nolayoverz

Back in December I had a two-leg trip from BOS to SCL to start a vacation. The layover in ATL was brief - about an hour - but I've had great experience with making DL flights on-time before, weather was clear, and as it was going through their ATL hub I did not expect any problems.

Regardless, the first leg of the flight gets in about 15 minutes late, I rush through airport to the gate to try to make my next flight, and... they've released it 10 minutes early. Confirmed by the Delta app indicating the flight is scheduled to depart 10 minutes early at the time. (It later sat on the flightline for about an hour waiting for the tower to release it, but that's neither here nor there.)

Two others from my same connecting flight rushed to the gate about 30 seconds behind me and were equally baffled at the situation. It's one thing if you've got missing passengers from other airlines, but Delta owns both legs, and the gate agents can surely see that (at least!) 3 people got in 15 minutes late from their connection - and they choose to close the boarding gate 10 minutes early anyway! Adding insult to injury the GAs repeatedly refused to acknowledge they had finished boarding early and were rude and dismissive to the 3 of us. Compounding the situation there was no quicker way to get to SCL than to wait an entire extra day for the flight the next day.

Now I've learned my lesson about tight layovers with international flights, but I remain absolutely certain that DL was deeply in the wrong by screwing over 3+ of their own customers by finishing boarding early when they had all the information they needed to just hold off and close the gates at the scheduled time. But I've been so infuriated by the overall experience that I held off calling and complaining for a while. I tried to address it today and have experienced:

• Two hangups by the automated phone system (as soon as you say it's a complaint about a prior trip, the automated voice says it's transferring you, then immediately drops the call)
• One callback after being told there was a 10 minute hold where the agent calling me back said he couldn't do anything to help and then gave me the same number to call back for "someone who could help"
• Left on hold for 20 minutes by the next agent who said he was going to get someone on the line to discuss the complaint
• Finally, the crappy online system ridiculously only allows you to file complaints going back about a month!

This is rapidly becoming a situation where attempting to deal with customer service is almost as miserable and time-consuming as the original incident. And not that it should even matter but I'm Silver soon to be Gold Medallion member. Not worth a single thing when it comes to customer service! Any thoughts on whether it's even worth pursuing trying to get a human being to address this in any way?

matchbox20_is

That would be pretty frustrating. If you had an hour, you were 15 minutes late, and the connecting flight closed 10 minutes early, how did it take you more than 25 minutes to get to your next gate?

sydneyracquelle

File a complaint online. Simply state the facts with no emotion. I have had success doing this.

Jeff767

What were the gates?

nolayoverz

Thank you! And valid question - and note that I'm ballparking these times - but the disembarking process was slower than usual (don't recall that it was evident why; one of those classic flight attendants ask everyone to hold off for people who have tight connections, and everyone tries to get out first anyway), it was in a different terminal in ATL, and the airtrain between terminals seemed to be a longer wait than usual.

Another thing that annoys me - I've certainly learned my lesson about that connection apparently just being too tight to try to make and won't ever be trying to cut it that close again, but Delta recommended the combo through their own site's booking tool! That seems to imply some level of obligation on their part to put in a very basic level of effort to make the connection workable, but their own GAs chose to blow it up anyway, for no reason (other than they were lazy / wanted to go home). Very, very frustrating.

KBMIFlyer

You said " the Delta app indicating the flight is scheduled to depart 10 minutes early at the time", does that mean the flight schedule was actually moved up 10 minutes, or just that it just departed 10 minutes early?

Ultimately, if you showed up to the gate 10 minutes before departure, you were late. Delta requires you to be there 15 minutes before departure. If it was Delta's fault for the late arrival, they should have given you food vouchers and a hotel for the night. You said you learned your lesson on tight layovers with international connections, unfortunately is was just a tough lesson.

There is ongoing discussion among flyertalk about how the gate agents should know that there are late arriving passengers and hold the flight at the gate for a few minutes. United has said they are starting to do more of this, but both American and Delta put a lot of pressure on their gate agents to get flights out on time, which results in the door being closed 10 minutes early pretty frequently.

