Glad we could help. Safe travels. Warm regards, Jeff

wow dude, that is the ultimate suck. good luck at all this.

You're not alone...

http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05...

(not safe for work or kids!!)

Hmm... Chris Penn was right: This whole "lifeline" concept I was kicking around yesterday actually has real-life repercussions, too...

justinkownacki.blogspot.com/2007/02/who-do-you-know.html

Glad to hear you're safe and sound. It's getting a point where none of the airlines are reliable anymore... which kind of gives each of them the right to be lousy, no? After all, there's no competition when EVERYONE is substandard...

Delta is TERRIBLE. Social media crusade to persuade them to improve, anyone?

You're preaching to the choir when you say Delta sucks. Just last Friday (June 22nd) try to go with my wife and mother to see a family member in Austin, Texas.
First, they bumped us off the 6:00am to Atl, my wife was at the gate to tell the ticket attendant that we are coming through the security checkpoint and will be there shortly. She replied, very nastily, "It's too late, I've gave your seats to someone else!". Needless to say, my wife was ready to lose a shoe in this woman. Then they proceded to book us on the next overbooked flight, for what reason I don't know. After several times walking back and forth from the gate to the ticket counter on 2 bad knees (I'm a disabled veteran), and after standing in line at the "Delta direct" line, just to be told to go to a small bank of black phones on a counter, to hear 20-30 minutes of muzak, while being put on "ignore", then to be put on another overbooked flight. One was really cute. The flight should've been a 757, but turned out to be a smaller aircraft (with 30 fewer seats), but for a bribe of $50, you can be moved up before someone else. after 6-1/2 hours and 1 day of vacation time from work wasted, we went to the counter, where I told this moronic agent to refund my money, have my bags returned back from Austin (believe it or not they were already there).
and deliver them to my house. Called them on Saturday (23 June) on their 800 number to be again put on "ignore" for another 45 minutes, and some outsourced "customer no service" jerk from New Dehli they tell me my bags are still in Austin! Well, after reading him the riot act, they finally show up at the airpot in Jax on Sunday (June 24), and I had to go out and get them! Yes, Delta has the worst service on record for me. I thought Continental was bad, but at least I made it to my destination and the delivered my bags to me in 4 hours. So, for me, Delta don't suck, they're worse than that!!

Delta does suck, badly. Traveling from Houston to Albany NY with change at Atlanta. Flight from Atlanta to Albany supposedly on time right up to the time of boarding, posted new time to leave, then flight canceled, no crew. Get in the long line for new flights, none for 2 days.We wanted to go home at this point and asked for a flight back to Houston and was told we would have to purchase tickets for that. So we book a flight to another city hundreds of miles away from our destination. Get the hotle room coupon then try to get our luggage. Was told luggage cant be retreived and it will go ahead to Albany even though no other planes have gone to Albany. So we ask about what happens when we land at other destination, luggage still goes on to Albany on next flight out, dont worry it will be waiting in Albany for us. Go to motel, no toothbrush, no deodarant, no shaving cream, no nothing. Hotel has people partying till 3am in the halls, even kids running around till 3. Get up next morning at 6am to have continental breakfast and go to airport hoping for an earlier flight and realizing the flight we booked was way out of the way. Find out hotel had a flood that night, luckily we were upstairs but carpets were all soaked downstairs. Have our breakfast and go back to the airport, find a supervisor and she helped us get on a flight to Albany at 2:45 that afternoon. Sit around all day, board the plane and sit on the plane for 1 1/2 hours while they load the luggage and captain had to get off the plane to find the papers to allow us to leave. Backs up and sits there, captain says engine wont start and go back to the gate. Either a mechanic can fix it or we get another plane. Mechanic fixes it and we finally leave. Get to Albany and no luggage. At this point we are at our whits end, both my wife and I are yelling and swearing at the people who are at the baggage claim. Police are called, he calms us down somewhat, of course you cant put in a claim till 24 more hours. Go to a local Walmart for essentials. At this point we are no longer in the mood for a vacation. Next morning book a flight on Southwest to go home but will spend a few days with family before going home. Luggage finally shows up, airline had some old man deliver it in his own car. I would never fly Delta again. The police told us to complain in writing and maybe we would be compensated with free tickets, told him we wouldnt want them. Finally go home on Southwest, what a treat. They were the best, even arrived early at Houston in bad weather.

