Delta Airlines

Delta Sucks.

It has been two days since I was stranded at Logan International
Airport for over ten hours and I have finally come to terms with my
situation. For the past two months, I have been looking forward to
attending my good friend's wedding in Houston, only for me to find out
at 6AM at the airport that my Delta flight 5677 was cancelled as a
result of 'inclement weather'.

Initially, I was surprisingly okay with the situation. But the events throughout the day has contributed to my severe disdain for the airline industry - and in
particular, Delta. Having discovered this unfortunate cancellation, I
was forced to wait in line for approximately 1h 45m before arriving at
the ticket counter. The reason for this lengthy delay was partly due to
the weather, and partly the result of school vacation week in which
thousands of families with young teenage children were travelling the
globe to warmer destinations such as Mexico or Orlando, FL. From my
experiences on Friday, I have come to realize that there is nothing
moreexcruciating than being stuck in an airport line behind a few
over-privileged teenage children who were on their way to some exotic
destination. It wasn't so much their youth status as it was the topics
of conversation - from how hot Leo DiCaprio was in Romeo and Juliet to
their endless list of things to do with regard to their school work.
Teenage verbal mannerisms also take a significant toll on my tolerance
level - as their pitch and tone and emphasis on every last word of
every sentence seemingly drove me up a wall. Needless to say, the line
itself was a test of my infinite patience.

Upon arrival, I was greeted by a friendly staff member who only told me what I had already knew - that my flight was cancelled and they could not get me on
another flight because snotty brats had occupied all the remaining
seats...and then some. Knowing full well that I still wanted to make it
to Houston, I opted for the standby option with some flights connecting
to Cincinnati. Unfortunately, there was no guarantee that I was going
to get a seat on an airplane. And even if I were to make it to
Cincinnati on Friday through some kind of divine intervention, I would
have to spend the night in this decrepit mid western city before being
able to fly out the next morning. Keep in mind though, that by electing
for this option, I had to forfeit my check in luggage because I would not
have been allowed into the secure terminals with my large luggage.
Therefore, while I wasputzing around Logan International Airport, my luggage was on the stand by flight that I was supposed to be on.

After a monumental failure in trying to get onto the 930 flight to Cincinnati
via standby, I opted to phone my friend who works in the airline
industry. He enlightened me to the fact that Delta in fact has two hubs
(which the original staff member neglected to inform me) and that I
should try to make it to the Atlanta hub en route to Houston. Again, in
order for me to exercise this option, I had to jump back into the line,
which by now actually started where the line barrier began. 25 minutes
later, I arrived at the ticket counter with a newly proposed idea of
going through Atlanta. The lady informed me that if I were able to get
on any flight to Atlanta, she would have me confirmed from the last
flight from Atlanta to Houston for that Friday. I agreed to take my
chances with the four standby Atlanta flights.

At this point,I had not realized the severity of the situation: It turns out that ice storms utterly paralyze entire airports for days at a time and for this
particular storm, it was no different. Passengers had been stranded at
the airport since Wednesday - trying to get home to their families,
jobs, school vacations, etc...- so my particular situation did not
warrant any sort of special treatment. Like the idealistic fool that I
am, though, I chose to wait for the standby flights to Atlanta. Six
hours, dozens ofphonecalls to friends complaining about my situation,
and 12 dollars spent on crappy airport food later, I finally realized
the futility in my efforts. After spending a better part of the day
with the same passengers who were trying to capture the same flight, I
bid them a hardy goodbye, and left to see if I could retrieve a refund
for my misery.

It is now 3:30 and I just left the secure area
and back into the original check out area. It turns out that the line
did not abate this whole time, and I was looking at another possible
45-1 hour wait just to get back in line to speak to a representative.
To add insult to injury, there was even a line to use the phones to
speak to a representative. After waiting for approximately 12 minutes
for a phone to open up, I decided that my time may be best spent trying
to find my luggage that was probably already in Houston. This part was
relatively painless as I went through the usual motions of submitting a
claim to retrieve lost luggage. Thankfully, Delta employees in this
particular office were extremely amiable. They even managed to tell me
that I was number 37 on the standby list...for six seats. Thank
goodness I did not wait.

My best friend who happened to be dropping his mother at the airport, ultimately picked me up at about 4:15 in the afternoon - 10 hours since I was incipiently dropped off at the airport myself...what a pointless day spent hanging out in terminal A of Logan International Airport.

Since I have had two days to try and rationalize my Friday, I'm going to try and recap the ways in which Delta completely screwed me. First of all, I had to take the day off to fly to Houston to attend my friend's wedding - and day off
equals lost wages. Secondly, I booked my ticket throughOrbitz.com, and of course, I received zero notification that my flight was going to be cancelled even though I signed up for the Orbitz alert which should have promptly called my cell phone to report any kind of irregular airline operations. I received no such call in the
morning, but I did receive subsequent calls regarding my other flights
on the trip, which indicates that Delta cancelled its flight very early
in the morning -if not immediately prior to when passengers were
scheduled to arrive. They have had two and a half days to handle the
ice situation. Therefore, weather should not have played such a
significant factor.

Moreover, it stands as Delta's policy to immediately place someone on the next available flight should their flight be cancelled. Because of the storm situation and school vacation week, the next available flight to Houston -as told by the staff - was Sunday. Perhaps it was a little too early in the morning for me to
truly grasp the audacity of this statement - but that information was
tantamount to rubbing salt on an open wound. Nevertheless, I never made
it to my destination because I was subsequently placed on standby
flights that personnel knew full well that I had no chance of getting
on (refer back to my previous statements regarding the severity in the
flight situation for this President's Day weekend) - resulting in ten
useless hours at the airport.

Mind you, I was only offered a refund for my ticket after this entire ordeal - a refund that I had to obtain through contacting theOrbitz .com representative because Delta service lines were busy the entire weekend. One might question the
sincerity of Delta's front office to attempt to appease disgruntled
customers after terrible experiences with the airline.

Perhaps this could be the result of price discrimination - if I were a platinum
meber, would I have been treated differently instead of being cast
aside? After this entire experience, should I really feel bad for Delta
Airlines for their continued operations utilizing such poor standards
in customer service? It should be obvious that from now on, the only
time I will ever fly Delta, is if they were to issue me a free ticket
somewhere. In fact, that is the least they could do to compensate me
for the worst airline experience of my life. Perhaps if they do not
understand the significance of trying to regain the trust of one
particular customer, then how can they be entrusted to provide quality
customer service for any of their customers?