On our return trip from Puerto Rico, my girlfriend and I missed our flight home. It was really nobody's fault, just a series of circumstances. So we were looking at changing our American Airlines flight to Miami, and hoping to still make it in time to catch our Delta Flight to Atlanta.
The American fight we missed was a 1:15 flight in the afternoon. The next flight was at 4:00, and if it had not been delayed until 5:20, could have gotten us to Atlanta in time for our Delta flight. The flight after that was 4:30, which, if we humped it through the Miami airport, could get us to our next flight in time. However, everybody on the 4:00/5:20 flight had already changed to the 4:30 flight, so we would have to take the 4:00/5:20 flight. We would miss our Delta flight to Atlanta. Did you get that?
American's attitude upon learning that we had missed our flight was "no problem." They swapped our tickets for us. They charged us no fee and were very polite and helpful.
After securing new tickets for that leg of our trip, we went to the Delta counter. I found a 'red coat' and explained the problem. He asked us to join him at an unused computer terminal. He called an agent over to make sure our tickets could be transferred, since we bought them on the web. They then called the office in Atlanta. Turns out they could. There were no later flights from Miami to Atlanta. We would have to take the first flight the following morning. The two funny guys remarked loudly, "Guess you two will be spending the night in Miami, hey, hey, hey!"
So they were funny guys. They were also very condescending. What is even worse is that they charged us $100 each to change those tickets. The ticket agent made some joke about the government taking some of that, but I firmly believe that greedy Delta is taking most of that.
When we landed in Miami, many people on the plane were complaining to American about missing flights because of the delay. We went up to the desk, and said that because of the delay, we had missed the last flight to Atlanta. Even though we had bought tickets after the delay, they had the same attitude, "no problem." They gave us vouchers for dinner, a hotel room, and breakfast in Miami that night. What an airline!
During all our flights we noticed that the employees of American Airlines were professional, polite and helpful, including flight staff. Delta's employees seemed to think they were doing us a favor, or that is the vibe we got from them. We appreciate American's employees efforts very much. They helped make a bad situation tolerable.
When you see stories about Delta such as this story and this story concerning layoffs and losses, you would think that they would be going out of their way to keep customers. They don't. American Airlines seems to be. I will use Delta as an absolute last resort. American Airlines will be my first choice from now on.
Friends of mine who travel for business seem to have similar comments about Delta. Instead of trying to keep business, they are adding fees and rules to help profits. The majority of the people I talk with hope that Delta continues to lose business. If they lose enough business, they may one day have to start relinquishing gates at Hartsfield, Atlanta's airport. Then more competition could move in and Georgians would truly have a choice of airlines to fly.
your note []Copyright 2002 Tim
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