Downgrade from domestic F due to rotten stench.
 

I am on DL 1731 DEN-SEA and paid cash for first. I sit down in 4B and it absolutely stinks like hell. 4A is already complaining. We both take downgrades. I'm now in economy and they tell me to call corporate. What should I be reasonably asking for? I am not a Delta flyer so I'm not sure what to expect here. I normally don't pay for business so this was certainly a disappointment.

Some management just came on board and apologized to me so that was nice. They said they'd record it on my account.

Typically $200 plus the difference in fare between FC and MC when you bought your ticket.

Must have been a Silver medallion got UG on previous flight by mistake.

We're there maggots falling on you? if not you at least got off better than the AMS flight did.

In all seriousness, do you know what smell was? Why couldn't it be cleaned? Both would factor into compensation.

This wasn't a downgrade due to oversold cabin. I would say it depends on what caused smell and why couldn't be fixed.

Was it the premium smell?

Stench like rotten food? Body odor or body spray to cover it?

I found it hard to pin down but 4A was positive it was vomit. He was fuming and said that the crew probably let him have too much. He was irate about it. There was no vomit visible so who knows?

They called maintenance on and started working on it. When management came on to apologize to me, they said they did their best and it was a little better so I could return but they admitted the smell was still there. I elected to just remain in economy so I don't know how much better it got.

I just got off the phone with Delta. I was given the fare difference plus $200 as others have said. Kind of a bummer since the last time I was downgraded on UA, it was an award flight and they gave me $1,000 for DEN-ORD plus a portion of the miles I used for the J DEN-ORD-Europe flight. But on that particular occasion, it was the gate agent who gave us $1k (both my wife and I each) and that was because they didn't get any volunteers to take a downgrade so have gave us the max offer and made us take it. That was a simple metal swap too... not vomit related.

One oddity was that I have no faith it will actually work. The first person I talked to said they were brand new and they were not able to give me a voucher for $200 so the transferred me and I immediately got dropped. The guy called me back and transferred me again, this time I go someone that gave me the voucher after undoing everything he had done but she wasn't able to really pin down was the fare difference would actually be. Oh well.

Seems like a very fair resolution to me!

Yeah I will live. I think my gripe is now I have $200 with Delta that expires in a year that I will likely just not use. I've flown Delta 4 times in the last 10 years and they aren't very attractive to me out of Denver. From PR perspective they're doing the right thing but from my perspective, I got basically nothing.

You could have tried asking for some miles instead of the $200. At least they don't expire until you do.

:)

David

And anyone can use miles whereas the $200 voucher has to be used by the named passenger.