New York CTO Is Closed
 

I have been on the road for two weeks, have not read all the Delta threads so don't know if this has been covered, but I went out of my office to a meeting today, and saw that the city ticket office, across from my office, was dark. I went over and there's a sign that says it's "permanently closed". I think this must have occurred in the last two weeks or so.

When I would go by at midday, there's always seemed to be a line in there (often non-U.S. folks requesting assistance).

All the others in the US disappeared about four years ago. NYC was the last one in the US. It has been removed from the list of locations on Delta.com.

http://www.delta.com/help/contact_us...rica/index.jsp

Why would anyone need a CTO in the 21st century?

Pretty soon most of us will be able to get along without airlines, too.

Because it is Delta and not everyone is living in/close to ATL.

"Beam me to Atlanta, Delta!" ;)

Paper credits is one of the rare cases I can think of.

Exactly. Back in the day, I used to go there to redeem VDB vouchers (beat having to take care of it at the airport).

But I don't go to CTOs in Atlanta anymore either. I used to need to go to get a ticket for an international flight so I could do the visa application but now I can print my own. In the 90s I was at a CTO monthly. I thought they were all gone a long time ago.

I admit that 3 years ago, I would have totally agreed with you. But after the JV disaster, I do have an immediate need for speaking to real Delta persons at least once a month. Want to change a DL-coded but AFKLAM-operated flight? Easy in 75%, an odyssey for the remaining 25%. Got a TCV from "DL" when being a European customer? You get a KLM-coded piece of paper that must be converted back to DL before you can really use it. Got one of the rare TCV from AF that have been issued for a DL flight? And you did use them? Perfect, you actually can use them directly the problem is that after applying the voucher on phone, the flights total comes out as "0.00€" and you may end up having trouble being reimbursed for the flight. You book a flight on DL, something goes south, AF is taking over the reservation (if you are, once again European) and when something goes wrong again you may end up with a "shadow" reservation that is guaranteeing "fun" at your airport and in particular GlobalEntry/immigration: "Sir, you should not be here". Or stations set up like ORD, where the help desk is BEHIND security and you are intimidated by an epic queue in your back when trying to deal with some issues at checkin.

Additionally, the outsourcing virus seems to have infected DL in particular. Whenever I try to sort something out at smaller stations, the personell has to call DL as well in order to get something done. What a joke. I have never heard more "I am not authorised to do that, please deal with that in ATL" than in SAT.

So, without the CTOs where do you go? Go to the FTO? I don't like interacting with the employees there either. I like the kiosks. They always smile.

because their technology is from the 18th century (I had to talk to the reissue desk yesterday...why?)

FYI, it appears all the CTO's in Atlanta are now closed as well.

For me this is not a joke. :( We do have kiosks over here but they dont work (you are trying to check in for an international flight, please see an agent). They also wont work when your first flight is on AFKLM. I would love to have a Delta office somewhere.

Let me just give you a quick example of how bad it is internationally: I had an issue in TXL concerning the rebooking of a flight. The personell there, outsourced AF, was refusing any support for Delta, no way to get help. In CDG, the agents just rolled their eyes and confirmed that the ticket was indeed changeable, they called Delta, and ended up yelling at each other on the phone. However, no result at all apart from learning a new vocabulary that you would not teach your kids. In IAH, the agent was simply telling me that he is not "with DL" and therefore cannot decide/do anything on their own and send me to the AF staff. The AF staff itself is not from DL either and send me back to the DL staff. Arriving in SAT, the staff did not know anything but to call the DL helpline and got the answer I was getting: this fare is not changeable (which is wrong as already stated multiple times by AF) ...

That happened years ago... NYC was the only one left.