Don't think I will ever fly Delta again.

[bornwiththeears]

We booked our airline tickets for our Thanksgiving trip to the world with Delta a few months ago. We live 15 minutes from our rather small regional airport and up until yesterday, were quite pleased with our non-stop flight arrangements. When my husband read the morning paper yesterday the front page contained an article about Delta stopping all flights from Gulfport to Orlando. I cannot even describe the sick feeling that came over my body. I immediately called Delta and was told that they had no knowledge of the cancellation of the flights. I waited a while and called back and asked for the rep to check it out. He came back to the phone and said that Delta would be booking reservations through March. Still a little more than skeptical, I emailed the reporter who did the story (he had interviewed the head of the Airport Authority) and he told me the contract had been cancelled and flights would be discontinued after Nov. 1st. Now I have an investment of $1,600 in non-refundable tickets that Delta will not let me cancel because they keep insisting the flight will continue. The last rep. told me not to worry because if the flights were cancelled they would let me know before we were due to leave (that doesn't help with making new reservations) I am frustrated and more than just a little upset. Any suggestions?

 

[bavaria]

Quite often it takes several days for schedule changes to make it into airline reservations systems - not just for Delta. New routes or discontinued routes may take some time to be added/removed.

You will get your refund once the flights are shown as discontinued in the reservations system. In the meantime, why not see if Delta has flights from another city in that area. I am heading to that area soon, and Delta seems to 'own' the gulf routes. It appears quite difficult to get anywhere without some creative routing...

best of luck

 

[NotUrsula]

Yes, well, that's the problem. There really are no other cities in that area, at least not any with viable airports.

Traditionally, people who live on the Mississippi/Alabama Gulf Coast use the New Orleans airport -- that's considered normal, and if you live in Alabama, it is several hours away. All of the coastal airports between New Orleans and Tampa are pretty small, with the largest of them other than Gulfport being Pensacola. The OP is almost certain to be asked to route through Atlanta or Cincinnati, which will take much longer than departing from MSY on a non-stop. (The NE Gulf Coast is easily the most underserved area in the US in terms of the number of people who want to fly there but cannot. Huge vacation destination, but completely geared toward driving in. Second worst is probably Branson, MO.)

If it weren't Thanksgiving, it wouldn't be such a problem, but this late in the game, with the cutbacks from Katrina, seats out of New Orleans are going to be very hard to get. (Thanksgiving is a HUGE travel season for MSY, not just because it serves as the only major airport between Houston and Jacksonville, but because of the Bayou Classic football game, which brings in an add'l 80 thousand people.)

Born, you have my deepest sympathies. While it looks like AA also has a non-stop from Gulfport, I'm betting you've already tried that and found it booked.

 

[CarolA]

OK.

A few suggestions.

1. Call back during NORMAL business hours. You have a much better chance at getting someone who is NOT in India during those times LOL! Ask for a supervisor and explain what you heard, they might be able to help you.
2. Are you willing to connect? What the reporter didn't seem to understand is that the nonstop is operated by Freedom Air and I bet that's who is voiding the contract.
A quick check shows DL has several flights into and out of GPT and I can't believe they are dumping the whole airport.
3l Are you willing to fly from Mobile they aslo have a non stop you could ask to be moved to
2. Start shopping for your second choice. When the flight is cancelled DL will give you a refund. (That's is you decide to believe the reporter, I think I would call the airport authority and ask them what's going on... )

This is the state of the airlines today, smaller airports like GPT are getting dumped left and right, it's not just DL it's all of them. When you are bleeding red ink, you have to go where the money is. (Having flown into GPT I don't think it was a profitable aiport PRE-Katernia and she didn't help!)

 

[tracys2cents]

If they call to tell you that your flight is cancelled, tell them you want them to book you on something else for protection. They are supposed to do this. What they DO is another story. They "offer" you a full refund and maybe a $50 Delta credit or something and try to get you to "accept" their offer. Make sure you don't accept it, they'll have to book you onto American or someone else and cover the cost. you have a contract with them, they can't just END it unless you agree to the deal.

 

[bornwiththeears]

Thanks for all of your help. We have tried New Orleans and Mobile...but most of the flights, with one to two stops, will take almost as much time as it would to drive down and are approximately twice what we paid for our tickets. My husband just called Delta and once again we have been told that our flight is not being cancelled. I have called at various times during the day, but all of the reps I have talked to have heavy foreign accents and not much information. If we have to drive it will be OK - this is our "we lived through Katrina and have finished rebuilding our house" celebration.

thanks again.

