Delta Air Lines and Exorbitant Fees

[azileretsis]

I spoke with a Delta agent today 1:00 on August 6, 2002.
I bought two tickets on Delta.com on July 29, 2002 for a trip from Dulles to
Orlando and back. My other two friends had also bought two tickets on this
flight. Before I bought the tickets, I specially looked for any restrictions
on the tickets. When I saw there was no restrictions, I proceeded to buy the
tickets.

Today, I called Delta to see if I could change a name on the ticket. They
informed me that they could not switch the names on the tickets. This ticket
is not for this week, it's for a week and half in advance travel. I would be
traveling on Aug 18th but they were not able to assist me at all.

I spoke with two service persons before I got Tino, the "manager". One
suggestion, before you move on to the next service person, remember to get
the names of everyone you spoke with. I forgot to do it here.

I spent an hour and half on the phone with the customer service person named
Tino Herrnandez, Delta Reservations Desk, located Dallas, TX. He bull-dozed
a few times meaning, he kept saying the same information again even before I
explained my problem.

I have had problems with this airline before that I had swept under the rug.
But, $130 fee for a name change for travel two weeks ahead is too much.

I am a sky miles traveler that will not choose to fly Delta again and make
sure none of my friends do so either.

I was emailed by Keith Hagstette on August 7 (after repeated attempts to
reach them) in Customer Care who told me:
"While we regret any misunderstanding, your request is not covered by our
tariff and we cannot comply."

Again, the same line that was given to me by Tino.

Information from another email:
The administrative service charge has not increased in more than 3 years
(Nov. 1997). Recently, Delta has seen significant increases in the number of
passengers who request changes for travel on nonrefundable tickets. Each
time a reservation is changed the ability to resell that seat is diminished.
This charge is assessed to cover
the costs and lost revenue associated with these ticket changes.

Since I'm not sure if "all the fees" they are assessing has not
changed.
Literally, that means that all Delta administrative fees are $100 which they
had attempted to charge me twice. In this case, the revenue would not be
lost since the ticket would be used by another person.

As a customer, I seek to find the lowest price but do companies give you the
lowest price to rip you off later? It looks like that is actually what Delta
is doing.

August 8th - Keith Hagstette calls to tell me that Delta service is not what
I experienced but he could not help me either.
Basically, a short conversation where he could not resolve my problems and a
"good-bye".

It looks like nobody at Delta can or even try to resolve this service
problem.

I will document my conversations here and elsewhere online and offline.

[jsalba]

Well, I guess you learned your lesson on this one. Eh?

I am with you on the ridiculous charges.. to change a name??? What the heck does it matter?? The seat is still taken.

I'm fairly disgusted with the airline industry as a whole so you have my support.

[SkyeJaz]

Originally posted by jsalba
I'm fairly disgusted with the airline industry as a whole so you have my support.

NO KIDDING!!

It seems to me that I remember hearing that several airlines were in danger of going bankrupt not that long ago. Poor customer service seemed to be one of the generaly themes...then 9/11 came and low and behold....now we taxpayers are paying to bail out these dens of inefficiency...hmmm

It doesn't seem right that ANY business should be run like this and then we get to PAY for the PRIVILEGE of being abused by them!

While I know that airline travel is important to a lot of people, it seems to me that instead of the airline pilots, mechanics, flight attendants, etc going on strike... that maybe the American public should put their money where their mouth is and avoid companies with this kind of terrible non-service....when I hear stories like this, I just wanna choke someone!!

My condolences on having to deal with an airline that clearly couldn't care less about its customers.

[hrdlife1]

Originally posted by SkyeJaz


NO KIDDING!!

It seems to me that I remember hearing that several airlines were in danger of going bankrupt not that long ago. Poor customer service seemed to be one of the generaly themes...then 9/11 came and low and behold....now we taxpayers are paying to bail out these dens of inefficiency...hmmm

It doesn't seem right that ANY business should be run like this and then we get to PAY for the PRIVILEGE of being abused by them!

While I know that airline travel is important to a lot of people, it seems to me that instead of the airline pilots, mechanics, flight attendants, etc going on strike... that maybe the American public should put their money where their mouth is and avoid companies with this kind of terrible non-service....when I hear stories like this, I just wanna choke someone!!

My condolences on having to deal with an airline that clearly couldn't care less about its customers.

i agree, i am planning a trip where i have to buy airline tickets and i will be adding delta along with us airways to my list of airlines i will NOT spend money on!!

so sorry for your troubles azileretsis!!


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[udflyer]

Most airlines will not change names. I was dealing with United a few weeks ago and know that they will not either. I work for a very large company that spends millions a year in travel. We have our own travel agency and what not. The travel plans that I set up change quite frequently. Even in a large business where at times one person will be sent in place of another when business needs come up that require the one person to not travel they will not change names. They would not even change names for one hundred dollars for me. They would only give us a credit.

[wordgirl]

Do not expect this situation to get better. It will only get worse. Airlines are being faced with the choice of either increasing their fares (which usually means a sudden dropoff in business) or piling on the restrictions (which chokes it off slowly.)

Basically, you have a non-refundable ticket. That means it's issued to you and you only, for that flight only. (Airlines have also stopped honoring tickets for people who miss their flights and getting extremely sphincterific about baggage size/weight limits.)

Refundable/changable tickets are available if you want them, but you're going to pay more. In some cases, a lot more. Because our company does change plans rather suddenly, we usually do pay the extra fare to get a refundable ticket.

Your point is well-taken, that it doesn't cost the airline much, if anything, to switch the name on that ticket. But the fact is that they CAN charge that much to switch the ticket, they told you when you bought the ticket that they WOULD charge that much (if you read the terms and conditions instead of clicking through them like most do) and that they ARE going to charge you. Deal with it or take the bus.


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