Delta flight problems

deisemum

Got back this morning from Orlando via JFK to Shannon with Delta.

They make Aer Lingus look good and that's saying a lot

I booked our flights and reserved seats at the same time first week in January with one of their sales staff over the phone. She emailed the tickets to me.

As I was travelling with children I chose the Shannon JFK, JFK to Orlando route but a week before we flew out I rechecked my booking reference online and our flight times and airports had been changed.

They'd changed our flight out of New York from JFK to La Gardia so I phoned up and checked this and was told the flight from JFK was overbooked and we'd been switched to La Gardia. I pointed out that we had our seat numbers. She said we could get a transfer voucher from a Delta Desk in JFK to cover the additional costs to go from La Gardia.

When I went to the Delta Desk they refused to give us the travel voucher and said we had to pay our own way to La Gardia. I said I'd chosed Delta via JFK for the conveniece so I didn't have to worry about luggage and time pressures to make the other flight. They offered to put us on a later flight from JFK but it would cost us extra. I made it clear that I had already paid for our flights almost 10 months earlier and had paid in full and would not be paying anything extra. He eventually backed down and we had to wait several hours for a flight.

Same thing coming back. They had overbooked the the JFK to Shannon route and were looking for 23 volunteers to fly back tonight instead. Because it took them ages to get 23 people rebooked we missed our departure slot, were put to the back of the queue for departure and had to sit in the plane for 2 hours before it left New York so we were late into Shannon.

There staff in JFK are very rude and ignorant apart from the ones we met last night and those on the actual plane. The food was good and actually tasted nice. JFK is a kip of an airport anyway. Toilets are limited and filthy and there was a 20 min queue for the ladies.

Next time we go I think I'll either fly Aer Lingus direct to Orlando or else I'll fly out of Waterford to Manchester and go from there with Virgin. Waterford airport is a 10 min drive and you can check in 30 mins before departure so no driving for a few hours to get to the airport.

Virgin from Manchester to Orlando is quicker than having to change in New York and kill 6 hours hanging around wondering if you'll actually get a flight.

BuffyBot

Interesting experience to say the least.

I was pondering a Delta flight to NY next year

Our man in Havana

I would say go via the UK everytime. Support your local airport. Delta are a law onto themselves.

jahalpin

I have only flown with Delta once ( SFO - DUB via ATL and SNN) , I was supposed to fly with Air France from SFO - DUB via CDG but the pilots went on strike and all flights were cancelled.

I found them quite good, the service on board was very good and the plance was a lot nicer than the Air France plane that I had flown over on.

The customer service in the US was also quite good, when I first rang them they tried to put me on a flight from SFO - ATL - CDG - DUB but I told them that that flight must be a Delta flight and that I would prefer to fly directly to DUB from Atlanta and they changed my flight with very little arguing.

All the flights from Atlanta were obviously pretty full as they had to cater for all the Air France customers in the US and they offered 500usd in vouchers for anyone to take a flight to MAN with a BA connection to DUB.

This was my second trip to the US, my first was with Aer Lingus to LAX and compared to EI, Delta were perfect

Third_Echelon

deisemum wrote: »

I booked our flights and reserved seats at the same time first week in January with one of their sales staff over the phone. She emailed the tickets to me.

There's your problem right there.... If you book them too far in advance, you have a higher chance of getting bumped....

You need to call them a few weeks before the actual flight and re-confirm.

I've flown Delta, Dublin to Atlanta and Atlanta to Philadelphia and I found them quite good on both occasions. The best of the US airlines in my opinion...

MrVostro

I hate Delta with a passion.
Ive flown with them 4 times (due to my employer booking with them).
Every single time i have had a similar experience to the OP.
They have crap planes, are always late, and there is less room on their trans atlantic flight than on a bloody ryanair flight.

highlydebased

MrVostro wrote: »

and there is less room on their trans atlantic flight than on a bloody ryanair flight.

I agree, thats an issue common among the US Carriers serving Ireland

Third_Echelon

Neon-Circles wrote: »

I agree, thats an issue common among the US Carriers serving Ireland

To be honest I didn't find this on my Delta flight to Atlanta. New enough plane. New leather seats, which were quite comfortable and the legroom was quite good.... Perhaps I was just lucky

US Airways... Now they are definitely ryanair-esque on their Dublin to Philadelphia route... :eek:

Zaph

MrVostro wrote: »

there is less room on their trans atlantic flight than on a bloody ryanair flight.

Only ever flew Delta once, to Boston 7 years ago, changing at JFK. The flight to JFK was the most cramped long haul flight I've ever been on, but once we got on the plane to Boston I had more legroom than just about any flight I've ever been on. WTF is that all about? I'd never fly with them again after the discomfort of the transatlantic flights.

dave2pvd

Delta's planes are old. Their reinvestment in their fleet has been low for the last few years. They were afterall, in bankruptcy.

