1StRanger

It's been a while since I've flown DL (because of the locations and routes, first AA+One World, and then UA+*A were more beneficial for me. Recently, I was considering flying DL, but I had to figure out some details while buying the ticket, so that I called DL ticket booking on the phone.

It took over an hour on hold until I got to a live agent.
(And it was not during any disaster period, as far as I could tell, 7/10/16.) My question was relatively simple: if a particular type of fare was fully refundable (i.e. if there were any fees or whatsoever). It took forever, close to 40 minutes for the agent to figure it out. During that time, she went away to talk to her supervisor, and maybe somebody else.

Then, the circumstances forced me to cancel that flight. Somehow, I didn't that online, but decided to do that on the phone (that was stupid). I don't remember how long the initial hold was (less then 1 hour this time), something about 30 minutes. But then it took that agent some 30-40 minutes to cancel the ticket and to issue the refund (with multiple holds and consultations with someone else). Again, I couldn't find any bad weather at that time (late July) that would have the call center being so busy.

After seeing the refund on my credit card a few days later, I was very surprised to receive an e-mail the night before the canceled flight that it was time for me to check in. When I got to the computer and logged in to DL website, I saw my itinerary as being active. For the fun of it, I clicked on "cancel" the flight, but then the website informed me that there was an unknown error, and I had to call DL online support to complete that action.
So, I called. I was informed that while the previous agent refunded my ticket, she failed to cancel the itinerary, and that was still hanging on me as a ghost.

This experience keeps bugging my mind: is this long phone hold typical for today's DL?
Whenever I am calling UA, AA (as well as various *A airlines), I am getting to a live person within less then 5 minutes, definitely under 10 minutes in the worst case scenario. The only exception was TK, some 2.5 years ago.

Also, are the capabilities of DL's phone agents are generally so degraded, or I just was "lucky" to get two inexperienced agents in a row?

appleguru

No, not typical.

7/10 was during their computer system meltdown recovery, so your experiences were all likely the result of that.

Zorak

I know time flies, but the Delta meltdown was *August* 8-10 not clear if OP really meant July but waited until now to post about it or if the 7 was a typo.

appleguru

Oh jeeze, need more coffee today :-P

In any case, no, not typical.

As a DM I rarely wait more than a minute for an agent. When I had no status, my average hold times were typically no more than 5mins.

And they also have the awesome "we'll call you back" feature, which makes longer waits much more bearable.

I suspect there was weather/IRROPS somewhere that caused the long holds. Not sure why the cancellation wasn't handled properly.

ops55

But not uncommon if you don't have any status. Although this one seems to be related to the meltdown, I've been on hold for an hour in the past. It happens sometimes.

1StRanger

Thanks to all who responded!
Understandably, the elite status helps. My gold status with AA or UA was cutting the wait time drastically.

Just to confirm: It was July 10. And, as I wrote, the cancellation was in late July (which had to follow the purchase inquiry, not the other way around).
Maybe what I experienced was the precursor of the meltdown, and Delta was already doomed a month earlier!

Zorak

Oh right, you even wrote "July" in your 3rd paragraph which is unlikely to be a complete typo -- my bad

Out of curiosity did you initially try canceling the ticket online before you called in? (the first time I mean, before you discovered the zombie/ghost reservation) I wonder if it would have gone more smoothly that way (not that that helps you after the fact, I realize)

1StRanger

Nope, I didn't. I don't have a good explanation... I just felt I should call. I had not expected it would take that long. If I knew, I would've cancelled online.
It is one of those cases when in a standard situation a not-quite-competent human is worse than a reasonably programmed computer.
I suspect it would have gone smoothly. (But I have very limited experience with Delta website.)

Radiocycle

I had a skymiles award ticket for my wife and myself using her sky miles account for her ticket and my sky miles account for mine. This was a GOL partner award ticket and GOL changed the flight number of one of the flights, They kept me on the original GOL itinerary and put my wife on LATAM airlines on a flight that arrived 12 hours earlier than my flight. I called reservations on August 19th and had a 2 hour 15 minute hold time. That seems unreasonable long for a hold time for a skymiles medallion member.

RC

flyerCO

Did you call in and enter her SM number? If so it went by her status. Even if you call the Medallion line, if the SM number isn't a Medallion (or high enough level medallion) it will cause the system to queue like any other. Also I thought the 19th had some weather issues in the US.

Radiocycle

I did enter my medallion number and they pulled up my reservation and the system (computer) asked if i was calling about that reservation, I confirmed I was and was told the hold time and asked if I wanted a callback as well.

RC