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17 Responses to “Delta Air Lines”

1. On October 20th, 2007 at 9:53 am Fran Shapiro said

   Hi,

   Had a beef with Delta and emailed CEO richard.anderson@delta.com yesterday (10/19/07). Got a response within hours — not what I wanted, but honestly amazed at how quickly I heard back — from Anderson’s assistant, greg.ingram@delta.com. I had also copied the head of customer care, daiquiri.greaves@delta.com, but didn’t hear back from her. All things being equal, I give them credit for the personal and speedy reply to my message; so often these types of messages go months without response of any nature.

   Thanks for the useful information on your site!

   Fran
   NYC

2. On November 5th, 2007 at 2:44 pm Phyllis Lucas-Haddow said

   Thanks to Chris Elliott’s quick reply today to my email asking advice on reinstating Delta SkyMiles. He gave me a link to his fabulous, fact-filled website in general and to his Delta information in particular.

   Thanks to Fran Shapiro’s blog entry containing Richard Anderson’s email address, and Greg Ingram’s name.

   Thanks to Delta…..within 2 hours of my email to Richard Anderson this morning, his assistant Greg Ingram called me…very, very impressive. Honestly I was amazed and nearly speechless at how quickly he responded. And he had the happy task of telling me the miles were already reinstated.

   The rest of the story is that those miles were reinstated a few days after I faxed SkyMiles Customer Service Center a polite, factual letter August 20th…but they didn’t notify me so I’ve assumed these last 11 weeks that Delta was ignoring me, and got myself stirred up this morning to write the emails to Richard Anderson, Lee Macenczak and Daiquiri Gleaves.

   I was a loyal Delta customer when I lived in Atlanta and flew on business frequently. Now that I live elsewhere and am retired I do not have the same opportunities. But I have a large network of friends and former business colleagues who will all hear again and again how Delta resolved my issue promptly and to my satisfaction. I will go out of my way to make certain everyone I can reach knows how happy I am with Delta. And how to find Elliott.org…..

3. On December 13th, 2007 at 12:48 am linda r said

   emailed r anderson and l macenczak today 12/13/07. no response yet…will keeep you posted…my (at the time) 8 year old was made to move out of his business class seat…next to me/mom after a five hour ’security breach’ at jfk over easter because the ticketing agent didn’t use hid miles for his upgrade or who knows what…i’ll email a copy of the whole letter when I get a response. by the way there wasn’t room for both of us in coach topgether so he flew alone to london…nice huh?!?

   l

4. On February 17th, 2008 at 9:26 pm GDZ said

   Linda R,

   It would be interesting to hear of the respoution of this snafu. THX GDZ

5. On March 7th, 2008 at 1:11 pm Beth said

   The information below is for my 4-year old daughter, Mary.

   Shortly after my husband and I booked the tickets, I went online to reserve our seats. We were unable to do so via the online portal, so I called customer service. I explained that my 4-year old was travelling with me and my husband and ONE of us needed to sit next to her. I didn’t request that all 3 of us have seats together. The customer service agent said that we’s have to request the seats at the gate.

   After arriving at LAX, we went to the Crown Room. I asked the Crown room agent if he could assign at least one of us a seat with our daughter. He said that the seats were still currently being held by the gate agent, but they would be released and to come back to the Crown Room counter around 10:30 to get our new boarding passes (10:30 was the boarding time for the flight as it was scheduled to deaprt at 11 AM). We did exactly as instructed. When we got back to the counter, the Crown Room agent I had spoken with previously was not there. I asked the new agent if he had left our new boarding passes. He had not. I had to re-explain the situation and wait for the woman to type things on her computer. She told us that the gate agent never relased the seats and that we needed to leave instantly to make the flight. We still don’t have seat assignments.

   We hurry to the gate. I ask the gate agent if he has our boarding passes. He does. All three of us are seated in individual seats. I ask if he can put one adult next to our daughter. He says that he can’t becuase we should have gotten there earlier. This makes me very frustrated since we arrived at the Crown Room with plenty of time and were told by the Crown Room agent that we could pick up our boarding passes with seat assignements upon exiting the Crown Room.