I fly with them a lot (live in ATL). I'd wager that their oldest planes are in fact the ones on the Irish 'triangle' route. Those leather seats were nice 8 years ago. Now, your arse goes numb after an hour. Knee room - as bad as anyone else really. But....they fly me direct to DUB. To me, the discomfort is worth it.

They overbook all of their flights. Probably even more so on domestic routes. It can be maddening. It's clear to me what they are doing: they are trying to maximise revenue. So frustrating. There should be rules....!

As for Delta being late - that's possibly not their fault.

OP: you booked so far in advance. I think that was asking for trouble. Esp with an airline that was emerging from bankruptcy (April?) and was going to undergo an inevitable reorganisation. Add the Open Skies agreement into the mix and I think its fair to say that your original booking was unlikely to still be intact.

Sorry to hear about your experience with their customer service. 75% of the time you end up speaking to a dummy that can offer no help.

I hope your kids aren't too young. I can just imagine trying to deal with a 2 year old with all those layovers.

You mentioned that the staff in JFK were rude. Well, that's because JFK is in NY. It's a NY thing.

youcancallmeal

Joe Duffy on rte radio 1 had about 10-15 people on today all complaining about about Delta's overbooking policy. Sounds like a horrible airline to fly with :eek:
Definitely going to avoid them in the future

highlydebased

If you believe everything that happens on the Joe Duffy show you'll believe anything......he makes something small seem like a national crisis..!

dave2pvd

TBH, I get the impression that Ryanair treat their passengers worse than Delta. Avoiding Delta on the basis of customer service performance*, yet embracing Ryanair would seem a contradiction to me.

* By performance, I mean complete lack thereof. "Hello, welcome to customer no-service, how can I help you?".

I would also avoid Delta in the future. I've flown with them twice, once to JKF and once to Mexico via Atlanta. Both experiences were a headache.

Having flown translatlantic with Aer Lingus, BA, Qantas, Air France and Virgin Atlantic, I would put Delta at the bottom of that list.

In all honesty, I'd rather fork out the extra few quid to fly with another airline.
Unlike some people, I've never had any problems with Aer Lingus transatlantic. Keep an eye on aerlingus.com for their sales, there's always a sale for travel Jan-March, usually announced in the next few weeks.

It is handy going direct from Ireland with Delta or Aer Lingus though, clearing US immigration here is so much better than the 90-minute wait in a queue I've had going via Heathrow or Paris.

Fast_Mover

Flew with Delta to and from JFK during the summer..had no problems at all! Found them very nice.
Didn't even charge me for one of my bags that was overweight!:D

logonapr

Our outbound flight to JFK was recently canceled due to a problem with brakes on incoming flight. Accepted reason but what was unacceptable was:
a) Being put up in a crap hotel.
b) Told we would be collected at 4.30 the following morning from hotel and met many others in the hotel lobby who like us discovered that a fresh notice was posted after many had gone to their rooms for the night. No effort made to phone rooms.
c) Meal provided was inedible and we then just bought a portion of chips in a nearby McDonalds
c) On Day 1 we were told the canceled flight would go at 8 the following morning. Put back to 10, then 12 etc. When checking in baggage the Delta rep was saying 12 when an Aer Rianta staff member passing by enquired is that the re-scheduled 2 PM flight!!
d) Even at 12 Delta could not confirm that we would be flying that day so like 50 others we decided to pay about €360 each to fly to JFK with Aer Lingus.
e) On return flight from Las Vegas to JFK it was freezing. The crew said before we took off that there are not enough blankets so you should grab one from locker over seat 26 before they run out!!! How right she was.
f) When we complained in shannon about hotel etc one of the staff there trying to be nice said she would upgrade us to the front of the plane which was roomier as just 2 seats each side instead of the 3 in economy section. We even had the seats allocated and shown on a boarding card. By time we set out to return home we discovered we had been moved back to steerage again.

I could go on & on about Delta as general attitude of most of their staff is simply dreadful.

I suppose there is one positive that comes out of it insofar as we will definitely never fly Delta again and thus will reduce the liklihood of others being bumped. Incidentally on both the outbound and return flights to & from JFK Delta sought volunteers to take up their 'Delta dollars offer. In Shannon they had to go to 1000 but they got someone in JFK for just 400.

gosimeon

I'm flying DUB-JFK this Monday @ 9am. Hopefully all things go well! This thread hasn't instilled me with confidence

BuffyBot

gosimeon wrote: »

I'm flying DUB-JFK this Monday @ 9am. Hopefully all things go well! This thread hasn't instilled me with confidence

While it's good to read up on things like this so that your aware, and know what CAN go wrong, remember thousands of people globally fly Delta (on any other airline of choice) everyday without issue

jahalpin

Almost all, if not all, airlines overbook their flights if possible. The number of overbooked seats is normally calculated by their revenue department ie. how many people wont turn up etc. and most of the time the calculations are correct and there are enough seats for everyone that turns up, however, sometimes they get it wrong and end up with too many passengers and have to compensate the overflow passengers.

