I cant believe that someone could lose a voucher that should be treated as cash and then complain when the airline does not replace it. Accept your mistake and move on.

No, gmarine, didn't you get her point? She was sick. That means she is exempt from all rules. I'm sure she's also called the phone and power companies to tell them they should give her a free month because she misplaced their bills -- her husband threw those out too when he was looking for her insurance papers. If he was smart, maybe he also accidentally threw out the marriage license.

Celeste; Please, get a grip! Don't you see what you are doing? You are really angry as hell at your husband for throwing out the voucher and you are mis-directing it towards Delta and people on this forum.
Perhaps you need to have a nice chat with him about his tidying-up problem. I mean, if he's looking for insurance papers then why is he throwing out vouchers. I start throwing papers out when I'm panicking about not being able to find something and angry that things are so disorganized. My point is, Celeste, that your problem is not with Delta or us it's something going on right inside of your home. I am not trying to be mean here, but really trying to help you see that what you think is the problem is really not. I'm not sure what any of us can do for you until you start becoming more honest with yourself. And I am not calling you dishonest, either. I think these things happen to give us a reality check on our lives. To make us stand up and take notice of stuff that's been going on that we haven't noticed before. Best of luck to you, r

We've all lost things. It happens by accident and by innocence. But we learn from these mistakes and get over them.

Celeste, please stop the drama. YOU WERE CARELESS and LOST IT.

OK, Celeste, now I get it. Your operation was a lobotomy, right?

I know this subject has been beaten to death, but I'd like to point out something that I don't think has been mentioned yet. The item that was lost was a VOUCHER GIVEN FOR THE INCONVENIENCE OF BEING BUMPED. It was not a ticket that Celeste had already paid for. Therefore, Celeste, Delta is not taking your money away from you. IT NEVER COST YOU ANYTHING in the first place, and Delta is not wrongfully holding your money. They offered you the voucher as a nice gesture to make up for inconveniencing you. It was a freebie courtesy, and their obligation to you ended at the moment they delivered that voucher to you. Your obligation was to hold on to it. You didn't. End of story. Do I feel bad for you? Yes. To the extent that I feel bad for anyone who loses something, for whatever reason. But every loss doesn't come with a guarantee of a remedy. And you've been nasty to everyone who has tried to point that out to you, so that cancels out any pity I might have initally felt. Especially when it COST YOU NOTHING. So please give up this misplaced righteous sense of entitlement you keep espousing. And speaking of spouses, the best line on this thread was about your husband accidentally throwing out the marriage license!

People keep saying that it COST NOTHING- if I am reading this right, she did pay for the original ticket-got bumped - had a voucher-lost it. Therefore she did not take the trip yet, paid but got no trip...so SHE DID PAY. This thread is showing all the bitterness of people so afraid someone will get something for nothing-even if it isn't for nothing...small minded bunch here!

If living shallow, stupid lives means not really giving a rats ass about you or your voucher, than so be it. I'm shallow and stupid.

It's not all about you, dear.

C - there are so many sick people who respond to these travel posts it is just better to use false names. I post and reply all the time and, as you have found out, you get some good advice and then the trolls. I would suggest that you totally ignore the troll messages. Responding to them just makes it worse. From my previous posts, just keep trying and you may get some success. I do not believe this is a clear cut issue of right or wrong on either side. Delta has many reasons why they are right about this issue so I would not be the never fly Delta again person. You may find the good customer service you are seeking if you don't give up.

art: so people that don't agree with you are trolls? Initially I was on Celeste's side - no more. The "trolls" on this post are right on the money in this case.

Celeste, I can tell you from my own disappointing experiences with Delta that I had a terrible time getting Delta to credit my account with miles. My problem was simpler than yours. I found out that Consumer Care and their service center in Atlanta are anti-customer. One person I dealt with was helpful - Valerie Henry at 404-715-2600. And a Delta agent in Tampa, named Brandi (FAX 813-286-5059), working with my travel agent, was finally able to bring our milesage accounts up to date. Our situation was much simpler than your own. But there is really no reason Delta cannot replace the voucher - mistakes happen, and if one cares about the customer, you help the customer. I regret that some on this site are insensitive to your problems, but it's rather typical of a few small minded dolts. Most try to be helpful. Delta really is a problem. I'm using Delta to fly back to Africa this year, and as you may imagine, holding my breath!! Have a good day, and good luck. Ciao, L

To marc:

You & I seem to have different interpretations of being "bumped." I took it to mean that Celeste was bumped off her original flight due to overbooking, but placed on the next available flight. Therefore, she did get to take the trip she paid for, but was inconvenienced, and therefore rewarded with a voucher. That has always been my understanding of the term "bumped" and if that is the case, Delta has paid off its obligation to her. However, if you are correct, and she still has a trip that she fully paid for and never took, that would certainly be a different story. But it would seem that if that were the case, Celeste would still have her unused ticket (or was that also thrown out) and Delta would have a record of that, and she could still use it (subject to any penalties for changing dates, etc.) Of course, there's an easy way to resolve this. Celeste, why don't you just tell us?

The more interesting point, though, is that even those who sympathize with Celeste (and I certainly did at first, until she became vicious) point out that even when looking at the facts from her vantage point, she still doesn't have much of a case here. I honestly think what most people are looking for here is some sense that Celeste is even slightly aware that this mess is of her own doing, and that she owns up to her own negligence. It's all about attitude. If she were to have said that she knew she blew it, but was hoping Delta would make an exception due to her illness, but would understand if they wouldn't, I think she would have received much more support.

judy: amen.
Leone: sorry, you can't compare your situation with Celestes. she threw out her voucher. she called. they denied. end of story.