Not sure what to tell you about your poor results from customer service, but ultimately Delta did not do anything wrong according to their policies. I have long thought Delta's minimum connection times at Atlanta were too short, and will generally try to stay away from any connection under an hour.

nolayoverz

Appreciate the advice, but per my last bullet this is what I've tried to do, but their automated tool does not allow for filing complaints past a very short trailing window. This is why I've been trying to deal with their phone system at all.

nolayoverz

I don't recall exactly what the app showed at this point, but I know that it was scheduled on-time at the point when I left from Boston; if there was a change to the schedule it was last-minute. I don't know what DL's policies are re: schedule changes, if they do that last minute, etc.

Also take your points around their gate policies, and appreciate the insight into the discussions are flyers trying to make connections. If their approach is to stuff their on-time metrics by screwing over connecting flyers, that seems meaningfully worse than an airline that holds ~5 minutes to ensure their customers make their flights!

btonkid12345

If that’s really inhibiting you, just pick a date and put the actual date/PNR/ticket number in the box where you can type in free-form comments...not like the system verifies the date field against anything, it’s just a field and you could have just as easily accidentally clicked the wrong date.

the confirmation/ticket number is really what will guide them anyways

Glensea

If you're frustrated dealing with Delta, try filing a complaint with the Department of Transportation: https://www.transportation.gov/airco...umer-complaint.

FlyingDL4Fun

I’m sorry this happened, but to be a dissenting voice, you seem awfully angry about something that took you 2 months to complain about. And you also seem very exact in your timeline (which is the basis of your complaint) but then very unsure of almost all the details , ie departure time, what happened between the gates, what the app said, etc.

I think this may be healthier left to : lesson learned, because I don’t think Delta will react much at this point.

saxman66

I've been seeing Delta do this for years on international flights, and I've never figured out why. They move UP the scheduled departure time. I almost always see it moved up 5 minutes, but I've probably seen 10 minutes too. Just walking the gates at JFK, you can see each departure board say "scheduled departure time: 5:00 PM. Status: 4:55 PM," or something like that. So I tend to sympathize with the OP on this. While the gate agents do control the boarding process, I believe operations control has the ultimate say on whether a flight should leave or wait for connecting pax.

Often1

As to the complaint, there is a general feedback section. Just use that. But, as others note, watch your language and don't speculate.

But, you really don't have a complaint. You misconnected when you were not at the departure gate by T-15. At that point, DL either boarded standbys or closed the flight in any event. There is no reason for DL to keep a flight at the gate when it is closed. To be clear, it isn't different on UA, AA or any other major carrier. Flights are sometimes held, but you can't plan on it and it didn't happen here.

Your flight is within the MCT for D-I at ATL, but it was apparently delayed a bit and that cost you your connection. It is highly unlikely that DL will do anything for you and DOT most certainly won't.

Bottom line is that your connection was within MCT, but outside SCT (Sensible Connection Time) given the consequences of a misconnect.

CPMaverick

Do the online complaint with a closer date. They will use the ticket number as their guide anyway and I suspect it will go through fine.

KEEP IT BRIEF... that's the key. Don't ramble on, just list the facts. If the facts are bad, they'll usually acknowledge it. But they read complaints all day, and if it just looks like a ramble they may miss the important stuff.

Sorry this happened, very frustrating. What time did you arrive at the gate compared to scheduled departure time? Regardless of the online departure time, the gate will close 15 minutes before scheduled departure and you aren't owed anything. That will be key to your complaint so make sure you state actual time you were at the gate.

The Situation

In my experience with early departures, although DL may begin boarding earlier and close the door earlier, the cutoff to board does not change. If boarding was set to end at T-15 relative to original departure, it still ends at T-15, not T-25. I gather that OP arrived at T-10 relative to original departure which meant it took OP 35 minutes to deplane and transfer which seems like a long time even if everything that can go wrong does go wrong, unless OP has mobility issues. If OP arrived at T-10 as I suspect, the GA were within their rights to close the door at that point, and I am sure they checked to see if there were late connections, but given how long it took OP, the GA probably figured OP was not coming.

It is odd that OP was so infuriated that they waited to call for so long. It is always a good strategy to give yourself a couple days to calm down, but a couple months is a bit odd. At this point I don't think much can be done and OP should just write it off and move on rather than further aggravating themselves. The negligible comp that would be received is not worth the agony that OP would put themselves through. In the future, best thing to do is to write in a few days after the incident, with a brief, level-headed and factual account of what went well (always include a compliment), what didn't, the losses you suffered, and suggestions on how DL can improve next time. I have always had good results with that approach.