Delta Airlines
 

We are going to europe on Delta sept 13-24
and I am already pissed off at them because,
When I bought our tickets $883.00 each, I ask the lady on the phone at Delta, what if the airfare goes down? I was told if it does go down and its a published fare Delta would refund the difference in future travel vouchers. Well, the price is down to $702.00
now $181.00 less each, so I called delta and asked for the vouchers, I was told that Delta
would issue me vouchers for $181.00 for each ticket but there will be a SERVICE CHARGE of $200.00 for each voucher??? I told delta that, I was never told about any service charge and that they need to go back to my reservation phone call (which they said was being recorded for security reasons!) and listen to what the lady told me about the damn vouchers! I was told that Delta will not go back and try to find that phone call and that I should have read Delta's policy
online before I bought my tickets and I was hung up on! Bottom line here is DELTA SUCKS.
I will never, never, never again fly with this company. PLUS now Delta may even strand us in europe because of their money troubles.
Damn this trip is already not fun. any throughts?

At least you have a choice of never, never, ever flying this airline again. We are a Delta dominated town and Air Tran just left.

I don't know when you bought the tickets you are now holding, but if you are going to Europe in less than one month, it is unlikely you would have wanted to take your chances on what the airfare would be if you would have waited, not to mention the uncertainty of not even knowing if the dates you wanted would be sold out. I say this *not* to excuse Delta, but rather to see if you could think of the $181 as money you paid for the security of having your travel arranged. After all, if you don't enjoy your trip, you will not be hurting Delta, but rather yourself and your travel companions. There must have been times when you got tickets cheaper than you expected, so try to average out the prices, in your mind at least, so that you can try to let go of this very negative interaction with the rude Delta people.

My favorite Delta story is when they told me if the price went up after I bought tickets, they would charge us the increase. She compared it to postage stamps. Said if the price of postage went up, I couldn't use old stamps even if I had purchased them before the postage hike. I really think the lady was having a bad day & made that up!
About your situation, I would not have expected a refund of price drop because you had the advantage of getting tickets earlier when there were more seats available. Same logic? Oh well. :-]

I am curious what business you are in, and how your business approaches customers who want refunds of over 20% - - the entire profit margin and more - - if and when you decide to offer other prospective customers a lower price. When your business is struggling financially, and hoping to attract some new customers to survive.

I am curious how you would react to a request to give back 20% of last month's salary if your employer came to you and said, "we have found out that there are other people who can do the same work as you for 20% less".

I am curious how much further this trip is going to deteriorate in your mind over your inability to finagle the very lowest prices for services that - - perhaps - - you don't really want in the first place. If this trip has become not very fun in your mind, less than four weeks away - - over a perception that you overpaid for something - - then I wonder if you should cut your losses, and avoid spending money on hotels, meals, cab fares and museum fees that may not cave in to your expectations of discounts and refunds to you.

I am curious how inflammatory it will sound to you if I sign off, as I customarily do...

Best wishes,

Rex

Read the fine print? Heck, it would take a week and give you a massive headache!

I'm convinced the pricing of airline tickets is a bizare system designed to confuse and abuse the consumer. Twenty people sitting on the same airplane and they all paid different prices for thier tickets!

And don't get me started on paying huge salaries and bonuses to brain-dead managers who produce staggering losses year after year.

Rex, I think the issue here is that Delta said "we will give you a refund" and left off the $200 charge part - which is completely misleading, and it's almost like you can picture the Delta person hanging up and then giggling to a coworker, "but i didn't tell him about the $200!!" If the woman would have said that no, they could not refund the money, then it would be case closed, and probably nothing more would be said (I wouldn't even think to ask if they would refund the difference). I would be angry too, if someone had told me misleading information.

You know, that sounds so deceptive and wrong to me that I'd call and speak to someone else, or email them or write a conventional letter.
You have nothing to ask by clearly stating your case, politely but firmly,no capital letters, and then asking for what you expected and want.

I agree wholeheartedly with Elaine...

then, if it all was as first said, with the service charge, etc., and you're out of pocket what? $883 each anyway? I really would just "suck it up" and determine I WILL HAVE THE BEST TIME EVER!

I hope you find that you first talked to merely an idiot...and the next person to whom you speak is not. Bon Chance!

You're gonna love Paris in spite of this heavy costly Glitch!

Are you sure they said it's $200 for EACH? I was pretty sure the Delta change fee was $100 per ticket.

Hi bb,

This sounds like a good case for writing a letter to the CEO of Delta with a copy to the Ombudsman at Conde-Nast Traveler.

I would be mad, too! If your newspaper has an action line column, write to it. Also write to the company; if you still get a refusal, keep writing to people up the chain of command. I recommend that you keep your letter factual and calm; do a draft, put it in a drawer for a couple days and then review it.

That said, please don't let this ruin your trip. Life is too short!

