I sent a webform complaint to Delta today regarding DEC 17 AMS problems with flight 9378 (7 hours on plane before takeoff).My biggest gripe is the breakdown in communication re: my daughter flying UM (dedicated UM lines, KLM, AF, Delta all saturated). Websites with conflicting information, false flight status email notifications re:departure, and the 7 hour wait on the plane (instead of a lounge) for an 11+ hour flight.

I regret that i didn't save the flight information from flightstats.com regarding wait at gate, etc. Is there a way to get historical flight information?
I also wonder WHO will respond to my complaint since we are based in France, but bought our tickets from Delta US and what should we expect in response? If it's a 'too bad/so sad' letter as if she had a broken IFE video, I'll fume.
My daugter (11yo) is Silver Medallion.

You have the same rights as everyone else under EU law. If you arrive more than 3 hours late you can be eligible for cash compensation between 250 and 600 euros. You could always outsource your claim to this organization: http://www.euclaim.co.uk/

However, this exceptional kind of weather is being deemed an Act of God/force majeur meaning that the airlines do not have to compensate you under the EU legislation.

While sitting on the plane for an extra seven hours is no fun and since you sent an 11 year old out on their own you were probably beside yourself with guilt and worry, it is a fact that your daughter was delivered to you alive and well, despite the impact of twice in a century kind of bad weather. Be thankful she did not have to spend days on the floor of the airport as passengers at Heathrow or be sent alone to a hotel for 2 days as passengers have here. Would you rather have had them skip safety protocol to depart quickly and skimp on de-icing and then have your daughter and all the passengers needlessly perish in a fiery crash?

You can't change the flight that already happened but you can be part of the solution for preventing things like this becoming more common in future. IMO it would be better to complain to the EU regulatory authorities and demand legislation and enforecement that the transportation system, including airports, be required to be made more robust and resilient and able to better handle infrequent but severe winter weather with a minimum of disruptions. Oh, and be ready to pay for it either in higher taxes, higher airfare or both. Requiring airports to have too many people and too much equipment for 99% of the time is very expensive and someone must be willing to pay for it.

The delay isn't what troubled me. I think I should have been notified..especially when her connecting flights were to be modified, I think the UM line should ALWAYS work, and also that she should have been taken to the kids lounge to wait comfortably..not sitting on a plane for 7 hours when it was evident they wouldn't be leaving soon. None of those things would have put anyone's safety in jeoprady.

Well said. ^

That I agree with. Even in a chaotic environment notifications should be accurate and special attention should be paid to UMs (since this service is paid for).

That I disagree with. If you put it that way, every pax should have been taken elsewhere (in a more comfortable place) instead of sitting in the plane for 7 hours... not just your daughter. That is directly related to the bad weather causing mayhem at the airport.

I can empathize with your point of view. However, the information from the UM line is only as good as the input into it and in times of force majeur, service interruption, foiled plans and uncertainty it is unreasonable and unrealistic to expect for them to perfectly predict the future and notify everyone ahead of time. The 7 hour delay was every bit a suprise to DL as to anyone else.

Had the plane gone back to drop off your daughter it would have lost its slot and your daughter and everyone else on the plane would likely have spent a couple of days in Amsterdam as is increasingly the case in the US under the new legislation. Would you rather have had this outcome of your daughter alone in a strange city and not arriving at all while being informed better?

The obsession and high expectations created by things such as UPS or FedEx online package tracking is getting a bit creepy. Your daughter is not a shipment from amazon.com. Either you trust the UM process or you don't and then you should take the time and money to actually supervise and travel with your child IMHO. If you want to avoid risks of service interruption, don't travel during the winter holiday season.

I don't know what options the grown-ups on the plane were given. I suspect that some of them, given the choice, would have deplaned and found a hotel for 2 days rather than spend 18 hours in economy (not just deplaned to the holding pen).

They seemed to have left the gate twice, for the last time around 2 hours before take-off. I suspect they might have had to change-out staff?

I'd love to hear from someone else who was on that flight, because my information is coming from my daughter and from what I could piece together from flightstats.

As far as keeping informed of where my child is when I send her UM, I dont think it is expecting too much. They expect ME to be available during her whole journey and I expect it from THEM. For me, UM is not a choice. I'm divorced, an expat, and visitation is part of the court order. A huge percentage of my salary already goes to airfare and i'm not always able to accompany here (but i sometimes do). I was supposed to do the return journey with her, but have been unable to leave France with the CDG debacle. For that, I certanly don't blame Delta/AF.

Just received a very disappointing email from the KL customer service, including only a formal apology and these lines.

"Unfortunately, our resources were stretched during this period to a point were our normal levels of service could not be achieved. We realise that we can all learn from this experience and we will undertake a review of the situation, along with the relevant airport authorities, in due course the with the aim of improving all our services for the future."

No reference to my specific case, no compensation at all, neither for the problems with the SC agent nor the fact that I flew a lower class than paid for. So whats next? How do I make sure DL deals with my complaint, not KL? It was a DL employee that I had an issue with, and my ticket is on a DL booking code.

What about snail mail to DL, will that also be transferred to KL? Or what's the DL number to call? Help me out here, guys...

The email form from the website is often answered very quickly.
I'd start there.

There is also a post-flight complaint resolution number but I'm not remembering if it's an elite "perk" or for everyone.

A search might turn it up, or someone might chime in with it.

I think if your ticket was 006 coded then they will address your problems.

