I hear you.

I think my reasoning for not flying Delta again is that I always feel like I have to judge a company more on what happens when things go wrong. Handing out free headsets when a flight is delayed doesn't feel necessary, but it's a nice gesture that goes a long way.

While I've been delayed in the past, I've never had a circumstance where I had to deal with Delta Customer Care. I give kudos to the rep at Hartsfield for helping me reschedule without issue. I give kudos to the rep who tried to help me but couldn't (she didn't have access to Delta Operations to find out why the flight left early) and relayed me to Corporate. And, despite not coming through on his promise, I give credit to the rep who said he'd do what he could to compensate me.

But everybody else (three at Customer Care and two via Corporate) went completely out of their way to be combative and absolve themselves of responsibility, including making statements that seem contradictory or just unbelievable. (If Rep #3's statement were true, no one should ever check in online.)

The night this happened, I was an emotional wreck, given that my trip had been ruined. (Among other things, I missed an event on Friday night that I was flying out for.) The rep that I spoke to that night was largely unsympathetic, refusing to do anything other than put me on a flight the next day, insisting that I would have to pay extra to move my return flight. (Gracefully, I didn't lose my composure - my overriding emotion was hopelessness.) I told her I'd call back in the morning to figure out how to reschedule my trip (and seriously considered cancelling the whole thing and eating the airfare). I instead, I opted to talk to a rep in the baggage claim area before heading home, figuring (correctly) that they'd be more receptive, given that they hadn't had to deal with a dozen upset passengers.

All I wanted at the end of this was an apology for the incorrect email and some kind of effort to offset my expenses. (A $75 voucher would probably have felt slight, but I think I would have been okay with it had the effort felt sincere. The $25 voucher - that I never received - felt like an insult.) While I appreciated Corporate's effort to apologize, apologies feel hollow when they're made while deflecting responsibility.

The reality is that Delta gained nothing with all of this - all they did was lose my business. In fairness, there's always another customer to take my place.

In reality, I'll probably just try another airline for a while (ie, until I have another problem), then re-evaluate.


Oh, no - that was just because of the lateness. Their cancellation policy required cancellation before 6pm. That's later than some - I think most of the rooms I've stayed in require cancellation before 4pm.

This trip was kind of an experiment - I usually do Wednesday to Monday trips and take early afternoon flights both days. I figured I'd try a long-weekend trip and leave Thursday night after work. After this, I think I'm going to go back to what I was doing before.