PTravel

I have been avoiding Delta for the last 5 years of so because the last time I flew them they canceled the flight on which I held a paid F ticket, re-booked me in coach on a later flight and never refunded the fare difference (and made me wait on a long line to do it). My TA convinced me to try them again on one leg of my annual Grand Tour 'O Clients because they had a direct flight from ATL to LAX. I once again booked paid F (not an upgrade).

My problems started in the otherwise-pleasant Crown Room. Now, I'll start by saying this part was entirely my fault. Having not been in the Crown Room before, I was surprised that they seemed to be announcing boarding for Delta departures. I found out later that they only do this if the gate agent for a particular flight requests it. However I, rather stupidly, relied on an announcement for my flight rather than my watch, didn't notice the time and, when I finally did, arrived at the gate late and saw the jetway had already been retracted. I knew that, at a busy airport like ATL, there was no way I'd be able to get on the flight, so I waited until the gate agent finished her paperwork for the flight and explained to her that I had missed it and would like to get on a later Delta flight, if there was one, or get the ticket endorsed over to another airline so I could get out that night.

As I said, everything up to this point was my responsibility, and it was my fault, and not Delta's, that I missed my flight. However, what happened next surprised me and makes it likely that it will be another 5 years before I'd consider flying Delta again.

After explaining that I had missed the flight and asking for alternatives, the GA told me I'd have to go to the Delta Customer Service center. I had seen the center on my way to the gate -- there was a line of at least 50 people waiting to talk to one of the two agents present. I said, nicely, to the GA that I was on a paid-F ticket, it was late and, if there were alternatives that would get me out that night I'd certainly miss them after waiting on what appeared to be at least a one-hour line. Note, too, that the gate area was completely empty at this point.

The GA told me that she, "couldn't do anything." I said, "Then can you please call over a supervisor who can?" She heaved a sigh (literally), picked up her phone and got into a protracted conversation with someone that began, "I have a passenger here who missed his flight and . . . " I didn't listen to the rest of the conversation because I got out my cellphone and called my trusty TA to see what I could do. While my TA ran through my options, including other airlines (I eventually has him hold a UA for the following morning and also a hotel room for the night), the supervisor came over and, with not a single word to me, took my boarding pass and started typing away on a terminal. I finished with my TA, hung up and turned to the supervisor. He finished typing, said, "okay," and crumpled up my boarding pass! I said, "Hey, I need that!" He looked at me, shrugged, handed it to me and walked away.

I was dumbfounded. I asked the GA if there was a station manager on duty. She made another a call and said he would meet "opposite gate 19." I walked over to gate 19 and discovered that she had sent me to Delta's Customer Service center where, evidently, the line had now grown. There was a bank of phones adjacent to the line, so I picked one up and was connected to Delta customer service. They told me that they didn't know anything about a station manager and couldn't find my ticket in their system. Rather than wait on the long line, I went over to the Crown Room and asked the agent there for the station manager. After about 20 minutes, a man came out and introduced himself as the manager of the Crown Room. I told him that, though I appreciated his taking the time to talk with me, I didn't think he'd be able to help and wanted to speak with the station manager. He told me that the station manager had left and, after hearing what happened, apologized profusely for the lack of service but said there was nothing he could do. It was he who explained that all flights were not announced in the Crown Room -- only those for which the gate agent requested an announcement.

I left the Crown Room, checked my Blackberry to make sure my TA had reserved the flights for the next day and discovered an email from my TA confirming the UA flights and saying that Delta had refunded my ticket. Apparently, that was what the supervisor did when he was typing on the terminal -- refunding my ticket -- which is why he crumpled up the boarding pass when he was through. Please note that, throughout all of my transactions with Delta personnel, I was polite and never abusive or aggressive, and also took full responsibility for having missed the flight.

Is there any reason why I would ever consider flying Delta again?

apolloms

because if you hadn't missed your flight, which you claim was your own fault, none of it would have happened in the first place?

What do you expect them to do when you miss your flight because of your own error? It seems from what you typed that they could have been friendlier with what they did though.

CelticFlyer

I'm afraid that you met one particular bad apple GA. Every large airline has some. DL certainly has a few at ATL.

As you had CRC access I would have suggested using the CRC staff rather than the GA. The GA was still busy closing out that flight and isn't really responsible for dealing with pax who miss the flight - that said it sounds like you were not treated in a courteous manner.

