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Delta - Reservations & Changes in Itinerary

Lv of Atlanta GA (12/03/08)
When did purchasing an airline ticket, become like playing the stock market? On November 30, 2008, I thought that I was doing the smart thing by planning in advance, by making plane reservations for the Christmas holiday. Generally ticket prices increase within the twenty-one days prior to departure. Thus, I made my Mothers reservations online and purchased her ticket to fly from DCA to ATL. The ticket came up to be 299.00. I also purchased the 14.95 travelers insurance.

On the evening of December 2, 2008, I was checking on flights and I noticed that the ticket price had decreased by 50%. It was now 148.00. I immediately contacted Delta and spoke to Jaenelle. She apologized for the situation and explained that the ticket that I purchased was non refundable. I I requested her supervisor. She transferred me to Tonya in Salt Lake City. Tonya was not as polite and Jaenelle. Her words to me were, you chose to book online, you chose to provide your credit card number and you chose to purchase a non-refundable ticket. There is nothing that we can do about it. You made the decisions?.

I was floored. I asked her to repeat it again and she did. She stated that she could cancel the ticket and that I would lose 150 of its value because of the change ticket charges. I explained that I wanted the ticket to remain in place. I did not want the ticket cancelled. I just wanted a refund of the difference. She impolitely explained that all she could do was cancel the ticket. The only way that I a refund could be issued was if I cancelled the ticket.

I did not realize in these economic times that purchasing an airline ticket within 21 days of departure is like playing the stock market. It could be up down one day and up the next and down a couple of days later. In the past, if the fare decreased after you purchased a ticket, the airlines would issue a credit, an airline voucher for the difference or something to demonstrate good customer service. All I received was blame for purchasing my ticket on the internet, because it was my decision to purchase the ticket. The majority of customer service oriented businesses generally allow a purchaser 7-10 days to return an item for a price adjustment. I guess that would be requesting a lot from an airline that is about to become one of the largest airlines in the world. To say that I am disappointed in Delta and the handling of this situation is an understatement. In the future, I will look at other airlines, instead of automatically going to the hometown favorite -DELTA. It will be my decision to reduce the number LV of flights that I take on Delta.LV

David of Brooklyn, NY November 19, 2008

David of Brooklyn NY (11/19/08)
I went online and punched in 2 adults - the price came up circa 950 per person. When I punched in one adult, the price changed to 850, so I proceeded to book one ticket at a time. Minutes later, when it came to ticket # 2, the price had jumped to 950, then later, 1050! This was notwithstanding the notification, today's guaranteed best fare. From the live chat delta stated that phrase actually meant this minute's guaranteed best fare. Quite a sorry tale, but possible fraudulent. Is this common? I understand the pricing changing day to day but 'today's guaranteed best fare' should mean what is says!

Gary of Lilburn, GA November 6, 2008

Gary of Lilburn GA (11/06/08)
Below is a complaint I sent to Delta on their website; I bought a ticket on Oct. 24th for my wife to fly from Atlanta to Gulfport on Oct. 31, on the 9:20p.m. flight. On Friday, Oct. 31, in the afternoon, A Delta agent called my wife and asked if she could move to a 7:10p.m. flight due to a plane size change on the 9:20p.m. flight. My wife said she would be a little rushed, but yes, she could do that.

Upon arriving at the airport, at check-in, a Delta agent told my wife she had to pay an extra 50.00 because she changed flights. Delta asked my wife to change to another flight, not my wife asking Delta to change her to another flight. The Delta agent never mentioned it would cost her more money when Delta called her on Friday afternoon, otherwise she would not have agreed to change flights. Delta refused to issue my wife a ticket for the 7:10p.m. flight because she refused to pay an additional 50.00. Because Delta had already moved her to the 7:10p.m. flight, she no longer had a reservation on the 9:20 flight. Delta told my wife she would have to be put on a waiting list for the 9:20p.m. flight. That flight was full and left without my wife being on it, which is the original flight I paid for. My wife never made it to Gulfport.

We have received no apology, no refund of our ticket, no phone call, no e-mail, no nothing. It seems to me that when Delta asked a paying passenger to change flights for Delta's convenience, there shouldn't be an extra charge, or at the very least, tell the passenger up front before they agree to change flights. No one with Delta, at the Atlanta airport, was willing to help my wife with this dilemma. My wife is still extremely upset with her experience, not to mention my outrage as I was waiting for her in Gulfport not knowing when she was going to make it there. I understand delays or flight cancellations for weather or mechanical problems, however, both flights left Atlanta on time. To boot my wife off a flight Delta asked her to take is unacceptable. I will not accept this behavior from any company I do business with. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thank You

The cost of the ticket, My wife waiting in the airport for 5 hours, Someone to take her to the airport and then to go get her from the airport.

Andrea of Fairport, NY November 5, 2008

Andrea of Fairport NY (11/05/08)
We have a 1,000 credit with Delta Airlines from a previous rescheduled flight, we would like to use the credit and they are refusing to return emails or phone calls.... We need some help or suggestions. Thank you

Andrea of Royal Oak, MI November 5, 2008

Andrea of Royal Oak MI (11/05/08)
We purchased tickets for our family of 4 (2 adults, 1 child, 1 infant) in March to travel to KL, Malaysia in December through expedia. The total flight time to KL was a little over 24 hours which is pretty normal. In July, flights were changed and we were issued a missed connection. Why didn't expedia or delta identify this issue? That part is not clear, but we were able to change the flight with little inconvenience and everything was ok again until I checked the flight itinerary on November 1st (after checking it in the beginning of October to book seats when everything was ok).

The itinerary had another missed connection our flight from Korea was leaving one hour before we would arrive in Korea. Again, why didn't expedia or delta see this issue? Why did I have to find it? So, now we are at today where the only offer from Delta (after hours on the phone with expedia and Delta) was to refund our money or travel for 41 hours with 2 small children. The issue with refunding our money is no one will give us tickets at the prices we paid in March...we would have to pay 3000 more...who has that in this economy?

So, that left us to start looking for any other flights or take the 41 hour flight time since Delta did not want to look for flights for us. In fact, the Delta rep stated we should be proactive...WHAT?!?!?! We booked in March! Ok, so we found a flight on a code share which seemed to be a requirement (Delta insists none of these issues are caused by the merger). The code share flight would've worked, but was the wrong class...of course. I don't understand how you can give a company over 5000 and they won't honor flight times you originally selected and paid for.

The agent even tried to tell me that they delta didn't get the money after expedia told me they only get 20 for the booking fee and the rest goes to delta. oh, the rude customer care agent also told me that the issue was the Korean Airlines leg (which was the Delta code share flight) but last time I checked Delta doesn't fly to KL, Malaysia so what other choice did I have?????????????? If you enter delta's website they offer flights around the world, but be warned, they aren't all delta flights so things could change if one of the code share partners changes their schedule.

41 hours of in transit time with 2 small children

Marina of Costa Mesa, CA October 5, 2008

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