Since we were going to be in California for over a month and we already had airline tickets to fly home from Las Vegas, I had purchased AA special price tickets to fly from Los Angeles to Las Vegas for $59 each, at the time deciding that would be cheaper and easier than driving a rental car from LA to Vegas. But when our plans changed and I tried to see if I could change those tickets I was told that I could change the dates for $100 each. On the other hand, I could throw away those tickets and buy totally new ones still for $59. Doesn't take a genious to figure out which made more sense.
The lesson is that I know of few or any airlines that will exchange tickets (even giving price credits) without some sort of fee, and $ 100 seems to be a magic number these days. I can't imagine that the clerk didn't say there would be some charge for changing the tickets. I've never questioned a price on any tickets without being told that there would be a charge to change them if in fact they can be changed at all. And that includes just changing the price.

There is been a HUGE decline in "customer service" these past 20 years or so. Not just Delta, but just about everywhere! It is terrible. :((

I am only 31, but I remember a time when banks used to give you FREE GIFTS for opening an account - NOT anymore! Yesterday when I called my bank, I was on hold forever...and then I was mysteriously disconnected forcing me to call back. (insert mad face)

I am afraid it is just the times we are living in ... but I come from a family who likes our voice to be heard. We complain and we do it loudly. If we go to a restaurant and the food and/or service is lously, the manager will know etc. ;)

Maybe bigboy can write a letter to someone higher up than he talked to? (much higher)

janeg, how did you make that smiley?! (Do you know how to make the mad face too?)

This happened to me sometime ago as well. In fact there is a policy with most of the airlines, because most of the times the tickets that you and I and any other leisure travelers buy are "non-refundable" tickets; however, in your case and my case, what they do is re-issure the ticket but there is a fee involved with it. The fee for european tickets are $200.00 with most of the airlines; however, this could be taken out from the difference of the ticket costs. Let's say your ticket would've cost $829.00 at the time you purchased it, and let's say now it costs $600.00. Therefore, Delta would deduct $200.00 and will only give you a voucher for $29.00. Is it worth it? I personally don't think so. In your case, you would end up paying an extra $19.00 plus tax from your original ticket. Don't be upset at Delta, any other airline has the same policy. It's just a gamble that we take for buying it ahead of time, and what the airlines are doing is just doing their business.

I can only agree with what CarlosSandoval said. Basically you are paying the price for obtaining a discounted ticket. It is common knowledge that there will be fees in case you want to change anything in respect to those tickets.
If you would have bought full fare, this might be a different issue.
Overall, I simply think that it is up to the buyer to decide upon the time of his purchases. You buy at a certain time for a certain price. And that's just what you get. It is your decision if that's worth it or not. But there should be no complaining in case prices go down after the date of purchase, after all you can still be happy if prices go up.

If you think Delta is bad now, Wait until you get on the plane. Cramped nasty seating, couldn't care service.

It is a shame it has gone downhil so badly. I just saw them on the news last night talking about improving customer service, more perks for flyers, part of the plan to get out of their money troubles.

I hope it does all change for the best and folks get to keep their jobs here in Atlanta and elsewhere. Constantly running away customers is not the way to get there though.

Don't let this ruin your trip. You will have a great time when you get there. Let Delta be part of the "real" world you leave behind on your wonderful trip.

I agree AND disagree with CarlosSandoval:

Should bigboy have looked over the policy himself? Probably. But who on here would have gone ahead and taken the word of an employee who is supposed to know what she is talking about? Probably ALL of us! - That is the problem right there. These employees are not trained properly and they are ALLOWED to tell you whatever they want.

It isn't right ... but it is going on now at alarming rates.

So now it is up to us to question everything, take names, take notes, do our own homework and hope for the best.

That's the only advice I can give ... I still think bigboy needs to write a letter though, even if it doesn't do any good - it might. (Just write to the person who is high on the ladder. People lower down could care less!)

"Should bigboy have looked over the policy himself? Probably. But who on here would have gone ahead and taken the word of an employee who is supposed to know what she is talking about? Probably ALL of us! "

I'm not so sure. I can't imagine not questioning any airline employee on the phone about getting a refund if the price changes and when he/she says, yes you'll get a refund, my NOT asking, "you mean there is no fee?" I would assume that anyone who has ever bought any kind of discount ticket would automatically KNOW there would be a fee to rewrite it even if only for a price change. Sorry if that's too big an assumption for me to make.

Now maybe bigboy is not an experienced flyer or consumer of airline tickets, but most of us would have gotten a real signal and would have questioned that idea that there wouldn't be a fee. Whenever I book a ticket, my first question isn't "is there a fee to change", but rather, "WHAT is the fee to change, or is a change allowed?"

I haven't followed this discussion carefully, but I didn't know that airlines issue vouchers for price differences until I read this board. So when I bought my recent AA ticket, I asked the agent who handled the sale and he confirmed that AA would indeed issue a voucher if the price goes down. At no point did I think that there would be a fee -- call me naive, I guess.

Just a couple of points I want to make:

1. The refund policy depends on airlines as well as the <b>fare class</b> the ticket is in. For example, on Continental Airlines alone, some tickets have no change fee, some $100, some $150, some $200. It's the same with DL.

