Bad Airline Experience

[mouseaider]

My wife and I usually travel about twice a year and of course Walt Disney World is our favorite destination.

But lately we had to skip our plans for the WDW F&W fall trip to attend the wedding of my DW's son to a wonderful lady in Cancun, Mexico. We are extremely excited about this wedding.

We watched the fares of Airtran, Delta and a few others for over a month and almost purchased tickets a couple of times. Then it happened.... Delta had a good fare and we bought and used some of my air miles to help with the cost.

Ten days later, I was looking to add my DW's sister and found out the fare had dropped $82.80 for each. I was excited and called Delta right away to get a credit for the lower fare.

I spoke with a very polite CSR that said we would have to pay a change fee and if there was anything left over they'd issue a credit. I asked to speak with her supervisor and was connected to him. I got the same answer.

I sent a complaint email to Delta and received the following reply the same day.

Thank you for your email requesting for the fare difference due to the downgrade in fares.

Since airfares are subject to change without notice, our customers are
encouraged to purchase their tickets when reservations are confirmed. If
fares decrease, ticketed passengers may downgrade to the lower fare
prior to departure of the originating flight as long as all restrictions
of the new reduced fare are met. This includes advance ticketing, and no
changes are allowed to the flight, date, or origin. The downgrade will
require that your ticket be reissued.

Anytime we reissue a ticket, an administrative service charge will
apply. A nonrefundable Delta Travel Voucher will be issued for any
difference beyond the associated administrative service charge. When
your ticket involves International travel, the administrative service
charge assessed will be the same amount of the change fee associated
with the fare being downgraded.

While we would like to offer special consideration in cases such as
yours, we are unable to honor the many similar requests that we receive
from others in equally deserving situations. We follow a consistent
policy to ensure that we are fair to everyone who travels with us.
Accordingly, we must respectfully decline your request.

We appreciate your business and look forward to seeing you on your next
Delta flight.

Am I wrong to be upset with this??? Is this just corporate greed???

If you were to buy a TV from Walmart and then ten days later the price dropped $100 they would refund the difference so why wouldn't Delta? I think it's greed.

We are frequent flyers with Delta and Southwest/Airtran and we both enjoy using their charge cards for the perks and free flights that they both offer.

We loved both airlines for different reasons until the other day.

We will still use Delta but only as a last resort.

Comments and/or suggestions appreciated. Thanks for letting me vent. Rant over.

 

[Tara]

Am I wrong to be upset with this??? Is this just corporate greed???

If you were to buy a TV from Walmart and then ten days later the price dropped $100 they would refund the difference so why wouldn't Delta? I think it's greed.

We are frequent flyers with Delta and Southwest/Airtran and we both enjoy using their charge cards for the perks and free flights that they both offer.

We loved both airlines for different reasons until the other day.

We will still use Delta but only as a last resort.

Comments and/or suggestions appreciated. Thanks for letting me vent. Rant over.

Are you wrong to be upset that you missed out on a better deal? Nah. Are you wrong to expect Delta to refund your money? YES. When you bought your ticket, you agreed to their terms of sale. Those terms (in your case) included no refunds and a change fee if you make any changes. The comparison to Wal-Mart is irrelevant...they don't have the same policies. You can think it's greed if you want - that's your prerogative. Not exactly what you want to hear, I'm sure, but that's how the legacy carriers operate.

 

[NancyIL]

Sorry - but that's the policy on most legacy airlines. Delta's change fee is $150 per ticket, so your fare would have to decrease by more than that amount to get a credit. Even if there were no change fee, you'd be issued a credit for a future flight - rather then get a refund.

By the way - both Southwest and AirTran will issue a credit (not a refund) when the fare price goes down without charging you a change fee.

 

[crashbb]

Were you planning on sending Delta extra money, if the cost had gone up? If not, isn't that just "personal greed"?

I get the annoyance (I hate when it happens), I don't think it is anything that deserved a complaint letter to Delta and it is not something that should have been a surprise.

 

[DOPEYLUVER]

We are frequent flyers with Delta and Southwest/Airtran and we both enjoy using their charge cards for the perks and free flights that they both offer.

We loved both airlines for different reasons until the other day.

We will still use Delta but only as a last resort.

Comments and/or suggestions appreciated. Thanks for letting me vent. Rant over.

You say you loved both airlines for different reasons. For me the thing to love Southwest about is their price change policy. I fly to Florida a few times per year and play the price change game. I almost always have a credit for my next flight.

The other airline I use is Spirit. I LOVE their specials.

So what is is about Delta you loved? I don't think there is any change to their pricing policy. So whatever you loved is probably still the same.

 

[sam_gordon]

My wife and I usually travel about twice a year and of course Walt Disney World is our favorite destination.

But lately we had to skip our plans for the WDW F&W fall trip to attend the wedding of my DW's son to a wonderful lady in Cancun, Mexico. We are extremely excited about this wedding.

We watched the fares of Airtran, Delta and a few others for over a month and almost purchased tickets a couple of times. Then it happened.... Delta had a good fare and we bought and used some of my air miles to help with the cost.

Ten days later, I was looking to add my DW's sister and found out the fare had dropped $82.80 for each. I was excited and called Delta right away to get a credit for the lower fare.

I spoke with a very polite CSR that said we would have to pay a change fee and if there was anything left over they'd issue a credit. I asked to speak with her supervisor and was connected to him. I got the same answer.

I sent a complaint email to Delta and received the following reply the same day.


Am I wrong to be upset with this??? Is this just corporate greed???

If you were to buy a TV from Walmart and then ten days later the price dropped $100 they would refund the difference so why wouldn't Delta? I think it's greed.

We are frequent flyers with Delta and Southwest/Airtran and we both enjoy using their charge cards for the perks and free flights that they both offer.

