by Chrissy Iley
I had to make a last minute trip from Los Angeles to Tampa, Florida for work. The downside of this was there are few direct flights and it’s an area of the world where Delta thinks it’s king.
Every experience I’ve had on Delta has been bad. I remember on one flight to New Orleans the queue for the bathroom went all the way down the plane as one of them was out of order. My TV didn’t work and I was greeted with a ‘So what?’ from the surly flight attendant.
On the way there I went business class and was given a bottle of water that had already been opened. I complained and they gave me a voucher for $100. I complained and told them I never wanted to fly Delta again. They gave me $300. I asked them to give it to an animal charity. They refused.
Delta has a huge advertising campaign promising the most comfortable seats in the air. Maybe they’ve improved.
The direct flight was sold out so I would be connecting through Atlanta. There’s a joke about Atlanta Airport, that everyone ends up there stuck at some point in their life. Still, that’s just a joke I thought.
First off it did not augur well. The plane was being ‘cleaned’ and only one side of the plane were allowed to board because cleaning trolleys were on the other side. Naturally I was on the wrong side.
The cleaning business caused a considerable delay but a nice flight attendant told me not to worry the airline knew of all the connecting passengers and could make allowances. Nice flight attendant disappeared. Enter surly one.
If you book in less than 24 hours you cannot order a vegetarian meal and as I was in Business Class I was entitled to one. I asked if there was a snack from economy and she said: ‘Only if you buy it, but I can take the fish off of the salad.’ I was not thrilled with the idea.
The seats although they are an improvement are hardly state of the art. They stretch out low to the floor like an old BA Club Class and I note there’s a place to put your shoes. A little cubbyhole, except only men’s flat shoes fit in. No heels allowed.
The captain made up time but there was no gate available at Atlanta. 25 minutes late meant too late. Even though there were two other connecting flights that night, they were full and I was handed a voucher for a hotel.
I went to the desk to complain to say that I was travelling Business Class, surely that meant something. Miraculously one seat on a flight was found, but not Business Class. It’s a short flight, it’s fine I said. ‘But is it a middle seat?’ ‘Do you want it or not?’ said the woman, not answering the question. ‘Well I’m just asking.’ ‘Huh. Too late. It’s gone. You should have been quicker. It’s that way to the shuttle bus to the hotel.’
The shuttle bus area was filled with disgruntled passengers all dumped for the night for various reasons. The mini buses were tiny and arrived every 20 minutes. Our vouchers expired at 11pm so people were getting mad. One passenger commandeered another shuttle bus going to another hotel promising we would all tip him if he took us to the Delta dump off.
When we got there, there was a huge queue of passengers standing with blue plastic Delta bags that contained a giant white T-shirt, a toothbrush and shaving stuff. It was grim.
I almost missed the flight in the morning due to the same lack of mini-bus. I got a taxi, non-refundable of course.
I hate the smugness of it all. It was entirely their fault. They took no responsibility. They don’t give you a food voucher or even a coffee. They don’t give you a thought.
Delta, the world’s biggest airline. Filled with people who just don’t care. Avoid it at all costs.