Wildman

Very nice young gal, maybe worked for special services, (not Delta.) She was wearing a blue uniform. Spent the whole time sitting behind gate counter on her phone. I think many people thought she was a DL person. When the GA disappeared down the jet bridge. She waited for about 5-6 minutes, then I believe she received a text from him and went down the jet bridge. For all I know he might have been right behind the jet bridge door and opened it for her.
Anyhow she disappeared down there too and I never saw her come back up. The GA came back over 50 minutes later.

tkelsay

I would chalk this up to a failure of the agent not knowing SDS/SDC policies. It is very very common for DL agents to not know this policy. Unfortunately when it happens in person, and so close to flight time, you cannot just HUCA so it leads to incorrect actions that negatively impact the flyer, such as OP. On top of that, the service here, as OP described, is inexcusable. GA was probably aware that they messed up and would have to deal with an upset customer, so they ran away. I hope you got GA's name to file a complaint with DL, and if not then you can reference the date/time/flight# in your complaint and it should be sufficient.

bergamini

And this is why I connect in MSP/DTW at all costs.

FSUnole03

There is a systemic attitude problem throughout all of ATL airport. This kind of behavior isn't specific to gate agents. Bartenders at the SC's, fast food workers in the food court, rental car agents, etc. However, I hold Delta employees in higher regard and stricter standards. A multi-billion dollar company should have better customer service training and standards in place.

The GA running away from the problem only made the problem worse. Had the GA simply owned up to the mistake, apologized to the customer and tried to find an alternate solution this thread most likely wouldn't even exist.

bergamini

I agree with you but I don't hold them to higher expectations because the bulk of DL employees are in ATL. The next two larger hubs, where most people believe they get better customer care, are PMNW hubs with mostly PMNW employees still.

FSUnole03

But even with PMDL hubs (SLC, LAX, NYC (JFK/LGA), BOS) I've never ever experienced the attitudes that I have in ATL. It should be the beacon in DL's system and the station that every other station strives to be. At this point I'm glad that every other station is better from an employee attitude standpoint.

bergamini

I am in total agreement. ATL should be way better.

puck021

I couldn't agree more. I cant even count the times that the bartenders and staff in one of the ATL SCs were loundly discussing how bad their working conditions are and ignoring members looking for a drink. You could tell you were in ATL just by attitudes if you were dropped into there blindfolded.

Wildman

Yes, I wrote down all the names. The supervisor who came, I believe, really understood all that happened. The supervisor realized immediately that I was an experienced flyer and I knew many of the airlines procedures. The GA should not have tried to make up a "fake excuse" response. I am sure the supervisor appreciated that I never raised my voice or use an expletive during our entire conversation. I was "all-in" waiting for a response to what the pilot had to say about boarding. I asked the supervisor to respond to me after the employee receives the "coaching." To the supervisor's credit, the supervisor did follow up with an email and said the employee admitted the behavior plus responded positively to the coaching session.

captaink

There's a reason I have ONE bartender who I will seek out, even if he's working a club on a different concourse from my flight.

...And I'm not telling any of you who/where

MrAndy1369

How come that is? Can you share an experience you had at ATL that was bad? I've connected through ATL a few times, and while the service there was blah, they did what I needed. Personally, my worst experiences with DL hub employees were at MSP and JFK.

spamkiller

I think ATL was my only bad experience with DL employees. When the incoming equipment for my flight was late, the GA kept blowing me off and telling me that it would be in time for me to make my next connection. By the time he admitted it was too late, I was unable to reroute to make my destination airport.

MSPeconomist

Sometimes you have to be proactive and not believe the GA who may know nothing or might be lazy. When there's a delay, I always try to several sources, such as flightaware and flightradar24 for example, to verify information not only for my flight but also for the inbound aircraft and for its inbound aircraft etc. Common sense says that we won't depart five minutes after the airplane lands despite what airport monitors and GAs say.

If the GA doesn't want to help, call the DM line or try asking in the lounge or at some airport DL service desk.

puck021

What if I buy you a drink?