BY: NCViking

OK, the headline is a little dramatic, completely untrue, and borrowed from Windbag but he’s right, sometimes the airline industry (especially Delta) really sucks. I know, there are many things in this world more worthy of words and worry than an inconvenienced business traveler, but these stories can be just so amusing …

I have been offline for about a week at a conference in Windbag’s home town of Chicago. Every time I come to this city, the beauty amazes me. It truly is an American jewel and rarely gets the props it deserves. The architecture is impressive and despite the negative impact of the housing and real estate boom/bust, here is a place that benefited greatly from these enthusiastic investors with a blooming renaissance. It was hard to leave the city, friends and the cool weather but I was ready to get back to my kids.

Being a good and paranoid traveler, I arrived at O’Hare airport for my Delta flight back to Charlotte two hours before departure. I fly quite a bit for business and it is always on Delta. I normally can pack a house into a carryon, but this time I actually had to check a bag. I waited patiently in the Medallion line (for their most loyal customers) to see a ticket agent. 30 minutes in line and one agent leaves on break and the other disappears. No more agents. The regular line for check-in at the electronic terminals was extremely long so I decided not to get out of line and into a longer one. So I waited … and waited … and waited for an agent to come back. A new one came out after about 20 minutes. After another 10 minutes of waiting, I finally got up to the counter. The new agent immediately informs me that I was arbitrarily rebooked on another flight with recently Delta-purchased Northwest Airlines. She couldn’t tell me why and since Delta and Northwest have yet to fully meld together, I was instructed to walk to the next terminal and check in with an agent at the NWA counter. Unfortunate, internal procedure stuff. So off I went.

I arrived at the counter after a long walk and waited in line. After another 20 minute wait, the NWA agent tells me that I have been bumped from the rebooked flight and rebooked again on a U.S. Airways flight directly into Charlotte. And you may have guessed it, I was told to walk down to the USAir counter to check in with an agent there … so off I went, again.

Another line, one slow agent and 30 more minutes of waiting and I am now ready to check in with USAir to come home. I give the agent the reservation papers from NWA and all I receive in return was a puzzled look. “We’re oversold!” she says. “I don’t know why they sent you here, but you’re not getting on this flight – Next!”

So now I have no flight home. Not sure why … I paid for one. I had reservations, even seat assignments, but no flight.

Sooooo … I make my way back to the NWA ticket counter and walk right up and let the agent know what USAir said and I now have no flight home. What does she tell me? “Please get in line.” Yes, in line again … 20 more minutes.

Composure Viking, composure. Deep breaths.

Once I reached the NWA agent, a new one this time, she tells me that it is common for an unaffiliated airline to deny a reservation if they are oversold. The USAir flight showed it was oversold in Delta/Northwest’s system, yet they sent me there anyway – following standard procedures. She then tells me, “Sir, the first NWA agent could have found a way to rebook you back on your original flight, there was room, but now you would never make it.”

Nice.

After arguing and messing around with other flights and ideas to try and get this reservation-holding, seat-assigned, somehow booted air traveler some way home, she finds out that my original flight was now delayed due to severe thunderstorms. A break! This means she can now actually get me back on my original flight. “Yes, I think I can do that now”, she says.

After all of this, I finally boarded the flight I was supposed to be on in the first place and made it home very early this morning.

What amazes me about this whole episode is not that my reservations got so screwed up, mistakes can happen I guess – It was how I was treated. I was moved around like some numbered computer glitch instead of a distressed passenger or loyal customer. Strictly following internal procedures trumped what Delta is being paid to ultimately do – fly ‘people’ to their destinations. Stories like this seem rampant these days in the airline industry as routes are cut, fees are added, travel horrors abound and affordable alternatives are limited. Business travelers have to fly and the oligopoly moves the cattle. This is what happens when competition becomes reduced, products and services give way to accountants or procedures, and the single ‘person’ is considered insignificant or unimportant. It is why these major airlines are in and out of bankruptcy, why ‘finance-first’ companies like General Motors ultimately collapse and why most people despise government bureaucracy.

Well, that’s my goofy air travel story. Back to blogging politics tomorrow. Did anything important happen while I was gone?

Mon Dieu!

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