Airport Fiasco

My twetny eight hour journey home was with Delta in first class. The flights themselves where supurb and the flight attendants where fantastic in their service. I’ve always been to cheap to purchase a first class ticket and sad this had to be my first experience. On the sixteen hour leg from South Africa to the states I had one of those cabin style seats where the seat reclines to a bed within an alcove of privacy from other passengers. Steamed towels where a suprise and I’ve never had the option of ordering from a menu while in flight. To bad I was on meds otherwise I would have enjoyed the free wine. The seat itself was amazing after having spent a week in bed. The footpiece, seat, back, and head rest all moved independenty to get the perfect slightly reclined comfortable position. Ahhhh, it’s the most comfortable I’d been in over a week. I slept beautifully for most of the flight with no fear of a needle fight or loss of my phone. I would love to travel like this from now on, however the $15,000 price will keep me scruntched up in the back from now on, unless I somehow strike it rich.

First Class Delta Seat

In general I would give Delta top marks for their asstiance with someone in my condition, until I reached the Atlanta airport. Once there the treatment quickly turned. Below is a letter which I sent to Delta customer service detailing the below standard treatment.

October 26, 2009

Delta Airlines

Customer Complaints

P.O. Box 20706

Atlanta, GA 30320-6001

RE: Atlanta Airport Experience

To Whom It May Concern:

I’m writing to share a miserable experience; I hope no other customer ever has to endure, with Delta while connecting in the Atlanta airport. Approximately nine weeks ago I was severely injured in an accident while on vacation in southern Africa. In the accident I fractured eight ribs, broke my right shoulder in two locations, bruised my lungs and numerous organs, and damaged the tendons in my right hip. I was only capable of walking a few feet without severe debilitating pain and movement of my torso or breathing deeply would cause sharp stabbing pain throughout my chest. After spending a week in the hospital I was cleared to make the journey home to receive continued care. To say the least, I was in pretty bad shape and am writing at this delayed date as I’ve only recently regained the ability to type.

On 8/31/09 I boarded Delta flight 201 from Johannesburg to Atlanta with prearranged medical assistance. I had a wonderful experience until I arrived in Atlanta. Upon arrival a Delta special assistance person picks me up in a wheelchair and pushes me through immigration. Immediately after clearing immigration the individual walks off leaving me sitting in the open with no explanation watching hundreds of others pass. Ten to fifteen minutes later another person shows up, pushes me to baggage claim, picks up my bag, clears through customs, rechecks my bag for my next flight, and leaves me at a Delta stand. Again, with no explanation.

For what seemed like an eternity (30 minutes) two Delta employees haplessly chat about last night’s TV ignoring my and a couple other wheelchair restricted passengers inquiries, regarding when we’ll be taken to our connecting flights. After the long wait they seemed to have ended their useless chatting and one of them pushes me through security screening. Once through security instead of taking me to my terminal and gate they double back behind security we’d just cleared to the Delta stand once more. With no explanation, they take my boarding pass and disappear for several more minutes. They return hand me the boarding pass and start pushing. Upon immediate inspection, I discover they’ve given me a ticket for a later flight. Inquiring he says with only thirty minutes remaining before my initially booked flight it’s impossible to make it to the gate on time, so they rebooked me on the next available flight. (Hogwash, if I were healthy there is no doubt I’d still have been able to make the flight, having been through the Atlanta airport numerous times) Examining the ticket a second time, I discover I’m booked in coach class on the rescheduled flight when I paid and had been booked in first class. Asking him to get me to my original gate, I’m then pushed to a Delta counter rebooking agent where he too tells me with only twenty minutes now remaining and the flight is boarding there is no way they can get me to the flight on time so therefore I have no choice but take the later flight. I explain to him, I need to make the flight as my supply of pain medication is running low and I have medical assistance picking me up at the Tampa airport and would he call to hold the plane a few minutes. He rudely says under no circumstances is it possible to delay a plane and “tough luck”.

Having no choice, I request he at least book me a seat in first class. He says, he’s put me on the next available flight and there are no first class seats available. I immediately request a refund for the price difference if I’m going to be forced into a coach seat. To my astonishment, he refuses blowing it off as the cost difference is insignificant. So, now I’m booked on a later flight in coach having paid for first class, and I’m missing my original flight which hasn’t even left yet because Delta’s too lazy to get me to the gate when they had plenty of time. Ridiculous!

Due to such blatant disregard to customer service I lost my cool and made a scene verbally cussing the Delta rebooking agent out and request to be taken to the gate. Instead, I’m pushed to a windowless room out of public sight, which has the appearance of an out- of -date employee break room, and told to get out of the wheel chair, have a seat, and someone else will be along to get me. After twenty to thirty minutes of being solitarily sequestered in a back room, I’m wondering if this is some sort of punishment for cussing out the booking agent. Finally, a Delta special assistance lady shows up, asking if I’m capable of walking. I responded that for very short distances I could and she says follow me walking out of the room. I yell ahead, asking for her help to carry my laptop bag. She glances back nonchalantly saying, “I’m not capable of doing that, follow me” and takes off down a long narrow adjacent hallway as the words Special Assistance printed on the back of her orange vest disappear.

Mystified, I slowly limp down the hallway stopping to take breaks while dragging my bag. Finally reaching the end of the corridor I find her careless of the obvious grimacing pain I’m enduring waiting impatiently to take me onto the tarmac for a bus. I receive no assistance boarding the bus which drives around the tarmac arriving at my gate with another Delta special services person waiting with no wheelchair. Exhausted in pain and unable to walk further it takes blunt and rude demands for him to get a wheelchair as I’m about to collapse on the tarmac.

Finally I make it to the gate in a wheelchair for an hour and half wait where I surprisingly and happily encounter the only nice Delta employee in Atlanta. He’s oblivious to what I’ve just experienced as where each previous lazy staff member. He approaches seeing I’m in obvious pain to see if he can assist in any manner. After chatting for a few minutes and venting some of my frustration telling him what’s just happened it turns out there where first class seats on the flight all along and he happily and cheerfully re-issues a boarding pass, as I fume over being blatantly lied to, mistreated, and delayed due to a mass of incompetent and uncaring Delta employees.

Suffice it to say the eight or nine Delta employees, bar one, I encountered in the Atlanta airport were lazy, rude, and flat out jerks. Any company can have a bad apple; however the mass concentration of such pathetic customer service and backwards procedures leads me to believe Delta has a serious lack of leadership and training for the Atlanta terminal staff. The experience in Johannesburg and Tampa was wonderful as where the flight attendants who went out of their way to assist me. Regardless, the Atlanta experience was so awful that while I would consider flying Delta again, if the itinerary connects through Atlanta I will go out of my way to seek another airline and will encourage everybody else to do so as well.

Regards,

Mike Jacobsen.