Delta Air Lines
Reviews and Complaints

Company delayed my relatives on a flight from Russia (Moscow) to USA (San Francisco) via Atlanta on December 25th.

Flight was delayed leaving Russia under a false pretense of a unruly passenger on board (who was removed by Russian security forces in assistance with Delta personnel). Connecting flight from Atlanta was NOT delayed leaving Atlanta and left just as Moscow - Atlanta flight # 47 was landing.

Delta ground staff was displeased at the fact that they have to accommodate delayed passengers and used the fact that most passengers had limited command of English language and issued them a hotel voucher that was NOT enough to completely cover overnight stay and did not provide any food to passengers.

Problem was exacerbated next day when Delta did not send a big enough bus to accommodate all passengers at the hotel (to be brought onto another flight to SFO) and created additional roadblocks for passengers by NOT assisting them in getting correct boarding information.

Collective letter was written by passengers to address the problem of poor customer service, but no response was received from Delta

I traveled through Delta airlines last night from Atlanta to Houston. I was booked on DL-5871 (Scheduled departure 925pm). I checked in around 755PM.

I asked the lady over the check-in counter if I can get earlier flight as DL5871 was delayed. She told that its too close to check in with earlier flight as it was too close of the flight (DL57-Sch departure 650pm) departure and she cannot put me on stand by list.

I checked in with DL5871 and proceed to gate. Later I realized DL57 is still to depart. I went to the gate and that flight was even delayed and eventually departed at 9pm. I boarded on that flight. When arrived at Houston, I put the baggage claim and he told it will be delivered in the morning.

I waited till 11am and when nothing was arrived I looked for the status. To my surprise, there was no information available. I called the help desk number and the person picked up the phone told that my bag has just arrived! which is 1020am.

Here is the trouble started. When I asked why my bag did not come with the flight it suppose to be, he had no definite answer. Rather than apologize he gave me an attitude as if he is doing me favor by telling that ATLEAST my bag has arrived and I should be thankful for that.

I asked him about the reasons of delays, he said there is a end less list. I asked when I can know the real reasons, he told me to call again tomorrow if they actually can find any!

I am really dis-appointed with the customer care behavior and attitude shown toward passenger. Firstly we got flight delayed, then my bag did not arrive in time and then we have to deal with such non professional behavior of customer care service.

I would request you to look into the matter and let me know the actual reasons for delay. I would also like to put a written compliant against the person who attended the call and gave non-professional answer and did not show any courtesy.

Ms Georgia Verdier
161 Wall Street
Corning, New York 14830

Delta Airlines
Customer Service
PO BOX 20980
Dept 980
Atlanta Ga. [protected]

To Whom It May Concern:

I am Georgia Verdier, one of the individuals mention in the letter listed below, written by Ms. Credle. I am writing regarding luggage charges. On departure from Spain, several of us had our luggage weighed and was told it was “Heavy, ” as the figures were not shown in English. Many of us questioned the weight because we had carefully avoided the problem of over weight. On arrival home, my bag was slightly less than 50 pounds. However, I was charged 120 Euros, with our dollar valued at $75.00 to their $100.00. The scale they used stated that the cost would be rated according to the weight, beginning at $50.00, however, this was not done. Several of us believe we were grossly and unfairly charged. I hope you have heard from others who were on the same trip, encountered the same problem, and voiced their displeasure in the airport. Please inform me as to what can be done to rectify this problem.

Sincerely,

Georgia Verdier
Delta Passenger

Lucy Credle
251 Steuben Street
Painted Post NY 14870

November 26, 2008

Delta Airlines
Customer Service
PO BOX 20980
Dept 980
Atlanta Ga. [protected]

Subject: Poor Service

To Whom It May Concern:

I am wishing to file a complaint regarding Delta flight # 6207 from Rochester to JFK, which arrived late, causing us to miss our flight to Madrid, Spain.

