Let me tell you how Delta takes care of their "fidel" customers...
The 30th. of October 2005, I have reserved 4 tickets on the intinerary :
Paris/Rapid City(D,July the 14th.,2006, Return, July the 30th.).
It was very a lot in advance, but as it was for a "family" travel, 2 weeks, far from home and with some places to reserve early(Dude ranch, B&B,Lodge in Custer Park,...), and for a question of price, it was not too in advance...
The itinerary they give me that day was :
Paris/Cincinnati(D 1020am/A 125pm)
Cincinnati/Salt Lake City(444pm/639pm)
SLC/Rapid City(735pm/906pm).

During the year, no notification and sometimes, when I reserved some other flights(NYC,...), I verify the itinerary and they were some changes but nothing particular/others itineraries I've made with them.

In May, problem, the last connection was difficult(less than 10 mn...), but as I've not received the usual confirmation I decide to not worry...

The 3rd of July, arrives by e-mail the confirmation :
"Thank you for choosing Delta.This information is a copy of your itinerary..."
And now the informations...
Paris/Cincinnati D 1020am/A 125pm
Cincinnati/SLC : 450pm/630pm
SLC/Rapid City : 536pm/703pm.

I let you 10 seconds to find the problem...
It was like to be in the twilight zone...
How can we take off at 536pm from SLC when landing at 630 ??? It seems it was not a problem for Delta...

If we were only 2 of us, the parents, perhaps, I have taken the risk to arrive at the airport and to see what they could do...
But we were with our childrens...

So I phone to Delta and they agree with me to find this itinerary...impossible!!
It takes me 3 agents before obtention of a new possible schedule but with one night in SLC....
The last agent tells me to e-mail to Delta to signify the problem and obtain something for the changes, as he said to me I've to organise all those changes :cancellation of the 1st night in Rapid City, find an hotel in SLC, cancellation and rescheduling the rental car...

So, I send an e-mail to Delta and explain the problem, asking how to get the difference between the rates/hotel, the penality of cancellation if they were,...and
perhaps a commercial attitude from them...

Respons is grandiose..." As you know, there are changes in flights schedules,..bla bla bla...AND AS WE HAVE NOTIFIED THE CHANGE TO YOU IN TIMES TO ORGANISE,...
and we hope we keep your future confidence"

So, they send me an impossible itineray, I notify to them, but they rewrite the story...

I will now send not an e-mail, but a letter with photocopies of the different schedules...
But more I will try to transfer my skymiles account if possible to one of their more serious partner...
More seriously, I'll do this week a report of those 2 weeks, which were # perfect, but with no help from Delta for the organisation, thanks to God...
Erik.

What does "fidel" mean?

"Fidel" is not only a cuban first name : it is perhaps a "false friend"
word : it signify that we use Delta to flight to US quite exclusively.(only changes are when it's my company which organises my itinerary...)
Reason is that our travel agency works with Air France which is a skymile partner of Delta and as I am in US
5-6 times/year for congress,...in addition to our holiday, it was more practical to have only one company...
"To be a fidel husband is to have only one love : his own wife..."
This last exemple to explain fidel...
Erik

My guess is that it means loyal, as in fidelity.

I can't believe the only flight from Salt Lake City to Rapid City departs at 5:30pm. I hope you are able to find a better solution for your family.

monpetit,
the delta website doesn't have Jul 07 schedule up yet, but it does show June 07 - and it shows at 7:15 p.m. flight from SLC to RAP. Assuming that that flight operates in July as well as June, can they book you on that? It's flight #3824 operated by Skywest.

The travel is now done...
We have made the itinerary with a night in SLC...
2006, JUly the 14th. : Paris/Cincinati/SLC
2006, July the 15th. : SLC/Rapid City with an arrival at 1150am...
We "loose" a half day in Rapid City...
The Delta's response, I've got this week, while yet retutning of our vacations...
No way to a reimboursement if the cancellations have some penalties(I don't think it will be..) and no way
to a reimboursment, even the night in SLC were a little more expensive than
the one scheduled in Rapid City and...more not a word of "sorry for that, we have not done our job...).
I, ordinary traveler , have seen the problem reading the schedules and them, professional of the flights,
were unable to do that...
Erik.

You should try flying on Us Airways sometimes. They cannot put their scheduled flights in the air on time, hence stranding customers.

I quit trying to fly US Airways in and out of Athens, Georgia, because after getting hung up in Charlotte twice overnight because the connection to Charlotte could not get off the ground in time to get me there, I quit trying.

Once, on a flight to Dublin, I was over one day late getting there due to US Airways screw ups. The icing on the cake came when we got to Dublin after the late flight from Philadelphia had to depart with a Shanghaied crew off another flight. Then, just as we were approaching the Irish coast, the captain told us the airplane was on fire.

The flight crew promptly substituted a reading of the safety instructions for a landing at sea rather than serving breakfast.

We landed at Shannon, to a welcoming committee of half the fire brigades in southwest Ireland. Then after being hurried off the plane sans belongings, we were later allowed to get back on and retrieve our cabin luggage. Then, somehow, 4 buses were found on a Sunday afternoon to get us to Dublin.

Nice start to a bum bus tour of Ireland.
I liked Ireland better when I freelanced the last part.