Delta Airlines can stick it where the sun don't shine - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

TylerH860 · #1 03-12-2015, 10:35 PM

I would like to give a nice little shout out to Delta Airlines for ruining my plans to attend the Amelia Island Concours. Booked round trip plane tickets to Jacksonville costing nearly $1000 2 weeks before departure. Went to print my boarding this morning and it said "seat assigned at gate " and I knew I was in trouble. Called in to Delta and they told me not to worry, that I am "guaranteed" a seat and they do this when the plane is full so they can accommodate families sitting together and people with disabilities. Bunch of BS. Once I got to the gate the agent was kind enough to tell it like it is. I was screwed. Being Spring break season there was no other available flight out. I could get in Saturday if I wanted to drive to Omaha or Dallas but that would be pointless. I had plenty of options when I was booking, if I had known it was buying one of the "oversold" tickets I would have picked another. That's where the scam is, along with being lied to by the airline rep over the phone leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

FYI to other travelers. Do not book using Expedia or any third party site. Only book a flight through their carriers website, and only if you can select your seat. If you cannot select your seat, it's oversold and you're as screwed as I am.

They were required by law to Compensate me $1300 along with refunded tickets. Just about enough to cover Hotel and show tickets which are non-refundable.

Skid Row Joe · #2 03-12-2015, 11:55 PM

That's not a bad take away, "$1,300.00." In my day, (early 20s.....) that was 1/2 a month's salary.

One of my Brothers is at the apex w/Delta Airlines in terms of frequency and miles. He has been jacked before even though he's platinum/diamond status or whatever the apex is......he did the email complaint once before when jacked, but got no response. He sits in seat 1 A on most flights out of Oma/Mpls/Denver/SaltLakeCity/ATL...... It's not worth getting too worked up over after a refund of that much cash - IMO. I fly exclusively SWA, but I live near Love Field in Dallas, TX.

JB3 · #3 03-13-2015, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skid Row Joe

That's not a bad take away, "$1,300.00." In my day, that was 1/2 a month's salary.

One of my Brothers is at the apex w/Delta Airlines in terms of frequency and miles. He has been jacked before even though he's platinum/diamond status or whatever the apex is......he did the email complaint once before when jacked, but got no response. He sits in seat 1 A on most flights out of Oma/Mpls/Denver/SaltLakeCity/ATL...... It's not worth getting too worked up over after a refund of that much cash - IMO. I fly exclusively SWA, but I live near Love Field in Dallas, TX.

Except hes barely being covered on what was alread spent joe. This is not 1300 bucks in his pocket, and hes missing what he wanted to see in the first place. Remember he spent almost a grand on tickets for the plane plus show tickets.

Overselling flights is a stupid policy. I can understand weather delays and cancellations, but continuing to book a flight long since full is a waste of time and only serves to piss off a customer.

Unlike a train you cant really pack the plane standing room only.

tjts1 · #4 03-13-2015, 02:10 AM

This is why I always fly by private jet. I don't get you people and your "airlines" or whatever.

ah-kay · #5 03-13-2015, 02:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjts1

This is why I always fly by private jet. I don't get you people and your "airlines" or whatever.

I presume you have a chauffeur driving you around in your 97, 18 years old car. Don't let him ding your car, it is expensive to fix.

w123fanman · #6 03-13-2015, 03:42 AM

I can relate to this. I had tickets to see an Austrian brass septet called Mnozil Brass at the symphony hall in Atlanta a few weeks back, I was going with my brother and our "vets" from marching band. Last time I had seen them was the last time they were in the US, about a year and a half ago. My brother and I drove a 10 hour round trip for this concert which was at UF. Ever since then we had been wanting to see them again and when we found out they were coming to Atlanta we immediately made plans to go, which was back in August. We got some of the best seats and were going to hop on MARTA to go to the concert. Unfortunately, the weather forecasters said that there would be snow that night so the mayor of Atlanta freaked out and closed the city the day before. It ended up raining and never getting anywhere close to freezing, which was in the morning forecast, but the mayor did not lift the closure and the concert was canceled. The leader of the group graciously called our mayor an idiot for closing the city for rain and tried to reschedule the concert but was not able to. We got our money back but that didn't cover the disappointment from over half a year of anticipation.

SwampYankee · #7 03-13-2015, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TylerH860

FYI to other travelers. Do not book using Expedia or any third party site. Only book a flight through their carriers website, and only if you can select your seat. If you cannot select your seat, it's oversold and you're as screwed as I am.

