In an hyper-competitive industry like full-fare airlines how is Delta setting itself apart? Here’s what I found on Saturday.
I found a flight that I wanted to book using kayak.com but decided to book directly through Delta Airline’s own delta.com website.
I wanted to use an American Express gift card that I had received as a gift to pay for most of the ticket ($200/$237). The website didn’t allow me to enter multiple payments, which isn’t all that unusual so I called the Delta reservation line to talk to a real person.
The customer service rep told me that he would be happy to help me book the ticket but that he would have to charge me an additional $20.
Wait, what? I asked him why I pay $20 extra to book a ticket since his website wouldn’t let me do what I wanted. He explained that “that’s the policy”. He then said I could talk to the web support team instead.
After waiting on hold for a few minutes I talked to web support. That guy told me that there was indeed no way to enter multiple payments to buy my ticket through the website and that I would have to talk to a Delta customer service rep to complete my transaction. I then asked him if he would be willing to waive the $20 fee. “No, I can’t do that” was his response.
I complained on Twitter at how disappointing the interaction was and within minutes the Delta Twitter Response team replied.
Although their first response was to ask me to DM them, they weren’t following me.
The Delta Twitter account told me to try calling the web support line, so I tried that again, but the same result.
Finally I asked the Twitter support person if they had any ability to waive the $20 fee. “Sorry, I don’t have the authority to waive the $20 direct ticketing charge”
I guess it’s no surprise since Delta topped the list of airlines who raked in the most from additional fees at about $1.26 BILLION (and that’s just through the first 3 quarters of 2010).
I can’t say I’ll never fly Delta again, but I can say they won’t be a preferred carrier of team 1918.
My best flight experience ever was on Air Tran, it was awesome! How about yours?
That’s a pain in the neck. Social media folks should be empowered to help, not empowered to give trite replies such as “that’s the policy”.