[wffjr]

I was physically threatened by a fellow passenger squatting in my first class seat, assigned to me in recognition of my Northwest Worldperks elite status, after he was asked to proceed to his coach seat by a Delta employee. I reported this incident to Delta via Delta.com last night and to the FAA with no response from either entity. Delta's lack of response is no surprise to me given the obvious "caste" system with Skymiles passengers having precedence over Worldperks passengers, as confirmed by numerous Delta employees. Here's exact text of my complaint to Delta:

"This evening I boarded Delta flight 5806 from Atlanta to Memphis to discover a man seated in my assigned seat, 1A, in the First Class cabin. I had been upgraded due to my Northwest Worldperks elite status. All seats in the first class cabin were occupied so I disembarked and alerted the gate agent that I needed another seat assignment. I had been re-routed as the result of a combination of aircraft maintenance issues and weather so it would not have surprised me if Delta had assigned my seat to another person. However, the gate agent confirmed that I was assigned to seat 1A. She then accompanied me as I returned to the plane. The man who was sitting in my seat was asked to proceed to his assigned coach seat after his boarding pass revealed that he was neither assigned to my seat nor any other seat in the first class cabin. He clearly was not happy about the request and as he walked towards the coach cabin to take his assigned seat, he turned around at row 3 and looked at me saying, “Let’s settle this one-on-one” in a threatening manner. I turned to the flight attendants and asked that they have the man who threatened me (after trying to take my first class seat) removed from the airplane. At that point the Captain emerged from the cockpit and stated that he would have “security” talk to the man when we arrived in Memphis. Although I was not totally satisfied, the Captain’s call was probably a good one as long as he followed through. When we arrived in Memphis I disembarked and, as I walked by the gate agent, I asked if she was aware of a request for “security” to deal with an unruly passenger. She told me that she knew nothing of the request. Obviously, the Captain had not followed through. I then looked out the window and saw the man leaving the airplane by himself.

While walking towards the baggage claim area two of my fellow first class passengers remarked about the bizarre nature of the incident and the weak response by the air crew, particularly the flight attendants. I fly many flights each year, traveling two to three times per month for business, and have never felt as threatened by a fellow passenger as I did tonight. The poor handling of this incident speaks volumes about Delta’s security and customer service policies. I intend to address this issue with the TSA as well.

William F. Foster, Jr.
Northwest Worldperks 549762673"

[jimworcs]

Delta... that is all you need to say to understand what happened. It will soon be a verb

I have been delta'ed... meaning I have been screwed
She's done a Delta.. meaning she has abondoned you

Delta emerges from bankruptcy to become the largest airline in the world. Lesson learned... to become the largest airline, customer service is not required. What you need is political clout, protection from normal consumer law and a corrupt management team.