[Frequent.flyer]

Delta PLEASE!!! Five plus hours to make a change to a ticket we bought six hours ago...We held for 37 min, were disconnected, redialed, decided to have a call back. Waited 45 min., when they called back they transfered us to the international department, we waited on hold for almost an hour and were disconnected again. We called back from two different phones, hopeful one of us would make contact. I spoke to Anne after another 28 minutes on hold, she told me we needed to be transferred to international. On the other line my son waited 47 minutes, while I was on hold yet again. Why ask for our Skymiles number and flight confirmation code if they don't help you help us? When we were finally helped the woman put us on hold every other sentence. We wondered if she were trying to help three customers at the same time. The good news is I've almost finished the book I was reading while on hold, the bad news is our many Skymiles won't keep us with your airline.

[Matt_FLL]

Your experience sounds completely inexcusable, but I’m not quite clear about what happened.

A domestic representative can help you with an itinerary within the US, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands. Since you’re a frequent flyer, you know that international itineraries are far more complicated, so you need to speak with an international representative who is empowered to help you with those reservations.

I am also a frequent flyer, and I’ve used Delta domestically and internationally quite a bit. Like most airlines, I notice that the automated system asks you if your itinerary is domestic or international—before you are transferred—so that you don’t have to wait on hold for the wrong type of representative. Additionally, they ask you for your SkyMiles number so that they can have your itinerary pulled up before you speak with anyone.

I don’t want to make assumptions, but when you called back, did you select domestic just to see if you’d get through to someone? I’ve done that out of frustration too, but it never helps—because you just end up being transferred to an international rep.

On a side bar, I was happy to see that Delta has recently implemented the “virtual queue”, meaning that they will call YOU back instead of making you wait on hold. It makes it a bit more tolerable in some cases... but certainly not for you in this case.

At the end of the day, it sounds like you booked a flight six hours before departure, which means that you probably paid top dollar for it. You’d expect better service instead of waiting on hold for long periods of time. There is no excuse for that. The only advice I have is to make your itinerary change online via delta.com if it's possible. I don’t imagine that airline hold times are going to improve anytime soon. One of the many reasons why people are reading this post.

Did you get to make your change and fly on your itinerary? If so, how was your flight? I hope everything else went well--you certainly deserve it after all of that frustration.

[The FAA]

Call Delta at 800-692-6980, don't respond to the IVR. Just press 0 everytime the computer system starts to speak. I just did this and reached a live operator in less than one minute.