My wife lost a full day of her life thanks to horrible customer service & incompetence of Delta Airlines. Her day started at LAX, she was supposed to fly to Moscow, Russia, via Atlanta, Reservation # OVLFRO. Although her flight from LAX to Atlanta (#16) was delayed for over an hour, the customer service rep at the gate told her that, according to Deltas standard procedure, if there are more than 10 people on a delayed flight connecting to another flight (in this case flight 46 Atlanta to Moscow), connecting plane would be held at the gate to wait for such large group. THERE WERE 28 (TWENTY EIGHT) PASSENGERS on flight 16 connecting to flight 46 to Moscow! And nobody from LAX told Atlanta anything about them!!!
The flight came one hour late to Atlanta, and waited another hour for a gate availability, by the time the passengers got off the plane, they were told that their flight to Moscow already left, and didnt wait for them even for an extra minute. And yes, NOBODY FROM LAX SENT ANY ALERT ABOUT A GROUP OF 28 PEOPLE TO THE GATE IN ATLANTA!!! When TWENTY EIGHT Delta Customers ran to the gate, this was the FIRST TIME Deltas representatives in Atlanta even knew that a group of 28 delayed passengers were supposed to be on that plane! Who is the MORON at LAX who failed to follow Delta's OWN STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES about notification to the next flight about a large delayed group?
My wife was then re-booked on Delta flight #68 through Copenhagen, she was even given a boarding pass and her seat was confirmed. Right before going to the gate, she volunteered to help Delta representative with a passenger who spoke only Russian and didnt speak English and needed re-booking for the same flight. When she finally got to the gate (45 minutes prior to departure, they just announced boarding business class), turns out that Delta agent booked the same seat to my wife and then to the person she just helped translating for, all within 10 minutes! HOW RIDICULOUS IS THIS??? So, my wife was kicked off the plane again! She then spent the next seven hours staying in line at the Deltas customer service desk, begging various supervisors and low-life reps for any help, and getting nothing but blank stares of indifferent morons. The lady who booked the same seat twice in the span of 10 minutes pretty much told her "oops" but with arrogant attitude, and told her there was nothing she could do; a supervisor Eric, badge # 00511533, told her flat out that he's not even going to help with anything and then just ignored her demonstratively, even though my wife kept calling him directly asking him to help, and then just left. A supervisor by name of Russ in Seattle at Delta's Reservation system went even further: after listening to my story he announced that "it appears from my story that my wife was late for boarding", because, again in his words: "there was no way she would make it to the gate on time if she was helping another passenger with re-booking at Delta's counter!". After this conversation, Deltas computer system included a comment in the even log that stated that my wife was late to the gate but nobody knew how late: my wife got there when they started checking in business class, so she was there at least 40-50 minutes prior to take off WITH boarding pass and assigned seat! However, the assistant to Delta President by name of Suzanna Curtis told me that in order for my wife not to be late she was supposed to identify herself to the gate agent at least 45 minutes prior to departure! So, next time you go to the airport, make sure you check in, check your luggage, get your boarding pass, go through proctological examination by TSA, put your pants and your shoes back on, then go to the gate, and IDENTIFY yourself to a Delta agent, who doesnt even look at your boarding pass until you are ready to actually walk on-board, do it 45 minutes prior to departure, otherwise you are considered late and your seat is not guaranteed!
Over an hour after Flight 68 take off without my wife on-board, Deltas computer system still showed my wife already travelling to Denmark on Delta flight, so Deltas computer system does not even conform to basic safety requirements of the US because they dont even have a correct list of passengers on the plane!
Finally, she managed on get on 9:30 KLM flight to Amsterdam, from which she was supposed to connect to another flight to Moscow operated by Aeroflot. There was one hour connection time in Amsterdam, and my wife couldnt call me from there, although American cell phones are pretty useless there anyway, but its a separate topic. At 9 A.M. Next morning, when she was supposed to be in Moscow, there was no sign of her at the airport. I started getting really worried, called Delta, asked there where was my wife? They told me first that they have no clue where she is, and that shes an adult, she can take care of herself! Then they agreed to check with Aeroflot if she was on the flight from Amsterdam to Moscow, came back and told me that no, she wasnt, and that she probably missed her connection. When I asked how do I find her in Europe, I was told again that shes an adult, and they have no responsibility for her! As it turns out, my wife WAS already in Moscow at that time, and she WAS on that plane, and she DIDNT miss the connection, she was just filling out various forms for lost baggage for full three hours in the basement of Moscow International airport Sheremetievo-2.
So, having spent on the road 30 hours, my poor exhausted wife finally made it out of the airport in Moscow, she hates Delta, rightfully so. But after reading so many comments about Delta on other boards, even after I personally flown over 300,000 miles on Delta, Im most certain that this policy of indifference, encouragement of incompetence and atrocious customer service ARE the cornerstones of Delta as a company, these ARE the fundamentals of Deltas Mission Statement and Corporate Philosophy, something Delta is proud of, because it brings them money! Ive yet to meet one person who experienced Delta representatives trying to bend over backwards for their customers or try to do something to repair bad customer experience. I've lived in the Soviet Union for 26 years before immigrating to the US, I can't remember the same horrible indifference to customers from Aeroflot or any other Soviet airlines, I could always find somebody who actually cared! Not at "Soviet Delta". What a twisted surreal idea of customer care!!
0 comments