Georgia Verdier, Cleo Watkins and myself were traveling to Madrid Spain on Sunday 02/11/08 via flight # 6207 from Rochester NY @ 4: 30P and were to arrive at NYC/Kennedy @ 6:10 P. The plane arrived late to Rochester; therefore causing us to arrive at JFK late, and then sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes waiting to approach the gate at JFK. Our concern was expressed to the steward who said the connecting flight # 126 was aware of the delay and assured us we would make our connection. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the gate they had closed the doors five minutes earlier. We ended on a$ flight to Malaga #DL162 than another Iberia IB 0221 to Madrid which arrived too late for our tour director to escort us to the hotel and the tour of the city. This delay caused us to miss the first day of our vacation tour and cost us an additional 39.00 E for the cab to the hotel. Although we had an option of leaving from the Corning/ Elmira airport, we decided it would be easier to leave via Rochester, as we would have to change planes in Spain, which would have been more difficult then doing so in the US. In essence, my son had to drive us over 100 miles one-way to Rochester and pick us up, to avoid changing planes in a foreign country. For all the good it did us we could have flown out of Corning.

I called customer service on 21/11/08 and spoke to a Ms Humaira about my displeasure. Ms Humaira advised that I would be receiving a $50.00 voucher towards a future flight (within one year). I do not feel this is adequate compensation for the inconvenience and costs that we had to endure. I am sure you can do better than that. Is it my advice that AAA should think twice about using your airline when you show such disregard for poor service.

Respectfully,

Lucy Credle

CC:

AAA Travel
Kip Zeiter
1284 Dryden Road
Ithaca NY 14850

Georgia Verdier
161 Wall Street
Corning NY 14830

Cleo Watkins
19 Roberts Avenue
Corning NY 14830

We have been loyal customers of Delta for many, many years and several times in the past used their skymiles program to take trips. We have found in the past the airline to be responsive and the customer service representatives to be helpful. However that does not appear to be the case any longer. I wanted to put out a warning to anyone who might be considering flying Delta or using their credit cards for the frequent flyer miles. Their customer service, along with their other services, has been rapidly declining. Our recent experience with several customer service representatives and the Delta website left us frustrated, angry and flightless.

My daughter has been working hard for years to graduate from high school with a college associates degree, several scholarships and as a member of the top ballroom dance team in the US. Needless to say this doesn't give her a lot of time to relax. As proud parents, and in appreciation for the scholarships she earned, we are using her graduation, not to mention the money we will be saving on tuition, as an excuse to start planning a big graduation trip. We love to travel and will use any excuse we can find and giving her some time to relax after years of hard work seemed like a good excuse to me.

We have saved Delta frequent flyer miles for years, flying with Delta and using their frequent flyer credit card faithfully to save miles in anticipation of a big trip. We have used these miles in the past and while it took some work and compromise to get flights, we found the customer service people were very helpful and we ended up getting flights that worked for us. We expected to have the same experience this time and had no trepidation about getting flights as we were starting our search many months ahead of time.

The first step to get these (not anywhere near) free flights was transferring miles from various accounts (mine, brothers) into my husbands account to have enough miles in the same account for the international flights we wanted. Now 1 cent per mile, plus a $30 fee doesn't seem like that much when you read it, but it sure adds up. To transfer 30, 000 miles that ends up being $330. Of course you can only transfer 30, 000 miles at a time so there are more fees if you transfer more. Fortunately for us we didn't need to transfer more than 30, 000 from any one account, but we still ended up paying around $760 for the transfers. We thought in the end it would be worth it considering the costs of international flights and the fact that we need 3 tickets. Of course if you get international flights with frequent flyer miles it will cost you around $200 in additional fees to reserve the flights, so the costs would end up being around $1360. Pretty good for 3 international tickets, though we have to do a lot of work and not get our first, second, tenth, twelfth choice of times and places to fly, but certainly not �free� and certainly not a good deal if you can't get any flights.

Now all the miles are in the right place it's time to start to try to reserve our flights. The website is, to put it simply, terrible. I'm fairly savvy at working around these difficult websites having reserved many flights before. However I found this one beyond frustrating and was unable to reserve a flight. The calendar changed constantly (even between steps of a single session) I later learned from the developer's blog that it was essentially because it was too computer intensive to show all of the flights on the calendar. Their technical workaround? Essentially to show random (and apparently also some nonexistent and/or fully booked) flights, since they couldn't show them all. When I managed to wrestle a flight I wanted into existence, I would invariably get 'There is a problem' or 'please try your request again' or �this flight was just fully booked� when I tried to book them. This same thing would happen again, and again, and again.

