[mad_at_delta]

July 27, 2008

Richard Anderson
CEO
Delta Airlines
1030 Delta Blvd
Atlanta, GA 30354


Dear Richard:

As a rule, I don’t usually take the time to write letters following poor customer service, but I have decided to make an exception after my recent experience with your airline.

My flight out of LAX was unfortunately cancelled due to “bad weather” in New York (after having already been delayed for three hours). This was not a surprise; the consumer has sadly become immune to the airlines’ ineptitude in regards to responding to the slightest change in the weather. What really irked me was the way I was treated by your customer service agents.

Once I had learned (through my own initiative, of course) of my cancelled flight, I called Delta’s customer service hotline. The agent informed me that I had been automatically rebooked on an itinerary that would have totaled 16 hours of travel time from Los Angeles to New York City the following day. I asked him to find me a non-stop flight, which was what I had originally paid for. Luckily, he booked me on such a flight. Later that day, when I looked up said flight on Delta.com, the website notified me that there would be one stop. So, I called Delta again, and a second agent assured me that this was incorrect; I was on a non-stop flight. Several hours later, when I decided to check in, the itinerary clearly noted a stop in Cincinnati. I once again called customer service, and the third agent proceeded to tell me that there were in fact two flights, with the same flight number, arriving at LaGuardia at the same time – and I was booked on the nonstop one of the two. This made little sense to me, and so I asked to speak with a supervisor – Susan, in Salt Lake City. Finally, Susan told me the truth. I was not on a nonstop flight at all. I never had been. What really irritated me was Susan’s total disregard for the fact that I had spent much of my day on the phone with Delta, having been lied to on three separate occasions. Not once did she offer to resolve the situation, neither with an upgrade, nor an offer of a refund or some extra miles. Susan blamed it all on the weather. The weather did not lie to me, Richard.

Spending my day on the phone with Delta agents is not my idea of a good time, especially when I’m treated like an idiot. I have access to the internet – I can fact-check. Not to mention the fact that I was subjected to a rather obnoxious outgoing message before I was even allowed to speak to an agent, explaining the evils of oil speculation. Have your PR people forgotten that airlines have traditionally been the most notorious oil speculators, betting on the price of oil in order to lock in prices a year in advance? It also seems rather silly to blame all of your problems on oil speculation, when the airlines (save for perhaps Southwest and Continental) haven’t figured out how to do business when oil is cheap. It might be smart to discontinue this silly PR stunt.

I’m quite aware of the fact that one person can never make a difference when dealing with a company such as yours. Thankfully, I work for a large, global company myself. I can assure you that I will never do business with Delta again. With just a little bit of effort on my part, I am hoping to say the same thing about my 15,000+ colleagues. We’ll stick with Continental.

Kindest regards,

[Me]

CC: Edward Bastian, President; Stephen Gorman, EVP Operations; Lee Macenczak, EVP Sales & Marketing; Beth Johnston, SVP Human Resources; Larry Kellner, CEO Continental Airlines

[14fishingman]

Delta's attitude along with others must be "get rid of some of the crowds." I will not ride Delta for another 34 years because of the way they lie to avoid putting you up in a hotel for their mistakes. In my case the guy said we had a weather delay....out of Palm Beach Fl on a beatiful sunny day. They then changed it to something else when the crowd arrived and gave everyone vouchers. They must not care enough to get baggage and service in order either. It's time to find another airline....NO PROBLEM!!!!!

[spgib]

