jwlowry

Going into the WABAC machine, I cannot recall this ever happening to me before. I arrived at gate A69 in Detroit for DL3677 on Tuesday, April 30, eighteen minutes before my scheduled flight, for which I had a paid F seat boarding pass, to find the door to the jet bridge closed and no one around. I stuck around, hoping the agent would come back up and let me on. About five minutes prior to scheduled departure, the jet bridge pushed back and the plane left. My inbound was delayed a bit, but I still had plenty of time to make the connection and, indeed, did arrive at the gate prior to the fifteen minute 'limit'.

Here's the kicker: I just got off the phone with Delta Customer Care and was told that my seat was given to another passenger twenty-five minutes prior to the flight being closed, which occurred, according to the same Customer Care agent, nineteen minutes prior to the scheduled departure time. If my math is correct, the 3:49pm departure closed at 3:30pm, but my seat was given up at 3:05pm. My inbound was scheduled to arrive at 2:57pm, and got to the gate at 3:15pm.

No one at the airport offered to do anything for me, and the two red coats to whom I spoke (including the gate agent that handled DL3677) both walked away from me when I asked if the flight had been oversold. The Customer Care agent said that the flight left with 16 empty seats, so it does not seem as though this was an attempt to forestall an IDB situation. The net of it was a four hour delay that could have easily been prevented. Customer Care offered me 5,000 miles as a 'goodwill' gesture which, when monetized, comes to about $12.50 per hour. Better than a poke in the eye, I guess. Have others experienced similar? If so, how did you resolve it?

Thank you!