After several days of trying to work with the website I had some time so I called the number provided, figuring I'd go ahead and spend the extra money and see if they could help me. After all they had been helpful before when I was trying to reserve flights. I was on hold until, as the sun was sinking in the sky, I had to hang up. 2 days later after unsuccessfully trying to use the website again, I called and waited on hold again until finally I got a live, though snippy, person. I was told that I couldn't make reservations because it was my husbands account. Ok, that's understandable. I'll keep trying to use the website, I thought, and if I can't get a reservation my husband can call when he has timel.

My husband called 2 nights later. By now I had been trying to reserve flights for around 2 weeks with no success, mainly because of the website who's programmers appear to be as competent as our current crop of politicians. My husband put the phone on speaker during the interminable wait on hold, so I heard the whole conversation. It went something like this:

Husband: I'd like to reserve an international flight with my frequent flyer miles, we need to have skysaver flights as we don't have enough miles...

CSR (interrupting): What cities?

Husband: Ideally we'd like to fly from ___ to ____ around May 25th, returning around June 10th, but we are flexible.

CSR: I'm only showing Skychoice (expensive in miles) flights for those cities around that date

Husband: We have found another flight that would work, but we've been unable to get it reserved online. Your website seems to be having some problems. Are you able reserve these other flights for us?

CSR: I CAN'T DO ANYTHING FOR YOU THAT YOU CAN'T DO ON THE WEBSITE. I HAVE THE SAME INFORMATION YOU SEE THERE. YOUR FLIGHTS ARE FAR ENOUGH IN THE FUTURE THAT IF YOU WAIT AND KEEP CHECKING BETTER FLIGHTS FOR YOU WILL LIKELY BECOME AVAILABLE.

Husband: so you recommend we wait?

CSR: yes sir, your flights are far enough out that I recommend you wait and keep checking on the website to get the flights you want.

Husband: but we are having trouble with the website. It won't let us reserve the flights that we want. We're found flights to ------- instead of ------- that we'd be ok with but we can't seem to reserve them online.

CSR: sir, I can't do anything for you that you can't do yourself on the website, and really your flights are far enough out there is no hurry.

Husband: so I should keep checking and trying to reserve on the online?

CSR: Yes sir

Upshot of the conversation : Your call is important to us, please don't bother calling again. We don't have the time, energy, desire or ability to help you.

I kept trying online for flights. There are 3 airports we are willing to fly out of and 10 we are willing to fly into and our range is about 5 days on either end and still it's difficult to find flights and when I do find flights that we could work with the website continues to tell me it's having problems, try again. It gives the number to call, but we've been told that will not do us any good, as well as costing more, so we don't call. Many flights suddenly start being �just fully booked� when I want them, interestingly on different days, different places, different times and all �just fully booked� within minutes of each other, as well as the same old �We are having a problem �.

A fews days later when I hop on the site for my daily try at getting flights low and behold the cost of the least mileage flights in miles has gone up ...10, 000 miles Per Person ! That's 30, 000 miles that we don't have. ARGH...I'm so frustrated. Why didn't the CSR warn us that prices on all flights were going up? Instead he encouraged us to wait. This is what we get for following delta's advice and being patient with them. I start to wonder if the CSRs were coached to have people put off booking their flights until the price raise was in place and this is why the CSR was so unhelpful. That seems like a definite possibility. I wonder a little too about the website not allowing me to book for weeks prior to the price raise, but I don't want to get too conspiratorial.

My husband is home so we call customer service, on speaker phone, to talk to one unhelpful and uncompassionate CSR and are passed on to her equally unhelpful and uncaring supervisor. We are told that A) they aren't responsible if their website doesn't work B) they aren't responsible for what their customer service people say and C) This is the first complaint they have ever gotten about their website. Well that last is a demonstrable falsehood...or in other words a lie...see http://blog.delta.com/2008/07/31/the-award-ticket-calendar/#comments for just one source of complaints. It's not hard to find others if you look around online a bit. She tells us we should have continued to call instead of trying to use the website and that they did not force us to not call. Well maybe we should have, but it didn't help the times we did call and we were told, by a Delta representative, that it would be a pointless waste of our time to call. We were also told, by a Delta representative that there was no hurry to reserve. If they aren't responsible for their website or their customer service, just what are they responsible for? Hopefully at least for their airplane maintenance. We got no apology or helpful suggestion from these people. Not one scintilla of compassion for our situation, just rudeness. The CSR manager said that she didn't know what the other CSR had told us, in other words she thought we were lying. I offered to give her the CSRs name and the time we called so they could see if they have a recording or at least talk to him, but she wasn't interested in actually finding out what he had said, just in accusing us of not being truthful.

