Beware of Delta - I only discovered my flight was canceled AFTER I called THEM!

PLEASE DO NOT FLY WITH DELTA!

READ THIS AND DISCOVER WHY I THINK YOU SHOULDN'T!

I wanted to share a very frustrating and aggravating experience I recently had with Delta Airlines. When I called Delta to add my frequent flier number to my direct-flight reservation, less than 3 weeks prior to departure, they informed me that they couldn't retrieve my reservation. They sent me over to NW (because I had booked on NWA.com), even though it was a Delta flight, and the NW agent told me the flight had been cancelled over two months ago, and that Delta had neither rebooked us, nor informed us of the cancellation. Interested in how this all turned out? Here was my first email to them:

From ME to DELTA:

Dear Delta Representative,

After calling your customer service line tonight to add my Delta Skymiles number to a reservation I made in July of this year, I was transferred by a Delta representative over to Northwest because your representative stated they were unable to retrieve my reservation, and I had booked the ticket through nwa.com. Once on the phone with a Northwest representative, I was told that Delta had not only cancelled our reservation, but also failed to rebook me OR notify me of this cancellation. According to their records, this reservation was canceled over 2 months ago (August 27th or so). The Northwest representative was kind enough to rebook my fiancee and I on a flight that connects through Honolulu, to make sure our Honeymoon was not completely destroyed.

I was very shocked to find out that Delta, an airline that I have flown on in everything from economy to business, to first classes, and come to trust over the years, would make such an egregious error as to completely cancel a reservation of mine and not inform me of this immediately. It was unacceptable to discover this cancellation (and lack of rebooking or notification!) by calling into Delta myself for another matter. I am thoroughly disappointed in this exchange, and am even more disappointed that we are now booked on a non-direct flight (our original reservation had been for a direct flight) from

Seattle-Honolulu-Kahului. This is my honeymoon, for heaven's sake, and I did everything I could to plan that it would be memorable, relaxing, and special. I would have been absolutely aghast had I arrived at the airport on the day of our scheduled departure, only to be rerouted somewhere, or worse-yet, stuck in Seattle.

I would like to ask that Delta extend a courtesy to my future wife and I, and offer us an upgrade on our travel to make it more comfortable. We would have been flying directly from Seattle to Maui, but had we not called for this other, unrelated issue, we likely wouldn't have found out about this cancellation at all and would have been without a honeymoon altogether.

Delta has not let me down in the past, and I hope you will consider

this request. My wife and I both fly quite often for our business, and I

also book travel for hundreds of musicians. I will not choose Delta in the future for myself or my business and colleagues if something is not

done to acknowledge this severe mistake and make amends.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

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This response arrived 6 days later from Delta:

Dear Mr. [So-and-So],

Thank you for contacting us through delta.com. We are sorry for the delay in responding to your message.

I am truly sorry you did not receive notification of the schedule change

associated with your travel and clearly understand your frustration. Feedback like you have provided will help us to improve our overall customer experience. Be assured I will be sharing your comments with our Reservations leadership team for internal follow up. Thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention.

While we would like to offer special consideration in cases such as yours, we are unable to honor the many requests that we receive from others in similar situations. We follow a consistent policy to ensure that Delta is fair to everyone who travels with us. Accordingly, we must respectfully decline your request. I am truly sorry to disappoint you, as I am sure this is not the answer you expected.

Please accept our apology for the unfavorable impression you received

in this instance. We appreciate your selection of Delta and will always

consider it a privilege to be of service.

Sincerely,

Margaret Austin

Online Customer Support Desk

http://www.delta.com

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So, I responded a couple of hours later with this email:

Dear Margaret,

Many thanks for your response. The major issue still withstanding is

that of not being notified immediately of the cancellation, and therefore not having the opportunity to request that the reservation be refunded immediately after it was canceled, and therefore missing the opportunity to rebook on another direct flight with another airline at a reasonable airfare. Because I did not find out about the cancellation until I called in less than 3 weeks prior to the date of departure, the airfares for direct flights were significantly higher at that time, than they would have been if I had been notified in late August when Delta canceled my flight.

I can't help but understand the situation as Delta taking my money for a

service that they are simply not providing. I could have elected to

purchase airfare at the same time on the flights I am now rebooked on for a lower rate than I paid for the direct flight. I paid a premium for flying direct, and I do not think it is unreasonable to expect that I be

given that service that I paid for.

If you are unable to make our travel more comfortable by offering us an

upgrade, which would have been our preferred method of compensation for

this mess, I demand that some significant travel vouchers or credits be issued to us in recognition of Delta's failure to provide the service

that we purchased. If this demand is not met, I will consider this to be

not only insulting, but also flat out robbery by Delta for taking my money for a product (direct flight) that was not delivered.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

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I heard back from Delta Customer Service Supreme Court Justice Margaret only hours later:

Dear Mr. [So-and-So],

Thank you for expressing your concerns.

We are sorry to learn you weren?t happy with the alternate flight

arrangements we provided. If you decide not to fly, the unused portion

of your Delta ticket may be eligible for refund.

While we would like to offer special consideration in cases such as

yours, we are unable to honor the many requests that we receive from

others in similar situations. We follow a consistent policy to ensure

that Delta is fair to everyone who travels with us. Accordingly, we

must respectfully decline your request. I am truly sorry to disappoint

you, as I am sure this is not the answer you expected.

Thank you for the opportunity to give this matter our final review. Any

additional correspondence will be kept on file.

Sincerely,

Margaret Austin

Online Customer Support Desk

http://www.delta.com

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My closing arguments (for their files, i guess...) were sent shortly thereafter:

Dear Margaret,

I'm pretty floored to hear that Delta's policy (thank you for cutting and pasting the second to last paragraph from your initial response, and including it in this one as well - it was equally aggravating to read it a second time), is effectively to screw over every one equally. It's also quite revealing and embarrassing that Delta readily admits that there are "many requests that we receive from others in similar situations." That reflects accurately and nicely on the overall lack of regard for customer satisfaction that Delta clearly embraces.

I look forward to flying with other airlines from this point forward, and to sharing our correspondence with my friends, family, and most importantly, with my colleagues. I couldn't ever imagine booking or allowing any of my colleagues to book entire orchestras or ensembles on an airline that would not only have the audacity to cancel a flight and neither inform the clients nor automatically rebook them, but proceed with no concessions to those customers. It's essentially my worst nightmare to think that an entire ensemble might show up for a flight only to discover it had been canceled months earlier, and nobody was been notified.

Wishing Delta Goodbye,

[So-and-So]

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I think they just have a very low regard for the customer, and would have been fine with me arriving at the airport to discover my flight had been canceled. It's such a shame that they are taking over Northwest (whose rep was so helpful, and kind to us!), and not the other way around.

Please beware of Delta, and I urge you to consider other airlines whenever possible.