Greg McKee

I purchased reservations for my daughter and I to DCA from Ft Lauderade before the hurricane hit. As I saw the hurricane progressing I requested the reservation be changed to MCO Orlando which seemed more likely to have flights still leaving. We drove to Orlando and upon arrival called Delta to check on flight status. We were told the flight had just been cancelled due to the airport closing on a few hours. As we had a connecting in Atlanta to a flight to DCA we called customer service and asked them to keep that reservation open as we would drive to Atlanta. The appointment we had was very important. They agreed and send us tickets showing a CU upgrade to first class, we were at ease at that point.
We arrive at MCO and the flight was delayed. While waiting my daughter noticed our seats had been given away about an hour before the flight, she noticed that on the upgrade board. When we got there we were listed but suddenly disappeared. I told her that must be a mistake because we have printed tickets given to us by the agent in the Atlanta airport 4 hours prior.
When we started to board the gate agent would not take our tickets. She said we had no seats because we did not make the flight from Orlando, We explained we called Delta and told them we were driving to the Atlanta airport and they gave us new tickets, She told us the person answering the phone did not know what they are talking about . She said"I don't care if you are flying American, United or Delta, the "system" doesn't work that way. If you don't make your original connections you lose your seats," I explained again I called and the agent understood and my tickets were issued in Atlanta. She said to stand aside and I might be able to find you a seat. I suggested she forget the first class seat Delta gave me and just give me back my original seats in economy and she rudely said they are gone, I told you that you will be lucky if you get any seat."
Eventually she got us middle seats in economy but was not happy about it. I asked her to give me my original tickets and she was not happy about that either.
Later I found she gave our first class seats away on her own accord.
I have over 500000 miles on Delta and I don't understand how their "system" works. Apparently it is at the whim of gate agents. I am very disappointed in Delta and will avoid them in the future. At present I would advise everyone to believe nothing an agent tells them over the phone, only the gate agent knows "the system"

jdrtravel

Hi Greg, welcome to Flyertalk.

I'm sorry to say, but your post contradicts itself and it is not really possible for anyone to offer you a meaningful response or advice until you clean it up and clarify what actually happened.

You first say that flight from MCO to ATL was cancelled and that you called DL and told them that you would drive to ATL to catch the ATL-DCA flight.

You then say that the you arrived at MCO and your seats were given away. Did you mean ATL? Where were you?

You also say that you called DL to get new tickets while driving, but then later say that you got new tickets at the ATL airport?

At which airport did you have the issue? And at which airport did you get new tickets? Or was it from the call center?

If you told DL that you would drive to ATL, why would you then go to MCO and expect to have seats? Of course you would not have seats there.

Your post needs to be cleaned up and made much more clear in order to get useful response here on Flyertalk.

MSPeconomist

What is a CU upgrade? Do you have status on DL?

davie355

Sorry to hear about your bad experience and the rude staff. All that aside, it sounds like this problem originated at MCO.

When you say "ticket" do you mean a boarding pass, or an e-ticket receipt? The latter is what would have confirmed the change in your itinerary from MCO-ATL-DCA to just ATL-DCA.

If you were never given such a receipt and you never got one by email, then it's likely that nobody actually changed your itinerary, and it was auto-cancelled as soon as the MCO-ATL flight closed without you onboard. Unfavorable as this practice might seem, it is an airline industry standard.

Mwenenzi

Very hard to understand where you flying & driving to / from.
As posts above, it is not logical what you have written.

How did you find this out? Verifiable proof this really happened?
When there is a weather event airlines will try to get people on aircraft.

It is common airline practise that if you no-show the first flight on a ticket all subsequent flights in that ticket auto cancel.

The problem was the weather. Effected 1000's of people

Widgets

The gate agent's issue was courteousness, which could have been easy or hard depending on your attitude about the situation. (If you were bluntly demanding that she give you certain seats without giving her time to fix the issue, I can understand why she might be short and tell you it doesn't work like that.)

Technically, the gate agent was correct about how the process works. Professionally, it should've been worded more clearly.

It doesn't matter what someone says over the phone if that person doesn't make the change. Your ticket would have needed to be reissued for the new itinerary in order to keep your seats. You can't just skip a flight on your ticket and take the next flight. The ticket needs to be changed. This is an industry standard that you'll find on every airline.

apodo77

Had a crap GA (wearing a red polo) at ATL yesterday on 2150. He was rude and condescending to multiple people while checking bags due to overhead bin space being "full" (it wasn't once on board).
There was a red coat in the jetway and I asked her the gentlemans name (his badge was turned around and not visible) and she refused to give it to me and kind of laughed it off and walked away.

Navig8R

Never heard of "keeping a reservation open." The customer service agent would've essentially needed to create a brand new res for you, with ATL as your departure. Since you never took the MCO flight, your res was canceled.

If you were given first class tickets by the phone agent, why would your names have been on the upgrade list in the first place?

The GA is 100% correct.

This is irrelevant, but of course your seats were given away. You did not have confirmed seats as your reservation was canceled when you missed the MCO flight.

So after two departure changes in an significant IRROPS situation, Delta was still able to find seats for you on the flight and get you to your destination? Sounds pretty good to me.

MCO Flyer

When the phone agent reticketed the MCO-ATL-DCA flight to ATL-DCA did you check to make sure that the MCO-ATL leg was gone from your reservation on the DL app or DL.com? (Reservation agents are known not to do things correctly) If it was then there should have been no reason for your reservation to have been cancelled in ATL. I would send a complaint to DL if all of the information you gave was accurate as there is no reason your ticket should have been cancelled since you called DL and had them re ticket you to ATL-DCA only.

KDCAflyer

I really wish that DL would do a purge of ATL GAs. It's getting to the point of the absurd there.

bennos

DL should be able to figure out who the GA is from the flight information (and a brief description, in case it was someone helping from a neighboring gate, etc).

Often1

No need to bash the GA until the facts are in. The OP is so full of inconsistencies that it is hard to attribute rudeness. By the OP's own report, the only potentially rude thing she said was that "it may work that way on American and United." That is hardly seriously rude and the only way I can see a DL employee mentioning another carrier in this context is if OP raised it.

For what it is worth, it is not only DL, but AA, UA and with some limited exceptions, all carriers, that if you no show for a segment, that the entire ticket is cancelled. Unless the phone agent cancelled OP's ticket and then reissued it as ATL-DCA only, the ticket would have been auto-cancelled by DL's systems at T-15 from scheduled departure. I presume that with Irma closing in, DL had a lot of standbys and simply popped the first two on the list into OP's seats.

OP needs to rewrite his post accurately and with a timeline that makes sense. Otherwise this is just one of those things which could not have happened the way he says it did.

Traveller

How did you get to the gate without valid tickets/boarding passes?

muishkin

OP also said the MCO-ATL segment was cancelled? So that means the system would boot the OP off of the ATL-DCA segment as well.

javabytes

OP would have already had onward boarding passes from the original itinerary. These could be used to get through TSA at ATL, even if there were issues with the reservation and ticket.