To summarize Delta appears to have, at the least a website run by incompetent programmers that they do not take any responsibility for. They have CSRs who are not their responsibility either and are not only unhelpful, but flat out liars. It appears to me they had been told to encourage people to put off reserving frequent flyer mile flights until Delta could get their new mileage requirements in place. At worst they even sabotaged their own website so that people would not be able to reserve flights before the rate change. No way we can get 30, 000 more skymiles in time to get any flights no matter how flexible we are or what difficulties we are willing to go through to get them. Looks like, thanks to Delta's great customer service and concern for their customers, my daughter won't be getting her trip after all.

We purchased a ticket for our son, who attends LSU University for medicine, to go to New York to participate with volunteer work for the elderly In NY during his fall break. Hurricane Gustav arrived and upended life in louisiana; and LSU University subsequently had to cancell the fall break to recoup the lost class time. We contacted Delta Airlines to cancell the ticket and requested at least a partial refund. Delta Airlines has refused to refund any portion of the 391 dollar ticket. They will offer a partial credit for a ticket to be used within the next 12 months, but there will be a penalty assessed to use that credit. We will have to pay even more to travel on this disreputable airline. Travelers beware. My business and associate have vowed to not use Delta Airlines in the future, and I can assure you my family will never set foot on a Delta Airline. I will use every possible opportunity to convey our experience with the unethical nature of Delta Airlines.

I was flying Delta coach. My knees were cramped. I was sitting behind a guy who had his seat reclined--turns out his name was York Galland. He saw my discomfort and immediately put his seat forward. Seeing that I was a big guy, he gave me some really helpful "secrets" on how to upgrade to first class for almost nothing! Thanks York. Delta, space your seats better!

I fly regularly. Lately, when I make a reservation, Delta does not permit me to make a seat selection. I am told I cannot as I 'might' get upgraded to first class. Then the day of the flight, the flight is magically full, and everyone else has been able to select seats, so I am left with the worst seat on the aircraft and no one can 'do' anything about it. I am told, 'Gee there is nothing we can do. It should not have happened, Customers are out first concern, have a nice day.'

This is how they treat preferred customers who spend lots of time in their aircraft and spend hundreds of thousands of dollar with them?

I would be better off just getting the lowest fare. They treat me just as poorly but for less.

To Whom It May Concern,
I am a Sky Miles member and spend quite a bit for an individual with Delta. I usually go out of my way to choose Delta when traveling domestically and internationally. ( I am planning to book a trip to Paris today).

My wife and 2 children recently traveled to Chicago for my 9 year old son's Hockey tournament. I usually travel with my son but my daughter had a "Daddy - Daughter Girl Scout Camping" weekend at the same time.

The problem lies with the way she was handled/treated at your O'Hare ticket counter by an "Agent Reed" and how I was treated on the phone through the Delta Sky Miles number [protected])by a Garret Stevens from Cincinnati OH.

Here is the issue:

My wife Corene and son Justin under confirmation number C6IEHY and my daughter Emma under confirmation number C6W072 started their trip in Atlanta to Chicago on flight number 778 to depart at 7:30. each passenger had 1 item to check. We researched your sports equipment rule and found the following:

"Thank you for contacting Delta Air Lines.

Items of hockey / lacrosse equipment may be accepted as checked baggage and one such item may be included in the free baggage allowance. One item of hockey / lacrosse equipment is defined as one equipment bag plus two hockey or lacrosse sticks (taped together). The total weight of the equipment bag and hockey sticks may not exceed 50 pounds or excess weight charges will apply. Size limits of up to 80 linear inches apply.

We appreciate your interest in Delta Air Lines.

Sincerely,

Jack Freidman
Online Customer Support Desk
http://www.delta.com"

My wife printed the above and brought this with them in case there were any questions about your policy. The gentleman who checked them in (I was present) was outstanding, knew the policy and my son's hockey bag and sticks were treated as 1 free checked item as indicated above. I kissed my family goodbye and they were on their way. The other 40+ Atlanta area hockey families had the same experience and the policy was adhered to.

On the way back from Chicago (O'Hare), upon checking in for flight 799 the experience was not the same. My wife had the exact same baggage for our family BUT they forced her to pay $50 for the hockey sticks (One item of hockey / lacrosse equipment is defined as one equipment bag plus two hockey or lacrosse sticks (taped together)). Neither item was over 80 inches or 50 lbs.