We loved both airlines for different reasons until the other day.

We will still use Delta but only as a last resort.

Comments and/or suggestions appreciated. Thanks for letting me vent. Rant over.

I think you are being unreasonable. The "change fee" on legacy airlines has been around for years and documented on many websites (including the Dis). Is it Delta's fault you didn't do research to find out what happens if the price goes down?

Using your Wal*Mart analogy, can you buy an item the day before Thanksgiving, then go back on Black Friday and get a refund for the difference? The answer is "no". Businesses have various policies. It's up to the buyer to decide if they want to follow the policies.

Also, to me using Delta as a "last resort" is sort of an empty threat. Sure, if SW and DL have prices within $50 of each other, you might go with SW. But what if DL's times work better for you? What if DL is cheaper by $100 than SW? Is that a "last resort"? It doesn't matter to Delta, they still get you back.

 

[goofy4tink]

Okay.....here's the long and the short of it. Delta's 'change policy' if plainly spelled out on the official website. Nowhere on that site does it say anything about getting a refund if your fare goes down. This has always been their policy.
So, yes, you are out of line being upset.

With this in mind...my dh and I have a very dear friend who is having a big wedding party out in Calif in Sept. We are in Mass. Dh's mom is very ill with stage 4 lung cancer...prognosis is less than 6 months. So...with that in mind, we don't want to buy tickets that we may not be able to use. So..that leaves us with only a few choices....SW or JB. With SW, I can cancel and the refund will go into a SW credit. With JB, any money remaining after the cancellation fee will go into my JB account. Both much better than losing $800 in fares.
But, we know, going in, what our options are. When booking airfare, it behooves the passenger to know what the rules are.

 

[Planogirl]

You are wrong to be upset because Delta makes it very clear as to what their policy is. It's not a surprise.

I suggest using only Southwest in the future.

 

[sam_gordon]

You are wrong to be upset because Delta makes it very clear as to what their policy is. It's not a surprise.

Agree.

I suggest using only Southwest in the future.

Disagree. Southwest is not always the best option.

 

[dzorn]

I agree with the others that is the typical airline policy. Yep not a bad airline experince but a very normal one.

Denise in MI

 

[kaytieeldr]

OP, stop and think a moment. You spent a great deal of time price-shopping. You almost bought [the tickets] a couple of times, but you held out until you found a fare you're comfortable paying. It can reasonably be inferred, therefore, that you obtained the lowest (at the time) nonrefundable fare.

You had other options. You could have purchased a Delta refundable fare - more expensive, sure, but much more flexibility; you could have opted for Southwest/AirTran which, as low-cost - vs legacy - airlines have fare crediting policies you know you like. Yeah, the economy still stinks - but sometimes there are considerations more important than price.

Your Walmart analogy is interesting, but perhaps flawed. Often, those store sales have a disclaimer like " minimum X per store, no rainchecks". If you bring the TV back to the store and say, "My sister-in-law just paid $Z-$82.80 for this same set, I want a credit", they'll tell you no. It's entirely possible there was one seat at the lower price ten days earlier - but your search for two seats only results in the available fares for the number of seats you searched.

 

[bumbershoot]

SW, Airtran, JetBlue, and Alaska are the only ones I know of that give a credit without a change fee. If you use those airlines, check back. If you use other airlines and got a great deal up front, you probably don't want to check back, or if you do, gird yourself with the change-fee knowledge on a post-it on the screen, so you know IF you can get an actual credit.

It's too bad the Delta person didn't explain this to you while on the phone. It's their policy. It's a different policy than those 4 airlines that do offer credits without change fees, but that doesn't mean it's not OK of them. It's just different, when you don't fly with the fee-charging airlines often.

 

[Planogirl]

Disagree. Southwest is not always the best option.

True. I believe that SW works best in our area but of course there are other options.

 

[Butterbunkins]

This is standard practice in the airline business. It's been this way as long as I can remember.

 

[crashbb]

It's too bad the Delta person didn't explain this to you while on the phone. It's their policy. It's a different policy than those 4 airlines that do offer credits without change fees, but that doesn't mean it's not OK of them. It's just different, when you don't fly with the fee-charging airlines often.

From the OP, it sounds like the person on the phone did explain the policy - she said they'd issue a credit, less the change fee. The OP just doesn't like the policy and thought that Delta should make an exception.

 

[kaytieeldr]

This is standard practice in the airline business. It's been this way as long as I can remember.

Yes - just the change fee has been different. Ten years ago (possibly a little less), Delta charged $75 to make changes to a nonrefundable fare - and the fare drop was so great, it was still cheaper for me to spend an extra night in Fort Lauderdale!

 

[bumbershoot]

From the OP, it sounds like the person on the phone did explain the policy - she said they'd issue a credit, less the change fee. The OP just doesn't like the policy and thought that Delta should make an exception.

Ah, I skimmed that bit and thought the Delta agent had skimmed it, then had sent a followup email.

 

[crashbb]

Ah, I skimmed that bit and thought the Delta agent had skimmed it, then had sent a followup email.

I had to go back and make sure that I hadn't made things up. The agent and the supervisor gave the same answer (i.e. the stated Delta policy), the OP then sent an email of complaint (and got the same answer again).

 

[mouseaider]

You see.... this is what I love about Dis. Even though some of the reply's were a little harsh, I see where I'm a little too expecting in this case. Sometimes I can be a real bone head!

I didn't realize all the rules. I thought "change" meant changing flights.

I've taken my medicine and resigned to the fact there is nothing I can do about it for now.

But my future travels will most likely be on Southwest as soon as they begin flying out of Rochester in place of Airtran.

Thanks for all the reply's.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Rochester NY? What about jetBlue? Or am I confusing Rochester with Syracuse?