That has been my experience. I used to use Travelocity fairly often and ran into similar issues on a couple occasions, although I was eventually able to get onto the flights as a standby (so how was it overbooked?). While the travel sites can often offer discounts off the airlines' prices, that is the gamble you take for saving some cash.

While I don't dislike air travel per se, I don't like being away from my family for any more than I have to and I don't want any more headaches above and beyond what I already have to deal with. To me, it's worth paying a little more for dealing directly with the airlines. I do try to fly Southwest Business Select when ever possible, even though it's almost always more expensive than the other airlines, because I at least know my butt is getting on the plane in the first wave. Flying out of Hartford/Springfield, nothing is a direct flight anyway so that's rarely a determining factor.

kerry · #8 03-13-2015, 09:20 AM

I booked using google flight search recently and after listing all the available flight options, it sent me directly to the airlines own website to book the tickets. I didn't realize at the time what kind of difference this might make.

compu_85 · #9 03-13-2015, 09:48 AM

The same is true when booking hotel rooms... if you don't deal with the hotel directly you're basically screwed if you need to make any changes or if they're over-sold, etc.

You can use those other services to find cheap rates, and can sometimes get them when you call the hotel directly.

-J

SwampYankee · #10 03-13-2015, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerry

I booked using google flight search recently and after listing all the available flight options, it sent me directly to the airlines own website to book the tickets. I didn't realize at the time what kind of difference this might make.

That sounds like a good, and much more efficient, alternative to checking each airline individually (or opening each up in a separate tab like I do

). I'll have to try that next time.

JB3 · #11 03-13-2015, 10:16 AM

This reminds me of the time i needed to be in california for a single saturday, months in advance had a friday flight booked there, and a sunday flight booked back. Both were connecting flights.

An hour before the flight, the flight from boston to newark was suddenly cancelled, but newark was still scheduled. However, the airline bumped my flight to sunday, having me arrive in CA hours after i was already supposed to take off on my return flight.

I realized if i hustled i could drive to newark and make the original connecting flight, but i had to commit before i had authorization from the airline. Ultimately it was an hour long argument driving in rain and traffic before they put me back on my original flight, and only after i paid an additional hundred plus dollar fee.

jcochran85 · #12 03-13-2015, 10:26 AM

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but even if you book directly with airlines, or hotels the may still be selling you a seat on an oversold flight, or overbooked hotel. There is a department that looks at how a flight or hotel has preformed historically. If a hotel has 100 rooms and last week, last month, last year thd consistently sold 110 rooms and the hotel ended up only using 97 rooms, they will continue to sell 100 rooms. Occasionally, rarely, everyone shows up and 10 rooms of guest need to be "walked" (hotel term), to another property. Same goes for airlines. The oversell flights as historically "x"% of passengers don't show up for flight. Occasionally everyone shows up and the have to deny boarding to passengers. That process is governed by the contract of carriage, and federal regulations. the only airline I am aware of that doesn't oversell their flights is Jetblue. To my knowledge all other airlines, including Southwest oversells. Btw, using the google app will produce same results. While I HATE government being involved in every aspect of life and business, this is one situation where I wish it was required that airlines, hotels, car rentals, etc. were required to notify you if the are selling you something when it is oversold. Also, not getting a seat assignment does not necessarily mean the flight is oversold. Years ago when I worked for an airline, we only pre-assigned two-thirds of the flight. The rest was assigned at check-in to accommodate families, medical needs, etc.

Disclosure, I am not employed by Delta, I am a travel agent and have many associates in various sectors of the travel industry.

kerry · #13 03-13-2015, 10:41 AM

Not all overbookings are bad. I was traveling with my wife and daughter and a connecting flight in Atlanta on Air Tran was overbooked. We volunteered to be bumped. We got moved up to an earlier flight, arriving home 3 hours sooner than expected plus each of use got two free round trip tickets. We weren't complaining.

MTI · #14 03-13-2015, 10:48 AM

I agree about the "no seat number" no go, practice. You can certainly check seat availability on the airlines ticket purchase process (just before confirming purchase) before heading off to Expedia, etc. but I tend to use the travel consolidators only for hotel and car rentals.

kerry · #15 03-13-2015, 11:26 AM

No seat number, no go doesn't always apply. Recently I booked some overseas flights with United but there were other carriers on two legs. United doesn't have access to their seat booking system so I couldn't book seats on those legs. But the fact I couldn't book seats didn't mean there weren't actually seats available.