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  • Originally posted by Gabriel View Post

    That said, you cannot buy a ticket for one person and have another person flying with it.
    Why not? Seriously, aside from corporate lawyering hijinx, why the hell can't you have another person fly in that seat? They put a price on that seat. You paid for it, that should be the end of it. And it would be, if there was proper regulation in this industry. At this point it is just organized crime.


    Bottom line, the agent should have simply said "I understand you bought this ticket, but you bought it for a person that is not the one occupying the seat and tickets are not transferable. You should have cancelled the ticket for the other person who didn't show and you would have recovered most of the money and you could have bought a ticket for this other child. It's too late to cancel the ticket so that one you lost it due to no show. However I can still sell you a new ticket right now for this cute creature".
    You are so so so wrong about that. Even though it was a violation of 'policy', the cost to the airline 'brand' was clearly going to be immense in comparison to the meager revenue they were hoping to squeeze out of the situation. Any sane and savvy customer service mediator would have recognized this and let these people alone (the standby passenger, who was flying on luck, would have little grounds to protest). But no, they inflated the situation, by being intransigent, inflexible and—and this is what is really comes down to, this is the real crux of the matter—pathological about enforcing the rules.

    What we are experiencing right now is the pathological inability of corporate representatives—the actual customer-facing, problem-solving human beings who must translate often innane corporate policy into real world scenarios—to respect the customers they are serving. There is a pathological defiance there to any sensible compromise. Instead we see this pathological power-tripping behavior.

    It's freaking scary actually. What have we become? Who are these people who are not feeling moral compunction or simple human compassion or decency or even the obvious detriment to the company in their stringent adherence to policy (and who ultimately look idiotic when the company apologizes for their behavior rather then stand behind it)?

    Where do these nasty people come from?

    Comment


    • Originally posted by Evan View Post
      Why not?
      Because that's what the contract said, a contract that I never said I agree with but yet I "sign" every time I buy a ticket.

      You are so so so wrong about that. Even though it was a violation of 'policy'........
      Ok, make it "if the agent wanted to enforce the contract, he should have simply said [insert all that paragraph here] instead or requiring them do illegal things".
      Not that enforcing the contract is always the smart thing to do, especially when the contract itself in not smart.

      --- Judge what is said by the merits of what is said, not by the credentials of who said it. ---
      --- Defend what you say with arguments, not by imposing your credentials ---

      Comment


      • I am still struggling to figure out what on Earth did these parents have in mind when the bought the tickets for all the family but for the 2-years-old child.

        --- Judge what is said by the merits of what is said, not by the credentials of who said it. ---
        --- Defend what you say with arguments, not by imposing your credentials ---

        Comment


        • "Delta's goal is to always work with customers in an attempt to find solutions to their travel issues. That did not happen in this case and we apologize."

          That is the official company response. But what was the company training? I highly doubt it was to "attempt to find solutions". There is no evidence whatsoever here of any such motive.
          When are we going to summon the courage to call this sort of thing what it really is: legal, sanctioned, and tolerated organized crime...

          Comment


          • Originally posted by Gabriel View Post
            Because that's what the contract said... Not that enforcing the contract is always the smart thing to do, especially when the contract itself in not smart.
            This IS the essence of the problem. So many of us have become cogs in this insipid machine that we are willing to accept that 'because it is in the contract' is a valid reason to allow basic violations of human decency. There is a higher law...

            Comment


            • One thing missing is that I'm fairly sure that the incident happened BECAUSE the parents failed to CHECK IN 'senior'. The computer detected a no show and a standby passenger found junior in his seat. I can think of no other reasonable mechanism for Delta to have let Jr. on the plane AND THEN discovered he was an imposter...

              And, there is some fishyness to this story.

              I agree with all the bashing of the policies, and the craziness that they be threatened with jail, BUT, the folks screwed up here.
              Les règles de l'aviation de base découragent de longues périodes de dur tirer vers le haut.

              Comment


              • Back in 1982, on a college ag club trip, a couple of us switched tickets. We flew to our meeting without a hitch. Going home, Doug boldly tried to check in FIRST with Karen's ticket. The agent detected something amiss. Suddenly there were ID checks...I waited till the end as my ticket had a less suspicious name...

                But, no luck, Doug and I had to pay a higher last minute fare for a new ticket, but Karen and my namesake got full refunds. Even back in 82, tickets were not really transferable.
                Les règles de l'aviation de base découragent de longues périodes de dur tirer vers le haut.

                Comment


                • Originally posted by 3WE View Post
                  Back in 1982, on a college ag club trip, a couple of us switched tickets. We flew to our meeting without a hitch. Going home, Doug boldly tried to check in FIRST with Karen's ticket. The agent detected something amiss. Suddenly there were ID checks...I waited till the end as my ticket had a less suspicious name...

                  But, no luck, Doug and I had to pay a higher last minute fare for a new ticket, but Karen and my namesake got full refunds. Even back in 82, tickets were not really transferable.
                  no-transferable maybe. but i guarantee that if you had called the airline a day or two b4 to change the name, they would've done it with a smile.

                  Comment


                  • Originally posted by TeeVee View Post
                    no-transferable maybe. but i guarantee that if you had called the airline a day or two b4 to change the name, they would've done it with a smile.
                    I concur that things have changed, BUT

                    Going to go into lawyer mode...

                    Actually, No. I seriously doubt that they would have 'changed the tickets'- at least not without changing the fare. We didn't change them because we didn't want lose the good, early-booked fare. As noted though, we did get a full refund of the lower fare, as (back then) no-showing and never flying was not penalized. (Yes, this was LOOONNNGGG before positive, 100% ID checks).

