This Thanksgiving we chose to travel back east, both for doing the family get-together but also to celebrate our niece's first birthday. We flew Seattle -> Atlanta -> Chattanooga, because it ended up being cheaper than a direct ATL flight (and Chattanooga put us closer to our destination).
The flight there was fine. On the way back, the adventure began. Here's the story, in four acts.
Act 1 - "But I can drive myself!"
We're getting ready to head back to the Chattanooga airport on Sunday. I check the flight status of the Chattanooga -> Atlanta leg, and it's getting more and more delayed, and we're worried about missing our Atlanta -> Seattle flight. So we call Delta and ask whether we can just drive ourselves down to Atlanta and take the second flight. "Yes," the answer was, "if you're OK paying $130 a person on top of your ticket price." Reason: the SEA <-> ATL direct flight is more expensive than the one that adds the Chattanooga leg. "Switching" to a direct flight would cost more (even though we'd be in the air less time and driving ourselves down to Atlanta, and even though we had confirmed seats on the Atlanta flight).
On principle we decided to not do this, and instead drove up to Chattanooga.
Act 2 - "Where's the plane?"We arrive in Chattanooga, check in, go through security, and then wait at the gate. No plane was at the gate when we arrived. 5 minutes later, we hear the following announcement: "OK, folks, sorry to inform you, but the flight to Atlanta has been canceled." Reason: weather issues down in Atlanta (rain, fog).
So, we go back to the ticketing agent in Chattanooga. They have some trouble getting us seats on a Delta flight back to Atlanta the next day, so we say "what about other carriers?", aware of Rule 240. Soon, we get a 2-leg, 2-carrier flight out of Atlanta, leaving in the afternoon: Delta from ATL -> Dallas, and then American from Dallas to Seattle.
We get a confirmation number for the Delta flight. "What about boarding passes for the American flight?" I ask. The ticketing agent told me to not worry, and to check in at the American gate when I got to Dallas.
Delta then proceeds to pay a taxi cab $250 a person to drive us to Atlanta, where upon
we get picked up by family and stay the night. Yes, that's $500 to get us to Atlanta, when we could have driven ourselves.
I call Delta on Sunday night again, just to make sure about the Dallas check-in. The person on the phone assures me that we'll get boarding passes for the ATL->Dallas leg, and then American will issue us boarding passes for the second leg when we're in Dallas.
Act 3 - "Where are our seats?"The next morning, I call American just to make sure things are peachy. American indeed finds our names on the flight from Dallas to Seattle, but doesn't have seats for us. "Wait," I said, "2 people at Delta told me I did!" Nope, sorry, the flight is overbooked. At best, we're standby. They tell us to call Delta.
We call Delta, and the Re-Issue desk guy tells me that we never got confirmed on the American flight. Reason: Delta and American don't have linked computer systems. While the ticketing agent may have been showing free seats on the American flight, she should have actually picked up the phone and called American and gotten a confirmation, as this Re-Issue guy was trying to do for us now.
However, there were literally no free seats in the air on any carrier, at any time, through any city for Monday. The earliest he could do for us was a Tuesday 7 AM departure from Atlanta, with a 25 minute layover in Salt Lake City. We grudgingly agree.
Act 4 - "Racing to the gate"The 7AM flight left without a hitch. We ask the flight attendant whether we can get off the plane first, given the very short connection. She declines, saying "Oh, we'll get to the airport early." Turns out that we don't, and we get off near the end of the line of passengers. We run through the airport to make our connection. Fortunately Salt Lake is a small airport and we make it in time.
And, finally, we arrive in Seattle, 36 hours later than initially planned.
EpilogueNow, the first problem was weather-related. Can't help that. What sucks about Delta is four-fold:
- They couldn't use common sense about letting us drive ourselves to Atlanta, instead trying to milk us for the higher direct flight cost.
- They ended up paying more for us to get taxied down to Atlanta on their dime.
- They didn't reserve our initial re-issue seats on a different airline, like they said they would, and like we asked multiple times.
- They didn't even have the courtesy to let us get off the plane first so we could make our short connection, which was due to their error in the first place.
The final kicker: I asked for some form of compensation for their error. The result: $50 vouchers for a future Delta flight. 50 bucks. That's it.
I'm frankly shocked at the incompetency and low level of customer service I received from Delta. I'm not surprised at all now that they're bankrupt. Their practices are antagonistic to customers, and it's hurting them in the end. If this is how they treat all of their customers in our situation, I don't understand how they're still in business.
See you, Delta. It hasn't been nice.
