Kenders' Musings: Delta Airlines, The Amtrak of the Skies

8/1/08

Delta Airlines, The Amtrak of the Skies

Delta Airlines has had one of the worst months I have ever seen an airline have without actually crashing an airplane.

It started on July 15th, when a panel fell off of a plane in St.Louis.

Then, struggling to keep afloat, they raised second bag fees to 50 bucks. That was announced on July 29th. On July 30th, a woman was found dead in the restroom aboard a Delta flight. No word yet on whether she ate the airline food or not, but I have my suspicions. That flight was landing in Atlanta. The reason I bring the destination up is because on July 20th Delta made a woman with muscular dystrophy crawl off of a plane in Atlanta. I guess if you gotta fly Delta don't, at least, go to Atlanta.

On July 20th, Julianna's (delayed) Delta flight landed in Atlanta at 7:30pm, with a connecting flight scheduled for 8:05pm. Julianna, who has muscular dystrophy, missed the connecting flight because nobody came with a wheelchair until 8:05—the same time the connecting flight took off. To make matters worse, the plane crew told Julianna she might make the flight anyway if she stopped waiting for help and got off the plane right now, so she crawled down the stairs on her own. When the wheelchair came she was "wheeled into a back room and advised" that her plane had taken off. But that was just the first half of her ordeal, and the next eight hours only got worse.

Now that's some great customer service. To top that the employees actually debated, in front of her, who was going to take her to the ticket gate.

I think Delta earned their run of bad luck. Not content screwing normal passengers, on June 27th (just before Delta's Month of Doom began) Delta added fuel surcharges to SkyMiles tickets. SkyMiles is Delta's premier travel club created, ostensibly, to give frequent Delta customers perks. I wonder if Julianna is a SkyMiles member? If so she should ask for a refund.

So if you are thinking of flying anywhere you probably may not want to fly Delta. The planes are apparently falling apart, handicapped people can crawl for all they care and they are going to charge you more than anyone else for the privilege of treating you like crap while giving you substandard service.

Kinda' like Amtrak.

On July 20th, Julianna's (delayed) Delta flight landed in Atlanta at 7:30pm, with a connecting flight scheduled for 8:05pm. Julianna, who has muscular dystrophy, missed the connecting flight because nobody came with a wheelchair until 8:05—the same time the connecting flight took off. To make matters worse, the plane crew told Julianna she might make the flight anyway if she stopped waiting for help and got off the plane right now, so she crawled down the stairs on her own. When the wheelchair came she was "wheeled into a back room and advised" that her plane had taken off. But that was just the first half of her ordeal, and the next eight hours only got worse.