It was two months ago that Earl and I flew to New York City to visit family. As I have done many times before, I booked our flights on Delta into LaGuardia Airport. It will be the last time I use Delta, and I’m going public about it to make sure I keep my word.
You might wonder why it’s taken so long to make my complaints known. I simply got sidetracked with addressing other issues, packing for our recent road trip, and catching up when we returned home. However, I’d written this blog on the plane back then, and have decided I still don’t like Delta. Here’s why.
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For starters, every single flight we took in July was late. Every plane we were on was shabby. Every ground crew person we came in contact with was surly.
I think the worst example was the Delta employee who staffed Gate C16, when we were returning home from our visit. As time passed, it became clear our flight would not leave in time. I approached the desk and told the employee that we would miss the connecting flight in Cincinnati. He played with his keyboard a bit and said there was a later direct flight at 6:20 PM that would get us to our final destination by 8:30 PM. It wasn’t what I had in mind, but there were few alternatives. I said Okay. He played with his keyboard some more, and said he couldn’t book us but that if I called the phone number on the card he gave me, maybe I could get on that plane.
Now I had seen this agent give the card to three people waiting in line in front of me. I said, probably not in a sweet voice, “I am not going to call a phone number, sift through a menu, and wait to get someone when I’m standing in front of an agent who should be willing and able to help me. I will not call the number. I think you should try again.”
More playing with his keyboard. More standing in front of him. More people lining up behind me. It was a question of who would blink first. Finally the agent handed me two boarding passes for the 6:20 PM flight and said, “You got the last two seats on the plane.” I suppose that was meant to make me feel grateful.
We shuttled our luggage to another concourse to wait for our new assignment. As we sat at Gate D3 for the next six hours, we heard from other groaning travelers that they had been deplaned due to a flat tire. Another group had their flight cancelled, and a third had no air conditioning. Finally we boarded, and I noted that our flight was slightly more than half full. The agent at C16 obviously needs a refresher in math.
Then the captain came on the intercom and announced that it was busy at LaGuardia tonight and would take another hour and twenty minutes to get to the front of the line for take-off. I wondered if there were some rules about how long passengers can sit in a hot plane on the tarmac. Of course, he forgot to say that the time clock starts when we push back from the gate. After staying put a while, I pushed my call bell and asked the flight attendant to clarify this point. She looked as if I’d caught her red-handed. And you know we’ve been here a while when the captain himself leaves the cockpit and walks the length of the plane to relieve himself in the bathroom.
So it goes. Lots of vague information; little results. As I write, we’re still sitting on the tarmac, but the captain has said we can keep our electronic devices on until we are closer to taking off. I’m not sure that’s a good sign, and I only hope I get to sleep in my own bed sometime tonight.
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We eventually did leave LaGuardia, and I was able to get half a night’s sleep in my own bed. Just thinking of it now refuels my disgust with Delta.
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