Point 1. I am clear that there is a difference between the airlines & the airport authority. I just assumed most people here do too, so I didn’t clarify. NVLS botched operations when the snow came & KLM didn’t care enough about its customers to do anything to help them (they were themselves woefully unprepared for weather). Even if NVLS screwed the pooch, KLM could have handled the subsequent situation (however terrible) with more effectiveness, consistency, & compassion. Nobody’s perfect…but they were particularly bad. I was shocked to have the carrier scapegoat another facility & choosing to lie to customers instead of taking responsibility (among other grievous offences). (P.S. I have a relative that works ATC at my destination airport)

Point 2. I will agree with you that integration has never been one of Delt's strengths. My point was to point out that KLM has been like a taxi driver who INTENTIONALLY doesn’t see you even though you’re in plain sight. We’re not an unpublished tier. Even if KLM got no info from Delta, KLM’s welcome has been unnecessarily cold (colder than normal) Furthermore, I think it is a deliberate attempt from KLM to devalue Diamond (service treatment) when flying on KLM (They can’t punish Delta, so why not punish the passenger). If someone hands a front end employee a boarding pass or FF card that says “Diamond” on it…& they treat the customer as if they forged it in their basement…what point is there in having an alliance? They are just p#ssed that this makes their program look even worse. EU FB members couldn’t “officially” join Worldperks, but now…

It wouldn’t surprise me if KLM just doesn’t WANT to play ball. They are not world famous for their friendliness. KLM employees not knowing about Diamond NOV 2009: potentially understandable. Not knowing about it in NOV 2010: intentional ignorance. How is it Delta’s problem or fault that KLM treats the 75K flyer the same as the 300K flyer…Do you even have people that fly that much? :D

Sorry, but I’m a BIS Diamond. My “easy miles” were ALL made inside a plane. I also get 100% of the miles that I flew…on ALL fare classes! Sounds more like you earn “Hard as H€ll to get miles”. 125K+ flyers are not “illusionary”. Diamond was a Delta’s attempt to keep Platinums flying past 75K (or switching everything above 75K to another carrier). There is apparently no need or desire for KLM to offer this tier.

Are you SERIOUS? :confused: It is your sober intention to compare seasonal snow with the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States? You like comparing apples to 9/11. How often does it snow/get cold in the Netherlands (to the point where deicing would be prudent…not just accumulation) compared to the number of times that there has been Hurricane Katrina. How reasonable is it for an airline operating in such a region to be able to not only cope with this eventuality but to treat its customers with respect & dignity?

The snow I witnessed on Dec 01 was neither rare nor exceptional. Nevertheless, KLM demonstrated that it trains its personnel to have all the cordiality of human traffickers. The blue dragons treat elites like undesirable leeches & all other passengers like cattle mangled in a train wreck. Don’t bother sharing your fabulous experiences…there’s a reason that they are known throughout the FF world as “the blue Dragons”.


FYI: 125K+ flyers have ALWAYS been there! A lot of us only fly in the front or on higher fares in the back. If you fly that much & your airline doesn’t give you anything for it, I feel sorry for you. If you want op-ups on Delta metal…become a Delta top tier medallion. Last time I check the reciprocal PUBLISHED benefits among Skyteam members are nearly negligible. Most non-AMS stations are contract personnel anyways…so no consistency of service there. Please don’t delude yourself into thinking that KLM gives us anything when we’re on your metal, ESPECIALLY intra-EU.

PPP

I am flying into AMS tomorrow from Athens where the weather is Easter like...Are all the problems at AMS solved by now??

Give me a fricken break. A Diamond is still at least a Plat, even in your scheme of things. This is too difficult for AF/KLM to grasp--an extra level?:rolleyes: Where did I hear "show me the levels":D I'd hate to see how they handle something even mildly complex. Let's try a few out on them. 1+1=?, 2x2=?, 32F=?C , If GBP is Great Britain Pound, then USD is ?--and EUR is ?

Actually the snow you saw was exceptional. AMS gets about as much meaningful snow accumulation as any sunbelt American city and I haven't seen this much snow stay around this long in 40 years -- virtually during the entire jet age.

New York on the other hand is used to getting lots and lots of snow yet after this latest storm the airports are closed there again and thousands and thousands of flights are cancelled. How on earth is it possible that an airport with that much experience and equipment and people and money spent can't keep operations open? After all the snow in New York is much less exceptional than what we have seen in Europe recently...

It's one thing to close an airport during a blizzard of winds and 30 to 40cm snow/ zero visibility..and to expect it to get cleaned up quickly after. (I'll bet NYC cleans-up their snow 100x faster than AMS or CDG)

What happened in AMS -AFTER- the snow let-up is what should be embarassing for them.

I see the current US east coast storms being brought up to justify CDG response too "see, it's not just us...even the big boys close airports!"

IF NYC airports are still closed 2 or 3 days after it stops snowing...then i'll shamefully go sit in a corner.

It's only meaningless if you don't care that DL has introduced a program change that does not fit into the JV and alliance and has not been able to ensure that this change has been supported throughout the alliance. ATL has a good old boy off the plantation culture that likes to act like they can do whatever they want whenever they want without having to work together with their partners. It is a pretty common attitude that you will find at Coca-Cola and other hubris-filled insular companies from provincial cities such as ATL. Unfortunately, it doesn't work when you are trying to create a global alliance that actually works for customers -- which is why I spend so much time on *A these days.

No one outside of DL, Skymiles devotees and FT readers knows what the heck a Diamond is.
It is not our fault that DL is playing games with inflation instead of reigning in earning rates and keeping the programs harmonized.

:p