[InnovativeEdu]

I flew Delta today and before the flight ever took off I was shocked at the poor quality of service and rude treatment by staff. I checked in more than two hours before my flight. After waiting more than thirty minutes in security, several of us were herded to another security line without explanation. After the ten minute walk we were brought to an EVEN longer security line and left at the end of it. It took more than an hour to get through security. When I got to the gate I went to the ticket booth to check on my seat assignment but no one was there. When an agent finally appeared there was instantly a long line which I got on. When I got to the agent without eye contact he shared they may not have a seat for me, then, wait for it....he just walked away. Thinking he'd come back, I waited a few minutes. He never returned, so I went to him and asked what was going on. He told me to be patient. I asked him what he wanted me to be patient for? I asked why a paid for ticket from an early check in would just be given away. He told me to calm down and go away. As an fyi there were no more flights to my destination that day. I waited longer with no communication from anyone and no one at the ticket desk.

I went back over to the man and asked what was going on. He said, without looking at me, I told you. We're overbooked and we probably don't have a seat for you. I asked how this could be. He again told me to calm down and leave him alone. I asked how calm he would be if someone just took $500 from him for a product or service that he never received. He didn't answer. He just stopped speaking to me and any of the other handful of confused passengers who were being told they were being bumped from the flight. Mind you, we were not stand by passengers and we had all checked in at least an hour before our flight.

The agent was unapologetically rude and dismissive. They shut the doors to boarding and still he refused to share any information. Then, without uttering a word to any of us or looking at us he handed a few of us tickets.

I'm grateful I was able to get on the plane, but completely disgusted at the rude dismissive treatment by the Delta employees. I also want to know more about this airlines policy of not honoring paid for seats.

What is going on with Delta?

[jimworcs]

Delta has deteriorated dramatically over the years, but this was compounded by the government allowing them to emerge from bankruptcy as the largest airline in the world. This rewarded the airline after it had provided such poor service it went bankrupt. Delta learned a valuable lesson. They are too big to fail, it doesn't matter what service they provide. They can rip off their suppliers, customers and staff and the government will protect them and allow them to become even bigger and more dominant. As a result, they are worse than ever. One look at these boards and you will see this is not an isolated case.. this is cultural. These is an anti-customer, arrogant culture within the airline. They are bottom or close to bottom in DOT and consumer rankings and probably have more complaints that the other airlines put together on this board. Until their monopoly of specific markets are broken up and they are allowed to fail, nothing will change the behaviour of these mammorth airlines.

[justme]

I'm grateful I was able to get on the plane

Wait a minute... you GOT ON the flight and your complaint is titled "giving away seats." YOU SAT IN YOUR SEAT. How exactly was it given away?

[jimworcs]

When I got to the agent without eye contact he shared they may not have a seat for me, then, wait for it....he just walked away. Thinking he'd come back, I waited a few minutes. He never returned, so I went to him and asked what was going on. He told me to be patient. I asked him what he wanted me to be patient for? I asked why a paid for ticket from an early check in would just be given away. He told me to calm down and go away. As an fyi there were no more flights to my destination that day. I waited longer with no communication from anyone and no one at the ticket desk.

I went back over to the man and asked what was going on. He said, without looking at me, I told you. We're overbooked and we probably don't have a seat for you. I asked how this could be. He again told me to calm down and leave him alone. I asked how calm he would be if someone just took $500 from him for a product or service that he never received. He didn't answer. He just stopped speaking to me and any of the other handful of confused passengers who were being told they were being bumped from the flight. Mind you, we were not stand by passengers and we had all checked in at least an hour before our flight.

The agent was unapologetically rude and dismissive. They shut the doors to boarding and still he refused to share any information. Then, without uttering a word to any of us or looking at us he handed a few of us tickets.

As per usual, Delta miss the point. The substance of this complaint is the attitude of the staff. The complainant makes it clear that they were seated... the complaint is about the attitude.

[InnovativeEdu]

@Justme, My post is titled, "Delta Believes It's Okay to Give Away Paid for Seats."

Your question, quoted here, leads me to believe you missed the whole point of my post.

Originally Posted by justme

Wait a minute... you GOT ON the flight and your complaint is titled "giving away seats." YOU SAT IN YOUR SEAT. How exactly was it given away?

While ultimately, the outrageously rude ticket agent shoved a tkt in my hand just before the flight took off without looking at me or speaking to me, prior to that, he unapologically told me he didn't think there was a seat for me. Then he just walked away leaving me and a half dozen other passengers standing at the desk confused.

I had to go track him down and when I asked how they can just give away a paid for seat, he dismissed me and in a patronizing tone told me, I likely wouldn't get a seat because the flight was overbooked. I continued and asked why they would give away my seat when I checked in more than two hours prior. Don't they ask for volunteers to give up seats? Why was I and these others randomly chosen?