For future - note that in the large CRCs they do not generally announce departures. The main exceptions are TATL flights which are usually announced and flights with very significant delays usually get update announcements including a boarding call.

jbatl

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

Everytime I enter a CR, I ask if they're making boarding announcement. Practice is VERY inconsistent - even in same club on different days.

OP, you missed your flt, rebooked on next best option (according to your TA), and got your DL ticket refunded. You encountered some employees who were very courteous in the CR and some who were not at the gate. Is this really such a big deal? If so, maybe DL isn't the airline for you. Perhaps you should consider fractional private jet ownership.

tarajim

Maybe you should try a flight where you actually fly on the schedule you book, and experience normal DL service. It would seem that you picked a day where ATL was very busy with rebooks for other reasons so the system was stressed.

Sorry you didn't get the service you expected, but maybe your expectations were too high for the day you flew. You wanted to cut in front of people in line, get a GA to do a TA job, did not use DL's technology advantage to your advantage, and expected the system to bend to your will.

Try being on time, boarding on time, and using the investment DL has made in tech by using Kiosk, SMS, Crown room attendants to help you.

Sorry you had a bad experience. But you added to the stress on the system. The GA probably saw that you had checked in early enough to make the flight and weren't there to board, causing here additional work to move someone to your empty seat. Next time you fly DL, try something in BE and be on time. I think you would enjoy the experience.

N655SP

While I would like to say that our ATL agents are angels, it is usually quite the contrary.

However, because ATL is so short staffed, especially during the summer months, all the gate agent at that gate should be doing is paperwork, head down to the ticket lift drop, and then on to their next gate assignment. That is the reason for the multiple customer sevice centers, so the gate agents can quickly head off to their next gate and work that flight.

In Atlanta, there should be no post departure transactions held at the gate. Depending on the time, as soon as that departure pushed, there could have been a waiting aircraft pulling into the gate as well. There are multiple reasons why that gate agent couldn't help you, and while not directly helpful in your case, all legit.

And why would you need a departed flight's boarding pass? He was just doing his job by throwing away a boarding pass that wasn't going to be used for that flight?

Now I know there will be people on this board that will flame me for what I said, but the reason why there are service centers is to free gate space up, yes even for a $10,000 fully refundable Business class person heading to DXB or NRT. In smaller stations, that is part of the gate agent's responsibility. But when you are traveling into the busiest airport in the world, things have a flow.

Keep in mind that I am not apologizing for the way ATL agents act, however, I bet had you kept listening to what the gate agent was saying, she explained the entire situation to the sup. Also, my guess is that your travel agent was the one that actually refunded your ticket. Our agents are trained to ask questions, especially in the situation of a refunded ticket. Besides he/she would have handed you a receipt with all of your info on it showing the amount that was refunded back to your card. So IMO, i am guessing that the sup didn't do anything but look at the ticket and it showed refunded.

5SP

sbm12

The "experience" includes interaction with all the crew, not just the "in the air" part of the flight. The GA and the "manager" both acted inappropriately and did a disservice to Delta in the way they treated the passenger. Refunding the ticket when that wasn't requested was completely inappropriate. The "additional work" of giving a gate upgrade to an elite is hardly a reason the GA should be upset with the passenger.

I've frequently been rebooked by a GA when I've had issues; suggesting that the GA was appropriate in brushing off the passenger is just silly.

To the OP, I would've gone back to the CRC right away. They'll actually be nice to you and treat you better than a GA almost every time. Sad that the GAs don't see that as part of their job, but apparently they don't.

PTravel

I expected them to check on alternatives and either re-book me on another Delta flight or endorse my ticket over to another airline's flight if that was more convenient. I did not expect them to refund the ticket and say, "tough luck" (and, actually, they didn't even say that). I had a similar experience on UA a few months back. I was on a complicated itinerary and mis-remembered an arrival time as a departure time, resulting in missing my flight. UA cheerfully rebooked me with no hassle, and on that flight I was using upgrade certs to get into F from a Y fare, as opposed to here where I had paid a substantial premium to sit up front. Also, though I accept all blame for missing my Delta flight, UA's Red Carpet Clubs have signs that say, "flights are not announced in the club room." As a newcomer to the Crown Room, my confusion at assuming my flight would be announced as many others were, if not excusable, is at least understandable.

N655SP

Checking other options on Delta yes, but not to other carriers. But I surmise that your travel agent already refunded your ticket before the supervisor got to the gate.

