Earlier this year, an article appeared in The Washington Post by Joe Brancatelli called “How to Complain: Ten tips for getting just compensation when things go awry on the road.” Below is a deeper behind-the-scenes look at each of the areas he mentions (please bear with me, this will be a long post). I’m hopeful it may help you understand how we at Delta handle your concerns.
1. Go for Immediate Gratification
Yes! If you have time before you catch your next flight or leave the airport, ask the airport agent if you can resolve the situation on the spot. Explain to the nearest agent what happened, and how you would like to resolve the problem. Chances are you will be able to come to terms.
2. Take Good Notes
This is also great advice. Employee names, places, dates, boarding passes, and receipts are all helpful in determining where the service failure occurred, so managers can take corrective action with either the employee or a process that may not be working as planned. And rest assured, these complaints do get routed and read by managers here at Delta.
3. Act Fast
Mr. Brancatelli says that the longer you wait, the less chance you have of getting what you want. Don’t wait TOO long to write, since tickets expire and your documentation may get lost and some kinds of complaints – baggage claims for example – have specific deadlines for submitting the claim that you must meet under our contract of carriage, otherwise we can’t accept your claim.
4. Go with Paper
Actually, I disagree with this one. Submitting a concern via email benefits you, because it is more efficient to handle and easier to route to our other departments for follow-up. About one-third of all contacts we receive is hard copy correspondence, which has to be scanned into our customer contact system and routed. We have a faster response time goal on email, because the customer’s expectation is for a quicker reply to an email versus a written letter. I agree with Mr. Brancatelli’s recommendation not to send a handwritten letter. Legibility is a problem with scanned documents, making your letter even more difficult for us to read and respond to.
5. Send the Complaint to a Specific Person
It is the job of Customer Care to respond to these complaints, and our senior executives will just refer your letter to us. We will not take your complaint any more or less seriously.
6. Keep It Short and Polite
This is true. It is easy to get bogged down in the detail when you have to read a lengthy complaint, and we may miss an important point that could weigh in your favor. Shorter is better if possible.
7. Use Your Clout
If you are an elite member or able to sway a corporate travel purchase decision, Mr. Brancatelli recommends that you clearly state that up front. Most of our passengers are wise to this tip and quickly let us know what SkyMiles tier they are in. Our goal is to treat our passengers, status or no status, in the best way possible depending on their individual situation and in accordance with our corporate policy.
8. Ask for Something
The article suggests that you state clearly what type of compensation will make you happy. If the situation warrants, we will give transportation vouchers that can be used towards the purchase of a ticket. All compensation, from Crown Room passes to vouchers is governed by corporate policy, which is tied to the nature of the individual complaint.
So what does Customer Care compensate for? If your concern has not been already addressed at the airport, we will review the complaint and make a determination if compensation is due. The situations where we typically will offer some form of compensation fall generally into two categories: mechanical delays and severe service failures. Both of these are usually within our control, and we try to make the situation right. What constitutes a “severe service failure” is probably the hardest thing to understand, so here are two examples of severe service failures where we would most likely provide compensation.
If you missed a flight because we booked you incorrectly, or we failed to provide the wheelchair assistance you requested and you missed your connection, those are severe service failures. We do not compensate for weather or air traffic delays, which cause a lot of angst with passengers.
Expired travel vouchers are one of the most frequent problems that we see. Many people mistakenly believe that the voucher is valid for one year from the date of travel, not the date it was issued (if you have any transportation credit vouchers in your sock drawer, dig them out and check the expiration date!)
9. Use Your Big Plastic Stick
The article recommends that you dispute your credit card charge, but I’ve seen few instances where this works. If we got you there and back, the transportation you purchased has been delivered. There are instances where we have not delivered on a service that a customer paid for, and when that occurs, we will make it right. This can be a gray area, so here’s an example: If you paid for a First Class seat, and due to a change of equipment, we now only have coach seating to offer you, we would refund the difference between the two fares and apologize for your inconvenience.
10. Don’t Give Up
Unless we made a mistake on the initial review of your complaint the decision in most cases stands.
So that in a nutshell is how to negotiate the land of Delta Customer Care. I hope that the only correspondence I will ever see from you is kudos for the wonderful service the Delta team delivers.
Was this information helpful to you? Do you have any tips to add?
Happy Travels!
Nancy
Senior Analyst
Customer Care
May 19th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
In his mind, he really thinks he’s helping out the traveling public. I’ve not read his article but people can think for themselves and not have to be told how to do something.
May 19th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
TriStar Fan: The Washington Post article is worth a quick skim. There were a couple of consumer tips I found useful that I was not aware of.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I’ve followed these rules before when complaining to American. My letter wasn’t long but it also wasn’t short. They ended up giving me $100 to shut up I guess
Luckily, I haven’t had too many problems on Delta.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I found Mr. Branatelli’s article cogent and realistic. I found this post defensive and, frankly, not that credible. In fact, the attitude of your post perfectly reflects the atmosphere Mr. Branatelli’s article described.
June 5th, 2008 at 12:33 am
I took a survey through Mindshare that tests your customer care IQ. I got a 68%… D+. But that’s better than most people are getting.
February 18th, 2009 at 8:12 am
[...] Check out 10 tips for resolving a travel complaint here >> [...]
May 30th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
A Delta Representative was kind enough to make the name change for me.
I could not have said Thank You Enough.
June 25th, 2011 at 7:43 pm
“4. Go with Paper
Actually, I disagree with this one. Submitting a concern via email benefits you, because it is more efficient to handle and easier to route to our other departments for follow-up.”
