[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by jimworcs

but missed this one, and it is a doozy!

Writing a letter of complaint to an airline amounts to extortion in your opinion? A frequent flyer, who disagrees with an airlines policy of charging to correct an error, is guilty of extortion, and deserves to have his bags re-routed to Thailand?

I never said that simply writing a complaint is tantamount to extortion. In this case, however, baerobin admitted the mix-up with the dates was not the airline's fault:

Originally Posted by baerobin

...An hour later I realized I had booked the wrong date, I called customer service and was told I could get my miles back (whew) but that I would be assessed a $100 flight change fee , even though I canceled the flight and did not rebook, which would have cost $100. So I was under the impression that you had 4 hours to change a flight without any penalty, apparently that has changed. Delta stole my money.
There policy's change on a whim and it is never a benefit to the customer.

The title of the thread was "Robbed by Delta" but in reality Delta was only being consistent in charging a fee to re-deposit the miles on a canceled award ticket. (And why do you think baerobin decided to cancel the ticket instead of correcting the dates? It would have cost $100 in either scenario.) Just because baerobin thought the policy was different and felt that the fee shouldn't apply doesn't change the fact that there is a fee to re-deposit miles once an award is ticketed.

If baerobin were driving down a street @35 MPH thinking the speed limit was 40 when in reality it was 25 would that be an acceptable defense if s/he were issued ticket for driving 15 MPH over the limit?

So, baerobin feels robbed because Delta charges a fee to change or cancel a ticket. It charges this fee to everyone but baerobin feels that for some reason it shouldn't apply to baerobin because
baerobin is so special and Delta should kiss baerobin's butt. So baerobin, knowing that the date error wasn't Delta's and having been advised of the fee, writes a letter to Delta because baerobin still feels violated as a consumer even though Delta has done no wrong in this situation.

baerobin is then proud to announce that in exchange for the $100 fee which was legitimate Delta issued a $200 voucher basically to shut baerobin's trap and put a swift end to the complaint. In baerobin's own words:

Originally Posted by baerobin

...Squeaky wheel.

In other words, with an attitude of entitlement and "the customer is always right even when wrong" a large company such as an airline will just throw dollars at the situation to make it go away. Right or wrong. This is what borders on extortion and this is why I said to enjoy the ticket purchased with the $200 voucher (ill gotten gains) and that karma has a way of biting people like this in the butt (bags to Thailand).