Delta.com fails to issue E-ticket - Bait and Switch
 

I purchased on 6/1 from Delta.com a DCA-PHX ticket and a MDW-PHX ticket for a friend using the same credit card for travel today. I printed both confirmations. Delta coded flights using NW metal.

Had initial problems reserving seats; could only book Delta segments at Delta.com and could only reserve seats for the return on NW.com Tried OLCI at the four day window, but could not check-in; called Chisolm Delta-coded flights on NW metal. But this isn't my issue.

Arrived at the airport today and was told at the NW counter that Delta.com had not issued my ticket. I was offered a $1299 walk up fare. I said no, and called Chisolm. Very helpful agent had to ultimately transfer me to Delta. The friendly agent there again offered me the $1299 fare. I asked that they honor the original fare. He checked with someone and said they would honor the fare, but I had to be transferred to a customer service rep for Delta.com who had the software to issue the ticket at the original fare and the rebook me. I said fine. The next agent came on, and even though he was hard to understand, told me that they indeed would honor the fare, but that I would have to go to the Delta Counter at terminal B to affect the change. I said but how will they know what you've told me? He said that he had written notes. No one had any idea as to why one transaction was ticketed but the other was not.

So I trek over to Terminal B and get to a f/c ticket agent who tells me that there are no notes and that I would have to pat $1325 to get to Phoenix.

Rather than ruin my friend's (and mine) vacation I booked the bait and switch fare but said this would not be the end of the matter.

I am upset most about the fact that two Delta agents made promises to honor the original fare even after "consulting" supervisors, but those promises were worthless? Suggestions? I will certainly pursue this, but I fear that ultimately I'll have to file a small claims action to get the extra grand back. I was calm throughout, but this episode is poisonous in terms of my opinion about Delta. I suspect others have had similar episodes - have you learned anything I should know?

So you had already paid for a ticket, no e-ticket issued and you have to pay a second time a full Y fare, and DL has kept your first payment, as well? Yikes.

If you used the same credit card to pay again, just dispute with your CC company. Should be a no-brainer.

The OP hasn't confirmed there was a charge to his CC for the first ticket.

The root problem is lack of ticket issuance from the booking transaction six weeks earliier. I would have remarked upon absence of a ticket receipt to my email, recognizing that purchase confirmations and ticket issuance are separate transactions and emails in both delta.com and nwa.com.

In my experience, ticket issuance is immediate on delta.com. After clicking the final purchase screen, I receive an e-ticket receipt within 30 seconds in my e-mail box. If that did not occur, there was some problem from the very beginning...

Not doubting you but that's a heck of a lot quicker than NWA.

When you purchase a ticket on nwa.com you will immediately get a confirmation email of your itinerary but the PNR has not actually ticketed yet. Ticketing usually takes anywhere from 30 minutes to several days depending on how far in the future your flights are. You get a separate, second email from NWA when your itinerary has actually ticketed. This second email shows your e-ticket number.

BTW - the OP says they tried OLCI at the four day window. OP, OLCI is only available 24 hours before your first flight of the day.

-RM

my mistake - I should have said that I called four days earlier to find out why I had not been upgraded at the five day window, not OLCI. The problem then was that Delta was only showing me as a base member, and every time I tried to do something about it on-line, like entering my NW Plat number under the original Delta confirmation # in order to be hopefully recognized as a Plat, the system would just revert back to the Delta number. And no one I talked to in Chisolm a couple of days later said anything to alert me to a problem with the ticketing when the OLCI failed. That was when I was told to just come to the airport. And if I had a cc charge, there would be no problem; Delta apparently never issued a ticket (for reasons I still don't understand since I never received any notice) and thus never charged my cc. One of the Delta agents suggested that the problem might have been with the security code on the back of the card, but you think the system would ahve immediately notified me of that. Look, if I made the mistake, fine, but I can't see what went wrong, and I like many of you, have been buying air travel on line for years. That's why I am so mystified.

