Dear Mr. Passenger:

We have reviewed the events of [insert date] at [airport] and would to let you know that we stand behind the actions taken by our employee. Your calling them a ‘stupid idiot airline dweeb’ did not help the situation, however, we note that Flight #213 was canceled for mechanical reasons. By the time a repair could be affected, it was too late to dispatch the flight because we would have had pilots exceed their maximum duty day.

The mechanical defect occurred on the prior flight and the captain insisted that the repair be made to safely conclude the flight. We called in a reserve flight crew once it became clear that there was no chance the current crew could complete the flight legally. That crew arrived within the 2 hours permitted by our guidelines and the flight took off five hours late and arrived four hours late.

This was an event that was entirely not foreseeable. We were unable to accomodate you on any other airline because of their flights were full due to [insert lame excuse here]. We regret we cannot accomodate your request for a full refund and the insane demands you are making for compensation. We see that you took your return trip home, and that operation was on time and in fact arrived at the gate 12 minutes early. Therefore, your threat to never fly Delta again is just that much hot air; you already did.

All the airlines have similar policies and I’m sure you do not want to fly an airplane with a defective cabin pressurization system, or with a tired pilot. We fixed the airplane and got a new pilot – what more could we do? We know you’ll pick the cheapest fare so next time, if you hate us so much, we’d really like it if you decided to . . .

Regards – A Delta employee”

“Mr. [rank?] Compagna: We at Delta would like to apologize for the uninformed employee. We have researched your passenger record and identified the employee who gave you the incorrect information. We have docked that employee for the $400 they collected from you and referred that employee for additional training and reassignment on the mainland to a busier station so they can learn more about Delta’s contract of carriage and terms under which we transport our customers and their possessions, including their animals.

Next, we also identified the supervisor you spoke with and pulled the call from the call center tapes. We agree with you that this person acted as if you were wasting their time. This person also has been given additional training and placed in a mainline customer service role so they can better see that all customers do not lie, and that without customers they would join the ranks of the unemployed.

As a gesture of our personal and corporate disgust with these employees, you will find a personal check from [employee name here] for the fee you were charged, along with a letter of apology from the supervisor. We have stopped the practice of awarding frequent flier miles and have decided that in circumstances where our employees are wrong, that they will personally bear the cost of the financial mistakes they make for customers. We believe this will be strong incentive for them to do their jobs properly and to ask questions if they are not sure. In situations where non-financial errors are made, we find a personal note of apology is better received than a token amount of miles that may never get used.

Sincerely, A Delta Manager”

Think that would change the attitude of most airline employees?

My ‘favorite story’ about airline gate agents deciding what is right is when I was traveling from DC to Missouri (pre 9-11). It was before the modern TSA and screeners were airline employees. I was returning from a protection detail and had all the necessary documentation to carry my firearm in the cabin. I was a credentialed federal agent so I didn’t see a problem. The airlines allowed me to carry in the cabin but would not let me keep my handcuffs. They were afraid I could use them to unlawfully restrain someone. My carryon had several sets of flexicuffs (the nylon one time use cuffs that look like a zip-strip) and then allowed them but I suspect it was a case of them not knowing what they were. The arugment was that on my documentation for transport inside the cabin, no mention was made of the handcuffs. The captain offered to carry them in the cockpit which satisfied the screener.

So guns, ammunition, badge, yes. Handcuffs no. Another example of the airline employee deciding policy. Got to love American Airlines. I could write a book about the things American Airlines has done that defied logic but I would be forced to include information about the one trip that they were actually on time. Unfortunately, no one would believe it, the part about being on time once.

@MVFlyer: Delta’s employees are NON-UNION and Delta is a notorious anti-union company. Furthermore, the supervisor in question would not be a union employee even if the work group was unionized.

As far as the “clueless” employee goes, there are two possibilities…

1) Just because you may have gotten something from Delta management for the situation does NOT mean the agent was wrong. I have seen several cases where someone got compensated for complaining even though the agent did nothing wrong. Of course, this is another reason that sometimes people believe you are making things up if you do not have any documentation. When talking about clueless agents, it is just as likely that the agent on the phone gave wrong information (probably more likely, if outsourced overseas) than the agent at the airport.

2) Realize that the reason for “clueless” employees anywhere is twofold: Airlines are changing their policies almost weekly, and more importantly, they do not care a whit about training. After 9/11, all the major carriers slashed their training budgets and programs. So you are left with employees who are expected to just “figure it out” as they go along. As usual, blame the corporations, not the people.

The rude supervisor should be let go, they are in the wrong job.

Glad to see it sorted out, but sorry to see it has been such a pain.

1. Ask the Delta agent to put a note in the PNR that there will be two chinchillas, they will be in cabin and there is no fee for them due to being a member of the military. Ask for the policy #, page #, etc. where it stated that there is no fee for military as well as chinchillas can be allowed in the cabin. Call two days before departure to see if there are notes in the PNR.

2. Ask the Delta agent to send an e-mail to confirm the conversation. Or send an e-mail with the understanding of the conversation and asking for confirmation.

3. Ask for the names, location, phone number or extension of every Delta employee that was spoken with during this process. With customer service being outsourced; the current overall level of customer service; etc., it is vital now days to keep a log of your phone calls, who you spoke with, etc.

4. If Delta can’t send an e-mail or letter, ask the agent if you could record the conversation. There is legal stuff that you need to say upfront in order to be legal, etc.

It has been my experiences that if a customer service rep won’t confirm their promises by e-mail or letter and won’t let you record the conversation, it is very likely that the CSR was full of BS; you will have problems; it is not true; etc.

Back in 2003, we took a 30-day vacation trip to Europe which included a 21-day land tour. We were restricted to one piece of 30″ luggage or smaller per traveler on the tour we took. Each of our 30″ bags was packed to the max for this trip and weighed more than 50 lbs but less than 70 lbs. We were flying America West from PHX to LAX where the weight limit was 50 lbs; however, the weight limit for Virgin Atlantic for our class of service and at that time was 70 lbs. We had separate PNRs for each airline.

I didn’t want to pay a heavy luggage fee for both bags for the America West legs of our trip. I called America West and a CSR told me that since we are taking an international flight, the higher weight limit of Virgin Atlantic will apply for the America West segments. Our only requirement was to show our itinerary, tickets or board passes to the America West agent when checking in. He gave me the page # in the manual, the ‘policy #’, etc. as well as made a note in our PNR.

We arrived at the ticket counter at PHX to check in for our America West flight, the agent wanted to charge us for having heavy bags. I gave her the ‘policy #’ and told her to check the notes on our PNR and we weren’t charged. On our return segment, the America West ticket counter agent at LAX wanted to charge us for heavy bags and I gave him the ‘policy #’ and told him to check the notes on our PNR and we were not charged.
Virgin Altantic.

It is my preference that all of the airline employees know the rules and policies of their airline instead of me doing this ‘extra work’. However, I don’t like to have problems when I travel so I do this ‘work.’