I’d love to contact Delta via email with a problem, unfortunately the link you posted here for email doesn’t go to email, it goes to a few questions and then redirects to a FAQ. I have emailed Delta from other areas with no replies. I have called only to be put on hold for 2 hours before my cell phone battery died.
Delta makes it impossible to “Resolve a Travel Complaint”. This blog is BS and a very thin attempt at making it look like Delta cares. I’ve got blogs too, and I’m going to post the truth about Delta on mine.
June 28th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
I have a current complaint pending with Delta. The issue is that a friend in a different country purchased a ticket on Delta (she is an Ameriacan Airlines FF). She purchased the ticket which had a Q fare for the HNL legs (I live in Hawaii) which is nice because of the no elite upgrades out of here even if you live here. Q fare one can usually work with. The gvt in her country put a hold on the ticket and wouldn’t allow her first attempt to go through until she went to the Delta office in person, which she did during the the 3 day Delta ‘limbo’ window. Somehow, the ticket (with the same res#) became a ‘U’ fare. The Delta CS supervisor told me it was due to a lower fare (-$129) that was charged. I’m not sure why a lower fare was available 12 days out, but it precludes me from upgrading with money or miles now. From a customer service standpoint, the proper thing to do would have been to restore the reservation to the original and ask me to pony up $129. After going through the Delta phone banks, I was told that to upgrade my ticket would be an additional $1000 for ‘Q’ fare. That’s crap. I’m only a silver but I am also a Skyclub member, just used 70,000 miles to become one. The PRIMARY goal of Customer Service is to FIND a way that is mutually beneficial to satisfy a customer’s complaint. So far Delta has FAILED. We’ll see how this goes. The correct answer is, “I’m so sorry that you are having these issues, if we restore your reservation to it’s original state, would this solve your issue?” Ask for the $129 if you want, but you’d get that back anyway in future travel as opposed to someone moving to another airlines elite program, like Continental where first level elites get to use the quicker security line. I’ll repost if anything changes. Mt response was from a “supervisor” though. The WP article is pretty ‘spot on’, one just has to figure out if the company one is dealing with really cares or just gives lip service.
June 29th, 2011 at 3:31 am
It’s official, Delta’s customer service has lost it. Here is my cordial albeit “content light” response. This is my last delta flight. BTW, for grins and giggles, I contacted Continental CS and gave them the same scenario. Their customer service rep had a workable solution.
Dear Mr.Gilmore,
Thank you for contacting Delta Air Lines; your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your additional comments concerning our recent exchange of e-mails. We try to be responsive when any problem is brought to our attention, and we regret you are disappointed with our reply.
We appreciate your loyalty and support. Though at times the frustrations of the travel world might lead to feeling overlooked and unappreciated, please let me assure you we are very grateful for you — we know our survival as an airline depends on those loyal customers who make it a point to fly with us. We recognize the best (and worst) publicity for Delta are the comments from our passengers to the people they interact with. Thank you for sharing your positive experiences, and for giving us the opportunity to respond when your travel doesn’t go as it should.
Again, thank you for writing. We appreciate your selection of Delta and will always welcome the opportunity to be of service.
Sincerely,
Drake Rogers
Online Customer Support Desk
http://www.delta.com
My final response:
Aloha Drake!
Thanks for the kind response. I have enjoyed my time with Delta, but it is clear that Delta has lost its way in customer service. First the ASA issue, then the military bags issue, and now mine, the bait and switch. When all that it would have taken to rectify the situation would have been for customer service to say, “Oh sorry, would you like to pay the additional $124 and we’ll restore your reservation to what we originally said it was.” But instead, the company is now focused on….well, I ‘m not really sure. Since the last email, I have joined Continental’s one-pass program after learning that they do comp upgrades on Hawaii flights AND their first level elite get to use the priority security line. I remember when Delta used to be the best. Whether ATL new about it or not, LAX and SFO used to do Space Available upgrades for people who lived in Hawaii. That was what Delta used to be. No doubt about it, I am gone to Continental after this flight. Thank you for what you used to be and I hope that you find your way again. Customer service isn’t that difficult, if its handled correctly. Things at Delta have been going downhill for several years now. If you see it within your purview, I would ask that on my way out, you restore my reservation and bill me the $124 if you feel the need. At least we can part on a good note. Again, I sincerely hope that Delta can find its way back.
Mahalo,
Joe Gilmore
June 29th, 2011 at 6:17 am
One last piece of advice:
When a company’s CS doesn’t listen, post your issue everywhere you can. Every consumer site, every forum, every Facebook and Twitter site. You will get the company’s CS changed. You can get the company’s attention outside of their CS department by costing them on their bottom line. Every time someone chooses a different company based on your experience, you have done your job to get the attention of the offending company.
August 18th, 2011 at 3:02 am
HI,
This is regarding cancellation of my ticket booked under skymiles program.
I havent received any email from delta informing me about policy change of cancellation < 72 hrs which came into effect from 08/15/2011.
I was not informed about this at all and i beleive my milegae points should be credited back. the customer service personnel has documented all my conversation and i explained to them that i did not recieve any mail/communicaion related to change to of policy and they agreed and suggested me to file a compaint.
I requested to credit my mileage points back to my account as per the earlier rules when i booked the ticket.
also the level of service/information provided by the representative was not at all as per industry standards and not representative of delta brand.
Has anybody faced sich a situation and were able to recieve positive resolution , please respond.
Thanks,