2. I've called DL's reservation/Skymiles people about 6 times in the last few months, and my experience is that they have some serious problem with the people they hire in the US and in India (I think they have 3 call centers in India and 10 in the US, and is closing one of those three abroad). Some seem to have little knowledge about the fares/policies; while others are better. You really can't take what a phone agent says as actual facts, as they probably know less than many of us on this board do.

That's true, the lack of training is one of their major downfalls.

In any case, just FYI this is what I got from Delta website:

Change Fees
For travel within the 50 U.S. (including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and between the U.S. &amp; Canada, the change fee is $100 (USD); Song&reg; is $25 (USD).
For all other locations, the fee is $200 (USD) but can vary based on location and fare type. Changes are usually permitted only to the return portion of an international itinerary. Please review the applicable fare rule or contact a Delta representative or your Travel Agent for assistance.

I agree that the customer service agent should have mentioned the fee. I know he should have read the rules and should have asked, but I do think the agent should have mentioned it. I thoughtanyone who's flown very much would know there are change fees for doing anything with a discount ticket, and I've read many times about this issue (in the paper, travel newsletters, etc., probably even heard about it on TV). If you know you hve a restricted discount fare, I would think you'd know to expect a fee.

Even though I think the agent should have mentioned it, I don't think they owe you anything, and no consumer magagine like COnde Nast is going to care about this. Unfortunately, a lot of customer service agents at airlines are similar to this and not that sharp or welltrained. I'm actually amazed they ever issue refunds for that -- I think they started that after 9/11 when traveling was down and they were trying to get back customers. They don't have that problem now. MOst stores I know won't refund your full amount for a returned item if it has been reduced considerably since you bought it, for example.

They would have to have a fee or there would be no point of sale fares and they couldn't stay in business.

I don't usually book over the phone, but when I do they always tell me the boilerplate &quot;This is a nonrefundable ticket. There is a fee of $___ to change....&quot; I feel like I know that spiel as well as I know the pre-takeoff safety talk! If I then asked &quot;What if the airfare goes down?&quot; I wouldn't expect to be told about the change fee again. Maybe this agent didn't give the usual change fee warning, but that certainly would be an exception.

Maybe it's just my being naive, but I guess I've difficulties understanding how giving vouchers for fare differentials is the same as changing an air ticket. I mean, if the fare goes down, I'm not changing my ticket. I'm just asking for the price difference. I wouldn't have thought that there's an associated fee with this too.

But I guess I know to ask now.

An alternative way of phrasing or addressing the issue is -- if that's what the airlines will do, why bother giving a voucher in the first place? Wouldn't it be better? Then there wouldn't be (un)reasonable expectations on the part of the traveler.

This could be wrong, but based on my experience if the fare goes down they cancel you at the higher fare, rebook you at the lower fare, and rewrite the ticket. The lower fare has to be available for the flight you want, and you have to meet any requirements such as adavance purchase period.

That sounds reasonable, KT. Maybe if you think of things that way, then a fee is reasonable.

I don't know. In my case, I remember asking the AA agent how I would claim a voucher if the price goes down, and he said that as long as I see a fare that's a published fare (he emphasized the fact that the fare must be published) that's below the one that I paid, then I could just contact AA.

Anyway, it's certainly one potential wrinkle to worry about. I do find many of these business practices rather dishonest -- I mean, don't dangle carrots in front of people and then take them away. If that's what you plan to do, don't dangle these carrots in the first place!

Just to clarify, I don't mean to imply that I had a nasty experience with AA in terms of claiming a voucher -- I haven't tried at all. And perhaps there's no fee charged or whatever -- I don't know.

I'm just offering this story to explain why I sympathize with the original poster.

I was thinking along the same lines as 111op on this. Seems like ridiculous wording and reasoning on the part of the airlines. Even reading the fine print, I would not equate a voucher for future travel with making a change in his current ticket. After all, Bigboy is not changing times, dates, airports, or even the price - the airline would be issuing a voucher not a new ticket.

Everyone on this thread may want to read &quot;The Paradox of Choice&quot; by Barry Schwartz about how having too many options just makes us miserable. We always want the very best deal (&quot;maximizers&quot;), go back and forth, search and re-search, until we're nuts. Bigboy, go take your trip and have a good time; it ain't worth the worry. Besides, Delta forgot how to run an airline more than 15 years ago.

I am afraid that we are no longer speaking to Delta. Last night my husband called to get the exact amount of mileage we have for an upcoming trip. They took it away. Our time ran out. Continental is upgrading us to First Class with our mileage with a smile.:D

Scarlett, could you please explain in case this happens to somebody else. Is this right: your Delta miles expired but Continental is using them for an upgrade anyway? How did you get them to use miles that you no longer have in the program? Or do you mean that Delta was holding an award reservation for you and that the hold expired without their telling you that it would?

Thanks.

Sayonara,
Small cramped seats, no honor re: FF miles/coupons, FA's who look like they just stepped out of a nightmare meeting with bosses who demanded more from them and have $$mills in parachutes: Bankruptcy would be a merciful bullet!
M

Maybe the time has come for this thread to be deleted.