Originally Posted by
peachfront
The issue remains that if DL can use the excuse of ATC/weather delay to strand you in a distant city and tell you that you cannot be booked to fly home, unless you buy an expensive walk-up one way ticket, then the value of your miles is not just worthless -- by using the miles you have actually LOST a great deal of money.
But if I'm stranded halfway across the world and the airline suddenly decides to cancel the flight I'm on and refuse to put me on another unless I pay again, then it would have been far, far, far better if I'd never participated in that program to begin with. This happening once could wipe out the entire lifetime savings from being in that program.
Let me be clear: I'm worried about paying for my trip upfront with miles plus taxes/fees, as I have already paid for several trips upcoming on DL, then being stranded as this person describes and being told that I will not be transported home. In that case, yes, the miles are not just "b.s." they would truly be a scam used to cheat me out of a lot of money.
Apparently, this poster is not the only person to report this experience. THAT'S the issue. The other stuff is trivia. Let's get back to finding out if we have any legal rights in this situation.
We've all seen it happen. So we need to know our rights in advance. At least the number of someone we can call ourselves, on our own phone. Something!
YOU are absolutely right and yes we have been veering off course, but the stuff we are talking about provides valid background information on the make up of these very programs. ie, the stuff that proves or disproves the validity of FF programs as a whole.
I think they are a sham and basically we are LUCKY when things DO work out. Kinda like some corrupt thrid-world immigration officer quietly accepting cahs to let your visa suddnely get you in or out of their corrupt country (see Indonesia, as one example for more on that one!)
So where DO you get the real lowdown and what do you bring with you to the airport to present as armed proof that your ticket is supposed to work for this flilght?
Do we call DL, ask for some higher up in mileage, get themto send a letter saying THIS TICKET HAS BEEN APPROVED (like some notary stamp they'd probably chargeus for anyway) and then bring THAT letter to an airport just IN CASE this stuff ever happens to us every time we fly?
Or... should we go by the previous 20+ years of FF programs in a general assumption that we paid for the ticket using a valid currency and that is why it should work no matter what?
When the rules suddenly and drastically change, people DO need to take action, not just roll with it and say, "if you don't like it, don't participate." After all, that would still leave the OP stranded in the middle of nowhere. Oh sure, next time he or she flies there will be little reliance on the FF useage, but we are talking about being told NO mid flight for something so obtuse it should be downright illegal!
So who... who do we call?
While I have eventually had my particular 'cases' ultimately dealt with to my satisfaction in the past, I have had very little luck in solving this type of thing when it comes to NWA/DL partner mileage crediting issues. I brought those up BECAUSE it is on the same airline (I should have been more clear about that--sorry). NW is merging into DL soon and if THAT piddily little mileage credit failure problem cannot be fixed, then this bigger 'mid-flight award validity' issue will surely be a huge nightmere to hurdle over with the airline.
We all first need to agree that while it's a game and we decided to play, that there ARE problems and WE must as a whole try to fix them. We must do this now and do it as one, because even if we think it wont affect us, it will in fact help clean up the act at these airlines for things that COULD affect us later in other areas we havent even thought of yet.
The airline could try anything just to amek or save a buck. We can no longr assume that because they are a big business that they 'would never do that to us.'
ohhh yes they would!
they ARE!
We must also agree that there needs to be a definitive point at which existing mileage reservations should count with today's rules and not be subject to change mid flight.
and all of the rules about flights NEED to be fully disclosed in type bigger than 5point, and in clear and reasonable fashions for everyone to see. Something like this could be acted into law even!
Yeah, good luck on getting THAT done. We have bigger things to work on in congress, like who to bust for using steriods in sports)
one other thing: I sure hope the OP did or does write into DL to demand refunds.