                    (I will say that perhaps, a very short time earlier, there might have been an effortless, free bookkeeping switch, and that this might have been 'the beginning' of the screw-the-passenger model.)

                    I also think our last minute fares were 'somewhat' higher, but maybe not as high as today with the screw 'em when you got 'em model.

                    PS, I also did not disclose a subtlety: I was the token person with the wrong ticket on the trip down, and actually flying on a girl's ticket (Aleta)...I half thought about faking an accent to pretend that Aleta was a male name in my native country...but, my driver's license betrayed me.

                    On the way home, Doug had an earlier flight and decided to simply trade with Karen to party a bit longer. Karen got home just fine on Doug's ticket. Nothing of any significance, just a subtle grin on the concept of who get's caught, when.

                    Edit for nuance several hours later: Before 9/11 / positive ID checks, another good 'trick' was to book a ticket with just your initials...at least hiding the more obvious stereotypical sex-specific names.

                    Concession: I THINK for a hefty price you can buy a SEAT on an airplane with NO NAME to go with it (albeit with a number of restrictions and a hefty price, if I didn't' say hefty price already).
                    Les règles de l'aviation de base découragent de longues périodes de dur tirer vers le haut.

                    Comment


                    • Originally posted by 3WE View Post
                      One thing missing is that I'm fairly sure that the incident happened BECAUSE the parents failed to CHECK IN 'senior'. The computer detected a no show and a standby passenger found junior in his seat. I can think of no other reasonable mechanism for Delta to have let Jr. on the plane AND THEN discovered he was an imposter...

                      And, there is some fishyness to this story.

                      I agree with all the bashing of the policies, and the craziness that they be threatened with jail, BUT, the folks screwed up here.
                      Yes, perhaps they didn't play by the airline's one-sided rules, but the airline is now seeing the cost of enforcing them. When they realized the seat was being used, they should have apologized to the standby pasenger and let these people alone. But this is pathological corporate behavior. "We have a virtual monopoly; you have no bargaining power and we're sure as hell not going to back down!"

                      And somebody PLEASE explain to me WHY you can't change the name on a seat that you purchased? Aside from security concerns that clearly do not apply here, all I see is a scam to rob people of their money.

                      Comment


                      • Originally posted by Evan View Post
                        ***but the airline is now seeing the cost of enforcing them.***
                        ...you (and I) wish.

                        Unfortunately, I continue to believe that you are wrong on this point.
                        Les règles de l'aviation de base découragent de longues périodes de dur tirer vers le haut.

                        Comment


                        • Originally posted by 3WE View Post
                          ...you (and I) wish.

                          Unfortunately, I continue to believe that you are wrong on this point.
                          Well, do the math. They got a bit of revenue from a few standby passengers. In return, they are having to refund the family's travel expense and offering them 'additional compensation'. Add to this the cost of controlling a potential runaway social media firestorm, which involves a LOT of money. Delta ends up shelling out probably more money than earned on this entire flight. Maybe a lot more than that.

                          There's no wisdom behind this, just borderline corporate pyschopathy exhibited by poorly-trained staff and probably also management.

                          Comment


                          • Delta Kiddie Booting Update

                            Today this: https://www.yahoo.com/gma/family-kic...opstories.html

                            Lots of verbiage is the same as the other day; however, there's a few key, new tidbits:

                            Originally posted by The Family
                            According to the Schear family, a Delta gate agent said that plan would be fine. But things turned ugly once the family took their seats.
                            ^^^Hearsay, but...^^^

                            And then this, below.

                            Originally posted by Delta
                            "We are sorry for the unfortunate experience our customers had with Delta, and we’ve reached out to them to refund their travel and provide additional compensation," reads the statement. "Delta's goal is to always work with customers in an attempt to find solutions to their travel issues. That did not happen in this case and we apologize."
                            (Cue snide comments on the goal)

                            Burning questions STILL remain...did they NOT check in big brother and have a boarding pass for him to use for Jr?...and how else does Delta pick up that 10 YO son with no drivers license is not 2 YO son with no drivers license- does the TSA dude routinely check ages....and then call ahead to the gate to tell on people? I cant' see the boarding agent reading ages off...but I guess they could.

                            (I'm sure the age IS part of the database, but is anyone really going to be scrutinizing a rug-rat?)

                            Did the family say too much..."Hey gate agent, this boarding pass is actually for big Johnny, not Jr, but that's cool, right?"...Idealistic gate agent says, "no problem" but then double checks with hardened, heartless old gate agent who decides it's time to put a stop to this COC 'injustice against humanity'*.

                            *or injustice against the CEO's bonus & stock holder dividend, more correctly (injustice still being a suspect term for it).
                            Les règles de l'aviation de base découragent de longues périodes de dur tirer vers le haut.

                            Comment


                            • Originally posted by Evan View Post
                              Well, do the math. They got a bit of revenue from a few standby passengers. In return, they are having to refund the family's travel expense and offering them 'additional compensation'. Add to this the cost of controlling a potential runaway social media firestorm, which involves a LOT of money. Delta ends up shelling out probably more money than earned on this entire flight. Maybe a lot more than that.

                              There's no wisdom behind this, just borderline corporate pyschopathy exhibited by poorly-trained staff and probably also management.
                              there is no "revenue" from standby pax. they already paid for and have seats on a later flight. it's just a convenience allowing them to fly earlier. HOWEVER, on the off-chance that they can sell tix on the later flight they may earn more $$$.

                              Comment


                              • Originally posted by Evan View Post
                                And somebody PLEASE explain to me WHY you can't change the name on a seat that you purchased? Aside from security concerns that clearly do not apply here, all I see is a scam to rob people of their money.
                                this....

                                Comment

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