When she tried to show Agent Reed the document from your organization, he refused to review it and stated if you want to take the sticks back with you it will have to be an additional $50. She then called me on her cell to ask what she should do. I asked to talk to the agent and he said (I could hear in the background) that there is "nothing I can say that will change his mind.

I told her to pay the $50 and we will work it out with Delta later so she could catch her flight and bring everything home.

While she was flying I called the sky miles number [protected]) and the representative, after me telling my story told me I had to talk with the "baggage department". After being on hold for 37 minutes I finally talked with a Baggage representative who was great. She validated my understanding of the policy but said she cannot provide the credit. It had to be done by a customer service person. he coached me on what numbers/information to have available and also said that I should go see someone in person since I was on my way to pick them up back in Atlanta. I thought great idea!

Once in Atlanta I went to the ticket counter and told my story. The first woman told me I was wrong and we had to pay the $50. She didn't even look up the policy when I requested. I asked to speak to a manager. The manager came over (Name escapes me but I believe begins with a G). I told my story yet again and he said I was wrong and I actually should have paid more! I asked him to research the policy and read it to me. he said the woman already did and I said no she didn't. He asked her and she said no I didn't. At this point another woman walked over named Tanya. She knew the policy and confirmed my understanding. The manager, after hearing that said I need to go to baggage to get my credit. I explained that I called baggage and they told me that they do not have the authority to provide credits. He then said I need to call sky miles to do it and I informed him that I did that also and they informed me to call baggage also which is wrong. Tanya then informed the manager that the credit could be issued right there where we were standing if I had the receipt. My wife had the receipt so it was agreed that once she got off the plane we would come back to that spot and complete the transaction.

My wife, son and daughter arrived safely and informed me that she had been called to the gate in Chicago and was informed by the gate agent that a mistake had been made and a credit for the $50 was issued. With that said we decided to take that as fact and get home without going back to the ticket counter where Tanya was. It was late (10:00) and a school night for the kids and we still had a 45 minute drive home. That was a mistake.

On the drive home I called sky miles again to validate the $50 credit. The woman researched and found the charge but no credit. I again explained my story and she again said no to the credit. I asked for a supervisor and got Garret Stevens on the phone. He was rude, short, unwilling to help and a bit snide. I believe he had the authority to give me the credit and chose not to.

This concern is more about following a policy than the money. In this economy don't you want a guy like me choosing you when we fly? I fly quite a bit for work (VP for UPS), quite abit for Hockey (my son is on the Atlanta Fire travel team) and for leisure (we are originally from Massachusetts so we fly family down and we fly up a lot.

I have choices. Many of the times Air Tran is $3-$6 cheaper and has just as nice a frequent flyer program but I have stayed loyal. I have a delta flight this week as a matter of fact (flight 1046- CQKZFR) and received my medallion upgrade email this morning!

I am requesting a credit for the $50 extra bag fee based on your written policy.

I would like to share with you my most recent experience on Delta. I would like to start by telling you how excited I was when I learned we were flying Delta the entire trip, from Jacksonville to Ghana. In the past, I had always trusted Delta to get me to my destination in a safe and timely manner.

I took off from Jacksonville on August 1st to Atlanta, Atlanta to JFK and on to Ghana. These flights were pretty uneventful, until we got to our International flight. I knew the flight to Ghana should be nice, since we would be on an airplane for 12 hours. Was I mistaken! We were packed in this airplane like sardines. The seats were crammed together and my poor legs were stuck in one position because I had no where to put them. To make a long flight extra long, we were stuck on the tarmac for an hour and a half. Not a great way to start the flight. I was toward the end of the line when it was my time to board the plane. By the time I arrived, most of the overhead containers were taken, so the flight attendant took my bag to put downstairs. Even tough I asked her to put it somewhere else. I had nothing to read, listen to or study during this trip. During the flight, we encountered a flight attending who was rude and did not like us to get up, even though the captain had not put on the seat belt sign. There was an instance where she accidently spilled something on my neighbor and the words out of her mouth were very disturbing. When we arrived to Ghana, I asked the flight attending for my bag. She informed me I would have to pick it up with the rest of my luggage. I tried telling her all my identification was in my bag and I needed it so I could go through customs. When I got to customs, I tried explaining to them the flight attending had taken my bag that included my passport, drivers license and other forms of I.D. I had to wait until all people had gone through customs, and be escorted to the baggage claim until I finally found my bag.

