Delayed Payment for Delayed Baggage
 

We flew from Tel Aviv to Atlanta, Georgia on March 28, 2010 on KLM flight 8352 to Amsterdam.
Although we had purchased our tickets months in advance, we were not listed as passengers on the flight and we had to wait at the ticket counter for more than an hour before we were checked in. The anxiety that we might miss the flight, and therefore miss all the arrangements we had made, was extreme and unnecessary.
Although boarding passages for the continuing Delta flight, #9082, to Atlanta, we were not assigned seats and we were nearly kept off the flight – another bout of anxiety.
Upon arriving in Atlanta, we discovered that our baggage had stayed back in Amsterdam. You can imagine how we felt by then.
We filed a claim, ATLDL71699, and the baggage was delivered two days later.
We had gone to Atlanta to attend a Passover Camp in a remote rural area, about half an hour’s drive from Clayton, Georgia.
Someone was kind enough to drive us into Clayton, where we purchased some clothes and toiletries in Walmart, totaling $243.44.
When we flew out of Atlanta on April 7, we submitted a claim for the amount we were out of pocket, and we were told that a check would be mailed to us.
So far we have not received that check.

Delta will make you sweat and will try to find endless reasons why you don't "qualify". You can file a complaint with the DOT online. There is a link through to Delta on the quick links.

Any flight which involves Delta is a mistake, particularly internationally. Next time, fly via London on BA or Frankfurt on Lufthansa. You will find a significant difference...not least an absence of hostility and punitive attitude towards the passenger.

I agree about Delta - too late
 

However, posting this complaint, and sending Delta an email telling them that I had done so, elicited an immediate response from them! So they have their eyes on this site. The moral is, don't just post here, but also tell the airline that you've posted here.
Of course, they asked me what was the reference number for the delayed baggage, which puts me back to April again!
But maybe I'll get my money back.

I rather think you posting here and the timing of their response is a coincidence. They have too many of their own complaints pouring in by the sackful everyday than to look here.

That said, it's good to hear they've responded. When your situation is resolved, come back to post the results.

The key was the passenger telling the airline they will generate bad publicity. It amazing how they jump if they think they are about to be exposed as the lying thieves they are in newspapers, the net or on TV.

adverse publicity
 

You gentlemen disagree, and obviously there's no way to find out.

Coincidence or not, I have sent Delta any number of emails, and they almost never bothered to respond, but when I mentioned "AirlineComplaints.org" they responded immediately.

Whether or not Delta cares about what we write here, it certainly makes me feel better to feel proactive.

Okay........I'll go with it. They have an employee who dedicates some of his/her time during the day to peruse all the airline complaint sites on the internet. It could happen. :/

you win
 

I'm sure they don't have anyone waste his/her time on complaints, but if, when people lodge complaints to this site, they also call attention to the complaint in a separate email to the offending airline, maybe they will take some notice.
Meanwhile I'm waiting till they wake up in Atlanta to see how they'll respond.

I'm not trying to win, I'm just speaking from experience, 20 years worth. This board, along with others are littered with Delta complaints. The only ones they care about are the ones that get lodged with the DOT as those are reportable and go against their stats. The ones here they couldn't care less about.

Sorry to hear your experience has been so negative.

As I am for you but I didn't post of a negative experience. Just giving you facts from the other side of the counter. Airlines care about stats and only stats. DOT complaints count, internet complaint boards don't. Bottom line.

MY wife and I just purchased tickets to fly to Las Vegas from Detroit metro, I hope we don't regret it.

We are flying Delta

actually there are employee's that do exactly that Troy. they are dedicated to respond to passenger complaints on social media sites such as twitter. i wouldn't be suprised if they didn't comb through airlinecomplaints.org as well.

Tim,
It is sadly predictable that you may well regret that decision. Post and let us know.. but if you read the Delta section you will find that their reputation is in tatters.

Very sad if that's true that they focus their attention on that rather than the problem. And if they do (which I still doubt) why aren't they responding here??

BAD BAD service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

I have been through the same... totally... How do you get through to them? My boyfriend and I paid 6000$ for a trip to NYC and Punta Cana. I waited for my luggage for almost 6 days. We stayed in NYC for one night before we flew to Puj. We paid for internet and spend the first 5 days calling delta 3-4 times a day. And for what? I never got a normal answer. We have planned a wedding and I didn't have my dress ect. We had prepaid the paster and had to cancel. We spend SO much money that we haven't gotten yet. It has now been 4,5 months since we went on this vacation which ended like a nightmare. We still haven't a check and they won't help us. How do you get them to listen. Money don't hang on trees!!!! This is SO unfair. They owe us a new vacation!!!!

Is it really true you need to poste this online before they even want to help you?
Or do they don't help anyway!!!

same here..
 

I have been through the same in June. And I haven't gotten mine either. And Haven't gotten any compensation yet...!!! SO frustrating!!!
What to do? Go to the media or?

no results yet
 

I found out how to send an email to the CEO of Delta (richard.anderson@delta.com - it's on the How To web site) and sent him an email, after Delta had entirely stopped responding to my emails. I got a VERY polite letter from someone in his office, but that was more than a week ago, and the check has not been forthcoming.
I think it's very important to write in a very polite, businesslike, and concise way when you send an email or letter to the top of an organization, so they don't think you're a crank.
Good luck to all of us uncompensated people!

Dear user: I am developing a Doctoral research on Mishandled baggage (see General Discussion- Mishandled Baggage Research ) Could you please, provide the airline complaint form (minus personal information) you filled with the airline or send me an email to mishandledbaggageresearch@yahoo.com and I will send a survey. The survey is very similar to the one you must file with the airline and does not contain personal information.
Thanks before hand

delta finally paid up
 

After months of prodding and complaint, we were finally reimbursed for the money we had laid out after our baggage was delayed. But I still don't understand why it took so long to pay out a truly paltry amount of money.