   Best (worst?) of all, our 4-year old was assigned a seat in the exit row of the aircraft. He still wouldn’t change it. We got on the plane and the flight attendant accomodated our seat re-arragement because she had to since the FAA requires that no one under the age of 15 be seated in an exit row. I tried 3 times to get this straightened out with Delta agents (1 person on the phone and two at the airport). Delta didn’t try at all. This is really, really bad. I have created a SkyMiles account for Mary (our daughter) and the number is xxxxxxxxxx. I am expecting that 50,000 miles be deposited for Delta’s incompetence or that you send $400 in flight vouchers to the address above.

6. On March 13th, 2008 at 9:04 am David Caldwell said

   Want a pretty good idea of how Delta works? Here’s a story.

   Last weekend, I was in Austin for South by Southwest. I had two friends coming into town. One of them was planning on flying from Philly to JFK (#5200), then to Austin. The other was flying direct from JFK to Austin (#5202).

   Flight 5200 to JFK was delayed because, according to Delta, they “overfueled” the plane. I’ve never heard of such a thing.

   Flight 5202 to Austin was delayed because, after taxiing to the runway, they realized they didn’t have enough fuel. The flight had to stop in Knoxville, TN for fuel, and was delayed over an hour.

   My friend from Philly missed his connection and never made it to Austin. Delta gave him a full refund, but he was stranded in NYC and had to figure out how to get home on his own.

   My other friend made it; but her return flight on Sunday afternoon was canceled. Delta told her that the best they could do was get her out TUESDAY morning. Plus, since the reason for cancellation was “weather,” they couldn’t put her on a codeshare or partner airline’s flight. She had to end up getting a one-way ticket on JetBlue, which worked fine.

   Moreover, she bought her ticket using miles - and Delta wasn’t going to refund ANY of the miles, originally. I got on the phone and talked them into refunding half of the miles she used to book her flight.

   Lesson learned: DO NOT FLY DELTA. Contrary to what I’ve read on this website, their customer service has not improved since emerging from bankruptcy; the whole “change is…” ad campaign is a farce. I’d rather have dependable, clean travel than a martini. But that’s just my opinion.

   And just FYI, I’d recommend Continental Airlines. They have one of the youngest jet fleets, clean planes, and professional staff.

7. On March 18th, 2008 at 10:26 pm Coinneach said

   My daughter was supposed to fly Delta PHX-ATL-SGF this morning to visit her mother’s side of the family during spring break, departing 1040.

   First, they pushed back late, then sat at the gate for an hour while the flight crew tried to diagnose a “funny electrical smell,” which turned out to be an avionics cooling fan that had gone Tango Uniform. While waiting for a new fan to be flown in from LA (a freaking FAN was not in their spares stock!), the pax were offloaded and told to wait. At 1530 - five hours after scheduled departure - they were told that they would not make their connections at ATL. But not to worry, we’ll put you all up at a hotel!

   My daughter is a minor. They actually expected to put a hotel voucher in her hand and kick her out, into Atlanta (not the safest of cities) by herself, to find the hotel on her own and check in (which she can’t do, being a minor), then make it back to the airport the next morning to continue her journey home. I was informed of all this as it was happening by my daughter via SMS.

   I called the main 800 number and pressed 0 until I got someone who said in a very heavy accent that he couldn’t hear me and to please speak up. After repeating the confirmation number and my name in increasingly loud and angry tones, and having the idiot constantly repeat the information back incorrectly, I hung up and tried again. I got another marginally understandable CSR, who repeated “The passenger has reboarded and will be accomodated in Atlanta,” and transferred me back to a supervisor in the US only after I threatened to report Delta to the Georgia Attorney General for endangering the welfare of a minor.

