Poor DL flight experience... need advice
 

Ok folks, I need some info here. I am not a FF but do take a couple trips a year.

This past Thu., I had a flight scheduled from my regional airport (TLH) to CMH. First class booking. Flight out of TLH was supposed to be 8:15, wheels down around 9:30 with my connection at 10:20 arriving at CMH at noon. I had a business meeting that afternoon in a town about an hour away and a driver was going to meet me at noon.

At 5:15am, I get an SMS that my initial flight was delayed until 11:47am! I could not get to the airport in time to catch the USAir flight that would have saved me. I got confusing info so I went to the airport ASAP to see what I could do. Delta had auto-rebooked me to arrive at CMH around 7:30pm! I got onto a connecting flight that got me into CMH around 4pm.

No one at TLH gave us any updates, no vouchers were offered. The plane sat at the jetway the entire time we were delayed. No maintenance seemed to being done. The flight left at the designated delay time and the FC attendant was a bit surly though she did apologize for the delay. Upon arriving in ATL, I went to the departure gate to get my boarding pass. I found that I had been bumped from FC to coach. The flight was FULL, with 20 on standby. I was happy to have a seat, but again, no vouchers, no nothing. I went to the Skybar for a drink to calm my nerves as rework my entire afternoon.

I got a survey tonight from Delta about my "satisfaction" with my delayed flight. I was honest. I booked this flight through AmEX Online.

How should I pursue this? I am not of ANY kind of elite level so I am just one of many passengers that experience this every day. But wow was that disappointing. Not even a meal voucher. Fortunately, my access to the lounge did a lot to soothe my nerves on the day.

Thoughts from you FF's are most welcome about how you guys would deal with this. Deal with Delta? Handle it through Amex? What would you push for?

Thanks...

At the very least you should get some compensation for flying coach when you paid for Firsto

Push for a partial refund on the downgrade if you paid F to start with. That is, if your F booking was "paid F" or miles rather than an op upgrade.

As to the rest, it happens and you did book two itineraries on different carriers, meaning your first and second flights were unrelated and you would not be accomodated all the way through. Stick with one carrier.

Generally, the airline is only responsible to get you to the flight destination airport. If they can get you there that same day, no compensation is due (it's in the contract of carriage that came with your ticket). Meal vouchers/hotel vouchers etc are typically only handed out if the delay will not be resolved until the following day.

The airline is not responsible for the personal plans of passengers, be they lesiure or business. They are responsible for upholding their end of the ticket contract. That means they are not responsible for people missing work, meetings, funerals, parties etc.

Yes. it was paid F. Only flying a couple times a year, I am not going to be getting any upgrades.

I did not book 2 itineraries. Maybe my wording was confusing. This was an all Delta deal.

Good to know. Thank you.

Yea I know. But anything would have been nice. Just as a cheap token. Like I said, if I had booked coach, it would have been one thing, but on a full price F ticket, I would have expected a bit more.

Thursday was a bad weather day, lots of delays. If your delays were weather related there would be no comp. Did you ask for vouchers ? If you paid for FC they will refund you the difference, get it in cash not a voucher

Yea, I saw the weather. And I think had they announced it was a weather delay, everyone would have been a lot more understanding. But there was NO announcement at the gate or anywhere else. Just 3.5 hours of waiting. Longer for me since I had gotten there well before flight time to see if I could make other arrangements.

I'll remember to get it in cash. Thanks. Although to be honest, I'd rather have a coach to FC upgrade in the future if I could be assured I could use it on a flight of my choosing.

Since you paid for first but flew in coach, I would expect a substantial cash refund from Delta, and if they gave you static, I would chargeback the Amex. How is that even legal? As for the rest, flight delayed, auto rebooked into an undesirable flight that you had to change etc. that is just par for the course and usually the compensation, if any depends on cause. Wx, air traffic control = beyond airline control = no compensation. Maintenance, etc. under their control = maybe you'll get a voucher, even some miles.

But being moved from a PAID first into coach? No way that they should be able to provide anything other than cold, hard cash. Every time I hear a story like that it makes me hesitate to buy First/Business on Delta...sadly, the only time I've paid for First/BUsiness it has been on a different airline because stories like these create a lot of FUD (fear uncertainty doubt).

Let us know what happens. I'm hoping to upgrade my income and thus start buying more first/business tix with cash rather than miles but...it would be idiotic to do so if they can arbitrarily put you back in coach anyway. Why are these stories always about Delta? Sigh...

As this is focused on Delta Airlines, please follow as the thread moves to that airline's forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

The OP clarified his planned travel, but this statement needs to be corrected in any event. If the OP is on a single ticket, the carrier that delivers him late to the connecting point is responsible (from customer service and financial viewpoints) for arranging onward travel to the ticketed destination, be it on its own aircraft or others. That's the IATA convention, irrespective of carrier alliances or elite status.

i bet OP had a pseudoF fare that was an instant UG but really a coach fare basis.

and i bet OP never knew that, just asked for first class ticket on dl.com

and i think OP deserves 15k skypesos, and maybe $100 for the downgrade

No.

I booked first class. Not psuedo anything. Booked it on Amex's site not DL. Unless this is some hidden way to get a First Class booking at Coach fare (I paid several hundred more for the ticket than the coach fares were showing) I believe I paid for First Class, my ticket read as such, and so did my boarding pass.

In fact looking at my BP now, is there something on here that would indicate what you are saying?

My BP says DL5178 19JUL Class:A Origin Tallahassee Destination: Atlanta

Thoughs?

A and P fares are typically the types of which aubreyfromwheaton speaks. They have a coach fare basis with instant (as available) upgrade to F. An employee poster has talked about IROPS compensation when an F re-route isn't available. It's unlikely the OP would have wanted to wait for available F given the time sensitivity expressed up-thread.

There is compensation for these UP fares and it's more than what's been mentioned above. Look at your fare basis code, if it has UP anywhere it is one of these fares. Either way you're due a partial refund or a voucher, contact Delta on delta.com

Your inbound aircraft arrived late the previous night. Thus, your flight was delayed to allow the crew the required minimum rest period.

My first call that morning would have been to DL to get on the 7AM flight. Barring success, my next call would be to AMEX travel to get a flight that worked and then a call back to DL for a refund, to which you were entitled given the delay was > 90 minutes.

I am very new at this. Where does the Fare Basis code appear? I'll look for it if you can give me some idea what it would look like.

On the BP, it my seat says "3A PREM. Class is "A". Is there something else I should be looking for? I looked at the class code is "discounted first class" so I guess I was not a full fare flyer.