Im curious as to whether those wanting pax to always be "given a break" (regardless of the actual rules) and not wanting to exchange "courtesy" for money etc.... would ALSO extend that courtesy to airlines departing from Europe...by NOT demanding EC261 compensation for delays?? I mean the airline may have broken the "letter" of the contract, but if they do everything possible to reduce the delay etc...well... let's apply the Spirit of it shall we? Because "things happen" - to airlines as well as individuals.... Right? No?

Presumably that is "different"...

Count me in as one of those who is surprised at the hostility to the OP and others who purchase BE. I do not agree that buying a BE ticket means you explicitly give up all goodwill and politeness. Here is the marketing language Delta uses to sell Basic Economy (https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...economy.html):

Underneath of course is the full list of restrictions, including But the thing is, if you don't have status, many of these restrictions also apply to regular economy tickets (like, ahem, no same day change after departure).

Nowhere does it say you forgo the assistance of an agent and his or her discretion if something unexpected happens. I'm not saying the airline should have been required to rebook the OP, but I don't see any reason why they couldn't have let him stand by.

Under normal circumstances, I would have been there 45 mins - 1 hr before the check-in cutoff. But on that fateful day, accidents on Belt Parkway and Jackie Robinson combined with lane closure on Grand Central Parkway turned a 30-40 minute drive in to 1 hr 30 min drive

Rookie mistake to budget only 3 hour travel time to travel 10 miles, I know.

And for that Delta would not use the flat tire rule. Bummer as that would seem to apply. Does the flat tire only apply to US flights?

Knowing or not knowing the traffic in NYC I would have probably planned for more than three hours.

That thread is based off a claim from the OP. Who really knows the truth.

Also, you should never expect that an exception is to be made for you. If it is, be happy. If not, then rules are really rules. IIRC, when my s/o missed a Delta flight cutoff, she was offered to take the next flight for the SDC fee, which was $25 back then. I think on a regular main cabin ticket, you still can get out on a later flight for the SDS fee. I really don't know because it's been 8 years since I've missed a flight.

Private party contracts and government regulations are entirely different things. It's between the two parties to address breaches of contract. The government has set regulations (presumably for a reason) and they must be applied uniformly to all situations. It truly is comparing apples to oranges.

This is just pretty basic customer service--OP probably should have been given the benefit of the "flat tire" but certainly wasn't "entitled" to any accommodation. It's actually the exact type of scenario you would train your front line agents on (passenger clearly overslept and is 10 minutes late, what should you do?). Note that what "should" you do is a different inquiry than what "can" or "are you required" to do.

People giving OP a hard time have either (1) never worked a customer service industry job or (2) don't care because they can hide behind the anonymity of the internet to harass other people to make themselves feel good.

For those who think some of us have some sort of hatred for OP...I think I can hold the opinion that the DL agent used proper discretion in not rebooking/allowing standby for OP, and at the same time understand and be perfectly okay with BE fares and customers. Those are not two mutually exclusive perspectives.

I also don't believe that it is hostile to tell OP that he should expect DL to abide by their own published rules/policies, regardless of how much any of us like/dislike them or how "fair" they are.

For OP, as a non-status, BE-fare passenger, the following discussions don't apply here:
- Flat tire rule, as OP's tardiness was due to something within his control
- SDS, as even if on on a main cabin fare, SDS to a later flight is not allowed unless GM+

The only variable at play is agent discretion. In this case, the agent used their discretion to stand by the rules. I would actually hope that any time "agent discretion" is in play, they make that selection the vast majority of the time, and allow exceptions to truly be exceptions that are rare enough and outside of the customer's control.

Perhaps for OP, oversleeping is truly an exception in his/her life. For that agent, though, OP may have been the 20th person who arrived late that morning saying they overslept/misread the departure time/went to the wrong counter/etc. The agent knows that if they make an exception for all 20 of those people, that's no longer making an exception, but rather setting an expectation that the published rules don't matter.

I understand your point about basic customer service. BUT I would say those buying Basic Economy, are quite literally DL's least valuable customers. People that price sensitive don't typically have much brand loyalty. And if I was someone who did pay the extra for a regular coach ticket, and see an exception being made because someone woke up late when they knew they had a non-changeable ticket, they I'd be asking myself why I paid the extra $20 or so, especially if I don't have status and either don't have a seat assignment or have a middle seat. I'm not a monster, if someone had nearly any kind of event beyond their control, It wouldn't bother me at all to see an exception made.

