bdschobel

I had a full-Y ticket on the 3:30 Shuttle from LGA to DCA and needed to change it to the 2:30 Shuttle. I really didn't need to do anything because, after all, it is the Shuttle! And I could always fly standby for free (or same-day confirmed, to be technical about it). But I wanted to check in on-line and wanted my boarding pass to be for the right flight, so I called SMS.

Well, the original ticket was purchased in 2004. Apparently, a new ticket purchased in 2005 has 10 cents higher taxes imposed. The guy asked me how I was going to pay this 10 cents additional cost.

Now, let me be very clear. I can afford to give Delta 10 cents. Really! It usually doesn't come out of my pocket, anyway. But it just seemed to me that collecting 10 cents over the phone, which requires a credit-card charge, had to be more trouble than it's worth for me, Delta and even AMEX. So I innocently asked, "Couldn't you just waive 10 cents?"

You would have thought that I had asked for a free airplane! The guy, apparently horrified, said, "That's a government tax. We have to collect it or we would get fined." Not quite satisfied with that answer, I suggested that Delta could certainly remit the 10 cents to the government, thereby avoiding the dreaded fine, and simply swallow the cost. The guy, clearly not the brightest light, said that it would be illegal for Delta to do that.

In the end, I gave him my AMEX number and let him put through a charge for 10 cents so that I could fly an hour earlier without any hassles at the airport. I will not put that charge on my expense report because I would be too embarrassed.

Bruce

jaguar

Very funny story - but I understand they do have to balance the books.

Spiff

Wow, when did Leo return???

I've had Amex turn down attempts to charge less than $1. Only Delta could get a dime to go through.

card26

How bizzare.

I understand why DL needs to collect taxes but for the cost of the credit card transaction, it hardly makes it worth charging the consumer 10 cents.

Not worth fighting over a dime but you think DL would have just bit the bullet on that one. Plus, if I were the agent, I would have been embarrased to even ask for 10 cents.

JS

Quit bashing Delta and aim your anger at the people who are responsible for nickel and diming us to death -- CONGRESS

RSSrsvp

Don't forget that every dime counts!

RunawayNFly

Sane thing happened to me with a ticket previously purchased in 2004 but, in my case, I owed almost TWICE as much ......18 cents!!! I put it on my charge card, which, of course, cost more to process than the 18 cents!

It's interesting that the day prior to this transaction I DID NOT have to pay it, despite the identical routes, price of ticket, and all purchased on the same day in 2004. Go figure!!

Thucydides

Should have just told them to check the seat cushions after your flight...

JRF

If you are a stock holder of DL, then bashing would be the least of what you should do. This just proves that DL is out of control. They probably just spend 30c to make 10c. Now the 30c is just a guess! However, when you know it is going to cost more to collect then what you are collecting.... I guess now they will ask for FAs to take a pay cut of 10% and 10c to cover things like this in the future.

Now, as far as Congress goes, you don't need to bash them (although they do deserve it), just vote them out.

JRF

LOL... but you are not flying WN and I am sure that would have required all kinds of paper work and additional labor charges Simple fares HAH, how about simple business policies....

PaulLB

Come on now. Tax is tax. Delta absolutely has to collect the tax -- from you. The guy was only doing his job. The red tape involved in figuring out how, when, how much, and under what circumstances Delta should pick up the tab on the taxes that YOU are responsibile for paying would likely outweight the time required to process the added tax. Yeah, it's an ammusing little story that you had to charge $0.10 cents to your credit card, but even suggesting that you should do anything besides stop complaining and paid that tax is, well, silly.

wsbombers

Delta absolutely has to collect the tax. However, they could have decided to give you a .10 refund on your fare and apply the refund to the tax payment.

JRF

Clearly you know not of what you speak. If DL can not figure out how to credit 10c from your already paid ticket to taxes with a few keystrokes, I wonder what they do with 10M$ worth of potential savings... My old boss used to tell me... if you can't count your pennies, you cant count your millions.

Flying_Duck

Now theres an idea!! Delta could implement an inventory system that assured that all the coins collected under the seat cushions made it to a central office where they were equally distributed into glass jars the number of which corressponded to the number of phone agents. Through a formalized distribution system, these jars would then be placed on the desk-space in the cubicle of each agent. In situations like the one reported by the OP, they could, like is done all the time in 7-11's all over the country, take the dime from the jar, fill out a cash-payment form and submit that and the dime as payment to the government.

I mean, it seams that this will fit right into the way Delta and other legacy carriers conduct business!!

JRF

This would work, but a few considerations have to be thought about... Since this is "cash" their needs to be an audit trail. Every time any coins are used there would have to be paperwork. What about international coins... do Canadian coins go to call centers in Canada and Indian coin to India. Can DL possibly manage FX hedging (they don't seem to do as well as WN does in fuel hedging...). Perhaps DL can start an entire new department to count their pennies and trim back the FF program to cover the expected looses from saving money.