And Delta's policy clearly states, please be at the gate no more than 15 minutes prior to scheduled departure, or your seat is subject to cancellation. Don't misunderstand what I am trying to say, because s**t happens, you miss your flight, weather diverts your aircraft to a different city, etc etc. I am just stating the policy.

5SP

PTravel

As I indicated, I waited for the GA to finish her paperwork for the flight I missed. I don't what else she had to do, but she had waited around while the supervisor showed up, and after. While I was on the phone with my TA, she was doing something for other pax though, obviously, I don't know what -- I just saw her typing and talking to them.

Perhaps so, but that has not been my experience with other carriers. I have, on occasion, needed the assistance of GAs post-departure and never had trouble obtaining it. This would occur most often when, due to a delayed arrival, I'd miss a connecting flight (through no fault of my own).

It was the only evidence I had of the flight, aside from my TA's itinerary. Particularly given that the customer service phone person couldn't find any record of my ticket, I might have required it. I always keep boarding passes, and recommend that everyone do the same.

Not, though, at the customer service center. I don't know what was happening in the system that night -- perhaps there were major storms somewhere -- but waiting an hour or more in the long, long customer service line did not seem like a reasonable alternative.

I'm sure she had. However, the supervisor said nothing to me except the word, "okay," when he crumpled up my boarding pass. In a worst case scenario, he could have said what you've said here, in which case my gripe would have been limited to the long CS line and I probably wouldn't have bothered posting about it.

It wasn't. My TA's email indicated that Delta had refunded the ticket unasked.

That didn't happen. As I said, I've been in situations before in which I've missed flights, occasionally because of my fault and usually because of a misconnect or irregular operations. I've never experienced anything like this. This also points to an issue which, I think, is common to all airlines -- they're all in deep economic trouble, and are all trying to attract business like mine, i.e. F tickets, unrestricted Y, etc. After this experience I have no incentive to bring my business to Delta again. Even UA, which is hardly a paragon of customer service (unless you're a top-tier FF, and I'm only a mid-tier) handles this situation in a vastly different manner.

I'm sure that wasn't the case, as I didn't ticket the UA flight until after I left the airport -- I merely made the reservation "just in case," and specifically instructed the TA not to cancel the Delta ticket. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was the supervisor who refunded the ticket.

sammy0623

the OP screwed up, and he/she admitted it. however, that doesn't mean that DL should treat him/her like crap. don't forget Delta is in the customer service business--that means taking care of all of your passengers, not just the ones who don't make an (easy) mistake.

MikeBU

Which is exactly what would have occurred at the customer service center if you weren't too special to wait in line. Alternatively, you could have called reservations directly and skipped the line. You chose to try to get the station manager of the busiest airport in the world involved in covering your error, and it didn't happen... Try recreating this exact scenario at IAD on UA and let us know how that goes.

Also note -- the two agents at the service center are really just there to print and hand out tickets. The actual rebooking and processing happens on the phones, of which there are ~20, if I remember corerctly.
So it would not be an hour-long line.
really? why would you expect DL to pay another airline to cover your error?

rcherskov

To the OP, what are you looking for here? I think most everyone here would agree that -- based on your side of the story as you told it -- the gate agent and the supervisor could have been more courteous. And no, I don't think this is typical of Delta.

I will say that if I were the supervisor who had been called to the gate and I had been asked to help you in your situation, and I noticed you were also on the phone trying to get it resolved the with the TA as well, I would be a little short with you too. Either let the supervisor or your TA handle your problem...having them both try and make changes to your ticket or itinerary at the same time seems like it could cause problems...and may have been the reason the supervisor was snippy.

Sorry you had a bad experience -- missing a flight is a hassle!

sfozrhfco

The responses are incredible! In this environment with the airlines struggling, to give away revenue from a first class ticket to another airline when the agent could have easily checked to see when the next available flight was is a major problem. Why should the passenger have to go through cortortions to get customer service? Not that things would be any better on UA...but still the depths airlines in the US are falling to and the amount of c**p that passengers are expected to put up with--because that is just the way it is--will only exacerbate the problems. It is only going to get worse as more airline employees know they will lose their jobs in the coming months. Throwing away revenue is certainly not going to stop that downward spiral.

BrianB

What I was thinking exactly. If you are looking to the station manager to solve your problem of missing a flight, then maybe you are better served elsewhere.

Instead of calling your TA, you could have called Delta. Pick one and go with it, but not both.