To: Medallion Customer Relations
From: [My name and My Wife's]
Date: January 4, 2012
Re: Delta Made My Wife Cry

With much relief, I have finally made a decision I’ve been considering for years—that my Delta days are over. Good-bye rude gate agents, farewell to my Delta Reserve and the $85k annual spend, good-bye to Platinum Medallion and lounges with insufficient power outlets and stale celery.

This is not a request for service-recovery. That hasn’t worked in the past. This is to let you know that you have finally gone too far. While I have blacklisted several companies, this is my wife’s first time--congratulations on that dubious accomplishment!

Let me emphasize that today’s incident is not the only reason why we are leaving. Today’s incident simply nudged us toward the light and I am thankful for that.

Today, my wife and I were issued new itineraries for a delayed flight and the resulting new connecting flight. That was not a problem. During Zone 1 boarding, my wife handed the GA her new itinerary instead of the original boarding pass and the GA asked for her boarding pass, saying that was needed because it has the seat assignment. So far, no problems.

My wife then presented her boarding pass and it was scanned. She immediately noticed the itinerary contained the seat assignment and let the GA know that in a very polite, FYI, manner, before moving on. The GA then rudely repeated that she needed the BP, adding “I know what I’m doing,” as though either comment were relevant to my wife’s feedback.

I then heard my wife say, precisely, “I’m just trying to be helpful so you don’t explain it that way to other people” (the reason provided wasn’t valid since the itinerary had the seat assignment and a simple “I need to your BP,” would suffice.)

I could hardly believe my ears when the GA then turned away from my wife, back to the boarding line, and said in a loud, jeering voice “I’ve been doing this for 23 years and I don’t need any help.” Had that response not been from a Red Coat, I would have asked to speak to one!

When we got on the plane, my wife had a tear streaking down her face because of how poorly she was treated. The worse part for her was the GA turning away while loudly stating her last comment. Clearly, that was not for wife’s benefit and it illustrated that she didn’t understand or want to understand, my wife’s point. This was more of a taunting and degrading gesture to get rid of my wife. Well, forget you.

So here we are on the way to SLC, very happy to have been set free. Don’t bother apologizing, I’m done with compromising. Apologies in the past haven’t led to better service. Case closed.

P.S. This is far from the first service debacle we have experienced on Delta. To illustrate: I once left a brand new, alpaca sweater my wife bought me in the overhead bin as I deplaned. Before I reached the end of the skyway, I realized that fact and asked a crewmember if I could grab it. She said I would need to contact Lost and Found later. No, I couldn’t make this stuff up! I should have left Delta then and there, but I was young and foolish.

I made at least 30 calls over two weeks and could not once get through to a person or voicemail at the Lost & Found. Only a Delta employee would find that an acceptable alternative to walking twenty steps to grab my sweater. [The worse incidents are too lengthy to recount, but I'll gladly share as part of a "what not to do" session in your customer service training.]

Sincerely,
[Names and Skymiles Numbers]