A few weeks ago, I had reached out to Delta to complain about how, when trying to redeem an award ticket by phone, I had been cut off after a few minutes by the representative (who argued that they "every customer must get their fair share of search time"). I explained that, since the online engine would not let me search for partner airlines, how was I supposed to look for complex combinations?! I got really pissed off at their initial response, and went into "burning skymiles mode" - 3 award tickets in 1.5 months or so, with zero paid flights.

Yesterday, I get a call from a DL GM person who basically acknowledges my concerns, the fact that the online award engine is limited, and asking me to come back to DL. She also issued a $250 e-cert. Now, she actualy did take time to listen to my complaints, UNDERSTOOD them (i.e., I wasn't complaining about availability, but the ability to SEARCH!), and apologized.

I gotta say, after scoring 2 x $400 e-certs (bumps) on one of the above-mentioned award tickets, I have amost $1500 in e-certs and I am considering giving DL another chance. Anybody had a similar experience?

At any rate, DL, I am impressed at your calling me, listening to me, and showing some individual attention instead of sending me a canned response. Small things like this will go on a long way in making some understandably upset customers here more patient with the whole award redemption thing...