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Delta Airlines

Delta Airlines • SkyMiles • Travel vouchers • Delta/AmEx promotions • European promotions • Reservations & itinerary changes • Lost/damaged luggage • Unaccompanied children • Puerto Rico USA • Miscellaneous --- News • Delta Reduces Capacity As Fuel Prices Rise • Delta Cuts Flights in Slowing Economy • Delta Alters Fees to Conform to Northwest's • Delta, Northwest Complete Merger • Delta Adding Wi-Fi to All Flights • Delta Raises Second Checked Bag Fee to $50 • Delta Passengers Stranded 7 Hours on Plane • Delta Sells Ads on Boarding Passes • Delta, Northwest Merger Faces Heavy Chop • US Airways Makes Bid for Delta • Delta Beefs Up Routes, Retrofits Its Jets • Delta Begins Passing On Airport Fees To Passengers • Delta Writes Coda to Song • Delta Files for Bankruptcy • Delta Sells Regional Carrier To Raise Cash • Delta Abandons $499 Fare Cap • Delta Warns of Bankruptcy • Delta Passengers To Brown Bag It • Delta Cuts Fares

Complaints about the major airlines are plentiful. What's a little unusual about Delta is how angry some of its best customers are -- those who've reached stratospheric in the SkyMiles program, for example. These are the 100,000-mile flyers that every airline swears it will do anything to retain. Delta certainly has an odd way of showing it.

We'd say the comments below pretty well sum it up.

Carey Edmunds of Haslet, TX April 16, 2009

Carey of Haslet TX (04/16/09)
My Husband was traveling on another airline (AirTran) when due to bad weather he was not able to make his connecting flight. That airline booked him on the next flight then after several delays canceled that flight and told him to fly stand by for 24 hours. At this time he had already been traveling since 5 AM that morning (4/12/2009). Due to this he felt like he was forced to seek out an other airline in order to make it home. He went to DELTA. Delta had a flight leaving in 30 minutes back home. He asked how much for the one way ticket from Atlanta to Texas. They told him 500.00! He felt like he was between a rock and a hard place...does he wait for 24 hours to maybe get home or be forced in this tough economic time to pay 500.00 for a one way ticket to DFW. He paid the money and ran to the plane.

The person at the Delta ticket counter said that he shouldn't have been able to by a ticket since there were 70 people waiting on stand by already and that it wasn't fair. That is right it wasn't fair but he paid a lot of money for that flight and he wasn't going to give it up. In this instance when a plane is ready to take off and there are several people on stand by an airline should not be taking advantage of a person in a desperate situation. I wrote Delta and voiced my concern.

This was John's response: To price our product, we consider market demand, competition and cost. Each market is evaluated independently. We are working hard to control costs to be profitable at lower fare levels and still provide the kind of service which has been a Delta tradition. In the lower 48 states we provide customers with everyday low prices that are affordable and easy to understand. This supports our commitment to become a simpler and more customer-focused airline. All fare types are subject to availability and some fares must be purchased a specific number of days in advance.Delta.com is designed to offer lower fares to passengers who are able to comply with the conditions for purchase. Ticket rules differ when purchasing from other travel websites. Requests for changes or refunds of a ticket must be directed to the company from whom the ticket was purchased.

Well the ticket was purchased at the ticket counter at Delta in desperation that very day. I think we are owed at least an airline credit or something. Consequences...we are paying threw the nose for a very short flight because Delta takes advantage of people in bad situations in hard economic times.

Aaron Provencal of Rancho Cordova, CA April 16, 2009

Aaron of Rancho Cordova CA (04/16/09)
I have had numerous customer service issues over the last 2 months with Delta. I fly quite a bit with Delta, and I don't think I will ever fly, nor anyone from my company, with Delta again. Issue #1 - I had purchased tickets to fly to Boston last year. The flight was scheduled for 4/10/08. I was told I had a year to rebook these tickets, as I had to cancel them for circumstances out of my control. When I tried to rebook these tickets, I was told by the Delta agent that the tickets had to be used prior to the purchase date. I thought this sounded weird, but I went along with what I was being told. So I went ahead and purchased new tickets.

Two days later I come to find out from another Delta agent that I could have used the older tickets as long as I had re-booked them prior to the purchase date. She let me know that because it had been over 48 hrs, she could not apply the credit to the flight. We had gone back and forth trying to make these tickets work with another flight so we could keep our credit. One agent let us know that we could use them for anyone from my company. We finally figured out how we could make that work, but when we called back, we were told this was not possible. Anyway, to make a very long story short, I lost over 600 in credits from the tickets purchased.

Issue #2 - Our flight booked for Boston we had 2 adults and 2 children booked to leave at 6:25AM on 4/7/09. We had come to the airport, parked in extended parking, taken the shuttle into the airport, and arrived at the check-in counter. We had already checked in for the flight online, but we needed to check a couple bags for the flight. We arrived at the counter at 6AM. We were told that because we weren't 5 minutes earlier, we would have to rebook on a different flight. I thought the lady was joking. There was no security check line, we had checked in already, and we had 2 small children with us.