The American airlines seem especially bad at calculating the overbooking figures and so end up with a lot of problems.

Being bumped off Delta isn't too bad, when I was in Atlanta waiting for the flight to DUB via SNN, they were offering 600usd vouchers to take a flight to Manchester with a BA connection to Dublin which would have you in DUblin around half an hour after the direct flight.

I also found Delta very accomodating as when I had to rebook my flights home from SFO due to an Air France strike, I asked them would it be possible to change route from SFO - ATL - CDG - DUB to SFO - ATL - DUB and they were able to do this with no problems.

nytraveller

Mr.S wrote: »

flew with them to JFK one time, which was fine, ****e plane though, and yeah JFK is horrible, everyone was pissed of, and was just dirty and dark!

flew with them to Forida aswel, same story with the overbooking, delayed and plane was bad.

wont be using them again!>

Delta has their own terminal in JFK and it is a kip. It's one of the original terminals and is very outdated now. But that's not to say the whole airport is a dump.
Terminal 4 is one of the cleanest airport terminals I've ever been in.
Gotta love those automatic toilet flushes, sinks and soap dispensers!!!

blorg

I've flown Delta DUB-ATL-DUB and JFK-DUB and they were fine, on time and no problems whatsoever. Flight attendants were particularly friendly and professional.

I have a friend who lived in Atlanta that is not so impressed though.

Lump

Flew to NYC (JFK) with Delta last year - Got what I expected - got from A to B - Dodgy plane, but they threw food and beverages into our stomach all the way there. They use the crappest terminal in JFK, so they probably get cheap rates hence are generally cheaper. They are fine for short-long haul (ie 6-7 hours) but I'm heading to San Fran in a month and flying Virgin (They happened to be cheapest when I booked 5 months ago Delta aren't bad in my experience.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Oh god.. I was advised to read this thread by an ex-employee of Delta and it confirms everything she tells me

Oh, I'm flying with Delta to JFK soon too

uoluol

Flew with them last month DUB-ATL-LAS. They have a weird system in Dublin whereby you have to re-book in at boarding gate to get your confirmed seats. Even though we had booked our seats when we booked our flights three weeks earlier, they give us seats on opposite ends of the aircraft. I told the employee at the gate I was a very nervous first time flyer, and would not be prepared to sit on my own. This big fat lie was worth it, as ten minutes later, 2 adjoining seats were "magically" found.....

On the return journey, our flight ex Las Vegas was delayed, which meant we would miss our connection in Atlanta, but fair play to Delta, they re-booked our flight via New York for the following day, booked us a room in the Hyatt and give us meal and transport vouchers.

Saying all that, not sure I would travel with them again, they certainly lack a lot of customer service skills (especially those oddballs in JFK), and the plane felt well used.....

Third_Echelon

Trying to fly using connecting flights with most airlines can inconvenience you in the way you described above...

The American based airlines are top of the crappy scale for it though.

Getting to the west coast of the states usually has baggage problems as well, especially if your first flight is to the east coast of the states.

If going to the west coast it is always better to go to one of the major European hubs first and fly long haul 10 to 12 hours direct to the west coast.. Somewhere like Heathrow, CDG Paris, Frankfurt am Main etc..

helimachoptor

Of the main international US airlines, My order would be..

United
American
Delta

Delta are last only by reason that while using AA and UA I had problems and needed to re arrange flights at short notice with both these airlines.
Virgin are the best i think.

Savman

Just did a US trip with Delta:
DUB - JFK - LAX
LAS - ATL - DUB

10/10 on everything, cant complain.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Just back from NYC.

A party of four of us flew Delta from Dublin to JFK and found them fantastic.

Great staff, very friendly and helpful.

It seemed by the time we got to JFK they couldn't get rid of the food - we were STUFFED!.. And all good grub too.

People here complained of lack of leg room, we'll I'm 6'2'' and 19st and didn't find it overly cramped, and for economy I wouldn't have expected much better.

Only 'problem' with Delta is their terminal in JFK, its horrible. But your there just to walk through into your cab and away.

The return journey was the same as out going, superb service and I'd use them again.

Dinkie

I found them great a couple of weeks ago also.

The seats were comfy, the food was good, the airline staff were nice. My only quibble was that there weren't individual entertainment units - the the main tv screen played childrens movies for the flight duration! However everything else more then compensated for it.

spinandscribble

tbh i'd still go with delta but thats just because due to family connections i get bumped up to firstclass/business on the way home to ireland

arybvtcw0eolkf

spinandscribble wrote: »

tbh i'd still go with delta but thats just because due to family connections i get bumped up to firstclass/business on the way home to ireland

In fairness I think the thread is about reports/reviews & problems with Delta and not a platform to boast about family connections.