My Biggest Complaint About Delta Airlines Not Warning Passengers About Cancellations

My husband and I have flown with Delta, prefer Delta and will fly with Delta in the future. However, we were Delta Victims!

We were one of the Delta victims on March 27, 2008 when over 200 planes were grounded by the FAA. We boarded a Delta flight from Savannah to Atlanta with the flight leaving at 6:something p.m. Delta knew before we boarded that plane that planes were going to be grounded. Delta representatives should have informed us BEFORE we boarded the plane in Savannah so we could make other arrangements.

We arrived in Atlanta early and had 2 hours before our Delta flight to Pittsburgh which left at 9:something. My husband and I grabbed a bite, laughed, talked about the visit to be with the grandchildren. Ten minutes before we boarded the flight, Delta made an announcement the flight was canceled - 10 minutes before the flight left.

Delta representatives were sending people to different gates to get answers or help. The lines were so long and I estimated about 2,000 people were stranded in the Atlanta airport. My husband and I decided to leave the terminal and go out to the main ticket desk. About 1,000 people had this same idea.

After standing in line for 2 hours, a Delta representative told everyone that all the hotels were booked in Atlanta. So the $50.00 vouchers they were giving out to victims were useless and we could not get our luggage. Oh, if the hotel cost more than $50.00, the victim had to pay the balance. After standing in line for 2 hours, we were told there were no more rental cars.

So my 63 year old husband and my 53 year old body was “a little inconvenienced” as Robin Meade put it as we tried to get some rest on the cold atrium facilities at the Atlanta Airport. Today is Saturday and my husband can’t go to the park with me and the grandchildren b/c his left leg is in too much pain from sitting on the hard surfaces for 12 hours along with the “hundreds” of other victims trying to find comfort on cold hard flat places (one reporter said there were about a dozen people in the atrium-yea right!)

My daughter was able to book us on a Air Tran flight the next morning at 8:00 a.m. We were one of the lucky victims and did not have to spend 2 days in Atlanta airport.

My gripe is with the media - HOW DARE THEM LIE FOR DELTA! Perhaps Robin should have joined us on the cold hard floor with no sleep and then go to her job in front of a million people. Perhaps the reporter writing that there were a dozen people in the atrium came at a time when people’s muscles were getting sore and they had to get up and walk around.

Why isn’t the truth being told - do they have stock in Delta? We had to pay for the ticket out of our pocket for Air Tran. Delta knew these flights were going to be canceled and they waited until it was too late before announcing flights were canceled. On the information board at the airport, Friday’s flights were listed as “on time”. hahahaha! The planes were grounded - how could they be on time??

The media did a poor job with it’s representation of this situation. My husband and I should never have been put in a position to where we would have been stranded in Atlanta. Delta lead us to believe our flights and travel to our destination would be good.

Is this personal, no it’s not. This is a lack of accountability on a companies part. Perhaps some laws do need to be put into place to protect the customers.

Will we fly Delta again, yes. I’ll just have a back up plan b/c I no longer trust Delta in making good decisions for their customers.