[prdudeguy]

On Saturday, June 25, 2011, I woke up at a hotel in midtown Manhattan at 4:45 a.m., quickly showered and finished packing so I could catch a cab and get to JFK no later than 6:00 a.m. The traffic was sparse. The trip was a breeze and I got to JFK at 5:40 a.m. And that would be the last easy thing about the day.


I used one of Delta’s electronic check-in kiosks for my 7:00 a.m. flight to Salt Lake City (direct, no connections), putting me in SLC at 10:20 a.m. During the check-in process, the kiosk asked if I wanted to put my name on a list of potential volunteers to get bumped to a later flight as my current flight was oversold. I was assured that I would have the opportunity to review the alternative flight option(s) before accepting. I had some flexibility, so I agreed. I was then asked what dollar amount I was willing to accept as compensation for getting bumped. Delta offered a little parenthetical tip, something like “hint: lower amounts get accepted first.” I entered $400. Make it worth my while or find someone else.


6:30 a.m. rolls around and the boarding process begins. The gate attendants announce, several times, that the flight is oversold and anyone wishing to volunteer for a later flight will receive a $300 travel voucher. That’s $100 below my threshold, so I don’t volunteer. However, as my zone is called to board, I notice that on the cleared list someone (with the letters THO as the first 3 letters of their last name, so let’s affectionately call this person Thor) has been given my seat, 7F, a coveted window seat that I’m looking forward to because I’ve found that window seats are better than aisle seats if you are going to try and sleep. Sure enough, when my boarding pass is scanned the machine beeps and the display reads “passenger not cleared.”


That sucks.


The gate agents scanning boarding passes seem confused by this. I gather that since I have a boarding pass with a seat assignment, I should be good to go. They do some quick-fingered searching in their system and ask me if I’ve volunteered to be bumped (or whatever it’s called). I tell them “yes,” but in my head I’m thinking, “Actually, I volunteered to be put on a list of those who might CONSIDER being bumped.” That’s a significant difference. I’m told that because I put my name on that list, my seat assignment has been given to someone else (Thor, remember?). I can only assume that Thor is, indeed, a Norse god. At the very least Thor is more important than I am. Maybe he’s an Uber-Flying-Skymiles-King-Dude (or whatever Delta’s nomenclature is for those poor souls who live on their planes).


I’m asked to step aside and told I can either wait for a new seat assignment on this flight (I’m positive it’s going to be a middle seat, which for a broad-shouldered bloke like me is just not an option), or take the $300 voucher and get bumped to the next flight. I ask when that next flight is. It’s at 11:00 a.m. I decide to take the voucher and the 11:00 a.m. flight, so I go to the counter and give my boarding pass to the agent there, Gina T. The bullets are figuratively flying, so Gina T. can’t get to me right now. I take a seat while she deals with whatever and whoever she’s dealing with.


Twenty minutes later (and after the plane has left the gate), Gina T. and I finally talk and she lays out my options like Conan in a prom dress: oddly brutal - and heaven help the fool who gets in the way. 1) I can take a $300 voucher for a flight that leaves at 3:30(ish) connects through Las Vegas and gets me in to Salt Lake after 11:00 p.m. or 2) I can take a first class ticket on a flight that leaves at 10:30 a.m. and connects through Las Vegas and gets me in to Salt Lake at 4:10 p.m., but because I’ll be in first class, I won’t get the $300 voucher.


I explain to Gina T. that I was told the next flight was available at 11:00 (flight 1275, direct from JFK to SLC, getting in at 2:07 p.m.). Gina T. grabs a paper with a table full of information, points to a specific box in that table (as if I’m supposed to know what I’m looking at), and tells me there’s no way I could have been told that the 11:00 a.m. flight was an option since the 11:00 a.m. flight has clearly been sold out and they’ve known that since 4:00 a.m. this morning. I am, quite obviously, an idiot for even mentioning the 11:00 a.m. flight. Please forgive me, Gina T.


Alright Delta, here’s how you duped me:

1. You didn’t tell me that by volunteering to be CONSIDERED as a bump candidate during the electronic check-in process that my seat assignment could be given to someone else, effectively forcing me to “volunteer” even before I know what my flight and compensation options are.
2. Your gate agents are either clueless or purposefully misleading. I was told the flight I’d get bumped to was an 11:00 a.m. flight. According to Gina T., that flight was never an option.
3. The only flight option I could get that qualified for the $300 voucher was a flight that got me home 13 hours later than my original flight. I wasn’t interested in hanging out at JFK all day. Maybe for 3-4 hours, but not all freaking day. Because of that, I really had no choice but to take the first class flight, which, while nice, doesn’t give me a $300 voucher that I can use to offset future travel costs, which is the option I was interested in from the beginning.

Ultimately, how can I make an informed decision about volunteering my seat for a later flight if I’m given bad, misleading or incomplete information? Delta, do you really hold your passengers in such contempt?

[Ombudsman]

Originally Posted by prdudeguy

Ultimately, how can I make an informed decision about volunteering my seat for a later flight if I’m given bad, misleading or incomplete information? Delta, do you really hold your passengers in such contempt?

The answer to your question is, yes. I think you should have gottten the voucher AND the first class ride to Vegas. It shouldn't matter that the only available seat is in first class. That's Delta's problem, not yours. The systems that Delta uses that initially offered you the 11:00 AM flight are flawed as well and there are many complaints that have been registered before yours detailing these flaws.

I would have calmly, but firmly, told the agent (or better yet a supervisor) that regardless of which flight you were offered at checkin you entered $400 as the least amount of compensation you would accept for being bumped off your confirmed flight for which you held boarding pass with a seat assignment issued by their kiosk at the airport. Their system somehow bumped you anyway when the offer was only $300 but you graciously and politely comlpied with their directiopn not to board with the expectation that because of their error you would eventually be made whole with additonal compensation. If that additional compensation was not in the form of a $400 voucher then the $300 voucher PLUS the first class seat would have been acceptable, not either/or.

I would definitely write to Delta and ask that you be made whole and that irrespective of the fact that you few in first class from JFK to Las Vegas you should receive the voucher as well.

[jimworcs]

Answer: yes they really do hold their passengers in such contempt. They are so bad they went bankrupt, and the govt. Rescued them and gave them anti-trust immunity to take over NWA. They don't care, because they don't need to care. They are " too big to fail".

I would consider a small claims claim. The misleading computer screen suggests that they are systematically misleading passengers... Indeed that could be a class action. At minimum, write to the DOT, as the "bumping" rules are regulated.