Try contacting corporate once. What a joke. A June 28th flight was cancelled because of "no available crew". Hotels were offered, but they were out, so I got my own and sent in reimbursement. I started faxing July 3 and continued trying to get a response. Sorry, no luck. I faxed reimbursement papers daily from July 28 - August 5.

I called back August 6 and was told "You are not in our system". I asked how I could confirm that they are getting my request and was told "You can't". Then I asked what she would do in my position to make sure they got the request. "I don't know". Linda Blier, customer service rep DOESN'T KNOW how to make sure my request is going through. WOW....

Here are some numbers to contact these morons:
fax number for hotel reimbursement: 888-286-3163
Delta main: 800-221-1212
Customer care: 800-335-8241 X6

Delta Sucks!! I googled that & found this blog - here's my addition to how this airline is going down the toilet in terms of customer service ...

Myself & my wife were flying on Delta flight #5464 from Buffalo to New York/JFK on Monday, July 30th at 7:50AM. We got to the airport well in time for the flight at 6:15AM. First sign of trouble was that the monitor listed the flight as canceled.

When we got to the counter, the agent behind the desk told us "your flight is canceled, the next one is 2 days from now, do you want to go on that?" - which was ridiculous. No apologies. No explainations. Just an option to fly 2 days later - take it or leave it! We had to be in New York that day and this was unacceptable. What was most troublesome was the attitude of the staff behind the desk. They were totally rude and unhelpful. All they could say was "the next available tickets are 2 days away - we dont have anything else to say". There was another Delta flight in 3 hours - most passengers suggested that the staff could try to call people on that flight and see if they wanted to be moved to something later, which could have given some seats to people already there. But to no avail. The guy at the counter shut his computer off and walked away. Several young people who were looking forward to going on vacation to New York started to cry. When we asked for a supervisor, a lady came up and said she was the supervisor and she had asked her staff to not help anyone. That was not their job. One Delta staff member was willing to walk over to JetBlue (who had the next flight out) to see if anything could be done. The supervisor asked him to do no such thing!

This was a traumatic experience for everyone. I am shocked that Delta has not trained ground staff to handle such basic situations as a canceled flight. I run a consumer facing company myself and one of the first things we train our service staff is dealing with difficult situations. Anyone can deal with day-to-day operations. A service organization is tested when they are faced with an uncommon situation. The most appalling aspect of this ordeal was the total disregard the ground staff had for customers and their nonchalant attitude.

I want Delta to take immediate actions to prevent such incidents in the future. In the least, provide customer service training to the Delta ground staff at the Buffalo International Airport (BUF)

I am a United Mileage plus gold member. Living on the West coast means I dont have the need to fly Delta as much - thank god for that!

