currentjer

A little black sheep can destroy the good reputation of the company, and this was one little incident that could have put another unnecessary dent on Delta.

On 25 May, I had a less-than-pleasant airport experience at LAX - to DPS, via SYD.

1. At check-in, the TA, refused to double-check my credentials as a PM on the system, and thus refused to tag my baggage with priority. As the bag was taken to the belt, I articulated more insistently, and had to pull out my card in order for her to recall the baggage. I never had to do this before.

2. She then very reluctantly re-checked me in - and when a colleague came by her desk to ask her how she was, she had the audacity to say that "my day was going fine until some people decided to get shouty."

3. This is uncalled for - I would never shout at anyone, especially service staff. My family is in the service industry, and we will never make another fellow service person feel small and unappreciated. However, snubbing your customer right in front of them is simply mischevous behavior. I was ready to let it go - since my parents were with me.

4. Nevertheless, what happened next was quite the shocker. When she was finished checking me in, she threw the boarding passes and my passport across the desk. They slid off the table.

5. I decided to ask for her name, but she refused to give it to me. She insisted: "You're all set, and I'm done." I asked again for her name, and she threw me a shrug and walked away from her check-in desk!

6. Throwing fits at the customer is not what DL employees should be doing. Fortunately, her colleagues were kind enough to request for a red coat - and the red coat gave me her name and promised to speak with her.

7. I hope to continue giving my business to this company, and I would like to see this incident as a very isolated one. And I hope DL will counsel the TA about this.

kerrymac747

Totally at a loss for words. That was inexcusable.
I would have asked for a red coat on the spot.

plagwate

Yet you would post the TA's identifying information in a public forum to what end?

Often1

That OP would post the CSR's name on FT after over 2 years and 377 posts, tells me that there's more to this than OP has related.

newsmanhoss

With all due respect, we don't know whether J Smith is the real name. J Smith might be a generic "John Doe" name that the OP out in as a placeholder.

Care to chime in, OP?

currentjer

Whoops, copy and pasted from email to DL - now edited, thanks for pointing out.

Bagels

Everybody has a bad day, every company has bad employees -- often not brought to its attention -- and sometimes when something upsets us, we look for other things to justify our feelings, even if they don't exist.

You had a bad experience, but it seems the Red Coat tried to rectify it, so it appears you received some level of good service. If you've often had these experiences on Delta I could understand... but to get this upset over a one-time incident tells me a lot about yourself.

I've spent my entire adult life working in the airline industry (not for DL), and usually it comes down to '...the TA didn't smile and greet me by name when I checked in for my $89 transcontinental flight. I demand a $500 voucher!' I'm not at all saying this was the case here ... just that you'd be surprised how often people pull that trick.

CarmenOM

Or maybe the Red Coat gave a generic name?!

OP, with all due respect for the frustration of your experience at LAX, your profile and your post do convey a certain degree of a DYKWIA college student. I suspect that is even harder for service personnel to take than a 45-year-old with a DYKWIA attitude.

currentjer

I needed those priority tags because DPS can be a horrible airport to negotiate. I was curious why my status didn't show, and TA didn't believe that I was PM. DL IT being mischievous again? Well, the fact that TA misbelieving me didn't get me upset. What got me upset was that TA said and did all the aforementioned, reluctance to re-check me, throwing documents back at me. I just thought it was uncalled for.

And come on - not providing your name when requested, that is just plain cowardly! This is not the first time that a DL customer service representative has refused to provide his/her name when he/she knows that he/she might have done something wrong. I mean why hide your name? Even her colleagues shook their heads when she left the desk in a fit of anger, and came over to tell me quite nicely that they have requested for a red coat.

I have nothing to prove - except that I want to enjoy the benefits that loyalty supposedly gets one at DL. I might look (and am) a college student - but look, I admire and appreciate the service staff at DL, and I've never thought that pulling the DYKWIA card should be an option.This incident somehow takes the cake, and I'm happy to have kept calm throughout. TA obviously should have shown a little more restraint and patience (and NOT frustration), knowing that there might be a problem with my reservation and status.

Nevertheless, I question if sharing such a horrible experience here (and providing some feedback to DL) makes me look like a DYKWIA, I sometimes don't know why we have this community. Aren't we here to share interesting travel experiences too?

davetravels

By absolutely NO MEANS am I trying to lessen the gravity of how you were treated! It was certainly unacceptable . . . .

That said, I'm just curious to know what value a Priority Bag Tag will have on what I presume would be a non SkyTeam flight arriving at DPS?

Spiff

Look on your BP. There may be a 3 character code to identify the agent who checked you in.

currentjer

They are actually quite good at DPS about all priority tags. They put them in one corner, separate from the non-ptag bags, even before they come out of the carousel. I have had SQ priority tags on KL flights, and still, they were treated as priority.

davetravels

Cool to know!

Starblazer

On the boarding pass will be the airport you checked in and then the agent's sine -- enough to trace it back to an agent. I once had a lady who was super insistent on her being priority because of her card and she demanded it look it up.... and she didn't even check in yet. Once I walked her through checking in, she checked her bags and .. wow.... the priority was already there!!

In other words, the interaction could have been 10 minutes shorter if she would have just checked in instead of causing a ruckus at the ticket counter.

I've also had customers argue with me that their amex gets them priority bags. Nope! Only a free one!!

javabytes

This. Your BP likely has the agent's code along the bottom, right next to the barcode.