Help with SkyTeam Errors
Aug 9, 2007 | 11:15 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Posts: 9
Help with SkyTeam Errors
Hello,
I believe this is my first post to FlyerTalk, I am hoping that someone here can point me in the right direction as to what can be done to compensate for a SkyTeam error that greatly affected a recent trip to Siberia. I searched the forums but did not find anything related to this issue.
My wife and I booked our tickets a few months in advance (middle of May 2007) by calling Delta. On the same call, but under a different reservation, 3 companions who traveled with us also booked the same itinerary. The itinerary was PIT-JFK-SVO-IKT roundtrip; we left on July 24th and just returned on August 8th. The PIT-JFK leg was flown by Delta, while the JFK-SVO-IKT legs were flown by Aeroflot; this was all possible, of course, becuase of the SkyTeam alliance. Even our luggage was able to be checked through to Russia because of the alliance. We paid over $1500 for each ticket.
From our understanding, there was a computer error on Delta's behalf that did not pass the ticket number to Aeroflot. We understand that a timeout error occurred on June 5th in the US (June 6th in Russia). Because of this, Aeroflot HAD NO RECORD OF OUR RESERVATIONS IN THEIR COMPUTER SYSTEM. What's more, our 3 traveling companions' records WERE IN THEIR COMPUTER SYSTEM.
Thankfully, we had paper tickets, but these were not enough to prove that we had seats. For each of our Aeroflot flights (and there were 4), we were forced to prove that we actually purchased our tickets and should be on the flight. We really had to fight things out with Aeroflot, they were not at all gracious and continued to emphasize that this was not their fault (more on this later). Well somehow, by the grace of God, we were able to catch all of these flights, but none of our previous seat reservations were valid, and so we were stuck with some cramped seats, etc. It's a good thing we were able to make these flights as well, because out of the 5 of us, only my wife can speak Russian, so the other 3 would have been more or less stranded.
Once we got to a phone in Siberia, we literally spent 6 hours and probably more than $100 in cell phone bills, including a call to America, trying to get this straightened out. They kept blaming each other and neither company would accept responsibility for not passing the ticket number between Delta and Aeroflot. We estimate that we spent another 5 hours at airports, trying in frustration to iron out the same issue. What's more, because our reservations were never in their system, it looks like our Delta SkyMiles accounts were not credited with our flights!
What I would like to know is if anyone has advice on how to go about rectifying this situation. I honestly would like to have our ticket costs refunded and/or some type of free flight(s) for all the frustration that we went through. Honestly, this was NOT our mistake, we paid over $1500 for each ticket and we went through a lot of difficulty on 4 separate occasions to barely make each of the 4 flights (they were all at or near full capacity). We also are out over $100 in cell phone call costs, plus extra baggage costs because of Aeroflot's inability to know international flight baggage weight allowances (this happened on the SVO-IKT leg, we made the flight on standby with little time to spare, the agent forced us to pay $100 in baggage costs based on national baggage weight limits which are much less than international flight weight limits). To boot, it was my 30th birthday on the IKT-SVO flight, and I was separated from my wife and the rest of our party, next to an oxygen tank on the Tupolev-154 we were flying.
I hope this was not too long, though I have plenty more details if needed. So does anyone have any advice?
I believe this is my first post to FlyerTalk, I am hoping that someone here can point me in the right direction as to what can be done to compensate for a SkyTeam error that greatly affected a recent trip to Siberia. I searched the forums but did not find anything related to this issue.
My wife and I booked our tickets a few months in advance (middle of May 2007) by calling Delta. On the same call, but under a different reservation, 3 companions who traveled with us also booked the same itinerary. The itinerary was PIT-JFK-SVO-IKT roundtrip; we left on July 24th and just returned on August 8th. The PIT-JFK leg was flown by Delta, while the JFK-SVO-IKT legs were flown by Aeroflot; this was all possible, of course, becuase of the SkyTeam alliance. Even our luggage was able to be checked through to Russia because of the alliance. We paid over $1500 for each ticket.
From our understanding, there was a computer error on Delta's behalf that did not pass the ticket number to Aeroflot. We understand that a timeout error occurred on June 5th in the US (June 6th in Russia). Because of this, Aeroflot HAD NO RECORD OF OUR RESERVATIONS IN THEIR COMPUTER SYSTEM. What's more, our 3 traveling companions' records WERE IN THEIR COMPUTER SYSTEM.
Thankfully, we had paper tickets, but these were not enough to prove that we had seats. For each of our Aeroflot flights (and there were 4), we were forced to prove that we actually purchased our tickets and should be on the flight. We really had to fight things out with Aeroflot, they were not at all gracious and continued to emphasize that this was not their fault (more on this later). Well somehow, by the grace of God, we were able to catch all of these flights, but none of our previous seat reservations were valid, and so we were stuck with some cramped seats, etc. It's a good thing we were able to make these flights as well, because out of the 5 of us, only my wife can speak Russian, so the other 3 would have been more or less stranded.
Once we got to a phone in Siberia, we literally spent 6 hours and probably more than $100 in cell phone bills, including a call to America, trying to get this straightened out. They kept blaming each other and neither company would accept responsibility for not passing the ticket number between Delta and Aeroflot. We estimate that we spent another 5 hours at airports, trying in frustration to iron out the same issue. What's more, because our reservations were never in their system, it looks like our Delta SkyMiles accounts were not credited with our flights!
What I would like to know is if anyone has advice on how to go about rectifying this situation. I honestly would like to have our ticket costs refunded and/or some type of free flight(s) for all the frustration that we went through. Honestly, this was NOT our mistake, we paid over $1500 for each ticket and we went through a lot of difficulty on 4 separate occasions to barely make each of the 4 flights (they were all at or near full capacity). We also are out over $100 in cell phone call costs, plus extra baggage costs because of Aeroflot's inability to know international flight baggage weight allowances (this happened on the SVO-IKT leg, we made the flight on standby with little time to spare, the agent forced us to pay $100 in baggage costs based on national baggage weight limits which are much less than international flight weight limits). To boot, it was my 30th birthday on the IKT-SVO flight, and I was separated from my wife and the rest of our party, next to an oxygen tank on the Tupolev-154 we were flying.
I hope this was not too long, though I have plenty more details if needed. So does anyone have any advice?
Aug 9, 2007 | 12:31 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Posts: 9
I know the request for a refund is idealistic, but thought it might be worth a shot. Is there a special division set up in Delta to handle these customer relations issues?
Aug 9, 2007 | 12:38 pm
#4
Join Date: Jul 2004
Programs: CO Gold; SPG Gold***; AvisFirst;
Posts: 3,970
You'd probably get more answers in the Delta forum. If I were a mod, I'd move this thread.
Aug 9, 2007 | 3:45 pm
#5
Community Director Emerita
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Anywhere warm
Posts: 35,505
The OP has also posted this question in the Delta forum. Since we like to keep conversation in one place, I'm going to close this thread and ask that you follow the conversation at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=723681.
SanDiego1K
Senior Moderator
SanDiego1K
Senior Moderator