Manish Vaidya
Morgan Hill, CA

IT'S 4:42 IN GLENDALE ARIZONA, JUST MINUTES AGO I HAD A BAD EXPERIENCE WITH THIS AIRLINE, I BOUGHT A TICKET AIRPLANE FOR MY DAD WHO IS IN PERU, AND HE IS COMING TO VISIT ME, ABOUT 2:30 ARIZONA TIME HE TOLD ME THAT DELTA NEEDED MY CREDIT CARD INFORMATION,WHICH I FAXED I ALSO CALLED DELTA IN ATLANTA AND THEY TOLD ME THAT THE PROBLEM WAS SOLVED BUT I NEEDED TO CONTACT THE PERUVIAN NUMBER, I CALLED THE PERUVIAN NUMBER THAT WAS LISTED IN THEIR WEBSITE, AND THEY TOLD ME THAT WAS A TAXI CAB AGENCY, THAT USED TO BE DELTA, SO I TRIED TO CONTACT A DIFFERENT PERUVIAN NUMBER, BUT I WAS TRANSFER TO DELTA SANTIAGO DE CHILE AND I WAS CALLING FROM ARIZONA SO I TOLD A GUY NAMED JORGE THAT I WAS CALLING FROM THE US AND HE TOLD ME THAT I WASN'T CALLING FROM THE US I TOLD HIM ANYWAY TO TRY TO SOLVE MY DAD PROBLEM SO HE SAID TO ME I WASN'T CALLING FROM THE US THAT THE TELEPHONE APPEAR TO BE A PERUVIAN NUMBER I TRIED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM HE REPEAT LIKE 4 TIMES I WAS CALLING FROM PERU SO, WHAT IF I WAS CALLING FROM PERU THAT WASN'T IMPORTANT FOR ME AT 2:30 AM , I FINALLY SAID: "LISTEN I NEED TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM" AND HE TOLD ME DON'T TALK TO ME THAT WAY. WHAT WAY?? I MEAN MY DAD WAS WAITING AT THE AIRPORT AND HE WAS MORE CONCERN BECAUSE I WAS CALLING FROM PERU, SO I ASKED IF I CAN TALK TO HIS SUPERVISOR HE SAID NO I ASKED HIS LAST NAME AND HE DIDN'T WANT TO TELL ME AND I ASK HIM IF HE HAS SOMETHING AGAINST THE PERUVIAN PEOPLE HE SAID NO, I THINK YOU HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST CHILEAN PEOPLE , I TOLD HIM I JUST WANT TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM AGAIN AND HE HUNG UP ON ME. I CALLED TO COMPLAINT ABOUT THIS INCIDENT SEND EMAIL,CALL IN CHILE AGAIN,CALL ATLANTA, AND CONPLAINT. THE CUSTOMER CARE TOLD ME WELL YOUR DAD PROBLEM IS SOLVED SO WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?. WHAT A BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE I COMPLAINT IN ENGLISH, IN SPANISH . HOPEFULLY SOMEBODU CAN HEAR MY COMPLAINT

Here's my Delta story. See the emails below.

-----Original Message-----
From: Customer Care [mailto:customer-care@delta.com]
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 07:07 AM
Subject: Re: Flight_Delay_Cancellation - Past - FO 4271 8/17/07 (KMM18244636I108L0KM)

Dear Mr. Crews,

Thank you for your e-mail describing the inconvenience you experienced
due to flight irregularities when traveling with our Delta Connection
partner, Atlantic Southeast Airlines. We apologize for the difficulties
you encountered.

Your time is valuable, and operating on schedule is equally important to
us. However, in the process of operating scheduled service over many
different routes each day, occasional mechanical malfunctions and other
interruptions to routine performance plans are unavoidable. These are
situations faced by all airlines and no air carrier can guarantee that
all flights will depart or arrive on schedule. Nevertheless, we are
sorry you were inconvenienced.

Our goal is to make your travel experience as smooth and enjoyable as
possible, and we regret you didn't receive the high level of service we
strive to provide. Our airport representatives are expected to always be
responsive, and offer precise, complete information. It sounds like that
didn't happen in this case, and we will continue to make efforts to
improve in this area.

Delta uses many factors to determine compensation for our passengers who
have been inconvenienced through no fault of their own. Our information
indicates you received the compensation we normally provide in
circumstances of this kind. Consequently, we must respectfully decline
your request.

Again, thank you for writing. We appreciate your selection of our Delta
Connection partner and will always welcome the opportunity to be of
service.

Sincerely,

Vernon M. Fernandes
Manager
Customer Care


Original Message Follows:
------------------------

PERSONAL INFORMATION:
Name : Mr Robert D Crews




COMMENT DETAILS:

Email about Past/Future travel: Past

Nature of Comment: Complaint Concern

Email Pertaining to: Flight_Delay_Cancellation

Email about Other topic:

Comments:

