Delta Airlines Review

Overall Rating

To whom it may concern

I wanted to share my experience with Delta Airlines with you.
It started in April when I bought tickets for my husband, daughter, granddaughter and myself to travel from Portland, Oregon to Norfolk Va. We were leaving on July 28 to attend my sons wedding. He is stationed in Virginia.
On July 1st just before 10 am I received a phone call. It was a mom's nightmare. My son was just in a motorcycle accident. I was told I needed to meet them at the hospital. I said I cant I live in Washington state.
Most of the day is just a blur. The following day I spent on the phone with the trauma center. I had doctors calling me needing my ok to do surgery. I really should say surgeries. I received a lot of phone calls telling me all these things wrong. It just kept coming and coming. Broke jaw, cheek bones, orbits, thumb, leg, wrist, 3 bones in his foot, he can't breathe, they have to do a Tracheotomy. They couldn't find a vein so they needed a central line and it goes on and on. Call after call.
So I call Delta. I have 3 airline tickets already so I will just change the dates. I get told that I could change the dates BUT it would cost me about 1200.00 to change them. You have to be joking. Yes I had explained what was going on. $130.00 per ticket just to change a date?? I understand the airlines have been struggling but come on.
Ok well I don't have 1200.00 to change these tickets so I hang up. Ok I can talk to the Red Cross. They help active duty military. Oh wait I'm not my son is. But they tell me if I can figure something out let them know so they can help the next family. I leave there just not knowing what to do.
Ok I will go back to the airline. This time I will just cross the river to Oregon and go talk to a Delta Rep. I get there and stand in line. I wait my turn. I ask if there is a supervisor that maybe I could speak with. The lady at the counter was super nice. I did need to explain what I needed. It's pretty hard having to hear my self say all these things wrong with my son over & over. She told me to hang on and walk around the corner to a door. I stepped aside so other people could go. She came out from the door and said "She is on a conference call and would be right with me. 5 minutes go by and the lady goes back in & out and tells me again but says she will be out any minute. So I wait a while longer. What seemed to be for ever was only about another 5 minutes the lady at the counter comes in, comes back out and says she is on a call and it was going to be a very long time before the supervisor could come out and talk with me. So my 15-20 minute trip was for ???
As I was leaving the lady at the counter called to me and asked me if I called customer care. I told her that was who told me it would cost me the extra money to change the tickets. She said no, not customer service but customer care. Ok I didn't know there is a difference. But I took the number anyway. After I returned home I tossed the number on the desk. Maybe a hour later I saw the number again and figured ok I will try it. Maybe the next person can be more help and maybe help me figure out what I could do.
Now I know I could have just gotten new tickets but I already had 3 I just needed to change the dates, as there was going to be no wedding.
When I called I was very surprised to find that the lady on the other end was willing to help me. She changed the dates for all 3 of us. I was going to be able to get to my son.
We weren't able to sit together and that's ok I understand we changed tickets. Even coming home we weren't able to be together. There was a man at the Norfolk Airport on our return that was very nice. He was even asking if there was anyone that wanted to catch another flight because you were over booked. I told him that we would stay behind if he could get us on our joining flight. He asked us to wait and he would check. Well we did and it was the last minute when he said he couldn't get us to Atlanta in time. So because we waited so long to check in we weren't able to sit together.
But then we were doing what we should and we checked in on-line. We checked our bags in and then we get charged 40 for 2 bags and there was 3 of us plus the baby. We only had 2 carry-ons if you don't count the baby.
But anyway it just seems like the system should have just put a bag on each one of us not 2 on 1 and nothing on the other 2.
I haven't been on a plane in years. It was about 30 for my husband and 22 for my daughter. She was very little the first time. Oh and by the way, when my son came home on leave in Dec he was held at the airport because an employee that was not helping at all. The result was my son missed his flight. We called and filed a complaint in for that one, but were told it was internal and we would not hear anything about it. But, that is a different story.
People shouldn't have to go through this. It doesn't matter if its vacation or not. My family was going through so much at this time. My husband was so upset in Norfolk that I had to keep him calm so we wouldn't get held back. I remember what happened to Michael when he got upset..
So once I figured out about the baggage I called Delta because the charge was still pending. I did the email thing. It took days for a reply. I replied back only to receive the same email asking for a check number. I explained that since it took a week to hear something back I figured I was just out of luck. I sent another reply only to get another email wanting this number. Oh also telling me:
I hope I have been able to resolve any concerns you have about our service. Your business is important to us and given the opportunity of serving you in the future, I am confident Delta will not only meet but exceed your expectations.
Once again I sent an email explaining a little more about what had happened. About 4 days later another email comes and once again they want a number that I have told them several times I don't have.
Guess what another email. They changed my name on it. They ask me for a number that I have already told them by now at least 5 times I didn't have. And at the end of this one I am told: We appreciate the opportunity to review your concerns and hope your trip is pleasant in every respect. It wasn't pleasant. It was a nightmare. The phone service was bad, most of the flight attendants can't seem to smile, and sending comments and or concerns in form of emails is terrible, not to mention the flights are all overbooked causing problems for travelers.
Now I am sorry I guess I just needed to vent.
We want to get back to Virginia soon to be with our kid. He is still in the hospital. It's been 41 days. I just don't know if Delta would be on the top of my airlines to use.