Screaming at airplanes

This post has nothing to do with booze or drinking, and is basically me ranting and swearing about Delta airlines.  So if that’s not of interest to you, or you’d rather not soak up all my negativity just before the holidays, I understand, and recommend you skip this post.  

Here’s the deal: My sister and her husband have spent the weekend in New York, taking advantage of the holiday times to have a little mini-vacation, and then come back to Atlanta to celebrate Christmas with our whole family.  So she calls me this morning, when they’re supposed to be on their way back, and tells me that Delta over-sold their flight by SIXTY PEOPLE, and not only that, but there’s people from FOUR FLIGHTS AGO that were also over-sold still waiting around to get on a flight, so they don’t know how they’re going to get home and could I please take care of their dog until something gets figured out.  She doesn’t know if they’ll get on a flight today or even tomorrow, or if they’ll have to rent a car and drive from New York down to Atlanta to make it back home for Christmas.  They weren’t flying standby or on a Buddy Pass or anything, they’re regular paying customers.  

Umm…WHAT THE FUCK, DELTA!?!  I mean seriously, what the hell are you thinking?  You over-sold a flight by SIXTY DAMN PEOPLE TWO DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS.  I could maybe understand over-selling a flight by 5-10 people, taking in to account cancellations and people changing flights, but SIXTY PEOPLE!?!  Really though, it’s two days before Christmas, and the only reasons people are flying are to either visit their families or to go home from their vacations or jobs to be there for the holiday.  Not likely to be canceled.  

I DO understand why you’d want to over-book your flights like that, Delta, because you’re a bunch of greedy assholes who don’t give a shit about your customers and would rather inconvenience them, their families, and your own employees to make a buck.  Your entire industry has made it very clear that you are vehemently anti-consumer and your disdain for those who would use your services is apparent to anyone who’s been paying attention.  

I used to feel bad when I saw big American companies like Delta get bought out or the auto industry failing, but things like this remind me that they’ve not been on our side for a long time.  The only people I feel bad for now are the employees who end up out of a job because companies like this can’t remember how to treat their customers like people anymore.  I can’t feel sorry for corporations who over and over again make obviously bad decisions and treat the satisfaction of their customers as an afterthought.  

My sister called me back, and Delta is putting them on a bus to Washington D.C. and then (theoretically) on a plane back to Atlanta.  This is after several hours of being ignored and shuffled around and even forgotten about for a while.  This is also assuming that D.C. has their shit together and has a spare flight they can put all of these people on.  Needless to say, my confidence is not high.  

I just can’t wrap my head around how many bad business decisions were made in this process, and why Delta thinks it’s ok to screw people over this hard and then expect repeat business.  It’s been a maddening, exasperating, punch-a-wall experience here, and I can only imagine it’s been far worse for my sister and her husband (and everyone else who was supposed to be not getting screwed by Delta this morning) actually going through it.  All I can do now is hope that things don’t get botched any worse than they already have and pray they get back to Atlanta to celebrate Christmas with the rest of our family.  

Oh, and I can make sure I never fly Delta ever again.  

ARGH.

Spread the Word:

  1. White Russian Said,

    Woooooow, that’s bad. I’ve heard several stories JUST like this from a couple different friends lately – all of them with Delta.

    Hopefully they’ll be compensated somehow. Not that any compensation will make up for the stress, delay, canceling other plans they already had or anything else; but, it would be better than nothing.

  2. Rob Said,

    That sucks man, sorry to hear about it. I was just talking to a friend who flew back from Japan a month ago and he was complaining about the same thing. The customer service provided by large American companies are very sub par. In Japan, there are 8 (beautiful) women at the terminals to assist flight passengers and to get them boarded, the atmosphere is relaxed and everyone is taken care of. In contrast, in the U.S. there is one employee at the terminal, maybe two. Also, the auto companies will personally knock on your door every year for a customer courtesy check and pick your car up for a routine checkup if you purchased their vehicles. He went on and on about the service in every industry being customer-centric in Japan and other parts of the world. American companies have gotten lazy and American’s, sadly, are either accepting it or just used to it.

  3. Kaiser Said,

    I might believe too much in the “jood ol union”, but still the evil phrase “regulation” might be useful, as long as it serves the customer and only the customer.

    Don’t quit boozing and writing for little project right here ,because quite frankly i do enjoy it and i just can hope that others do as well.

    seasons greetings and keeps the good stuff flowing

  4. Kaiser Said,

    is rule number one, on ze intertubes, “thou shalt not post drunk without spell check*” even recognized ’round here?

    *and yes, I’ve activated it now ;-)

  5. DrinkPlanner Said,

    Don’t worry, drunk posting is accepted and even encouraged around these parts. Half the shit I write is written inebriated and if I’m lucky, I wait and proof it when I’m sober. I’m just happy to see another cocktailian embrace their inner drunkard and hit the internets without giving an FFFFFFF. Glad to know I’m in good company!

Add A Comment

<!–

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

–>