When I checked in at Lambert Field in St. Louis on August 17, I was told
the flight would be delayed 5 minutes. The flight was scheduled to
depart at 6:59. At approximately 6:45 pm, we were told that the flight
had just left St. Louis. Very poor communication. The delay was due to
an upramp failure in Atlanta. Our flight was then able to take off
after 9:00 pm. We did not land until 10:55 pm in Atlanta. My
connecting flight, 1648, to Orlando, had already left. I then went to
the Delta desk to get a hotel room and a flight out for the next
morning. I was told there were no hotels available. I was given a $50
discount on my next flight. After pushing the agent, I was able to also
get a $7 breakfast voucher. I then went to the gate where I found a
not-so-comfortable bench to sleep on. I woke up 3 hours later with the
worst back pain I have ever felt in my life. I then hobbled back out to
the main terminal to discuss with a Delta representative. After talking
with a supervisor, who was very nice, I was given another $50 and 5,000
miles on my account. I was told that was all he could do. For the
worst travel experience of my life, I was given $100 in trade and a $7
trade voucher for food. I am so incredibly dissatisfied with Delta
right now. Here's what I would like: 50,000 miles added to my account
and an upgrade to Platinum status. My email address is
XXXX or my cell phone is xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Thank you.

Would you like a reply to your e-mail? : yes


FLIGHT 1:
Flight Number : 4271

Date : 8/17/07

Departure City : St. Louis

Ticket Number :


FLIGHT 2:
Flight Number :

Date :

Departure City :

Ticket Number :


BAGGAGE:
Baggage concern category:
Baggage Ref. # :

All Delta employees must be required to go to "Stupid School", "We Don't Give-a-Damn School", and "Stand around with your thumb in your Butt School". Especially those in Atlanta, where these are graduate studies. On September 17, 2007, my luggage was delayed (did not make the flight connection) in Atlanta for the 6th time over the last few years. Of those 6 times, I have never gotten my luggage the same day. I was told that there were 4 more flights coming from Atlanta to Dallas after mine on the same day. But Delta makes no real effort to get it out. All the baggage agents seem to be extremely non-caring and would not even pick up the phone to call anyone. I talked with 4 different people and all 4 said that Delta would get it out as soon as they could (would not even guarantee the next day) and that it would be released to an express agent within 12 hours after it arrived in Dallas, whenever that will may be.
Delta made up of lazy, overpaid, pathetic goofballs.

I agree. Just happened on 10-18-07. Customer service sucks. I was flying 1 st class on a ticket that I paid for - it was not an upgrade. I arrived at Harrisburg airport (2hrs early) & was told that my flight was cancelled & they had booked me on a flight the next day. I was never called. Actually, I did receive a recorded message after I arrived at the airport & complained that I was not called. Other people also said that they were not contacted. I ask that they book me on another airline & they told me that they were all booked. That was a lie. Two other passengers were told the same thing & went to the American Airlines counter & got the last 2 seats. They were on the exact same route as myself.I was ahead of those people & had they tried to book me on American I would have received one of those tickets. (I did learn an important lesson. You can got to another airline & they will transfer your ticket. Don't assume your airline is telling you the truth)
They finally booked me thru Dullas in Wash DC which reguired a 2 1/2 hr. bus ride. When I arrived at Dullas no one was at the 1st class counter, although 4 agents were standing around the self-check in area. I waited 10 minutes & finally ask if someone could help me & they said no. So I go back and wait another 15 minutes. Finally a man behind me got irritated & got one of those agents to come down & check us in. When I finally arrive at my gate they were boarding the plane. Could have missed it.
When I ask for compensation, in Harrisburg, they said that they don't give compensation because they got me to my final destination.
Amazing.

Perfect example of Delta's continued incompetence. Scheduled to fly out of Chattanooga, TN at 7:05am 10/27/07 on flight #4466 to Atlanta then connecting to Tampa. Boarded plane at 7:20, then were told having mechanical problems and for everyone to go back to the terminal. After an hour were then told we would be boarding another plane in about 15 minutes - as soon as paperwork was completed. After another 30 minutes were told we would not be boarding that plane, instead would be boarding a charter bus to be transported to Atlanta - approximately 2 hours drive. During this time I was told to go to the ticket counter to receive new ticket for flight to Tampa. Went to Delta ticket counter and was told my agent to go back to gate to recieve new ticket. Once again went back through security check point to gate - and was told could not be helped - to go to ticket counter. Anyway arrived in Tampa at about 4:30pm instead of original scheduled arrival of 11:30am.