Luckily, I had a good trip and put this all behind me. This was until I came back to the United States.

The flight we were scheduled to take from Ghana to the United States was delayed by two hours in the United States. This meant it was two hours delayed picking us up in Ghana. We finally boarded the little, cramped airplane again and began our long trip home. When we finally made it back to the United States, we thought we were safe and almost home. This was the biggest mistake of them all!

We learned that our connecting flight to Atlanta had been cancelled. There were two other International flights that came in around the same time we did. They also had problems. So Delta decided to cram as many people as they could into this tiny room and try to re-book us. We spent two hours in line and ready to get to a Delta representative and get home. I guess it was almost leaving time for the Delta representatives because they were short and very rude to us. Before we made it to the line, we saw people paying off the delta representatives to get closer in line and we saw Delta representatives giving out room vouchers to people who were on my same flight. When we made it to the counter, we told them if they could get us anywhere close to Jacksonville, that would be great. We would drive the rest of the way, if needed. We just wanted to go home. We were told there was nothing for a day and a half. When we asked about a room, we were told Delta would not be giving us a room, and they would not explain why. I asked to speak to a manager and was refused. She said she was not going to call a manager for me. She told me if I didnt leave, she would call port authority on me. Basically, she left me with no ticket and no room at eleven oclock at night. I had never in my life been talked to the way the Delta representative had talked me.

Finally, I found another Delta representative, Yvonne Green. She was wonderful. She took us to the manager I had been asking for earlier. I explained my situation and told him the way I was treated. He gave us a room. Luckily, I had called my dad during this time and he found me a flight out of Newark.

The next morning, we work up, and drove an hour to Newark to catch a flight home. Its funny that the airplane from Atlanta to Jacksonville, a 45- minute flight, was huge! We each had our own T.V. and the seats were very spacious. Its a shame Delta didnt treat us like this for a 12 hour flight!

My experience with Delta was one of the worst experiences I have ever had. Its terrible that the main thing I remember from my trip to Africa was my awful experience with Delta. In the future, I will choose another airline over Delta, due to the customer service I received at JFK.

I am writing on behalf of my sister. She flew with delta yesterday morning at 9am on flight number 5552 and was charged $140 for checking a second bag and because they said the second bag was over the weight limit. We made sure and insisted that they please do everything possible to make sure the bags would get to their FINAL destination, the agent looked at us like we were idiots and said: 'of course they will get there!' My sister had a connecting flight in detroit and when she got to her final destination in Lansing Michigan, her bags were nowhere to be found. She filed a claim of course but the problem is that Delta and Northwest are pointing fingers at each other! She booked the flight on Delta! She flew with Delta! Its not her fault if Delta buys Northwest and operates Northwest yet customers are lead to believe they are two separate companies! It has been a very frustrating experience to say the least! especially after paying the airline $140 and they still cant get the bags to their final destination! The bags are now in some airport somewhere. The customer service people have not been helpful at all! Both my sister and I have emailed Delta/Northwest yesterday and now almost 16 hours later, still no response! My advice: stay away from delta/Northwest. choose another airline!

Two Delta experiences during the past 30 days:

International flight (Atlanta-Incheon and back) that featured broken seat trays and seats, slightly dirty aircraft, filthy bathrooms that weren't maintained for 14 hrs, indifferent/bored flight attendants who avoided work, marginal food. (Compare with Korean Airlines: outstanding service, superb food, immaculately maintained aircraft, constant attention and food/drink, spectacular flight attendants)

2) Skymiles award ticket redemption: hugely increased mileage requirements for domestic award tickets (from 25K miles to 37K or 50K miles for most flights), all kinds of creative and absurd ticketing fees ("partner airline" use fees, taxes that weren't previously charged, new additional fees for any flight that's earlier than 21 days). If you think you know the rules/assumptions of Delta's Skymiles program -- think again. It's become a kind of "bait and switch" scheme in which Delta unilaterally changes the rules and you're stuck.

