Delta changes departure airport but does not tell passenger

Date: October 24, 2011
Location: New York (JFK and Newark)
Airline: Delta

I am writing to file an official complaint for the failure of Delta Airlines to get me on the flight I purchased from JFK to Bonaire Island on October 15, 2011. I have been credited $359 as a result of not being informed of the airport change to Newark from JFK and I appreciate that gesture even though there is a $150 reissuance fee and it was the fault of Delta.

The $359 covers the flight your staff caused me to miss, however, I incurred several expenses as well as 24 hours of missed vacation time due to the incompetence of three Delta agents who had unbelievably surrey attitudes towards me. Below is a recount of the horrific customer experience at Delta and the expenses I incurred as a result of the failed flight.

I fully expect to be reimbursed for the amount below as they were direct out of pocket expenses. I will never be able to recapture the lost 24 hours in Bonaire, but I completely expect to be reimbursed for the out of pocket expenses.  I plan to escalate this complaint until I receive
full reimbursement for the disastrous experience with Delta.

July 28, 2011
- Purchased one way flight from JFK – Bonaire via Atlanta for $359
- Delta flight 1743 JFK – Atlanta 6:25am – 9:45 am
- Delta flight 663 Atlanta – Bonaire 9.45am – 2:45pm

August 8, 2011
Received an email from Expedia that my flight departure had been changed and called into customer service to verify. Made note of the time change for departure.

October 15, 2011
Arrived for flight at 5am and spent 15 minutes with curbside attendant before he told me I had to go inside and that there was no record of my flight.  Found first agent inside at 5.15 and she told me that I was booked out of Newark despite my printed itinerary reflecting JFK. She spent another 15 minutes trying to figure things out before she sent me to the head Agent (Shane) who said "We were killing him with all of these issues so early in the morning".

He told me I was too late to get on the 6:25 am flight. I pleaded and begged as all of the signs posted said 60 minutes prior to flight would ensure getting on board. I was well within that time frame when I got to Shane and there were no lines in security. He let other agents interrupt him and worked on their issues despite the fact that there was a 6:25 am flight leaving to Atlanta out of JFK that he could have placed me on in plenty of time.

He sent me to a female agent who said there was no way to make the flight and that she was getting off duty. She disappeared with my entire travel itinerary and no one could find it at the airport.  With tears running down my face and feeling defeated, I went outside to use my iPhone and rebook another flight after your staff said, "Sorry, you were too late."

It was really an awful experience. I then had to book a new flight that took 13 hours and cost $1,396 for a one-way flight to Bonaire departing out of JFK at 11.55pm on October 15th (17 hours after my original flight time) as this was the cheapest and quickest flight down to a 7 day pre-booked vacation package.  Not to mention, I had to fly all the way down to Ecuador and then back up to Bonaire.

Knowing that flights to Bonaire are so limited your staff should have called down to the gate to let them know I was coming at 5:20 am (65 minutes prior to departure). They could have cared less that I was going to miss the first 24 hours of my vacation and incur several hundred dollars beyond what I'd already spent on the first failed flight.

Expenses incurred as a result of the failed flight
- One-way airfare JFK – Bonaire $1,276.30
- Cab back to NYC at 7am - $58.30
- Cab back to airport 14 hours later - $60.00
- Lunch - $22.00
- Dinner - $66.53
- One night lost hotel cost in Bonaire -  $168.32
- Total amount: $1,651.45

If we can resolve this disaster, I fully plan on flying Delta again in the future. I am a reasonable person and will chalk it up to poor personnel decisions so long as Delta recognizes and takes accountability for the expensive and poor customer experience I endured and reimburses me in full for the unnecessary expenditure and missed 24 hours of vacation time. If not, I fully plan to file a complaint with every organization possible and write multiple poor reviews on every web  site I can find. There are options for air travel and Delta performed poorly against KLM and the other international carriers.

-Jill










Settings:
31. error_url = http://www.airsafe.com/products/error2.htm
32. my_email = dot.complaints@gmail.com
33. order = Name,Address,City,State_Province,Zip_PostalCode,country,phone,email,Airline,Flight_number,Location,Date,Delays,Overbooking,Reservations,Cancellation,Fares,Refunds,Baggage,Customer_Service,Disability,Advertising,Discrimination,Animals,Other,Frequent_Flyer,Safety,Security,mail_list,comments
34. required = email
35. subject = AirSafe.com Online Complaint Form
36. thankyou_url = http://www.airsafe.com/products/thanks5.htm
Browser Type:  Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1;
WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729;
.NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; MDDR; .NET4.0C;
InfoPath.3)<br/>User's IP Addr:  74.121.38.141<br/>Thank you for using
the Form Processor.<br/>


--
Forwarded by
The AirSafe.com Foundation
Seattle, WA