Sounds like a load of fertilizer. During the purchase process, your credit card is verified and checked for funds available. If that passes, the PNR is created and the record is sent to a queue for ticketing. At ticketing the funds are taken so the only issue could be if something changed on the card between the PNR and ticketing. I've had tickets get stuck and required a few calls to get them manually ticketed. As noted by Rob, I've also had PNR's ticket as late as a few days before a flight.

I've also had PNRs ticket a few days later as well. Just didn't think to be vigilant this time, so I am to blame for falling asleep at the switch. I think I was also distracted by the seat assignment problem and the overall (and I think widespread problem) of dealing with code shares during this transition. One conclusion I'm likely to draw from this is that one cannot trust Delta agents to do something as simple as writing notes to the pnr when troubleshooting. It seems you can't rely on anything they tell you.

Sorry to keep harping on this, but I am sitting in the Syclub at ATL - the first chance I've had to really communicate about this situation.

If I never had a ticket (and apparently never paid for one) why did Delta send me a OLCI reminder:



Dear Benjamin Streeter Iii,

Ready for your upcoming flight? Save time and check-in online now whether you are traveling with or without baggage. And don't worry about reconfirming your flights - you're all set!

Delta confirmation # PAWVW6

Saturday, July 18
Flight: Delta 2725 operated by Northwest Airlines using their equipment
Departs: 8:33 am from Washington - Reagan National, Washington DC
Arrives: 10:14 am at Minneapolis - St Paul, Minnesota
Seats: 5A

Flight: Delta 2382 operated by Northwest Airlines using their equipment
Departs: 11:20 am from Minneapolis - St Paul, Minnesota
Arrives: 12:32 pm at Phoenix, Arizona
Seats: 21E

Saturday, July 25
Flight: Northwest Airlines 122
Departs: 1:05 pm from Phoenix, Arizona
Arrives: 6:09 pm at Minneapolis - St Paul, Minnesota

Flight: Northwest Airlines 1169
Departs: 6:40 pm from Minneapolis - St Paul, Minnesota
Arrives: 10:04 pm at Washington - Reagan National, Washington DC

Check out the weather in Phoenix, Arizona

Remember to visit delta.com for all your travel needs - near and far.

Thank you for choosing Delta. We look forward to seeing you onboard tomorrow.

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Having a ticket and having a seat reserved are two different things.

The DL confirmation email you get within a minute or so of clicking the final button on DL.com is a "receipt and itinerary", and they have actually ticketed you. Among other things, the email contains your ticket number, ticket issue date, place of ticket issue, and issuing agent ID.

In all my DL.com purchases, the only time I did not receive one of these emails within a minute of purchase, it was because my work had set an overly aggressive spam filter.

While many parts of NW's web/tech setup beat DL's (e.g., ability to search for and purchase UG-with-miles fares online), near-instantaneous ticketing and near-instananeous crediting of FF miles for DL/DL Connection flights are two areas where DL really does beat NW.

Which is more of a factor of the Delta Nervous System (DNS) than anything else... though the amount of data throughput requirement for this system is STAGGERING!!!

We'll fix this
 

Hi--so sorry to hear of your frustrating experience, but we'll make it right immediately. Please send me a PM with your record locators (both the original and the new one) and we'll ensure a credit for the appropriate amount is issued ASAP. Thanks and again, sorry for the frustration. |
Josh

Actually, having a RESERVATION, having a TICKET and having a seat reserved are three totally different things.

It is people like this who give me a glimmer of hope for DL. There have been so many cuts of so many benefits to both DL and NW fliers that is has been very discouraging. I have decided to wait until the end of the year to decide whether to continue with DL/NW or jump ship. Seeing that someone will actually take the initiative and the responsibility and not give canned answers, like is so true when using TTU or DL's equivalent, is extremely encouraging.

John

DWG _ thank you - and if followed through on I agree with the poster above - what a glimmer of hope! As I was reading this thread, I kept thinking, "Of course the OP is right, but he'll probably get screwed because he can't 'prove' that he's right and between the airline and the credit card company, naturally neither will take responsibility for the error. Life in America in 2009..." I hope my cynicism is misplaced and the OP posts back with a satisfactory outcome.