I've been a frequent flyer since I was 14 (for several decades now) and I've never seen such regularly practiced irresponsibly bad communication, and such shocking lack of accountability from any Air Carrier in the U.S. - Please read below:
On my last Delta flight I had to layover in Atlanta. Upon arrival in Atlanta I was instructed to go to a gate at the end of their 'B' terminal for my next flight segment - no problem I had 45 minutes to catch that flight after landing in Atlanta. Well we eventually made it our Gate (B31) with 25 minutes to spare - no problem, right? Wrong - there were no flights at that gate AND there were no gate change warnings at the gate (a gate change notification {at the gate} is common courtesy (and nobody has any reason to believe the information is any better at some {distant} Arrival/Departure monitor somewhere else in any given larger Airport).
We had 25 minutes before our next flight (which was THE LAST FLIGHT of the night) and there were NO GATE CHANGE WARNINGS WHATSOEVER (!!), and EVEN WORSE - there were NO Delta employees anywhere within sight to ask what's going on!
Since we had little time to spare none of us did not dare scrambling to try to find any Arrival/Departure monitor (especially as we had no reason to believe it would be anywhere nearby, or give me any better information than the information monitors at the gate). So we waited -IN GOOD FAITH - for any Delta representative to show up at our gate (B31) (as there was no information displayed on the gate monitors yet) to let us know where our flight is, and if there's any gate change to be concerned about. We waited & waited & waited - TO NO AVAIL (!!!)
At 11 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave from gate B31 we were convinced that there wasn't going to be any flights that night from B31.in a very unhealthy rush several people went scrambling from Gate B31 to find ANY Delta rep. To see what's going on. We finally found a Delta rep. 1/4 mile away and learned that many people before us were also ANGRILY scrambling to find the same flight. So an over-worked Delta gate rep. Gave us the bad news: Our flight is leaving from Gate 'A'29 (?) in 9 minutes (!!! - A GATE WHICH IS ABOUT 1 MILE AWAY (!!!) It was hopeless - and it was not our fault. WHY DIDN'T DELTA AIRLINES JUST GIVE A STANDARD 'GATE CHANGE NOTICE' AT THE GATE? If they had NONE of this would have happened. We had NO [reasonable] way to know of their gate change (!!). This is highly irresponsible of Delta for carelessly doing this to their passengers (!)
That was the last flight of the night and the Airline would not even put me up for the night at a hotel, or offer a blanket to sleep in the Airport with. I slept in a COLD airport terminal with only a light wind-breaker. I shook all night from the cold & achieved absolutely no rest. I missed my important appointment the next morning in Indianapolis.
I wrote a letter to Delta Airlines about my ordeal (s) and they never (to this day) wrote back to apologize for their grossly irresponsible and avoidable mistakes. SHOCKING!
Consumers - Beware of Delta Airline's cold/heartless irresponsible business practices.
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