Delta really sucks.
My senior parents were stuck in JFK because one of their Delta flight was delayed and the connected Delta flight flew out on time. Delta has changed my parents flight to the next morning leaving them in JFK for the next 14 hours with no support, no housing, nothing. The big picture is as follows:

My father has hearth problems, recently went through a major surgery and any stress can have extremely serious consequences.
My parents don't speak English.
My parents haven't ever traveled abroad before: this is their first trip.
They don't have a credit card, which would be accepted in the US.
They don't have a cell phone, which would be working in the US. I can't contact them and I don't know where they currently are and whether or not they are OK.
For many hours no Delta representative was willing to cooperate or help. After three hours (!!!!) of negotiation over the phone Delta agreed to page them. Delta put me on hold and after a few minutes someone has picked up the phone, but it was a woman from Mexico whose name is similar to my mom's name. After a minute she hung up the phone.
Delta representatives keep putting me on hold - forever, and I am listening to dozens of happy Christmas carrols. The songs will always remind me of Delta, so I won't ever forget.
So... Because of Delta my senior parents are lost with no support in a foreign country - after 12 hours in flight, tired, stressed, with no money and no hope.
This is not the full set of reasons why I have spent a sleepless night and for over 14 hours my live was a hell. And this is not the full story: later on it only got worse.
But this can give you a picture.
So. No more Delta for me, for my parents or friends.

Delta seems to have lost the one bag we checked, a bag with my 4 year old's Christmas presents from her grandparents inside. Nothing of value, unless you are that 4-year-old. Delta said it would arrive by noon yesterday. Now they don't know where it is, maybe Orlando. (We ourselves were never in Orlando.) When I ask why they don't know, they say "sometimes they don't scan them in." Should they find it, the poor bag may tour the country, as Delta apparently has no procedure for eventually prioritizing a bag--when exactly would this bag become important enough to just ship it to us? Um, apparently, never. For that matter, when would we as customers become important enough for them to contact us to explain why the bag is late? Also never--terrible communication. What should I tell a 4-year-old? Guess we should have shipped the toys UPS rather than checking them.

Last time we flew Delta, they could not print a boarding pass for my husband--they could see that he paid, but creating a boarding pass was not possible. He stood at the desk for 45 minutes while the clerk explained that she could not print a boarding pass even though she could see that he bought a ticket, and he almost missed the flight--the kid and I had gone ahead so as not to miss the flight with him. I forgave that--everyone makes mistakes--but it is now clear to me that Delta is really messed up. Seriously. Failures on two of two tries.

We fly several times a year--not weekly, but at least 4-5 times as a family--so about 15 tickets a year--and we will never fly Delta again.

As an employee of Delta Connection, I urge everyone here to steer clear of anything with the Delta Connection name on it.

The reason for being lied to is not that the employees don't care, it's that the company tells us to lie. I, for one, refuse to do this and tell passengers exactly what is going on, which is why I get "disciplined" all the time.

The employees of any Delta Connection (there's a few companies that carry the name) don't care because management (corporate and local) treat them like yesterday's garbage and unfortunately that attitude comes across to the passenger.

Again, if you want to actually get somewhere WITH you luggage, DO NOT choose a Delta Connection flight (especially Atlantic Southeast Airlines).

If you ever have a problem with Delta call Bill directly he is in Charge of Customer service his number is 801-927-7591. He is very helpful.

Hey, I've got the topper of all. 12/10/07 7 of us had a family cruise booked. Flying out of central PA at 6:30 a.m. At 3:30 a.m. (we were leaving w/in the next 25 mins) Delta prerecorded msg. stating our flight has been cancelled contact Delta at 1-800.....WHAT???7 of us are headed to Fl. to catch a cruiseship that day?? I call Delta only to get told they can get us there but not arriving in Fl till 6:30 p.m. that night. I told her I needed to be in Fl no later than a 2:30 arrival as we had a ship setting sail at 4p.m. Sorry, can't help you. I then said, hey you are the only carrier out of this airport, what about USAirways?? Yes, they have an 8:00 a.m. flight that would go to Atlanta, and from their to Fl getting you in Jax,FL at 2:30. I said great put us on it. She said that will be $2,147.00!!!!!! I said WHAT? You cancelled my flight and now you are booking me through USAIR? I was sunk, needed to get all 7 of us there..paid the $$ and when we got to the airport the USAir rep. was appauled. She could not believe that this girl did this. She said the only reason she made us pay again was because she wanted us to fly w/Delta. Now that SUCKS! Needless to say, after returning home from the vacation, I got busy filing complaints, (needless to say Delta did not want to do anything) but after 2 months of fighting, I got the price of the original tickets back and some travel vouchers.We're going to use these up and be done w/them!!!

