(Long) Terrible experience with Delta this weekend!

[Captain Bram]

I, too, did not read in the original post that Delta "got them to where they needed to be..."

On the contrary, Delta had a mechanical and should have compensated the OP with priority listing on the next available flight, denied boarding compensation, lodging, travel vouchers, etc.

This sounds more like a customer service problem more than anything else. Yes, the mechanical occurred, but nothing was done to help this couple to which they needed to be helped. And to think that they were only placed on a STANDBY list for subsequent flights is absolutely amazing! There was a royal screw-up here, you should tar and feather Delta! To think that their weekend was essentially ruined, all because of Delta's mishandling. This is how airlines find themselves in major difficulties, because of terrible and uncorrected customer service problems.

Yes, by all means, you should write them and be as assertive as you can be. Request (not demand) compensation for your losses. If you don't get satisfaction, file a complaint with the FAA and they will advocate for you. That is part of their job.

My recommendation next time: fly a different airline! This experience warrants not only compensation, and lots of it, but avoidance of doing business with them in the future...

 

[CarolA]

You know what I find most amazing about all these threads. Half the posts on these boards are "how can I get the $100 round trip airfare" and then the other half are "the airline did not treat me like royalty". Guess what folks. YOU ARE GETTING WHAT YOU PAID FOR. While we all talk about good service we seem to vote with our pocketbooks.

For example, AA just announced that they were eliminating the "more room in coach" seating from some of their planes. WHY? Becuase it was not profitable.

By the way, Captian Bram, Delta apparently did volunteer at some point to put these passengers up overnight. You are NOT entitled to denied boarding compensation for mechanical or weather realted delays. They drove to Orlando by thier own choice. As for being placed on a STANDBY list. That is normal with all the airlines. Your chances of getting on increase with ex*****ive tickets and lots of frequent flyer miles, but it happens all the time. The airlines will NOT normally reimburse you for expenses like hotel room confirmations. Now in the past I know Disney has been very forgiving in times of winter storms and hurricanes reagarding their deposits.

While Delta is getting beaten up here, there have been other threads about United, USAir and so on. Delta gets more publicity on this board just becuase they fly so many flights into Orlando, but the truth is they are no better or worse than any of the majors. (trust me, I have a horror story on all of them!) Folks if you want service, you can try JetBlue or SW. They seem to be able to do it and make money. The others are just holding on and thier agents are under a lot of pressure to keep costs down.

 

[alexturner74]

Captain Bram...

As has been said before, my "get you where you where going..." statement was not in response to the original post. It was in response to Pokeysmom. See the 5th post I think.

 

[Hillbeans]

I could use this board to vent about my pre 9/11 terrible Delta experience in Atlanta myself, however the only tip I learned was if a flight is missed, cancelled, etc., NEVER EVER go to a counter and wait Go to a phone, call the 800 # and you'll get instant service. This way, the person you're dealing with hasn't been screamed at by the X amount of people who's flight just got cancelled and you'll get a much greater idea of what flights are still available for you to board.

 

[CarolA]

You know I was thinking about this and I thought that the reason a lot of the gate agents and flight attendants are not as nice as you would like is the way people treat them sometimes.

I mean I was in Atlanta last year and there were thunderstorms all over the area so several flights were cancelled or delayed. The airport was CLOSED by the Air Traffic Controllers for Safety.

I am standing in line with a man who is just furious. He tells ALL the passengers how mistreated he is! He then gets to the front of the line and proceeds to YELL at the agent. I was just amazed!!! The man behind me asked him if he thought she was God and could fix the weather. I mean there was nothing Delta could do, but work with us to try and get us where we were going once the airport re-opened. (This man and I were going to the same city. Somehow in the Crown Room line, I got a confirmed space on the next flight and he didn't, wonder why?)

I wish this was an isoloated instance, but every time I fly I see some of the rudest people. They seem to think that gate agents and flight attendants are their personal slaves and treat them like dirt. While that does not excuse the agents being rude to you if you are nice to them, I figure that over time it wears them down. It would me.

Just this week flying back from Orlando on a commuter plane a guy wound up getting off the plane because his oversize laptop case would not fit either under the seat or in the overhead and he would not give the case to the attendant to put under the plane (she did suggest he take the PC out first and just hold it). The pilot had to tell him that the case had to go and he stormed off yelling about suing DL for letting him miss some meeting. Now I guess I was suppose to have my life endangered by his flying case if we hit turbulence! I just wonder what happens to some people when they hit an airport.

 

[alexturner74]

Great comments CarolA. I don't care who you are or what job you have, it's extremely difficult to me nice when 100 people have already screamed at you.

 

[CarolA]

Alex, I just sometimes want to slap these people. They make things harder for the rest of us! Now I do agree that there is no excuse for someone being rude to a customer, so that was not offered as an excuse just an observation.

When I was a little girl my DREAM job was a flight attendant. Now you could not PAY me to do it. The job has changed a lot in 30 plus years.

 

[alexturner74]

I agree, it's no excuse to be rude to customers, it just makes it MUCH more difficult to maintain your happy composure.

I recommend "Plane Insanity" written by Elliott Hester. It's written by an ex-flight attendant and the stories are funny, but it's crazy what some people will do.

 

[C.Ann]

Originally posted by CarolA
You know what I find most amazing about all these threads. Half the posts on these boards are "how can I get the $100 round trip airfare" and then the other half are "the airline did not treat me like royalty". Guess what folks. YOU ARE GETTING WHAT YOU PAID FOR. While we all talk about good service we seem to vote with our pocketbooks.

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Not so sure the "you are getting what you paid for" applies to ALL airlines..

SW is super! They treat you great! Planes arrive on time or EARLY.. Non-stop flights.. They have the BEST safety record of all airlines.. And they offer bargain-basement deals quite frequently..

 

[Yzma and Kronk]

....sorry I said, "enough said" but have to say......

Well said, CarolA!

 

[Humphrey Bear]

Just wanted to say that we had a mechanical delay on Continental that caused us to leave 3 1/2 hours late out of Orlando on a direct flight to Cleveland last month. The Employees of Continental couldn't have been better! They moved anyone with connecting flights to other Continental or Northwest flights first. Then they filled up the later flight to Cleveland. The 18 of us who were left were given coupons for lunch at MCO and also we asked to fill out comment cards which the gate agents were going to Fed-Ex to Corporate.

They kept us all very well informed as to what was going on and that made the delay bearable. They also comped all alcoholic drinks and headsets on the flight and gave us coupons for future flights.

About two weeks later we received a letter apologizing for the delay and had a voucher for $150 for each of us to use on our next flight.

I was surprised that we were treated so well with all of the horror stories that we have read, but thought that the Continental employees were first rate!