I had a one way flight from PA to KC for 8/30.
I called today to change my flight for 8/29 and was quoted specific flights that fit my need. The fare difference quoted was $170.00 and charged the difference to my credit card. I gave up my hotel room in PA for the night of 8/29.
I received my confirmation itinerary by email and see that it is actually changed to later in the day 8/30, not 8/29.
I call back and am told that they will take care of it and waive the further difference (8/29 now showing a $338 difference, not the $170 I was quoted and charged. To make matters worse, the agent gets flustered because the flight numbers I was provided don't match what he is showing so he puts me on hold again to speak to his supervisor and then comes back and says that they have to send me to reissue desk and the additional fees would be waived.
I reach the reissue desk, explain my dilemma (mind you-due to Delta's error) and am immediately told that the record has no documentation about waiving anything. This is before they even check to help or aplogize for the inconvenience and error!
Now I am dealing with a robot who continues to use the word "CAN'T" in every sentence he spouts out.
I sit on hold for what seems like eternity (probably closer to 7 minutes).
The agent returns to day here are your options:
1) Keep original flight the same--they voided the $170 transaction already so you are not out the fee.
2) Pay $338 dollars more to change to the Friday flight.
When I ask if they could accomodate the Friday flight for the $170 I was quoted since I gave up my hotel room and otherwise have to find a place to stay in PA they say NO. Can't, Can't, Can't is every other word in the sentence.
No responsibility taken for setting a Customer expectation, making an error and no apology until I asked for one. Was it sincere? Not at all!

I had my 13 year old son fly alone on the flight from NY LGA to JAX FL.
My father paid the hundred dollar fee and stayed with him until my son was ready to board. We were so glad that they had such program because it saved me a trip to NY to bring him back.

Here is where the problem started. After waiting for more than 30 minutes after the plane landed.
We found our son wandering around the airport in Jax. when we asked him why, he said no one accompanied him. so when he heard the annoucement (which they were making to let us know they had lost the child) calling for his grandfather (who dropped him off in NY!), he said he was trying to find his way to the baggage claim. When I went to complain about this situaution the lady there (Ms. Angelica Jacobs) instead of apologizing, started getting angry at us claiming since he was 13 he should have been able to look after himself. on top of that, she claimed it was he's fault cuz it may be he wandered off..It's a small airport, delta only uses about four gates, which are all side by side. The plane he was on only carries about 48 passengers How is it that they couldn't keep track of one child? When we started asking these questions, she told us to call customer care to make a complaint, the number she gave us turned out to be a fax number. It turns out Delat only accepts complaints thru their website. Yes We found ourchild safe, but what if? what if something had happened to him? Isn't this why we pay them extra to have our children looked after? I am so disappointed. I have always flew with delta but this is the last time I used their services.

I purchased a ticket for a trip for April 2008. Due to a family emergency I needed to cancel the flight. The ticket agent (name Sherri) assured me that she would waive the cancellation fee due the nature of the cancelation. When I went to use the eticket I was told I would need to pay a $75 fee even though I was told I would not have to pay it. When I asked to speak to a customer service rep I was told "there is no way in hell you aren't going to pay the fee" His name is James Thomas and he is in Tampa. I was told the cancellation fee would be waived on April 15, 2008. I would like Delta to honor this verbal agreement.