From her post-Celeste was bumped meaning there were too many people showing up for the flight and she was given the voucher,the next available flight and probably something else.Translated-IT WAS A FREEBIE folks! You really have not lost anything that cost you anything.Could we please move onto something more important like: do you think my body could get into a swimsuit at spring break?

Oh, so now those of us who believe people should be responsible for their own actions are dolts?

If Delta started replacing every lost voucher, pretty soon they'd have people like...Celeste, probably...realizing that they can get a voucher out of Delta even if they didn't have one to begin with if they yell loud enough. Then the whole system breaks down.

So Celeste, you screwed up. Deal with it, and stop blaming others for your own mistakes.

Well, perhaps my dolt remark was not applicable ... and yes, as I suggested, my sitution was NOT similar (but I did offer the contacts that worked for me). Okay, Celeste made a mistake. Now tell me our business system in the US ought to legitimately punish a consumer. Tell me Delta has no record of the voucher. Tell me how it would hurt Delta to replace the voucher ... where is the risk? You trust Delta to keep a complex piece of machinery safe for your travel. Is it too much to expect Delta to be able to protect itself from voucher scams? Or to keep track of who received their vouchers. Is it more difficult than keeping planes safe or terrorists off? Could it be that Delta has developed a slight attitude problem ... kind of a cultural thing? Why is it so hard for you folks to soften up a bit and root for Celeste? I suppose you've never made a mistake and wanted somebody to help you. I'd love to get your parents' take on you. Ciao, L

I'll be the first to agree that there is often a lot of viciousness on this board, but this thread is not a case of that (except for the viciousness of Celeste herself who basically calls anybody who doesn't agree with her preconceived idea of right a moron).
Celeste has posted asking for opinions. Her next to the last line was "do you guys think all of these airlines are still so unreasonable?" In nearly every case the detractors have fully explained the reasons why they feel the way they do, yet several people are totally unable to accept those reasons, no matter how sensibly they have been explained, Celeste herself being the leader of this camp.
About a dozen other examples of other "freebie" things being lost and not replaced have been offered, which are really very similar circumstances. Yet Celeste and her couple of supporters (or are all of those people actually Celeste?) still ignore those comparisons. They know that she had every right to lose her "freebie" voucher and still the airline is at fault for not replacing it for her. Yet she has never explained why it took her over a year to even attempt to cash it in, when she is a frequent Delta flyer, and she has never explained why losing it is any different from losing cash, a gift, a car, a present, or a gift certificate.
I think one of the best comparisons would be to receive a bonus gift certificate from a store where you do business, wait a year, and then accidentally throw it out. Would you really go to the store and demand another one because of your own error? Please explain why this is any different?

Certainly all excellent points on why Celeste should now suffer. But life suggests otherwise, thankfully. If I had the proverbial dollar for every one of my dumb acts, delaya, every unreasonable demand or expectation, I'd take us all the lunch today.Immediate seating. And some wine. I've done some dumbness already today ... just call me a dumb softie, but I'm with Celeste on this. More comfortable. But I suppose all the logic is on the other side. God, I pulled an A in logic ... just another sign I'm losing ground. Ciao

Actually I would go to the store for a replacement gift certificate. It happened. I had a gift certificate at Lord & Taylor, lost it, went to customer service, explained the situation and being the stellar company that they are, they dug up a copy of the gift certificate and replaced it.

Celeste, there is nothing wrong with going to customer service to get it resolved and nothing wrong with expecting customer service to go out of it's way to help you, especially if they do in fact have an electronic record of the voucher. I agree with Leone. How would this hurt Delta? It would only improve the customer's impression of the company and instead of coming here to complain, Celeste could praise them for their great customer service. Keep trying Celeste, if you want to make the effort to resolve this, that's you business. My only suggestion is to go to the top, find the highest level person you can contact and go from there, you just might get lucky.

Obviously there are two sides to this issue and neither side is going to budge an inch to listen to the other side. I happen to be on the side that says, "Celeste, you lost it and it is your fault -- the same as losing your wallet or cash -- no one is to blame or responsible for replacing it but you, yourself."
But on the issue of the voucher itself, I have one thought. I have only received such a voucher once. An American flight was overbooked and they asked for volunteers, offering $100 vouchers. A couple of people took them, they needed more volunteers and offered $200 vouchers. A few more people volunteered. When the amount reached $350 I took it and waited for the next flight. I went up to the desk and an attendent wrote out the amount on a preprinted voucher form that looked somewhat like a check. I did not see any record being made of this, it was really like handing me a check. Now if I had been one of those people who took the first offer of $100, why wouldn't I wait a month or so, call the airline and say, "I was bumped from flight #XXXX and given a $350 voucher, but I've lost it." Would you expect the airline to take my word for it and reissue the voucher? Sure they could look it up and find I'd been bumped from that flight, but I doubt there is any way for them to check what my voucher amount had been. Now, Celeste, you may be the most honest person in the world, but you have to admit there are at least 2 or 3 people out there not so honest. The airlines could be barraged with people claiming to have been bumped, claiming not to have used their vouchers, and even claiming amounts double or triple what they were actually offered. How in the world do you feel that Delta should just take your word for it, when you have lost what amounted to a gift given to you for your inconvenience?