Originally Posted by
FlyingNone
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I truly like your very understandable explanation........Sad though that 99% of passengers do not realize this and rightly so (not their fault). Long gone are the days when someone at an airline (call center or counter) was well-trained to either explain things clearly and actually be able to fix it without the ever-present inability to think out of the box, make an exception, save the passenger from an unnecessary fees or worse, (the passenger) be left holding the bag, stranded and at a complete loss of what to do.
Been in this industry well over 30+ years. It was so easy to actually HELP people when things went wrong, bring relief to them, make a way out, offer options that were palatable. Now agents shake in their boots anticipating some heavy-handed supervisor calling them on the carpet for the smallest of exceptions, changing a reservation, waiving a fee, etc. Now they are nothing more than button-pushers on the kiosks. Better search out very senior agents if you want someone who will know how to change a ticket, over-ride something and take the problem a bit further than the word "no" or "you need to pay us this (exorbitant) fee".
In general, this does not describe most of my experiences with Delta agents. While I've certainly run into new/poorly trained reps (especially when calling late night), most of the time I've had excellent customer service from Delta.