With today’s e-tickets, airlines can do with their passengers as they please. This week DELTA AIRLINES did it to me in an unacceptable way, and for this, despite many travel woes I endure, this one deserves a separate chapter because it was an all-out assault on the keyboard.
Last Saturday I left for Atlanta in the morning, and given last minute changes of plans, I tried to make a new itinerary to return on Tuesday, instead of flying to New York. In short, I requested a return flight, not return money, but simply to return earlier without the full itinerary. Because of the fare and the conditions of my ticket, matters that only the airlines understand, something that suits only the airlines, they could not make the change at DELTA at the airport. Then, they could not do it either with DELTA by phone, neither in the USA nor in Chile. My assistant at Tribu also tried and it was not possible.
When I arrived today, Tuesday, at the airport in Atlanta to take my return flight, we found that the reservations had not yet been made, that there was a new ticket and that the previous one paid by me directly to Expedia had been eliminated. It took me a while to wait while I was attended to and searched for the information, a task that Marcus Flanegan performed.
A lady appeared on the scene in the process, Yolanda Roulhac, pictured above, and with a kind and cooperative manner, explained to the boy-in-training how to do it, charged me $100 penalty for the change and issued the boarding pass. This solution had been proposed over the phone by DELTA’s Customer Service department based in Chile, and so it seemed like the right thing to do.
To my bad luck, if this exists, I realized that I did not have my miles on the ticket and so I asked the guy to do me the favor of including them. To my surprise, not only could he not do it, but a third person appeared on the scene who intervened aggressively, assaulting loud voice, haughty tone and contemptuous authoritarianism, to say that what was done was wrong, and whose full name I do not know, but his badge said A. Dunn, who in turn decided not to speak to me and not to listen to me.
As you can see in the previous photo, I already had my boarding pass in hand, and even so, they threw away the time and what had been done to enter into a process that, in order not to tire you with the story, forced me to buy a new ticket. And here total indignation, because this lady yelled at me, got angry, hit the screen of her computer with her fingers, did not want to listen to me and did whatever she wanted with me. All this for not detailing in her body language, her facial expressions and everything she did to make me understand how little she was interested in listening to me, to know my reasons or explanations. In the photo below you can see the character who assaulted me with his bad manners and who did not spare a moment to serve me with courtesy.
While my blood boiled because of the abuse and impotence, in the midst of the unacceptable, the outrage and abuse of the DELTA representative, I was forced to pay for a one-way ticket to return to my country, because in the middle of the mess of fares and conditions, of emissions, of people who intervened and talked, without listening to me, I had to sign a ticket for $568, when the original trip had cost me only $541.
I clarify for those who misunderstand or for those who know me well, that in the midst of frustration and anger, there was not a single failure on my part in communication and treatment. Firmly but politely, I tried as hard as I could, but I failed to communicate, make my points or accomplish anything other than to give up the outrage I was subjected to by DELTA on behalf of this lady, while her coworkers looked me in the eye with much pity and as if imploring me not to do anything to upset their boss superior, as the picture in this photo shows.
In other words, a flight from San Jose, Atlanta, New York, San Jose cost me $541, and a ticket forced by the abuse of an ill-tempered, ill-trained, ill-slept and who knows how many other problems that day, led me to pay for a single flight from Atlanta to San Jose, the figure of $568!
Out of sheer anger at the door of the plane, rotten by the abuse I was victim of with no room to complain, I put the American Express on the table and paid $150 more for an upgrade to Business Class, and so, here I go on the DELTA flight to San Jose, very comfortable, very well attended, eaten and drunk, at the unexpected total additional cost of $691, simply because with these electronic tickets they can do with you whatever they want.
In the case of a young man in training, he did not know what to do with my tickets and had to ask for help. Then a lady came on the scene who resolved the situation and issued the ticket, charged me the $100 and moved on with the system which, had it not been correct, would never have allowed her to issue a boarding pass. However, then someone showed up who, because of a bad day, bad manners, bad manners and even worse training, forced me to pay even more than the original cost of my ticket, because he felt like asserting himself in his position, impatience, rudeness and disdain towards this ordinary passenger.
I will file a claim with DELTA for 100% of the amount charged, I will denounce them for their abuses, I will let them know of the mistreatment I suffered and I will place my trust in them for fair treatment. I am clear that one person did not represent this company well, and therefore, I trust in resolving this as it should be. I will tell you more later, however, I have been saddened by the uncertainty of the e-ticket and how easy it is now for someone to affect your trip.
In the meantime, beware of cheap tickets, airline deals, and in particular DELTA in circumstances like these. What they don’t charge you at the beginning on a ticket, they want to charge you later in penalties, restrictions, fine print and all sorts of gimmicks to charge you more.
At the end of a bad time like this, the prize will always be in the patience, peace and harmony of what is important. It is clear that the size of a person is proportional to the size of the things that make him angry, and for this reason, you have to turn the page and see what is important, like this bad picture of a wonderful image in the sky while I was coming back, and that reminded me that what is irrelevant is not important.
However, and appropriately, I do not intend to leave my complaint to DELTA Airlines for a moment without due compensation.
