RMACTRAVELS

Wanting to know what sort of things Delta offers as Freebies when you are delayed, inconvenienced, luggage lost etc. Anyone have any good ones to educate all of us on what we should shoot for???

RMAC

opus17

I never asked for anything...

In one case, a thunderstorm made me and just about everyone else connecting at CVG miss our flights to Europe. I was Gold Medallion at the time.

They rebooked everyone (hundreds of us) on flights the next day. They got me a hotel room, some vouchers for food, a phone card, a shuttle to the hotel, and an amenity kit (like the ones in Business Elite, with a toothbrush, etc.). I didn't realize until later that the hotel was "all expenses paid" -- no minibar, phone, etc., charges. And I got my upgrade on the non-stop flight to Europe the next day (a lot of the others had to connect, but they seem to get the Medallions the best flights).

Another time (this year) a late AF flight caused me to miss my AF codeshare in Paris (going to SFO). AF paid for a hotel & food (3 meals, nice meals at that -- it was France!). And they got me a paid business class seat the next day, since there were no upgrade seats available.

For delayed luggage, an amenity kit is about it. This only happened to me going home, so no big deal. And they delivered the luggage to my house.

I did get a voucher for a delayed flight (that I boarded minutes before takeoff, so it wasn't I who was delayed).

In all cases, I thought the resolutions were fairly generous. I have no interest in trying to extort anything more from the airline -- they are not just a pinata of goodies waiting to be burst...

RSSrsvp

For a really bad screwup on lost luggage, I once received a $100 voucher and 3,000 "good will" miles from a supervisor in their baggage claim dept. All that I asked him, was how DL would compensate me for the delay in receiving my luggage that traveled to 4 airports and flew more miles than me.

Tomphot

Once, for a really, really bad luggage experience, I got a $100 voucher in the mail. I sent it back with a note that said this was not going to do. They gave me a call and ended up sending me $250 plus 5,000 miles.
This year, I had a messed up zipper on a bag. I went to the luggage problem place in ATL to see if they could help me. After explaining to me that they had no liability for such a problem, they gave me $50 Delta dollars to help me out.
I have so few problems, that when they happen, I take it in stride. I've found that if you don't complain much, you get more.

NoStressHere

I was on a flight out of ATL late one night. It had been delayed about 2 or 3 hours while they worked on getting another plane from the hangar. They kept telling us that ground traffic was heavy. NOT. But, when we boarded for our 40 minute flight, they handed out SkyDeli bags for everyone. Was a real nice touch.

Almost made up for the continued stories about getting a place to the gate.

jetsetter

Here is my lifetime comp story from DL:
(*probably better documented here than in my "permanent file.")

1. Hotel accommodations in DCA due to weather related delay;
2. Hotel accommodations another time in DCA with vouchers for dinner/breakfast (I think $6 and $8);
3. In ATL 3,000 miles because an agent was rude to me. I was not elite, and what I really wanted was a one segment upgrade, but all they would offer was the 3,000 miles. Then the F/A gave me a beer and he said it was "on him," not sure if any connection to events of that day;
4. A one-way ticket on the DL shuttle one time when a flight I was on stand-by on got cancelled due to weather. Basically I was booked for flight Y., got confirmed on earlier flight X., X. xld like literally thirty secs after bp issued, I asked if I could volunteer to be bumped on Flight Y. since I thought it might be full due to xld flight, agent said no vols needed but I would get a free shuttle one way ticket. Don't ask me how/why, it's one of the nicest odd things that has ever happened in the hundreds of flights I have taken. My best hypothesis is they were being nice (had to wait 2 hours in airport), or the shuttle has some guarantee where if they do not have a seat for you free tkt is issued;
5. Shuttle gate agent rude to me, (another time), speak to supervisor, supe says I'm a frequent cust and "I see you all the time...I want you to keep coming to fly with us," so will give me oneway shuttle tkt. Comes back instead with a round trip shuttle free tkt.

RMACTRAVELS

As I plan my own trips, I normally pad a day or even a 4 -6 hour window before I actually need to reach my destination. Since starting to fly on DL in Oct., I have collected $800.00 in DL Dollars, 2 x $8.00 Meal Vouchers and been re-routed to a direct flight all for volunteering.

I love collecting the vouchers as it takes care of the yearly vacation travel! I was even sucessfull in collecting 2 vouchers in one day on AA.

RMAC