I read a consumer-protection story a year or so ago that said when returning to an airline booking site —hotels do the same thing — dump the cookies that were planted the first time you were there.
The first time you visit the site, when the cookies are planted, the prices are lower than on any subsequent visit.
When you return to the site after shopping around, the cookies reveal you’ve been there before — minutes, hours or days before — and the prices are higher. If you go to a competitor’s site, the same thing happens, so you’re SOL.
Always clear the site’s cookies before you return.
The thing is, no matter which airline you go with, they quickly jockey into position for worst airline ever. Seriously, give it a go. Vow to never use Delta again. Whichever airline you choose to take your business to will fuck you over royally.
Oh, and my sister’s hubby’s name is Richard Sammich.
Pretty sure all the prisoners being transferred and head-chopping murderers that ride Greyhound wouldn’t put up with airline-style bullshit.
That said, all airlines suck. Even Southwest, who after years of being a refreshing alternative to more standard nickel-and-dime airlines has apparently coming into the fold with an asinine, much less friendly frequent flyer program, some kind of preferred paid-for seating scheme, and some kind of much more staid, much less comfortable looking flight attendant uniforms.
I had my ticket and I arrived at the airport. Now I know you’re supposed to arrive an hour before the flight departure but due to some other problems I had been delayed. I got to the terminal only thirty-five minutes before the flight took off.
This shouldn’t have been a problem. I was leaving from a small regional airport. It only had one building. You walked in to the first floor to check in and then walked up a flight of stairs to get to the departure area. You could walk from one end of the terminal to the other in five minutes.
But when I got there, there was nobody at the Delta desk. I asked somebody at one of the other check-in desks where all the Delta people were. I was told that all of the Delta people had left the check-in desk and they were now up at the departure desk. Apparently they used the same people to work both desks and this was their routine. They didn’t even leave a single person behind to man the check-in desk for late arrivals like me.
The guy from the other line called up the Delta departure desk for me and let me talk to the Delta people. They weren’t loading the plane yet so they weren’t really doing anything at the departure desk. I asked somebody to come back downstairs so I could check in. And they refused. They said they wouldn’t be back to re-open the check-in desk until after the plane had departed.
I couldn’t convince them to come downstairs. And I couldn’t enter the departure area without my ticket. So I had to sit there and wait as they announced my plane had arrived and then announced my flight was boarding and then announced last call for my flight and then announced my flight had departed. And then five minutes later they came back downstairs and re-opened the desk so I could check in for the now departed flight.
Last time I ever bought a ticket from Delta. I’ll take a bus before I buy anything from them.
As someone who works at a smaller regional airport (although not in the terminal), I can confirm staffing like this is a typical way for the airlines to run things. Sometimes the same people can work the check-in desk, the gate, and handle parking the aircraft as well as loading luggage on the plane.
This generally works all right when everything is on schedule, but throw in some weather delays or deicing issues or a mechanical problem and it all goes to shit. I’ve seen aircraft sitting on the ramp for over an hour because they couldn’t get anybody out to the gate to park them - and this is an airport that only has six or seven gates and maybe maxes out at about that many airline arrivals/departures in a busy hour.
That said, even here there’s pretty much always someone at the check-in desk. That’s inexcusable, for a half-hour prior to departure.
Background: I’ve been a Gold Medallion on Delta for at least 6 years, until changes in my job last year drastically reduced my travel, so as of March 1 this year I have no status at all.
I’m traveling to the Netherlands in April for work and my wife decided to join me on the trip, it’s a shorter version of a vacation we planned to take 5 years ago but ended up adopting a kid instead. I bought my ticket through work, then bought my wife’s ticket on Delta.com.
I made sure we were seated together for all flights, called Delta to link our PNRs and confirm we were seated together, everything is good. We’re in Economy Comfort, we’re together, I have an aisle seat (I’m 6’4"), perfect.
Note that this whole process is done during February, when I still have Gold status.
6 days ago, (5 days after I’m a nothing-status loser in Delta’s eyes) I get an email from Delta that my seat has changed. I look it up, now I’m in a middle seat and my wife is seated in a window seat in the row behind me. On a 7.5 hour flight. I called Delta and there is nothing they “can” (are willing to) do.
In 6+ years of flying with Delta I never once had a seat changed after booking unless the equipment changed,this situation is fucking bullshit.
(Note: I am aware that the gate agent might be able to seat us together the day of the flight. Might is the operative word here. And by fucking me into a middle seat they’ve destroyed any hope of changing seats with anyone on the plane should the gate agents be unable to help)
So thanks a fucking lot, Delta. Richard Anderson, you can bend right over C.E Woolman’s desk, IMO
There were three of them as I recall. And they knew I was down at the check-in desk. You’d think one of them could have taken five minutes to walk down a flight of stairs and checked me in.
Heck, if it had been me, I would have done it out of self-interest. I wouldn’t have wanted to walk down those stairs after the flight had departed and face the irate passenger I had just screwed over.
I also wrote to Delta afterwards and complained about what happened. Which is not typical for me. The airline didn’t even bother to send me a response.
I fly two or three times a year, typically to NOLA, St Martin, or a similar fun spot. I know I’ll be having a shit-ton of fun once I’m there. I’ve learned to accept that the airlines , TSA, HS, et al are going to fuck me over every which way imaginable on my way to have fun. Fuck em! I’m high/drunk enough to smile and act like I enjoy it and I’m practiced enough to pass for sober.
That really does call for several dick sammiches. The lack of response is even worse than leaving you at the gate. I would rather, literally, have someone shit on my foot than go through what you did.
For consumer complaints about airlines or other large corporations, Twitter seems to be the best, especially if you have cultivated a good group of followers.
I am “hating on them” because I was so upset about the way they treated me that I was visibly upset in the security line. So visibly upset that I got pulled out of line for extra screening. I choose to add that to their tab. :mad:
Fact check before you hit send…Delta have NEVER merged with Continental. Wrong airline sorry but complain about the right people. Same with security at Heathrow. Has nothing to do with Delta…complain about the right people at least
For almost twenty years the Untied.com website has been kept running, despite United Airlines’ best efforts to shut it down. There’s even a Wikipedia entry for it.
Is there a comparable site for Delta? I found deltareallysucks.com, but it doesn’t look like it ever had the activity of untied.com, and currently it appears to have fallen into disrepair.