My 13-year-old daughter was trying to fly from Norfolk to San Diego. The flight was booked well in advance and things were set. My ex-wife showed up to Norfolk international an hour and fifteen minutes ahead of time (5:00 AM) and for that airport that is usually adequate. Because she was putting a minor on the plane she had to wait in line and secure an escort ($100 fee). There was one person at the counter handling three flights that were very close to each other in takeoff time (5:45, 6:00 & 6:15); the line was a one-hour wait! When they got to the counter at about 6:00 am, the lady would not even try to check them in. My ex said they should try and she cut her off telling her it is already closed, and that she could not help her. She asked her to move back from the counter & that she would have to reschedule. My ex asked her if there would be fees and she said tell them it was due to long lines. She immediately went to the back of the airport and called the 'hotline'; 800-221-1212. My ex was told there was a 3:52 pm Flight #1587, and that she would be on it and given a confirmation number
then transferred to finalize. Then she was told due to the skymiles used (by me and my wife in San Diego), that there would be about a $280 total charge, but if she called back within a 3 hr window, she would only be charged $50! My ex told her it was unfair that she would be charged because they did not miss the flight due to negligence but due to one ticket agent checking in three flights! They left the airport with nothing else to do. She called Delta around 12:00 pm and spoke with Rene (sp) to check on flight 1587. She said it was full and nothing available for Saturday, Sunday or Monday. She asked her about the ticket and the cost and she said it would be a $100 fee to re-deposit the miles.
This is where my wife and I came in to the picture; my wife rescheduled the flight for the very next day with no problem & paid the $100 transfer fee. She accomplished what Delta agents could not or want to. The only glitch was that I had to drive to LAX to pick her up. No drama! Right? The flight arrived on time, but no baggage! That showed up two hours later on another flight! My daughter & I had to burn two hours in LA to wait for the baggage.
After all was said and done I suggested to my ex that she e-mail Delta Customer Care and complain. She did & received a lame excuse and a $25 dollar Delta voucher that can only be redeemed at Norfolk Airport. I submitted an e-mail to Customer Care with hers attached conveying my displeasure with Delta over the whole thing and received another lame reply insinuating I was after more money and they mistook me for my ex!!! Had they actually read the e-mail they would have instantly noticed it was a different person. Maddening!

Delta doesn't get it...look Southwest Delta and you will find the answer. I will never use Delta again!

Angry in SD.

[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by spgib

My 13-year-old daughter was trying to fly from Norfolk to San Diego. The flight was booked well in advance and things were set. My ex-wife showed up to Norfolk international an hour and fifteen minutes ahead of time (5:00 AM) and for that airport that is usually adequate. Because she was putting a minor on the plane she had to wait in line and secure an escort ($100 fee). There was one person at the counter handling three flights that were very close to each other in takeoff time (5:45, 6:00 & 6:15); the line was a one-hour wait! When they got to the counter at about 6:00 am, the lady would not even try to check them in. My ex said they should try and she cut her off telling her it is already closed, and that she could not help her. She asked her to move back from the counter & that she would have to reschedule. My ex asked her if there would be fees and she said tell them it was due to long lines. She immediately went to the back of the airport and called the 'hotline'; 800-221-1212. My ex was told there was a 3:52 pm Flight #1587, and that she would be on it and given a confirmation number
then transferred to finalize. Then she was told due to the skymiles used (by me and my wife in San Diego), that there would be about a $280 total charge, but if she called back within a 3 hr window, she would only be charged $50! My ex told her it was unfair that she would be charged because they did not miss the flight due to negligence but due to one ticket agent checking in three flights! They left the airport with nothing else to do. She called Delta around 12:00 pm and spoke with Rene (sp) to check on flight 1587. She said it was full and nothing available for Saturday, Sunday or Monday. She asked her about the ticket and the cost and she said it would be a $100 fee to re-deposit the miles.
This is where my wife and I came in to the picture; my wife rescheduled the flight for the very next day with no problem & paid the $100 transfer fee. She accomplished what Delta agents could not or want to. The only glitch was that I had to drive to LAX to pick her up. No drama! Right? The flight arrived on time, but no baggage! That showed up two hours later on another flight! My daughter & I had to burn two hours in LA to wait for the baggage.
After all was said and done I suggested to my ex that she e-mail Delta Customer Care and complain. She did & received a lame excuse and a $25 dollar Delta voucher that can only be redeemed at Norfolk Airport. I submitted an e-mail to Customer Care with hers attached conveying my displeasure with Delta over the whole thing and received another lame reply insinuating I was after more money and they mistook me for my ex!!! Had they actually read the e-mail they would have instantly noticed it was a different person. Maddening!

Delta doesn't get it...look Southwest Delta and you will find the answer. I will never use Delta again!

Angry in SD.

It doesn't surprise me that the telephone agents didn't get creative with the routing and determine that they could get your daughter to LAX sooner than SAN. At least Delta no longer uses contract call centers in India but now have agents in Montego Bay, Jamaica and South Africa. The latter are usually better but I doubt either knows that LAX is a good alternative to SAN and the former never go above and beyond or think "out of the box" to solve a problem.

Although I personally don't travel Southwest a great deal I think in your case they would be a great match for your future travel needs. They are especially good at handling unaccompanied minors. There was one incident which was caught on the TV show "Airline" in which a brother and sister traveling alone were sent out on the wrong flight but when they realized their mistake they got them turned around on the very next flight and off to their destination all the while keeping the parents notified every step of the way.