   The American supervisor, to her credit, was aghast at the gate agent’s actions. Not only that, but she said she’d been with Delta for 17 years and this was the second time she’d heard this same complaint - the previous being two weeks ago. Fortunately the airplane still hadn’t pushed back, so my kid was pulled off and I drove back across town in rush-hour traffic - again - to fetch her. Delta gave her a $200 voucher for… something, I can’t tell what by the language on it. She’s been rebooked for the same flights tomorrow, but thanks to Delta’s incompetence, she’s lost a day of a well-earned vacation and everyone involved has had to rearrange their schedules - me on my end, and her grandparents on their end.

8. On March 23rd, 2008 at 4:48 pm dan mcdaniel said

   I stopped flying Delta about 4 yrs ago because of the incredibly bad customer service. Yesterday, i had a flight cancelled on NW and was forced to fly Delta from Raleigh/Durham to Gulfport/Biloxi. Wow!! Nothing has changed. The flight was late leaving, toilets did not work, flight attendant was rude and they lost my bag. To make matters worse, I was told my bag would be delivered by 10:00 a m the next morning, then by 3:00 pm, then within 12 hrs of 4:00 pm. When I called Delta I spoke to a “Baggage Floor Mgr” named Lona who informed me in no uncertain terms that Delta has 12 hrs to deliver bags and the 12 hrs does not begin to run until the bags are handed over to the courier service. So, according to Lona, Delta could keep the bags for 3 or 4 days if they so desired. Lona then hung up abruptly. No, the same old Delta is still there!!! I don’t think I have ever seen any business that is as customer hostile as Delta–and people know it. In my opinion, the best thing that could happen is for Delta to be taken over by another airline or file a Chapter 7 liquidation. The irony is that no one at Delta even cares. I fly maybe once every 3 weeks but it is always first class and many times international. Last yr alone Delta probably lost about 150k just off me. But, hey, they don’t care!!!!!

9. On April 5th, 2008 at 4:34 pm Sharman said

   Delta’s customer service reminds me of good cop bad cop. A very courteous and probably outsourced rep hasn’t the power to help you and transfers you to a not-so-courteous “supervisor” who refuses to help you. Wonderful system for them really. Not so great for their customers.

10. On April 14th, 2008 at 1:33 pm Cari Failure said

    There are times in working for an airline that there are service failures. And I know how very frustrating things can become. I believe overseas agents should be off the phones soon. Also I field customer complaints all day and try to make things work. It is hard on people to make travel plans and then have something go wrong. I have talked to customers traveling on emergency travel, military or government, minors, weddings, funerals, court hearings, people who put their elderly parents or grandparents on flights that needed to be accompanied, business and vacation travelers just to name a few. And at times there are service failures that cannot be fixed. For that I am sorry. Delta is a great airline and I am proud to work for them. These are personal comments only.

11. On May 2nd, 2008 at 3:53 pm susan hidalgo-smith said

    i am getting the runaround from the skymiles executive office…..trying to book
    business seats to venice and back in sept or oct of 2008 with only miles…..
    i am a medallion member….sent a letter in to daiquiri gleaves on dec 30, 2007…
    spoke with tanya holt on jan 24, 2008 and she sent possible itinerary…..
    i called back on feb 7, 2008 and spoke with greg…..kelly called back and
    left message on my cell….no tickets…..spoke with shelly on 4/23/08 to ask
    what is the value of trying to book my seats on the webste as opposed to holding
    onto my priority status….apparently, after march 15th, anything goes….kelly didn’t
    call back this time…..spoke with marco on april 29h, 2008….he encouraged me
    to buy my tickets….left message for kelly with answering service on may 2, 2008.
    thanks, susan hidalgo-smith

12. On May 8th, 2008 at 12:25 pm Scott Huber said

    Delta gave me voucher for a July 2007 flight to Toronto that I could not take because my passport failed to arrive. I asked the Delta representative twice how long the voucher was good for: “Tthe voucher is good until the 7th month of 2008.”

    Tried to use the voucher May 6, 2008 to book a flight. The Delta representative stated that the voucher had expired, is not availible, end of discussion.