My two nephews, ages 15 and 11, were flying from Cedar Rapids, IA to Hartford Ct through Cincinnati to visit their aunt (my sister). It was their second year flying Delta on this trip as unaccompanied minors. My family flies Delta exclusively many, many times a year. My sister booked their flight online and somehow a mistake was made and the tickets went through with the kids listed as adults, not unaccompanied minors (here's a tip-- you CANNOT book unaccompanied minors online, though they say you can, agents confirmed this is a LIE. You have to call in, then they charge you more for calling in. SCAM!). When my brother in law went to drop them off and they realized they were minors he had to pay $200-- fine, except that the unaccompanied minor flights on all the other airlines were way cheaper. So, my sister called Delta and received horrible customer service. My sister is attorney-- not someone to mess with. So, she reported them to the BBB and wrote a letter to the company. Whatever, we moved on. Well, after a week vacation my sister (aunt) took the boys to the Hartford airport for their return home and was informed that they couldn't fly because the flight from Cincinnati to Cedar Rapids was the last of the day and unaccompanied minors are not allowed on the last flight of the day. Well, why didn't anyone notice that at the airport in CR? This WAS Delta's fault, unlike the online ticketing which they managed to blame completely on my sister. Well, my sister in Hartford (the boy's aunt) was able to talk the boys onto the flight by switching the older one to adult status and promising that I would be there to get the younger one (I happen to live in Cincinnati). So, I had to drive 45 minutes to the airport and go to the counter and beg my younger nephew's way on the flight. I spoke to a VERY nice young lady and her manager who were able to fix the problem, but not without 1 hour of me waiting, not knowing what would happen. The boy's mother was LIVID, she was considering pressing charges against Delta for custodial interference, which I mentioned at the counter. Well, they finally told me I could go down, meet the boy's incoming flight, then wait with them for their flight to Cedar Rapids. Of course the flight was delayed due to weather problems in Atlanta and the boys and I ended up sitting in the Cincinnati airport for 4 hours, which was ok because I got to hang out with them. However, the problem wasn't over-- I spoke to the agent at the counter where they got off the plane and explained to her that my younger nephew would be going on, and I wanted to make sure his luggage would, too. She said it would. I then told them they needed to make sure their dad was listed as receiving them in Iowa, because with all the changes I was worried that got changed, too. I then repeated this to ANOTHER agent at the next counter. Well, the boys did get to Iowa, eventually, but of course the luggage didn't, and my brother in law wasn't listed to pick them up (yet they let him-- nice, what if there was a custody issue or something? $200 for what? They "watched" an 11 year old on the plane-- I watched him in cincinnati, I put him on the plane). In the end, the boy's luggage made it. However, the amount of money we are out for gas, parking, food, unaccompanied fee, long distance calls between all of us, etc is gone. I would recommend that Delta really look at this policy and the safety issues involved. I would also recommend that if you have unaccompanied minors you look for another airline for the kid's safety and your mental well being.

In July '08 I booked a flight for my 12 year old nephew. I told the agent several times that he was only twelve years old and that he was travelling alone. I was never told that there would be a $100 fee each way until two days before the flight when we rechecked the reservations. Maybe, just maybe if the call centres were still in the U. S. and you could understand each other this might be avoided. Maybe everyone should just demand to be transferred to a call centre in the continental U. S. whenever we encounter foreign call centres.

I was not aware of the $100 EACH WAY surcharge until getting to the ticket counter (after the round trip ticket was paid in full). I wrote a complaint to Delta who's boilerplate response was that it was standard operating policy to decline waiver of this fee. Although I informed Delta at time of purchase of the minor and they took down all contact information about who would meet her at the destination airport, no mention was ever made of an additional charge upping the ticket price by over 60%. I had checked on a ticket by American who mentioned this fee and I chose Delta because there was no mention of this fee when booking the ticket. Why wouldn't they add this charge when I paid all the other charges with the ticket purchase? Nothing on the itinerary even mentioned this charge. Delta took no responsibility for their poor communication and SOPs. I will always look to alternative airlines and not fly Delta in my future travels.

We bought airline tickets on 2/22/08 for San Juan Puerto Rico for 5/3/08 to 5/10/08. We flew us air to San Juan and flew delta on our way back. We were charged for 2extra bags by delta on our way back even though we bought the tickets before the rule change on 2/26/08. The delta person was rude and did not care that we had flown down before the change took effect and that the tickets were bought prior to the change being enacted as they were bought on 2/22/08.

Delta.com has a best fare guarantee where they claim they guarantee that they provide the best fare. If the customer finds a better fare for the exact same itinerary, the exact same fare class at a different website and submits a claim form before the midnight of the day that the ticket is purchased, they claim to refund the difference plus issue a $100 credit towards future flights. On May 4th at 10:38 pm I purchased a ticket for $569.50. After reading the best fare guarantee I performed a fare search and found out that cheaptickets.com had the exact same itinerary for $433.47. I submitted the claim form on Delta's website within 20-30 minutes of purchasing my ticket. Delta has responded via e-mail to this claim form a day later saying that my claim was not submitted until 8:49 am in the morning on May 5th, therefore does not qualify. There is no way for me to prove that I submitted the claim form on-time. I asked them to query my ip address or check their systems one more time but I was denied. They don't even provide a phone number to reach them and discuss the issue. Delta's best fare guarantee is nothing but a scam.

I recently flew Delta airlines from New York to Las Vegas. The plane had a video entertainment system with a touch screen menu. At first I thought it would be great to have this on a long flight.

Playing the games requires tapping on the screen. The problem is that the screen is the back of your seat. Mine in this case.

I endured hours of the man behind me banging on the back of my seat before asking him very politely to stop. He refused and the flight attendant said the man has the right to play and there was nothing he could do.