Robert Leach

Got a call from a friend today who was on DL 31 LHR-ATL (13 AUG). According to him, about the time the flight reached 30,000 feet the cabin acutely depressurized and out came the oxygen masks.

The plane returned to LHR and the passengers were offloaded along with bags. The flight was canceled.

The call to me came with a plea to help him get rebooked. At the time, it was nearly 4 p.m. in London and he was waiting for bags to come off the plane. He was booked in Delta One on a B fare (i.e., not cheap) using miles to upgrade. He is MM/PM.

I looked quickly and noticed there was one seat left in J on the LHR-JFK flight at 5:30p, so I quickly called Delta.

The attitude of the Platinum line agent was the most astonishingly bad I have ever dealt with in over 30 years of flying the airline. He put me on hold to talk to a supervisor, then came back on the line and started lecturing me that this was a coach ticket that had been upgraded and because of "rules we have to follow" he wasn't sure what he could do to get the passenger rebooked in J. He also complained that rebooking him on the JFK flight would require an overnight at JFK before connecting the next morning, clearly unaware that even absent the IROP situation, one is allowed up to 24 hours to connect at an international gateway. The attitude was simply astonishing. Trying not to come off as a DYKWIA (but perhaps failing a wee bit, forgive me), I told him what I thought of his tone.

I asked to speak to the supervisor. He consented and put me on hold. He came back on the line 2-3 minutes later to miraculously tell me that everything had been rebooked, and then asked "Do you still want to speak to the supervisor?" I declined the offer at that point. I have no idea what the supervisor told him, but somewhere along the way the light bulb came on.

/Rant over, but still one would expect more in a situation like this.

KDCAflyer

Another example of the shocking decline in quality that DL customer service has experienced in recent years.

langbr01

Last week I volunteered in an overbook situation (international) and called to confirm my ticket had been reissued as both the app and delta.com wouldn't let me check in. I also noticed when looking more closely that the receipt/ticket on delta.com still had my old flights. This is usually the culprit when check-in errors arise. Furthermore I wanted to confirm that my bags indeed had been rerouted to the correct flights. I had 2 agents in a row that were incredibly rude, conceding and short with me. I was polite and attempted to clearly explain my concerns.

I don't know why there is this growing disparity in professionalism. As an aside I typically I find daytime agents are far more competent than those reached during late evening hours.

BenA

Make sure to take the survey; the only way this gets fixed is if the rude people keep getting '1's and the quality employees get their well-deserved '5's...

mot29

On the other hand, last week, checking in for YYZ-MSP-DCA at the kiosk in YYZ I get a message that I was going to misconnect in MSP and offered a connection through NYC. I wasn't paying close enough attention and took it only to discover it was for the next day and flying YYZ-LGA/JFK-DCA.
I called and talked with a Chisholm agent who got me rebooked for the next day YYZ-DTW-DCA mid-morning, straight into Y+. This was an award ticket.
She spent a lot of time on it, had to work with the reissue desk, etc.
I guess what this really speaks to is the inconsistency -- there are some really good agents working. I complimented her and asked if she was one of the work at home agents -- she responded, no -- I'm in Chisholm. So glad that Diamond calls sometimes are going to them.
Yes, I spent an extra night in Toronto, but relatively painlessly.

bennos

While I'm not saying you got the best CSA, technically there is no guarantee that your upgrade will be maintained.

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...de-awards.html

synergistic

Well, yes, but there's definitely no need to be rude about it. There are certain types of IRROPS (oxygen masks dropping??) that would likely result in some later compensation - an agent that can offset some of the negative experience right away should do so. I've always treated that 'no guarantee' thing as 'we'll try to make it work, but we're not booting anyone for you.' Agents who are surly AND unwilling to even try are pretty unacceptable.

jdrtravel

It did not appear that that OP was acting as though the pax was entitled to this. It appeared that the OP was expecting that the agent would do their best to honor the upgrade due to mx. This seems reasonable to me.

Robert Leach

And by doing his best, it would mean to me that if there was space in J, then the passenger who was confirmed in J on the original flight should be confirmed in J on the replacement routing.

I certainly understand that if no space is available in J on a replacement flight, or flights, then you won't get it. But if you were confirmed in J, even if it was via an upgrade using an instrument (which is a bit different than a comp upgrade), and space is available on alternate flights in J, then you should be confirmed into it. It should not require upgrade inventory IMO.

The cardinal rule of IROPS is that you can book the passenger on any flight in any cabin via any routing to get the customer to his destination. And I know of no bigger irregular operation example than a flight that suddenly depressurizes at 30,000 feet and has to return to the airport, oxygen masks dangling, for a relatively urgent landing. In this case, it was not "My goodness, what an ordeal, let me see what I can do!" It was exactly the opposite. The agent even pushed back over routing the passenger via JFK since it would involve an overnight stay -- even though such an overnight stay is perfectly allowable by the rules. He just did not want to help, much less be creative in helping.

To follow up the original story, the passenger got an e-mail from Delta within a few hours of the ordeal, advising him that Delta was going to refund the entire cost of the ticket as compensation for the flight irregularity. Apparently someone thought it was a pretty substantial deal.

MSPeconomist

The OP is asking that DL give the last available business class seat to a PM who was upgraded. To me, it would make sense to give the few available business class seats for rebooking either to DMs or to those who have paid for business class. An upgraded PM should receive lower priority during IROPs.

jdrtravel

I mean, loosing pressure and having the masks drop is, these days, a pretty rare and I would say substantial situation.

nichojo

Agreed.

Fundamental problem here is that OP's buddy didn't buy a business class ticket and expected business class service end to end. It's like getting an upgrade in the plane - you got the bigger seat but you didn't get to use the lounge.

Once the IRROPs button gets pushed Delta's obligation is to do everything they can to get everyone on that plane to their destinations as soon as possible and unfortunately the person in question wasn't the highest priority in the re-accommodation queue, hence why they didn't get that last seat.

steveholt

I realize that it wouldn't have been very useful given the tight turnaround your friend needed, but HUCB is second nature here for that very specific reason. It would be wrong to say DL customer service is universally bad, but it's very inconsistent.

JohnnyRockets

You just pulled a DYKWIA.

Yes if confirmed in J you get J. But your friend got confirmed in Y and upgraded. What do you think would happen if a 4MM/360 on paid J found out that some MM/PM on "B" just took his last seat out. Maybe a new thread "Y upgrade beats paid J and snatch last seat from IRROPS."

You are missing an important piece of your cardinal IRROPS rule. You forgot the "when". ASAP can be 2 days later.

Agree that depressurize = substantial deal. But OP still pulled a DYKWIA

jay_dubya

Fundamental problem is not being helpful. And they did get that last seat.