[karenws]

On June 25, 2010 My husband and I were waiting for a flight out of Salt Lake City. One hour before departure they annouced the flight was overbooked and needed five volunteers to be bumped to a later flight. One hour later 3 volunteers had come forward. While we were in line waiting to board one man was involuntarly bumped. Delta then allowed everyone to board. Once we were in our seats 4 Delta employees ( 2 Stewardess' and 2 pilots) boarded and took the empty seats. Everyone was up in arms, saying this isnt right. The pilot then annouced they needed another volunteer, more yelling then they involuntarly bumped another man. I cannot repeat what this man was saying when he left the plane as well as half the remaining passengers. Within minutes a fifth delta employee boarded the aircraft and took the disgruntled mans seat. This is outragous, to bump paying customers in favor of their employees is not. The fact they offered a $ 400 voucher for future flights is not the point. To ask for volunteers is one thing but to involuntarly bump these two passengers is just wrong. I have written Delta 3 e-mails with no response, even though I requested one. Delta has lost two customers, and I would hope the gentlemen that was bumped from the aircraft. The others before we boarded probably did not know Delta had lied to everyone. And that is exactly what Delta did was lie to us. If that is how they treat their customers, they won't have my business and if they think losing one or two customers wont mater they are wrong. Because word of mouth can be a very powerful thing, I hope Delta realizes that.

[jimworcs]

Sadly, this type of arrogance is the type of behaviour you can expect from Delta, as illustrated by their appalling record on this website and others. I commend you for your determination never to fly with them again and I hope you stick to that pledge. I have stuck to mine, after being stranded in Atlanta by Delta, over 12 years ago. However, this is not enough, because Delta recently learned a very bad lesson.

This airline was so badly run it went bankrupt. In the run up to bankruptcy and in the aftermath, they paid the senior management huge sums, whilst at the same time running away from their obligations to the pensions and pay of their staff, ripping off their suppliers and customers. At the end of this pillage, instead of being allowed to die, the government rescued them... but even worse than that.. they were rewarded and allowed to emerge from bankruptcy with anti-trust immunity to take over what was a good airline (Northwest), to become the largest airline in the world. Northwest has now gone, and their service standards have sunk to the low mark set by the Delta.

Unless Congress takes action to regulate this corrupt market, the US will continue to suffer the lowest standards of air service of any advanced nation. This is not just my opinion, but validated by all the major quality surveys worldwide. The decline of the once proud US airline industry has been documented over the last decade. The management of Delta are like the dinosaurs of the car industry who couldn't cope with competition, combined with the financial corruption and malfeasance of Wall Street. Only government action can address this.

[justme]

Once we were in our seats 4 Delta employees ( 2 Stewardess' and 2 pilots) boarded and took the empty seats. Everyone was up in arms, saying this isnt right.

First, they aren't "stewardesses", in the US they are flight attendants, and have been since the 70s

Now, to your complaint... You say it's not right for a crew to travel on a company aircraft? Did anyone bother to find out why they were getting on the flight in the first place? Sounds to me like they weren't exactly expected, which leads me to believe that they were a relief crew for another city. I don't know where you were flying to, but SLC is definitely a crew base, so if there was a need for a crew in another city, they could have easily been coming from there. An example if you may. Flight 123 in ATL has a crew that times out. Since it is a 767-300 and there are no spare crews for that AC type in ATL, they find a crew in SLC that is available, and scramble to put them on the first flight from SLC to ATL. That happened to be your flight. So, unfortunately you have to sacrifice a few to save the many. There was potentially a flight in another city with hundreds of people on it that needed a crew. Not to mention the man that was involed was given a check for the value of the flight(s) they missed (or are going to miss) PLUS the IDBC voucher. Would it have been better for Delta to have cancelled the other flight full of people, or ask for volunteers and compensate passengers for getting off the flight you were on. Would you prefer the flight full of people waiting for a crew not get to where they're wanting to go? Delta is in the business of trying to keep as many people as possible happy. One upset passenger versus potentially 300 is pretty easy math.

[Leatherboy2006]

have to agree with justme, sounds like is was what they call a deadheading crew (i think i am using the right term)

[justme]

Yes, deadhead crew is the right term and I think the most likely scenario.

[jimworcs]

Delta is in the business of trying to keep as many people as possible happy.

Are you being ironic here? Have you actually read this forum?

If Delta had been honest with people, perhaps this would not have happened. If the scenario you suggest is correct, which is perfectly possible, then they should simply have explained that scenario to the passengers. Furthermore, if Delta is not able to operationally manage their staff, then they should have paid sufficient compensation to induce volunteers. The price of getting a volunteer is market driven, just like the rip off prices passengers have to pay for "last minute" tickets. If Delta wanted the priviledge of "last minute" seats for their crew, they should have paid for them by making larger and larger compensation offers until they had sufficient volunteers. To take paying passengers, who had booked and paid, and in one case boarded... and just paid the mimimum compensation required by law is typical of the contempt the staff have for their passengers.

Incidently, the snarky comment regarding them being FA's versus Stewardesses also neatly illustrates the attitude of Delta staff. Many older people don't automatically use the politically correct term, after having called them stewardesses for decades, when this was the correct term. My mother always called fire service employees firemen, long after they had changed their title to firefighters. It doesn't merit the disrespectful snarky comment... perhaps you would prefer the more accurate term "nasty sky nazi's".

[karenws]

Thank You jimworcs, you said what I was trying to say perfectly. The bottom line is Delta lied about being overbooked and perhaps if they had been honest and explained the circumstances , not to mention better compensated there would have been no upset passengers. In my opinion as unrealistic as it may be one upset customer is one too many.