    Basically stealing money. I’m done with Delta. Scott Huber

13. On May 14th, 2008 at 12:56 am Robert Lowenberg said

    Mr. Anderson:

    I flew from Portland, Oregon to Atlanta on April 29th, and then from Atlanta to Washington DC on May 2nd. When I arrived at the DC airport on May 7th for my return trip to Portland, I was informed that I was required to pay a $25.00 service fee for my second bag. What made me mad enough to write to you was that I was not informed of this change when I left Portland, nor was I told in Atlanta that my second bag would cost me more on the return flight. So I wondered which scenario best describes this problem:

    1) Delta is being run so poorly that the gate agents didn’t know a baggage fee would be implemented even 9 days before it took effect;

    2) Delta is being run so poorly that the gate agents knew about the change, but didn’t think their passengers would notice the change;

    3) If #2 is true…Delta employees think that the passengers flying on their airline are too stupid to notice a change in baggage fees;

    4) Delta is paving the way to file for bankruptcy again, and senior management couldn’t care less about how their customers feel;

    PS. I don’t expect to receive a $25.00 refund, nor do I expect to be flying with your airline again, (although your planes will probably be recycled and flown by United or American in the future). I also expect that Delta will spend far more than $25.00 to try to win back my business, and the business of the dozens of other people that I tell about your new customer service strategy.

    Regretfully,

    Robert Lowenberg

14. On May 20th, 2008 at 2:02 pm chet c. said

    So What was the link to Delta Airlines to contact them and get my SkyMiles re-instated. (Exp Jan 2008), despite having partner (hotel, auto rental) activity the past year.

15. On May 26th, 2008 at 11:15 am Rick Ober said

    Dear Ms. Gleaves,
    Your web site appears to have erroneous information, or, if the information is correct, the policy is illegal. The Department of Transportation issued the following guidance with regard to more restrictive baggage policies on May 19, 2008:
    Internet displays and airline agents should also make clear when the added charges or revised policies are to take effect. In no case should more restrictive baggage policies or additional charges be applied retroactively to a consumer who purchased his or her ticket at a time when the charges did not apply, or when a lower charge applied. Whatever the contract of carriage provides regarding free baggage as of the date of each ticket sale is binding on the carrier. The Aviation Enforcement Office considers any carrier practice that violates its contract of carriage provisions to constitute an unfair and deceptive trade practice in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 41712.
    Thus May 5 is not the effective date for passengers traveling after that date, it is effective for passengers purchasing tickets after that date.
    Please respond to my email.
    Rick Ober

    DELTA WEB SITE:
    Baggage FAQs

    How many bags can I check free of charge?
    Starting May 5, 2008, you may check one baggage item free of charge. If you want to check additional baggage, you’ll have to pay an excess baggage fee.

    Make sure your checked baggage fits within the size and weight limits specified on Baggage Allowances on Flights.

    Return to top

    ——————————————————————————–

    When is this change applicable?
    This change is applicable for passengers traveling on or after May 5th

16. On July 8th, 2008 at 11:29 pm Tamar Weinberg said

    It’s a shame that Greg Ingram doesn’t seem to be employed by Delta anymore, as I’m receiving an error from the Delta postmaster.

    This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

    Delivery to the following recipients failed.

    Greg.Ingram@delta.com

    Final-Recipient: rfc822;Greg.Ingram@delta.com
    Action: failed
    Status: 5.7.1
    X-Display-Name: Ingram, Greg

    I’d love to know who took his place!

17. On August 2nd, 2008 at 8:31 pm p said

    Worst experience ever, Arrived JFK 1 hour prior to flight that I had already check in for by internet, and was caused to miss flight due to incompetence of an overwhelmed staff. Issue was bag being checked. totally lack of motivation to try to make me make flight. No attempt to check late baggage, no call to see if feasible, no attempt to check baggage at gate, nothing. When all said and done first supervisor wanted to charge me 1100 dollars for another flight which would not leave to next day, then charged me 100 dollars o fly out 2 days later all after waiting 20 minutes to talk to supervisor before flight at which point I still had 15 minutes to takeoff. Insane. will never fly that airline again.

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