Delta goes out of it's way to rip off customers.

Yesterday I flew from Laguardia to Salt Lake City.

At the bag check, the attendant told me my bag was over-weight and that I would be charged an additional $80

I was not told how much my bag weighed, nor how much over the limit it was. Upon arriving in Salt Lake I weighed the bag to find that it was 55 pounds. I easily could have thrown 5 to 10 pounds of stuff in the garbage and not missed it at all.

Moreover, my wife's bag weighed 42 pounds. I could have put some of my stuff in her bag to make the weight requirement.

My contention is not with the weight limit itself, but with the way it was handled. I was given no options, and was told several times that if I did not pay the fee I would miss my flight, and this was all I was told. $80 is a ridiculous fee for five extra pounds of stuff, especially considering that my carry-on bag only weighed six pounds. they charged me $16 a pound. If the fee had been reasonable, say $2 or even $5 a pound, I would have paid it without complaint and considered it a normal travel cost.

If I had been a big guy weighing a hundred pounds more than I do, I would not have been charged. If I had been allowed to put some of my luggage in my wife's bag, I would not have been charged. If I had been given 45 seconds to take out a very large (but cheap) book I was carrying, I would not have been charged. If I had been given options, information on how much my bag was over, or less than a minute of time, I could have fixed the situation.

Instead, I was charged a stupidly high price and was treated like an jerk for asking if I could do anything about it.

I work in a customer service field, and I feel like this was some of one of the worst cases of customer care I have experienced anywhere.

Instead of simply repeating that the customer has to pay eighty dollars or miss the flight, the customer should be given an option.

When I complained to customer service, I was given a standard form letter describing the policy and then told the fee was applied correctly. End of story.

I will not support a company that tries so hard to rip off their customers and does so little to help them. To hell with Delta.

Wow looking over these stories... i don't feel so alone. Here's my story 07-26-08:

My girlfriend and i booked 2 tickets with delta over the phone. The Delta Rep guaranteed us that we'd be sitting togethre to take care of our 4 month old. So we check-in they say, "there's a problem with the seating, but to talk to the gate and they'll fix it." Then at the gate they say, "They can't do anything about it, but talk to the on board staff and they'll take care of it." So-ooo we're on the plane totally seperated by each other... i'm in the back window seat, and she's with the baby in the front. And the staff lady say's they can't move us because it's a full flight. Now we get off the plane, demand a refund, our luggage, and the baby seat so we can return home. They refuse at first... but eventually give us the car seat, refund our tickets, but say we have to come back tomorrow to pickup our luggage.

2 days later, a rental car later, and an entire week of work vacation down the toilet. We are still waiting for our luggage.

Thank you Delta! For being family oriented, for wasting a weeks work vacation, leaving us stranded with a baby at the airport, and waiting for our luggage.

I'll be sure to tell everyone to think about you when flying... :/

As I read this I have been on hold with the Delta baggage center for........drum roll....37 minutes.

Here's my story: I bought an international round trip business class ticket from NY to Amman. I did not get onto the return flight from Amman to NY due to misinformation from Delta. I called Delta upon my return (had to pay at the airport to get onto another flight with another carrier)to make sure I was able to use this ticket in the future and was told I had a year from the return date in which to do so. Now, only two months later, I'm tryng to use that return portion for the same exact destination and I'm being told that that particular ticket has a "30 day stay" and I will now have to pay the full price. How outrageous is that?!?! I don't care if I have to do 6 stops on another airline. I will NEVER FLY DELTA AGAIN. THEY SUCK!!

Delta has no clue as to what "customer service " really is

they can't solve your problems

because----

it's the system

it's out of our control

I have to get a supervisor

I use my miles , but don't pay anymore

I will build miles on other airlines