I never got an answer to the question. Instead, this is when he told me loudly to leave him alone. He had others things to do and he stopped talking to me and the other passengers. I asked the lady taking tickets what was going on. She too acted like I was out of line...leaving other passengers looking at me like I was disturbing staff and holding up the flight. Little did they know, because of the outrageous attitude of the staff, that my displeasure was because I was randomly excluded from the line that I was supposed to be in that line with them.

This was the last flight to Denver. I had an extremely important meeting to attend the next morning with dramatic potential for my career success and not showing up would have been horrible.

The fact that the employees are so cavalier, rude, and dismissive resulted in an incredibly stressful experience for those of us whose seats the Delta staff said they were giving away as though this was something that was perfectly okay.

It is not!

What I'd like to know from Delta is why they think it is acceptable to tell passengers with paid for tickets, who arrived two hours early, that they likely will not have a seat for them. Perhaps unlike the rude staff at the airport, you can provide an answer to this question.

[The_Judge]

ALL airlines are allowed to give away seats. Not just DL. This is allowed and I thought it was pretty much common knowledge among even the travelers who fly once a year.

Fly another carrier in the future and hopefully you'll get an agent with a better attitude however, unlike what some people may believe, airline staff attitudes are pretty much bad across the board and no amount of regulation or breaking up monopolies will ever change that. That that to the bank.

[The_Judge]

That was supposed to say........TAKE that to the bank. Oh, well.

[jimworcs]

If you were to compare the average "attitude" of a Southwest or Virgin America employee with Delta or Spirit.. I think you would find a very significant difference.....

[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

There was a time (before "9-11") when, if you attempted to check-in (at the ticket counter, now kiosk), and there was MORE than 4 hours to departure, the agent would refuse to check you in/accept baggage on the basis that you had arrived too early. Stories, like the OP's, suggest that this "4-hour rule" should be amended to 5, or more, hours. JustMe, or Judge: Is it now possible to check-in baggage, etc. MORE than four hours prior to departure (for domestic flights) at large airports?

Also, with regard to the ground time for on-line and inter-line "domestic to domestic" connecting flights: Will baggage NOT be transferred if the ground/connecting time is beyond a certain number of hours?

[The_Judge]

Originally Posted by Butch Cassidy Slept Here

There was a time (before "9-11") when, if you attempted to check-in (at the ticket counter, now kiosk), and there was MORE than 4 hours to departure, the agent would refuse to check you in/accept baggage on the basis that you had arrived too early. Stories, like the OP's, suggest that this "4-hour rule" should be amended to 5, or more, hours. JustMe, or Judge: Is it now possible to check-in baggage, etc. MORE than four hours prior to departure (for domestic flights) at large airports?

I've been gone for just about 2 years but where I worked last (Honolulu) you could check in anytime on the actual day of flight but we didn't like it much due to space restrictions to keep the luggage. So, for example, if your flight was at 1020pm and you showed up when the doors opened in the morning, we would take the luggage but we weren't happy about it. And the bag guys downstairs really weren't happy about it. Many, many times the chief would come up and talk to me about where was he supposed to put this luggage and I'd have to tell him nicely to find room somewhere. There was no restriction on time of check-in for day of flights.

Originally Posted by Butch Cassidy Slept Here

Also, with regard to the ground time for on-line and inter-line "domestic to domestic" connecting flights: Will baggage NOT be transferred if the ground/connecting time is beyond a certain number of hours?

There was always an unwritten (I think as I never saw it anywhere) that you could not check luggage on a flight that was not the very next one out. For example, you were starting in HNL with a connection in LAX to go to LGA (online or interline) the flight from LAX to LGA would have to be the next one out after your arrival. Meaning, if you arrived LAX at 7am and the next flight was 9am, you couldn't have your luggage checked for a flight at 3pm.

[willowtook]

Delta Airlines USA are rude Jerks, delayed one of our flights changed a flight time of our connecting flight so we missed it due to the first delay, Delta staff would not tell us the correct terminal our flight was at, gave away our seats, refused to help get us another flight, didn't want to find us accomodation to spend a night in a hotel when we were in the middle of USA (we had flown from Australia and had never been in USA before had no idea where we were), didn't like answering our questions, seperated me and my husband's seats on plane flights, made us pay extra for our luggage, damaged our luggage and wouldn't accept responsibitlity for it, and almost made us late for our friends wedding. They spoilet our honeymoon trip and we almost didn't get to the wedding and we will never fly with them again. We are disgusted at how we were treated.

[jimworcs]

You got the full Delta experience.. they are to be avoided at all costs... a bitter lesson, but learn it well. They are JERKS

[willowtook]

We do not have Delta Airlines in Australia so we had no idea at how bad their service was. If we had known they were terrible, we would not have used their company. We will never fly with them again and have told our travel agent to not use them anymore and also told all our friends who travel overseas to avoid them. Delta Airlines deserve their bad reputation.

[jimworcs]

They don't care.. it is that simple..

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news...ideo-7-26-2010