koreanair720

Two flights on Saturday—both delayed. Both SLIGHT delays, but delays nonetheless; we boarded about 45 minutes late on each segment.

Why, then, do the gate agents, and then the flight attendants and pilots, not even ACKNOWLEDGE the delays? They acted as though the flights were operating perfectly normally. I do not understand this. Customer service 101: Just make the customers feel like their (relative) plight is understood.

This seems to be an endemic training issue. A few months ago we had a THREE HOUR delay; no apologies from gate staff or crew. I emailed and got a few miles for the matter, but I really just wanted them to consider upping their training. But it's amazing to me that people need to be trained to apologize for screw-ups. Er...common courtesy?

jalves

Not to dispute your actual experience, but in my experience the gate agents and flight crews have always acknowledged and apologized for the delays I've encountered. I don't think your experience is the norm.

3Cforme

I would love to see a transcript of the gate agent and pilot announcements for your flights. I hear apologies again and again.

davetravels

I find that they usually DO apologize for delays, to the point that it actually seems strange that they're apologising for delays as small as 10 or 15 minutes sometimes.

obscure2k

I can't recall a time when an an apology was not offered.

koreanair720

So I should have worn a wire?

fliesdelta

You can also file a complaint with Delta so they follow-up. I don't know if they archive this kind of communications.

I don't recall ever not hearing apologies for even short delays of just minutes.

koreanair720

Yeah, happy to hear I've had some outlier experiences recently.

ND76

Three Fridays ago, DCA-LGA shuttle operated by Republic Airways, 0600 departure, we get down the jetway, when the pilots tell the GA to turn us around and go back to the terminal; the GA claims he doesn't know what is wrong with the plane but is trying to find out.

20 minutes or so later the captain emerges from the jetway and engages a passenger he clearly knows in a conversation. The captain spills the beans; the battery accessed by a little door on the rear left of the aircraft (either an E170 or an E175) is dead and needs to be replaced. He says that he has seen replacements take as little as 15 minutes or as much as 3 hours.

We end up on the 0700 departure, and make our connection to ORD, but we lose out on our upgrade (my wife is with me), and she is hacked off that we have to sit in row 15 rather than in row 2.

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LAX-SLC last Monday; the GA at 1800 tells me that they are ready to start boarding; however boarding doesn't actually start until 1830 (the scheduled departure is 1830). No explanation given. I don't need an apology, only an explanation. I have plenty of things to do in the terminal on an otherwise short connection (such as get a couple of adult beverages at the Sky Club, or try to get something to eat at one of the food counters in the terminal).

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I remember 30+ years ago when both Eastern and Delta knew that there were delays, but wouldn't tell you until they pushed back and you couldn't get off the flight. Those days are gone. Please keep us informed every 5-10 minutes or so when there is a delay. You don't have to lie about it.

Often1

No, but the other posts simply make the point that yours was out of "character".

As a matter of personal preference, an apology offered for a delay as a matter of a service standard is meaningless and just increases the amount of needless chatter on the PA system. If the delay was preventable, DL ought to address that and if it was not preventable, that is the end of it.

All I want is the best estimate of departure time based on the facts known at the time. Then I can plan accordingly.

I fully understand that the problem with that simple request is that it starts the Parade of the Numpties who rant that they were told 3 hours and it turned into 15 minutes or vice-a-versa, all part of the growing need for better crystal balls at the gate.

koreanair720

Clear implication was that I was lying. (Which is just weird.)

Anyway, yes, I agree. My point was acknowledging the delay would be helpful; give us some sense of what our ETA was. That simply didn't happen on either segment yesterday.

MSPeconomist

Increasing, customer service employees feel that they don't have to apologize for something that isn't their personal fault.

davetravels

You're reading way too much between the lines. Why would ANY of us want to imply that you're lying?

Zorak

You could be mistaken which is different from lying. You'd be surprised what people miss even when they think they're paying attention. Not saying that's necessarily what happened in your case, but it happens.

gooselee

I think most people agree with you on this, but again the experience you described sounds like an unfortunate outlier, and that's bound to happen due to sheer volume of DL flights.

That said, I'm pretty sure GAs and pilots are specifically trained to provide delay updates, since every time I have a delayed flight, questions about updates from those two roles appear on the email survey I get.