ethernal

I don't mind the automatic rebooking. I mind the proactive automatic rebooking.

Courtesy of living in Atlanta I have had to take very few connections with Delta, but I've been blessed in that I've only formally missed one connection - but I have had four instances where VIPR proactively rebooked me because the system decided that I wouldn't be able to make a connection because at some point the flight was scheduled to arrive materially under minimum connection time. Delta's software says "oh, look, ethernal is going to arrive with only 20 minutes to transfer at Atlanta.. let me rebook" or "oh, look, ethernal is trying to clear JFK customs with less than an hour to make the connection.. no way he can make that, let me rebook." Well, Delta underestimates my ability to run through concourses and get through customs (and underestimates a pilot making time back up in the air).

I ended up making every flight VIPR booked me off of - including one flight where I got to the gate before boarding even started on the next flight. I was able to get back on every flight, but not without a fight (including phone calls while in the air which I'm not supposed to do and arguing with a gate agent that they need to unclear standbys that already cleared) - and every time I lost my exit row / C+ / F seat and had to sit in the very back.

The right way to do it would be to protect a passenger on both flights, but Delta loves to proactively rebook folks out of a flight to clear up capacity for the flight they think you'll miss and make gate ops easier/faster. I get it and helps them run cleaner/smoother ops, but I would think they would make an exception for high-statused medallions. Those proactive VIPR rebookings literally reflect the absolute worst of my Delta experiences and I can guarantee you I had a negative NPS for several weeks after each of those incidents.