Come Fly the Unfriendly Skies

Here is my email. More later.

Dear Sir or Madame,

Yesterday I arrived with my two small children (a baby and a 3 year old) at the airport and discovered that my flight had just been delayed for 2 1/2 hours. So far no problem, I could keep them amused for a few hours and then they could nap on the plane. An hour and a half later I found that the plane would leave at 5:15 (probably). Okay- I figured we're here at the airport with one of the car seats checked- we'd manage somehow.

At four o'clock the departure board listed the departure at 5:50, and I thought I'd check out at the desk to find out what was really going on. In addition, my children were very tired and I wanted to find a quiet place in the airport were they could rest. When I finally got to the front of the desk I found out the flight had been cancelled, but no one had bothered to inform the passengers or update the departure board. I was pretty displeased at this point and my babies very tired and cranky. My ticket was rescheduled for the next day with an arrival at noon.

I went down to baggage claim and requested my bags. Forty minutes later they still hadn't appeared. I went back to baggage claim and spoke with a different lady and found the claim hadn't even been processed. The first women I spoke with announced that she didn't even recognize me or remember my claim! Anyways 20 minutes later I finally got my baggage. My husband picked me up and we left.

When I got home I found out that my current arrival would cause me to miss the funeral. So I called delta. After waiting an hour I got through to someone from India who spoke poor English and had difficulty understanding me. He told me that no earlier flights were available but I could book one later. Not sure if the times would work for my family to pick me up in Seattle I asked if I could book and then call immediately back to change the times if they didn't work. Nope, that would be an additional $50 a ticket. Ahhhh! So I hung up and called my family to work out the time, waited another hour on hold. This time I got the ticket change, but when I received the email confirmation was charged $140.00! I'd already paid full price for the 3 tickets, was missing Pop pop's funeral, had two less days to spend with my family to mourn and comfort them. Both times when I talked with the reservation agents and explained the circumstances and my frustrations I never got more than, "I'm sorry Ma'am" I have never had so much difficulty flying before and I am angry at the poor treatment I and my children have received at the hands of Delta. If this is "customer service" is it any wonder that the company is facing finacial difficulty?

Delta cannot make up for the loss time at a funeral that I will miss today. At the very least I expect the $140.00 refunded.

Thank you for your prompt attention,

Rachel Ellis