When IRROPS go smoothly...
 

Just wanted to send a little love for Delta out into the FT universe...

I was scheduled to fly from MCO-OMA via MEM this evening, and while I was sitting in the SC (annoyed that my u/g wasn't going to clear on the MCO-MEM flight ;)), I got automated e-mails from my travel agent and Delta letting me know that the MEM-OMA flight was cancelled. I immediately went to the desk and had the agents start looking for alternatives. Nothing available at first glance (one of them even called AA to see about reticketing through DFW, to no avail), but they were eventually able to rebook me into A class (since Y was oversold) on a flight to ATL and then forced availability to get me on the oversold ATL-OMA flight. They called down to the ramp and rerouted both my checked bags successfully, which I conveniently monitored on the Delta app. My u/g even cleared at the gate in ATL!!

A big ^ to the MCO SC staff and ramp crew. It's situations like this where Delta really goes above and beyond for their medallions.

DL is good sometimes.

And it's IROPS, not IRROPS :)

-RM

It looks like the glossary has both variations listed...personal preference I guess? ;)

Sometimes it's all a matter of timing ....

I was flying PIT-DTW-CHA. I just sat down at Wendy's in DTW when Delta called. DTW-CHA was cancelled, no way to get to CHA until the next day. I looked at the monitors and noticed a flight to ATL that had been delayed for 4 hours was ready to leave. Jumped on that plane (they had many empty seats). Once in ATL, noticed that a ATL-CHA that was delayed for two hours was ready to leave. Jumped on that plane and arrived in CHA only 90 minutes later than originally scheduled. Sometimes it's all in the timing.

I had a similar good experience a few weeks ago, and made sure to send in a nice compliment to DL with the name of the gate agent who helped me out. My DCA-JFK portion of a DCA-JFK-SFO was delayed about an hour, but with a 3 hr layover in JFK I really wasn't too worried. I was actually happy as I was late leaving a client site and would have likely missed the flight if it weren't for the delay.

When I arrived at the gate, the GA was paging me to come to the podium. She said the inbound aircraft still hadn't left DTW and was about to get updated to a 3h delay. She had already been hard at work, and quickly read me my options of flights she had already booked me on and protected me on. She had me confirmed on the next flight to ATL, on standby on an early flight ATL-SFO, confirmed in FC on a later flight ATL-SFO, plus she had protected me on a later JFK-SFO flight just in case I decided I still wanted to go through JFK.

I was impressed, and decided I'd go through ATL to ensure I made it home. On top of that, the ATL flight was boarding and announcing last call so she called over to the gate to let them know she was sending someone over and to not close the boarding door yet.

Big ^ for her taking the initiative to pre-arrange multiple options to make sure I got home. If she hadn't done the work ahead of time, I would have missed the flight to ATL while we looked over options.

the only personal preference is IRROP...the Delta system uses IROP

A nice Diamond perk to confirm you :D and then to offer some kettle $50 to take a flight the next day, WIN WIN :D!

This past Sunday a regional jet operated by a Delta partner from ATL-IAH cancelled about 5 hours before departure and both my phones (home and cell) and email were sent multiple notification of the cancellation, and then the rebooking on a replacement Delta mainline flight, and then my upgrade.

I was on the phone with an agent asking about options when I saw that it had all happened automatically.^

It literally couldn't have been handled any better, and what ever IT was behind this process was working great.

Delta takes very good care of DM passengers whenever there are IROPs, always going above and beyond to get us wherever we are going. One of the main benefits of being DM on Delta.

I have found they are pretty good to PMs too.

I chuckled quite a bit when one SC agent said, "We try to take care of our Diamond Medallions" and the other one (without missing a beat) said "And we don't do anything for non-Diamonds!" The tongue-in-cheek humor was definitely appreciated, though I hope that others who may have overheard her knew she was joking!

(Cue the "A SC agent in MCO said that only Diamonds matter, how much compensation should I request?" thread :))

no argument last year when I was PM

I thought all was well as GM last week when my wife and I took a 1-hr ground stop at the end of the runway at DCA due to early morning thunderstorms in DTW ... we were continuing to SLC and PSP; once we shut down the engines I called the GM line and (thinking the inbound jet for DTW-SLC would also be late, and we would miss our 1130am flt to PSP) got us protected SLC-BUR at 3pm ... about 30 min later I checked FlyDelta and found that SLC was in fact on time, so during the looooooong taxi in at DTW (landed 3R, taxied all the way back around the south end of the terminal, and parked at A72 just as SLC was pushing off of A74) I was back on the phone with GM who protected us on DTW-LAX at 345pm

just for the sake of curiosity I checked delta.com for any earlier options to anywhere in the LA area, found 2 seats DTW-SEA-BUR but GM desk could only sell one; ditto for DTW-MEM-LAX

at this point we were looking at another 6 hrs at DTW so I bought Sky Club day passes ... decided to check with the agent at the desk about the earlier options ... imagine my surprise when she said my wife was actually NOT confirmed on the 345 flight, despite what the GM line agent had told me

after about 45 min on the phone with various agents and supervisors, she found one seat on the 1215 nonstop to LAX, forced a V seat, and then booked my wife into the now-available 32A (which I willingly occupied)

yes it all worked, but the uncertainty -- and the amount of aggravation that I had to go thru to make it work -- was disconcerting

in my email to DL I explicitly identified the DTW SC agent as certainly most deserving of a JWD for unscrewing what the GM phone reps had managed to severely mess up

Someone here, a former DL employee, used to have a signature line something like "every time you misspell it as IRROPs, a nonrev gets a FC seat thanks to Shena" (my paraphrase).

Had a relatively good experience in IROPland last night (8/5). Was due to fly ORD-LGA-BOS on the shuttle (all in F). Storms canceled or severely delayed everything to/towards the east coast.

What went well:

- Got in the SP line to talk to a DL rep who had me booked in F on the first flight the next morning through DTW.
- Later found a flight through a night in MSP that got in earlier and got booked on that.
- INCREDIBLY helpful GA in ORD helped me get the MSP flight in order, and booked me in F, even though it took half an hour for her to get it all in order. Ute S at ORD is a saint.

What didn't go as well:

- Potentially could have routed to BOS through MSP on the late flight from MSP-BOS, but either DL's computers didn't allow the route or it was already fully booked. I was not thinking clearly enough to ask about that option at the time.
- DL was unable to view other carriers' availability in real time; I called AA and at one point they had a seat available, but the lines were so long that it was gone well before I could get to a DL rep.
- My ticket got pretty well lost in DL's system so this morning (8/6) I had to check in with a person (remember doing that?) and almost didn't make the flight. I had to get a gate access coupon and worm my way in to the security line and sprint to the gate where they'd called my ticket in. Time to spare, but not much. (Had I missed the flight, I would have been a bit peeved, and probably demanded $$, SC access, you name it.)
- DL had hour-long call wait times, and when I selected the call-back option it rang my phone and went to dead air (planning a complaint letter regarding this, since it shouldn't happen).

Still, when there's a line of thunderstorms from Montreal to Atlanta, things go awry. It would be *nice* if DL would run extra services once the storms cleared out (say, take a couple of idled ERJs at ORD and run in direct to BOS and DCA), but I assume that would be an operational and logistical nightmare (although damn would it make their customers happy).