My husband, who is working/living in Gulfport, MS. Flew home to Seattle for Thanksgiving. On his return to Gulfport Monday, November 24th, his day and mine (and the two days following) went from bad to worse to worse to worse thanks to Delta.
His flight, which was supposed to leave Seattle at 830am, was delayed for 2 hours due to bad weather coming into Seattle, not Deltas fault. The flight finally left at 1030am. There were (2) scheduled plane changes to Gulfport, SLC and Houston Intercontinental. When he arrived in SLC, he had missed his connecting flight by (1) hour due to the late departure from Seattle.
There, he was told that there was not another flight into Gulfport the entire day and the closest they could get him was Atlanta. He figured he could rent a car (at his own expense) and drive (6) hours from Atlanta to Gulfport, or just stay in Atlanta and drive to a hotel since he was scheduled to go there on business the following evening, so he took the flight.
When he finally arrived in Atlanta at 10pm EST, he had no luggage. When he went to the Delta counter to report his lost luggage, the "Georgia Peach" at customer service for Delta told him "Your luggage is not lost as it is en route to Gulfport, which is its scheduled destination". When he explained that DELTA had rerouted him (but apparently not his luggage) to Atlanta, she continued by telling him "We will not deliver your luggage to a hotel because it is not Deltas fault, and it is not lost - your luggage is going to its scheduled destination, and you will need to wait in the airport until it arrives".
He asked if she could tell him when it would arrive, she said NO. He asked if they could call his hotel when it arrived and he would return to the airport to get it, she said NO.
He left the airport, and I began to call Delta airlines from Seattle. After 5 futile calls to automated systems (one of them being Skymiles, as I figured a loyal Skymiles member would get resolve)- no one home there either, I finally called reservations where I knew I could get a human being on the phone. I was transferred to a call center, apparently in India. After speaking to a representative and being told "be patient, the luggage will eventually arrive", I asked to speak with a manager.
I was transferred to a man named Mr. Lopez who barely spoke English, and after several times of trying to explain what had happened he put me on hold, trying to contact a baggage claim expert as he referred to them for AN HOUR and HE was unable to reach a human being either. After an hour and a half, he finally SAID he reached Atlanta baggage and it was all set-up to have the bags delivered Tuesday morning by Atlanta baggage express to his hotel. He gave me their number in case there was a problem and assured me it was taken care of. There were business suits in the baggage needed for a meeting later in the day.
At 11am EST on Tuesday, the baggage had not arrived so I called the delivery service. Out of 200 bags delivered, his was not brought from the airport. I started again with the endless calls to the automated systems of Delta (the black hole as I refer to it). Four hours later I figured out that if you stay on the line at baggage claim thru the automated system asking for a lost baggage claim number (since we did not have one because Delta agent swore the bags WEREN'T lost)- a customer service rep comes on after the system asks you six times!!!
This person was able to tell me, 24 HOURS later, and after several hundred dollars worth of suits purchased for his business meetings, clothing and toiletry purchases at his own expense, that the bags were boarding a plane in Houston on there way to Gulfport so he should have them soon. I reiterated the fact that HE IS IN ATLANTA, not Gulfport so he WILL NOT HAVE THEM SOON. I was then told that he would have to return to the airport and file a lost luggage report, it is against their "regulations" to file over the phone.
He has now flown to DC from Atlanta for business and back to Gulfport today (Friday) and is JUST getting his luggage.
There is not a single "Manager" with Delta airlines who can be contacted in this situation. Automation, or low-level managers who could care less. It is a tragedy that a large company can treat loyal customers this way and still be in business. The actual aggravation was not from the lost luggage, or the expensive purchases, or from a 3 day car rental, it is DELTA EMPLOYEES who create and cause their own companies problems.
W
Seattle, Washington
U.S.A.
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