Are you kidding me?

Delta called you to be more personal, not to call you and argue with you!

Delta just wanted to comment back on your e-mail and to set you straight.

I think that you are totally overreacting, and you should have fun seeing all of the problems at US.

Happy Flying :-)

Oh, so you're one of those blind DL defenders I keep hearing about :rolleyes:

Just to be crystal clear......that is the official policy for whether or not FIRST CLASS passengers will receive meal service.

There is no meal service in coach on any flight of any length within the 48 US.

A.J.

After the agent's original findings - ATC delays and no compensation owed - a simple "thank you very much" would have ended this issue, thus saving you from entering into an arguement which I'm certain the agent did not start. A 40 min connection is legal and the agent was right - if you wanted a longer connection, DL's site gives you plenty of options - even up to 4+ hours to sit in ATL.

:rolleyes:

The OP booked a close, but legal connection. Delta then called the OP regarding their complaint in an attempt to improve customer satisfaction and explain Delta's position. The OP was not satisfied with the fact that Delta would continue to offer 40 minute connections in ATL, or with Delta's suggestion that the OP book longer connections if he/she needs them.

As I said before, I think the fact that Delta called a customer regarding a complain is great! I don't know if I have heard of this happening on AA/UA/NW/CO recently.

Maybe in this case, the OP would have been more satisfied with a crappy form letter. :rolleyes:

Yeah, ok....

DL calls to defend a position (re: compensation) that OP didn't even bring up. What do you want, a "Good attempt DL, here's some brownie points..."?

It's not enough to just do it... doing it right should be part of the equation as well.

So should Delta stop selling 40 minute connections in ATL? That seems to be the only way the OP would be satisfied.

Does the "legal connection" concept still exist? That there are certain minimum connection times which can not be violated? Doesn't mean an airline won't try to get you to try. FWIW, I've easily made terminal-change connections in ATL of 45-50 minutes. Bags did too. But the TPA flight to ATL is rarely late..and I don't hesitate to flag down a cart if I'm at the last gate and it looks close. (Cart driver once stopped and offered a ride. I asked if we looked that old and tired...she said no, you just look like you could use a ride! :)
TPAnx

If you want to switch subjects, then the answer is, yes if 40 minutes isn't realistic.

If you want to stick with the topic of the phone call (which is what I'm talking about)... oh wait, you haven't actually provided a response to that yet...

Do you actually believe that that type of phone call does DL any good? Or would do any good to anyone?

Obviously you are Anti-Delta, so why do you come to the Delta forum?

Would you like me to go bash AA on complaint threads? When I am at it, why don't I just invite them over to Delta.

As I said above, in this case, a form letter would have been better. But then we all would be responding to a thread "I wanted Delta to stop selling 40 minute connections, and all I got was this lousy form letter."

In many cases, IMO, a phone call would be better than a written response. Say someone misses a connection because Delta forgot to load enough agriculture forms on a flgiht to Hawaii. They write Delta a letter saying that they missed their connections and were stuck in the airport for 4 hours. Delta could send an email back saying sorry, here are 5,000 SkyMiles or Delta could call the customer, admit to and apologize for dropping the ball and offer 5,000 SkyMiles. I think the latter would have a much more positive effect on the customer's overall impression of Delta's customer service. When trying to win back a customer, or create good will, personal communication works much better than the alternative.

I am curious IceTrojan, what do you think the appropriate response to this situation would be? What should Delta have done to “do it right” in this case?

Boy, I didn't know I was a prophet... :rolleyes:

Direct me to where I've said that I'm "Anti-Delta" or tell me why this is "bashing"? Also show me where I've said, "Hey everyone, jump ship, come to AA!"

I'm anti-bad-customer-service. This was an instance of bad customer service, plain and simple, as much as one wants to cover their ears and hum loudly.

I more than welcome you and every other DLer to come to the AA forum and comment when AA commits an act of bad CS which warrants a response.... just don't "bash" blindly, like how many here defend blindly.

EDIT - FWIW, I have chosen for myself not to fly DL. I find myself in "random" forums on occasion... on other occasions, I've even asked for help on the DL forum, and contributed in a limited basis. So to even ask, "..so why do you come to the Delta forum?" is pretty silly, like there's a sense of entitlement to keep the doors close.

Perhaps, a phone call to the nature of, "Thank you for contacting us about your concerns. Just to reassure you, a 40-min connection time in ATL is a legal connection time, and would not be offered if it was not practical under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, there were factors beyond our control that caused your incoming flight to be late, which caused the misconnect, but we were glad to be able to accomodate you on a later flight. Air travel is not an exact science, but please accept our sincere apologies for the delay. Thank you for being a loyal Delta customer."

Was there a need to bring up the compensation that was never mentioned by OP?

Actually, I (the OP in question) would be satisfied if Delta made some sort of effort to accomodate pax that are connecting with delayed incoming flights.

When I arrived at the gate 10 minutes before scheduled departure (after having run about 3/4 of a mile) - I encountered the most unaccomodating gate agent I've ever seen.

Not even remotely apologetic - or even interested in helping me resolve my situation. I had to practically pry the location of the nearest "missed connections" desk out of him with a crowbar.

Upon arriving at the missed connections desk, a Delta employee took one look at my itinerary and told me, "This was a missed connection waiting to happen, and should have never been booked".

I'm merely commenting to Delta that their own employees agree with me that this itinerary is barely feasible given the frequency of delays into ATL - and that I as a passenger shouldn't be required to know the layout of an airport, how far I should be expected to walk, and what constitutes a reasonable amount of time for a connection at an airport that I've never been to.

I as a passenger should expect to be able to purchase a ticket from an air carrier, and feel confident that they can accomodate the itinerary that they sold me. Showing up at a gate 10 minutes prior to arrival (and running the length of ATL in about 15 mins) and not being able to board a flight isn't really acceptable customer service as far as I am concerned.

Either way, this is all pointless - as I've already been doing the trip on US Air for three weeks now - and am rather satisfied. I would have preferred to accumulate Skyteam miles / status for this - but that wasn't meant to be.

If I had a choice of receiving a crappy form letter, or receiving a call from a customer service rep telling me that I'm not entitled to any compensation (that I didn't ask for in the first place) and that 40 minutes is a reasonable connection time in ATL, and that I could book an itinerary with a longer stopover if I choose to - I'd choose the letter anytime.

No. DL should not be in the practice of calling customers in response to complaints. Correspondence should be kept by mail. That way there is a final answer and no room to "argue."