/planning_reserv...ions/index.jsp