[mikew1231]

I wrote a letter to Delta, Northwest and the FAA recently about some problems on flight numbers from Delta not having a gate assignment... anyway Delta did contact me after they were contacted on my behalf by the federal government. I sent pretty much the same email to all three.

I was told though that the Dept of Transportation had contacted Delta, even though I emailed the FAA.

I did get a voucher for $150.00 for each ticket that I had purchased (4 one for me, one for my wife and 1 for each of the two girls). I haven't tried using the voucher, but the good news is that Delta is going to change so that the problem that I had to endure will not have to be repeated by others.

Moral to this story, I think anyway is to contact a federal agency.

Good Luck, Mike

[jimworcs]

Mike...

but the good news is that Delta is going to change

This will happen shortly after the Pope becomes a Muslim....

[positivespace]

In order to get better service in the future.......If you are already at the airport, talk to one of the employees there. Most of the time the employee there will be alot more helpful than one on the phone. Most of the reservations agents will not be creative with your reservation because they have no idea what is really going on in the city that you are in. The best thing to do is to call the 1800 number while waiting in line to talk to an agent. This gets the reservations agent working on your reservation and when you get to the agent at the airport it gives them more ideas on how to reaccomodate you. Also to touch on the weather subject. I don't know how many people know this, but a weather delay is NOT the airlines decision. A weather delay comes from the FAA
(Federal Aviation Administartion). The FAA tells an airport that they need to slow the air traffic down, so the FAA gets a list of flights in and out of a certain city and then tells whichever airline that they are delayed. The airline itself has nothing to do with this. The only delays that an airline is at fault are mechanical and crew issues. So people please stop blaming the airlines for weather delays and cancellations.

About the long lines that caused your daughter to miss her flight. In this case the worst thing that your EX could have done was step out of line and call the 1800 number. The reservations agent has no clue that she waited in line for an hour. The agent on the phone is just following their policy. The agent at the airport knew exactly what happened with the line and would have rebooked her at no charge. It is not that she did not want to check her in 15 minutes before departure, it is that she can't. The computer system simply will not let her. Who knows what was going on that morning, 3 other agents could have called in sick leaving them very short staffed, but I'm willing to bet that the agent would have helped her out.


And to the final thing to write about. "Look at Southwest" are you serious? The only reason Southwest looks so good is because they are a low cost carrier and have absolutely no agreements with any other airline in the world. Try being on a cancelled flight of theirs around the holidays and they do not have the option of putting you on another airline and you are stuck in Chicago for 3 days. Also if they are so good, why are they taking employee buy outs right now? They are staring bankruptcy right in the face. Southwest employees seem nicer because they do not have to deal with all the problems that come with being interlined with all other airlines.

[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

you are stuck in Chicago for 3 days.

So, around the holidays, as you said, this DOESN'T happen on United or AA??

They (Southwest) are staring bankruptcy right in the face.

Wow! A US-based airline operates in the black for, at least, the last 20 years---and "they are staring bankruptcy right in the face??" Are you sure you're not talking about US Airways, Spirit, or United??

Southwest employees seem nicer because they do not have to deal with all the problems that come with being interlined with all other airlines.

So, lets see if I have this right. If American Air, or another customer-friendly airline (ha!), United, ended all their interline agreements all those borderline sociopathic flight attendants and ground staff would, suddenly, become "Mr. Roberts?" ("It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.")

End Note: Yes, the aforementioned airlines, and their "legacy" friends, do have a LOT of decent people working for them. Unfortunately their managements are all too willing to look the other way at staff who abuse customers but very willing to make a Federal case over a staff member's dirty shoes.

[positivespace]

Yes Southwest is staring bankruptcy right in the face. Their wonderful fuel hedging idea is finally starting to back fire on them and Boeing finally wants them to pay for ther airplanes. So we will see how well they have the Mr. Roberts, oh wait that's Mr. Rogers attituted after they become short staffed and not the highest paid in the industry. SWA employees are the highest paid and yet still find a reason to pickett at some airports for more money. It's a shame that when I started working for the airlines a SWA employee that would have started on the same day as me would have been making about $5 more an hour, no wonder they are always nice and friendly. If all other airlines were not understaffed, over worked, and under paid, maybe customer service would be a lil higher. If other airlines didn't have interline agreements the employees would not have to deal with half of the ticketing problem headaches. Also I didn't say that it doesn't happen on UA or AA but at least they have the option of booking you on another airline. As it goes for US Airways and others staring bankruptcy in the face, they absolutely are. I am honestly suprised US Airways hasn't completely folded yet.