 

[NancyIL]

A similar thing happened to me. The headline on my newspaper was that Delta would pull out of my local airport at the end of September, and I had a reservation using Delta FF miles to fly to Orlando via Atlanta on Thanksgiving Day! I called Delta immediately, but it took them a week before the reservation agents were aware that they weren't flying from my hometown. Once they saw that they had to book me on something else, my options were to fly on Northwest out of my home airport, but only if FF seats were available (NOT going to happen at Thanksgiving) or fly on Delta out of another city. I chose to fly out of another city an hour away, and asked them to put me on flights leaving one day earlier - which they did. Had I been unwilling to fly out of another airport, I could've asked them to reinstate my miles...but that would've postponed using the miles until another time.

 

[DebbieB]

The original post said that Delta is stopping all flights from Gulfport to Orlando. Are they still flying to Atlanta where you can connect? If they are still flying to Atlanta, I think they will either offer a refund or change it to a connection. I doubt you would get any compensation for it no longer being a non-stop.

Edit:
What are your dates? I just looked on Delta's website, I tried November 18th and all they show are one stops through Atlanta (or multiple stops).

 

[bornwiththeears]

The article stated that Delta was no longer offering flights from Gulfport to Orlando. However, they are still showing flights available for our Nov. 18th date.

 

[snowy76]

There's info here about the cut:
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/business/15569885.htm
The article says Delta is cutting the one nonstop flight because they need the actual plane for another route; doesn't seem to be all flights. I agree with Debbie, Delta should be able to move you to one of the flights connecting through ATL without penalty, since they're dropping the route... or give you a refund.

Sorry this happened! Good luck!

 

[bornwiththeears]

I just got an email from Delta (in answer to one I sent them on Thursday) stating that my flight was confirmed and thanks for flying Delta. Apparently, no one has given customer service the news. I guess it is just a waiting game now.

 

[bicker]

This is one of the sad ramifications of the insane situation we have with airfares in this country. The expectations for low fares has really squeezed every last bit of service out of the system. Passenger want service, but aren't willing to pay for it, and aren't willing to reward the airlines that provide it by paying a premium price, so none of the airlines have any incentive to offer it. Delta's main objective, these days, is to try to reduce how many millions of dollars they're losing each day. Unfortunately, one way to reduce losses is to terminate service that is especially expensive to provide, such as service to smaller airports.

Unfortunately, Delta isn't alone. United and Northwest are in the same boat, and US Airways isn't much better off. There are simply too many airlines for too few passengers, so no one can make much money, if any, and the real losers are the American taxpayers, who are left holding the bag when one of these huge companies cannot live up to its pension obligations.

The OP is probably correct, though, that she'll probably never fly Delta again -- at least not from Gulfport. I'll be curious to see if any airline decided to pick up that slack. Rather, if they're smart, they'll leave things as they are, and let fares rise due to the smaller supply, so perhaps service from that airport might become profitable someday.

 

[Ann Allen]

I also am on the Gulf Coast, and we also had reservations for nonstop flights from Gulfport to Orlando, and back, in November. I'm absolutely in a panic about the new developments with Delta canceling these flights. It never occurred to me that Delta could possibly just refund our money, then leave us stranded. My husband called Delta yesterday, and was assured that we still had a nonstop flight from Gulfport to Orlando, but would have to be routed through Atlanta on the return trip. All this makes no sense to me. After reading your post, and the replies, I asked my husband if the person he spoke with was "In India." He answered, "Well, I don't know, but I don't think he was in Hurley." I would appreciate your letting me know what you find out on this matter, and I will do the same for you, if you'd like.
Thanks!
Ann

 

[bornwiththeears]

You have reason to panic. I had to drop my husband off at the Biloxi/Gulfport Regional Airport yesterday for a business trip. While there I decided I would see what I could find out. The direct flight to Orlando will be discontinued as of November 1st. Everything we read was correct......however the cancellation news has not been released to customer service. I had hoped to talk to someone at the Delta counter but they were extremely busy. I did talk to an airport rep and her advice was to call every day until someone in customer service had the updated information. She also said that Delta would put us on another flight (not non stop). However, the longer it takes the less available seats are on other flights.

Good luck......let me know when if you have any luck getting your flight rescheduled.

 

[bornwiththeears]

I just got off the phone with Delta. They changed my flight yesterday - I just didn't get notified. Yes, they are still running flights from Gulfport to Atlanta and Atlanta to Orlando. We now have reservations that will put us in Orlando a few hours later, but I am just thankful to have the reservations. Hopefully they will remain in tact until the trip.

Thanks to all of you for all of your advice and concern.

 

[tracys2cents]

"This is one of the sad ramifications of the insane situation we have with airfares in this country. The expectations for low fares has really squeezed every last bit of service out of the system. Passenger want service, but aren't willing to pay for it"

I have been paying $250 round trip for about 20 years now. I can't believe the airlines haven't smartened up yet. All they need to do is raise the price of this ticket to $500, then when it comes down to $350 people will think they're getting a good price and will book it.

This is what they've done with gasoline. Two years ago it was $1.40. Now, They've got us believing that $2.40 per gallon is an awesome deal.