[jimworcs]

The only unlikely part of your story, is the suggestion that Delta could be better.... you must be joking. One of the features of staff at many of the airlines based in the US is that they appear to be trained to lie and deceive their customers. They often say what they feel they need to, just to get you away from them. They make promises they know they can't keep and that is consistent with your experience. Sadly, there are few options available to you ...but there are a few who seem to be better than average. For example, Southwest, Alaska Air, Virgin America, JetBlue... but Delta, US Airways and United are just hopeless...