Originally Posted by
BumpMeVoucherMeATL
Just wanted to send out a quick update. After much investigation, here's what we figured out:
A walk up customer purchased a FIRST class of service ticket T-30 before the flight departed, but no seat was assigned to him / her. The gate agents processed the upgrade list at 52 minutes past the hour, and I was upgraded into FIRST but then downgraded at 53 minutes past the hour so the FIRST class of service ticket holder could have his seat.
Customer service was awesome at investigating this for me and helped me understand what happened. The customer service agent event said "Had I been the gate agent, that guy would have been sitting in coach if I had cleared your upgrade". Delta offered a very nice goodwill gesture, which was not necessary since all I wanted was a good explanation as to why this all happened.
^ this is a very nice outcome. It's quite rare for a "large company" to investigate and report back. Out of curiosity, what was the gesture? Travel credit, SkyMiles? No reason to keep it secret. (I reported my 60K SkyMiles "gesture" recently, due to an agent "screwing up" my reservation).
This is one reason, why I am loyal to Delta. They make things right. I agree, there have been a ton of SkyMiles devaluations; but that's just one factor of choosing an airline. Delta takes good care of me (and my family); and has consistently made things "right" when things go "wrong."
I know you think I give you a "hard time,"
BumpMeVoucherMeATL; but you are one (unless I am mistaken) who has been very verbal about leaving Delta in 2015 due to SkyMiles devaluations. While I'm not going to argue, a lot of changes are disheartening, that is just one aspect of Delta.
Based on the data-points you list above, it seems that you are flying quite a bit; ex-ATL. Choosing to fly on another carrier that might involve more connections, and worse service recovery is short-sighted in my opinion. But, then again, I refuse to inconvenience myself on a regular basis. We can beat up on Delta as much as we like; but their service recovery, IrrOps handling, and overall customer service (on the plane, and on the ground) far exceed the other legacy carriers.