Unfortunately, I think you will need to chalk this up to an expensive mistake. One thing I think that is important to realize is that the issue you encountered is an industry trend, not just DL. AA and UA basic economy tickets have comparable policies and you probably would have ended up in the same situation. My point is that when you book a ticket in the future, don't make the same assumptions that you mentioned in your quote just because you booked on another airline. Double check everything and assume nothing.

Interesting. I am considering changing all my travel to Delta (mostly for route/schedule reasons). So far I've bought 4 BE tickets this month and saved $25 per one-way. I'm not very price sensitive, I just didn't see any value in paying $25 more.

So why would I buy BE? Well, I have no status (yet) so I'm not eligible for any kind of upgrade, I don't check a bag, and although I sometimes change my plans, when that happens I usually end up throwing away the original ticket anyway because most of my tickets are below the value of the change fee. The flights where I bought BE are all on E170/E175 so no chance of a middle seat (there's really not a bad seat on those planes).

I came to this thread because I was surprised that DL reportedly does not apply the flat tire rule to BE (as AA does, which is confirmed in the AA forum). That may influence my decision on whether to keep buying BE (although so far I'm $100 ahead)

(By the way, the majority of customers on my last flight were in BE. Maybe we're Delta's least valuable customers but they're making up for it in volume.)

DL is not an entity that forces you to comply with them - they are a business, and customers have a choice.

If the agent was applying the strict letter of the rules - basically, they were selling OP a brand new ticket at walk up prices. Because it certainly would be a violation of their own BE rules to charge the OP a change fee, lose the original fare value, and assess an add/collect to boot.

My point is - OP could walk away and purchase his own DL or other carrier itinerary, choose to take a train or drive, etc. Not everyone has $500 for a same day change of a domestic flight.

This is why I think many DL agents see it as a win win to charge the $75 SDS fee and the person clears if a seats available - a tiny marginal cost to DL, but they get $75 and customer goodwill. Especially for leisure passengers who can't expense the cost of the change.

I've seen Spirit - rated the worst in customer service - at the airport only (not their awful phone banks) rebook simply late passengers on any itinerary with a seat open at no cost. They don't even mention the $99 standby fee. I had booked a group of 8 on a short spirit flight because they were very price sensitive and it was a nonstop; they were all late due to personal reasons and I sat at the gate and watched the plane take off.

The counter simply rebooked us to another city that day close by (and we said we would drive the rest of the way). No mention of fees - standby fees or fare difference. I have used them again for short trips when price sensitivity is a question, as have the other passengers - so let's not forget DL is operating in a competitive environment in which fare rules are simply an externality. E fares are supposed to mimic Spirit and Frontier, yet those airlines don't even stick strictly to those policies, and they're not legacy carriers who claim passengers are willing to pay a revenue premium for the privilege of flying them.

Today's E fares are yesterday's main cabin fares.

Said another way, the benefit to DL isn't the volume of E fares, as this is simply previous main cabin demand.

It's the group that agrees to the today's premium to "upgrade" to main cabin that is the additional revenue DL receives.

While in the process, fleecing elites for, among other things, UG privileges to F, while simultaneously cutting back amenities and offerings in F.

And that is a very good point. And you may very well be correct that it would be in DL's best interests to allow SDS to a later flight for a fee for non-status pax on BE fares. Or some other accommodation or consideration for late-arriving pax.

But, that isn't currently how DL's BE policies stand. So when OP comes here asking what he can expect from DL, it makes sense to give him the answer that applies to DL's policies as they exist right now, as those answers will fit OP's current reality.

DL has lots of policies and rules that are unfair or just plain bad. But DL certainly enforces most of them the vast majority of the time, especially for non-status pax, and this is what OP should expect. .

You go on and on about this, but what difference does it make that a seat used to sell for less than it does now? That was yesterday. Pricing is elastic. Each ticket purchase decision should be made based on the value *to you*, at that time. If the ticket meets your needs based on the current competitive situation, then buy it. If it doesn't, buy some other airline's ticket. Or don't buy at all.

What you could buy a ticket for yesterday is irrelevant. You didn't buy it yesterday. Would you have been happier if Delta had just raised all fares by $20-$50 across the board? I suspect not. Do you expect ticket prices to remain frozen for all time? Something has to give at some point.

So look at it from the other direction - Delta raised prices on their economy tickets. BUT..... you can still get it for the old price if you are willing to forego a seat assignment and don't mind boarding in zone 9.

Or still SKY if you have GM status and up.



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