Atlanta → DL Complaint letter

I love the "service" Delta offers when they collect $100 for unaccompanied minors. Hence our complaint letter to DL this morning.

quote:

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Passenger: **** ****** *unaccompanied minor*
PNR: ******
Date of Travel: 14JUN08
DL 57 ATL-IAH

I am extremely distressed and displeased about the lack of customer service when I paid a $100 service charge for an unaccompanied minor.

After paying the fee and being told to wait at the gate to be called boarding commenced without a pre-boarding announcement. I approached the gate agent and was rudely advised that I should have told her there was an unaccompanied minor. My niece had to wait until everyone else had boarded.

In addition the plane was delayed. According to your own webpage:

»www.delta.com/help/faqs/ ··· ndex.jsp
=====================================================
"What happens if my child's flight is delayed, diverted or otherwise disrupted?

If your child's flight is delayed, diverted or otherwise disrupted, we will contact the adult who was designated to meet the child at the final destination. If we are unable to reach the adult at the final destination, we will notify the adult in the originating city."

Not once was the adult at the final destination contacted even though the plane was delayed for over 90 minutes.

Finally, in Houston there was no way for her mother to get past security to meet her child at the gate as all ticket positions were closed. She had to call her daughter's cell phone upon landing to tell her where to meet.

Because of this lack of service, I am requesting that you immediately refund to my credit card the $100 “service” charge I paid within 10 days. Should you fail to do so, we will be disputing the charge with our credit card company as well as sending this letter to the Department of Transportation.

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They probably won't give a shit, but we absolutely intend to dispute the charge with the credit card company knowing we will probably have to pay it.

I bet they'll refund it. Delta has been good in my experience, even giving me a free hotel room when I didn't notice my lay over had been moved up so I missed the flight. It helps to be a Skymiles member, too so I would have included that.

I live here in Atlanta also and used Delta exclusively for many years. At one point I was on a plane two to three times a week. About February of 2003 I had enough of their crap service and haven't flown them since.

I still take 20 to 30 flights a year and I haven't given them a dime since. As much as I hate to see people lose jobs, this company can rot in hell.

As an example, if I have to go to Cincinnati and can't get a direct flight on another carrier, I'll jump on Airtran to Indy or somewhere else within an hour and drive a rental car to Cincy.

I have been flying AirTran mostly the past few years and can't complain. Except the one time the stewardess cut me off on a redeye to Vegas. I was in first class and had 5 Jack Daniels before cruising altitude. I slept like a baby till we landed, though.

DL would not issue a refund, but they have issued as a $125 voucher for future travel.

I've been flying Delta for many years, collecting and using FF/Skymiles with relative ease. Rarely have I had bad service as described. Yes, flights have been delayed, sitting on the tarmac for long periods... but those things are happening to EVERY airline, it isn't endemic to Delta. The individual Delta people, from ticket agents to onboard personnel have consistently been helpful and attentive.

I don't get what the big deal is. It isn't like flights aren't delayed all the time. It doesn't take a genius to look at any of a hundreds of monitors around the airport to figure it out either. And if a kid is old enough to use a cell phone, they should be smart enough to come up with an alternate meeting place. Sounds like someones just looking for something to complain about.

Not at all. If you are charged a premium for a service, you would expect that the entity charging for said service would provide it.

If they do not (and in this case did not) live up to their part of what they state they will offer, one should absolutely request a refund.

BTW, the monitors for arriving flights at that particular terminal are all BEYOND security. If you cannot get beyond security because there is no one to issue you a pass, you are kind of stuck aren't you?

I agree with Flagger. He paid for a service and didn't recieve the service. That's like you taking your car to a carwash and them hosing it down with a garden hose as it goes through. No soap, no scrub, no dry, nothing else. That isn't what you paid for. I think that they did an acceptable "refund", in my opinion though, even though it is more like a store credit, but they did credit you more than what you paid for the service.