[ekv]

I'd like to lodge a complaint against a supervisor "Monica" redcoat (?) at LAX. Last night, Dec. 26, 2013, my family and I (husband, myself, 4 year old daughter, and 11 month old son) drove from San Diego in order to catch our flight from LAX to SJO at 11 p.m. We arrived at the airport 2 hours ahead of time. Yes, it is recommended 3 hours but we hit a series of snags along the way. With 2 hours to check in we figured this was plenty of time. Monica (Redcoat) saw me arrive with my two small children, 2 car seats, 3 suitcases, 2 carry ons, and 2 stuffies. I set all of our stuff to the side of the check in area next to a window and I asked Monica if I was able to check in while my husband parked our car. This was roughly 9:15-9:20 p.m. She said she thought so. She did not inquire as to where I was going nor did she help me at the kiosk. I tried repeatedly to use my driver's license and then swipe my passport and I was unsuccessful after several attempts. I tried all 4 of our passports and the kiosk was not reading the passports. If you can imagine me, with an 11 month old on my hip, a very tired 4 year old, digging around for passports, drivers license, trying to keep an eye on luggage, wallet, etc. It was not an easy situation. Monica all the while was watching me, not offering to help. So, I gave up after trying for about 10 minutes while chasing my 11 month old who was trying to escape through the doors, still keeping an eye on all the passports setting out and my wallet and money, etc. I walked back to our luggage and was defeated. Monica said "oh did it work" and I said "no". She just looked at me and walked away!!!! Did not offer to help, just walked away. So, my husband arrived after parking the car and we tried the kiosk again, the time now was about 9:40 pm. Monica watched the scenario unfold, we tried and tried to check in at the kiosk with all the passports with no success. At about 9:50 she came over to us and said here let's go over here (to a counter). She picked up the car seats and shuffled us over to the Delta Premier counter. The clerk began checking us in. First bag went through, second bag went through, then she started on the infant ticket and the gate apparently took over and locked her out so she couldn't continue to check the last two passengers in. The clerk went to Monica and asked her to call up to the gate so we could finish being checked in. The time was 10:03 pm. We had 2 boarding passes and they told us we couldn't go! This is unforgivable and unconscionable. Monica saw me struggling for nearly 45 minutes trying to get us all checked in and only when there was 10 minutes left before the hour cut off time did she bother to take an initiative to help. We drove 2 hours, spend $25 on taxi fare, had 7 pieces of luggage, 2 car seats, 2 VERY tired kids who were over the moon excited about our trip and we were told because of broken kiosks and passive red coat supervisors that we had to get back in our car and drive another 2 hours back to San Diego, try again Saturday Dec. 28th...OH and then they told us we might have to pay change fees? How is this considered good customer service. We were at the airport 2 hours before. I asked for help, I assumed a supervisor who was standing around doing nothing would notice that I was getting nowhere with our check in would take some initiative and help. Now, we are left feeling disappointed, deflated, we have to do the entire scenario over again Saturday evening, we've lost 2 days of our vacation, have to pay for gas to drive to LAX from San Diego, pay for taxi's again...I'm severely disappointed in Delta and supremely disappointed that a woman who is put in charge of helping paying customers lacks the judgement to help a mom who was obviously struggling and then doesn't make the effort to at least call the gate after two of us were already checked in. I was beyond irate. I'm even considering calling the press or news stations to tell them what poor customer service Delta has during the holidays. I've traveled all over the world and have never experienced someone so heartless and clueless in my life.