This was the first I have ever heard that we would not be allowed to board a plane if we didn't have our bags checked in prior to 30 min. before the flight. So, she lets me know the next flight out isn't until 1PM. She lets me know that I can't change my flight now, but I will have to return at 10AM. Wow! So I have to take the kids onto the shuttle back to the car, drive 45 min. back home, feed them breakfast, drive back to the airport, take the shuttle again to arrive at 10AM so I can rebook the flight. I had to pay 200 for the change and then we had to hang out at the airport for 3 hrs. before the flight.

This is extremely poor customer service. We didn't arrive Boston until 11:30PM instead of 4:30PM, we had to rent a car and drive another 1 1/2 hrs to arrive our destination until after 2:30AM the following day. If the agent at your counter would have just been willing to go out of her way a little like an normal human being would have this whole situation would have been so much more enjoyable for my family. I fly across the country at least 5 times a year with my business partner, out of the country at least once a year, as well as sending employees around the country for training. This situation has left an extremely bad taste in my mouth, and I insure you that myself or anyone from my company will be flying with Delta again.

Lost over 600 on tickets that I was first told I couldn't use, come to find out later that I could have used. Lost 200 in having to rebook a flight as we tried to check our bags 25 min prior to flight instead of 30 min prior.

Richard Oldfield of Chesapeake, VA April 15, 2009

Richard of Chesapeake VA (04/15/09)
To Whom It May Concern, On 4 Apr I traveled to Baltimore from Norfolk VA. I had planned to return on 5 Apr 09. The flight from Baltimore was late in arriving at JFK and this 10 MIN delay caused me to lose my connection to Norfolk. The agent informed me I could only go stand-by on the rest of the flights as it was an ATC delay and not Deltas fault. As if say it was mine. There was plenty of seats available at the time, but they went fast so I had to foot the bill of 110 for a hotel. I was booked the next day, but due to weather at Norfolk and after sitting 3 hours on the ramp the flight was cancelled. The rest of the flights were also cancelled for the rest of the day even though the other airlines were flying in and out of Norfolk as the weather had cleared.

Eventually I was told the only alternative was to fly to Charlotte NC. I managed to find a wide open flight at LaGuardia with US Air and again Delta refused to help me, so I had to fork out another 145 for a ticket. When I finally got to my destination the weather was perfect. I had already paid for the trip with Delta from NYC to Norfolk. My conf nbr was D2RARZ. I request repayment for the hotel the first night, the meals I paid for at the airport (total wait time for the 2 days was 26 hours), the 35 taxi from JFK to LaGuardia and the plane ticket to Norfolk. It seems only fair as I paid for the entire round trip in advance. Thank you.

Paid out a lot of money that should have been covered as none of the problems were my fault and spent 26 hours in the airport. Costs are listed in the incident report.

Brooke Hondel of Clermont, FL April 14, 2009

Brooke of Clermont FL (04/14/09)
March 10 booked my tickets online. March 10 contacted about a rate change. Delta rebooked my tickets and offered to credit the 40 booking fee. March 21 refunded the tickets instead of the fee. Apr 2 called to reconfirm flight. Delta reconfirmed. Apr 3 tried to get boarding ticket and after waiting in 3 lines was told it was refunded on mar 21. (they refunded the tickets instead of the fee) Repurchased. Return flight Apr 6 cancelled had to return on Apr 7.

Apr 9 contacted Delta to share concerned. They agree to refund the 40 instead on Apr 14 they charged me 20 more dollars. Spoke with several people including their corporate office and still unknown if I will get my money back for the fees or have to file for a chargeback.

Stress and aggravation and time missed have to make uneccessary phone calls due to their incompetence.

Lasse Latvala of Rochester, WA April 5, 2009

Lasse of Rochester WA (04/05/09)
This note is in reference to an experience I had on Flight 1761 from Atlanta to Portland on 17 Feb '09: I'm a six foot, 185# man. At the window seat was a lady little huskier that average. A lady in the isle seat weighed in at an estimated conservative 350; she looked like she was standing up when she was sitting down (the ladies were already seated when I came in). I sat down, buckled the seat belt and lowered the arm rest. When the isle seat occupent was resettling, more than half of her left cheek was hung up on the arm rest (she was listing about 15 degrees starboard). I said, that's not going to work; we'll just put the arm rest back up. I rotated around to accomodate the squeeze but it was still an overly intimate flight.

I'm ADA so that added to my discomfort level; silver lining: this was not an overseas flight to Austrailia (lasted only 5hr 26min). Very late into the flight I had to get up. I had assumed that the plane was full but there were a number of empty seats in the back rows. My disappointed here is in that the flight crew could have discreetly moved one us, and I feel I squandered my tolerance just to avoid any kind of a scene. And the peanuts weren't fresh either. What I'd like to see is common sense prevail over political sensitivity in these public issues. And in the future, I'll do what I can to be more helpful to those who are unaware or unconscious of prioities.

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