Journals

It’s been a while since my Delta Massacre ( Customer is Never Right ), and I’ve been doing a bit of reading up on US domestic air travel.   People who read my last entry have been great in offering suggestions on what to do.   And if you are surprised about Delta’s customer servitude, see this article this week on Delta:     Lawyer Sues Delta Air Lines over Delayed Trip, 'Rude' Treatment    The first thing I realize is that in the post-9/11 world in the US , things are a bit different.   I’ve never been that aware of it, but I became acutely aware after my last Delta flight.   The flight crew has more power over customers.   Exactly how much power I’m still researching, but according to the article below on Southwest of all airlines, flight crew now essentially have legal power and authority to boss customers around:   Coffee, tea or handcuffs?     The parts of the Patriot Act that the article refers to are meant for airlines to provide better security and safety for the passengers, and I would think that the spirit of the law is still taking customer service into account.   I either assume wrong, or the airlines are grossly abusing the law and using it as a way for their employees to vent about the crappy jobs on the customers.     Also, the airline, in cost management, ended up contracting the shorter distance regional routes to sub-contractors, such as Comair.   This is a warning sign for me now.   If I see sub-contractors, I would be very leery about taking the flight.   As Comair demonstrated, the quality drop off can be significant.   I’m also suspecting that airlines like Delta, maybe for cost reasons or simply not having enough resources to manage the scale, just don’t care as much about how their sub-contractors operate.     And as an average Joe consumer, I tried a number of travel and consumer advocacy sites, and here’s what I had to report:     1.    Delta Airline Website :   If you try really hard, you would notice that there is no customer service link on the site.   Who can blame them?   If they do, I would feel really sorry for the person who had to go through all the posts.   Next I tried to leave a comment on their blog to the customer service lady in the blog.   Every time I tried, the site crashed, and I can’t log back in with the same email.   So after 4 tries, after I exhausted all my valid email addresses, I gave up.     2.   Better Business Bureau :   I filed a complaint and got a confirmation right away.   But it wasn’t until almost a month later that I received a notice from them saying that they’ve passed my complaint to Delta.   Then, they were never heard from again.   3.   Rickseaney.com (Rick Seaney is a travel insider and a passenger rights advocate):   He seems to be pretty knowledgeable, but he still hasn’t gotten back to me.     4.   Airconsumer.ost.dot.gov :   No response.   I wouldn’t expect otherwise.   It’s a government agency.     5.   Ombudsman at Conde Nast Traveler :   I mailed my letter with two 41 cent stamps to the ombudsman, but no word.   6.   Flyertalk :   I just tried to post in the forum, but the site is really more about rewards, deals, and travel experiences.   I couldn’t really find a topic about passenger rights or customer complaints.   And if I post not in the topic format that they mandate, my attempt just gets an error…     My conclusion is that, if an average consumer’s case is not sensationally news worthy, like toilet overflowing, or if the consumer is not filing a lawsuit, the complaints would pretty much get ignored.   Just another one in a big pile of complaints.   Nobody cares.   So the best way to voice dissatisfaction is to get the word out and exercise the one consumer right that we do have – the right to not purchase or the right to refuse service.