Delta flight delay & cancelation


For many years, the airlines have been keeping their departures on time, and usually arrive early.

That was before the covid-19.

My first air travel post pandemic is hardly recognizable: delays after delays, out right cancelation, and the aftermath of the cancelation.

Because I’m traveling with friends and we’re trying to coordinate one taxi. So I checked to confirm the departure time of the flight – there, I found two problems.

  1. The delays. Two days prior, it was four hours and one day before was two hours of delay.
  2. The departure times varies, from 7:05 to 7:18, both were way ahead of said time at purchase, which was 7:30am.

What’s going on? What if some travelers count on that little extra few minutes?

Then the evening before the departure came the third problem: our flight is cancelled. Hotel and car rental have to be changed, at additional cost. If my memory serves me right, this is my second flight cancellation, the first within U.S.

The hotel and car rentals, all have to be changed, at higher price. The car rental in Tampa is especially expensive, more than $100 a day, which we ended up paying $413.50 for the two nights stay.

After the trip when I was about to book another trip, did I realize 40,000 miles are missing from my account. The nightmare starts all over again: LONG wait for a live agent for my issue. For reasons unbeknown to me, Delta uses only two methods for communication: calling or text messaging. Both are ineffective and time consuming. Phone calls are two hours wait and texting is a whole day event. Bouncing between agents, means I had to explain my case, all over again, and again, and again.

  1. Delta verification form

    Agent 1 on April 12 who wrote she will right my account. But unfortunately failed to do so. One thing to know is, their auto response isn’t working well, keeps asking the same question over and over again, in rapid succession.
    Each agent needs verify you, and their SkyMiles Verification, is NOT a few digits sent to your phone but a LONG FORM to fill, that includes, your name, #, address, dob, phone number … I kid you not. WHY do they like to torture the customers, wasting time? WHY?!?!

  2. Agent 2 on April 20. After repeating myself all over again, who wrote, I need to call their Corporate Customer Care @ (800) 455-2720.
  3. Agent 3 on April 21, after repeating my sorry story, agent Kelly wrote, “I do not have the ability to redeposit miles on a flown ticket.” I need to call their reservations department at 800-221-1212. The auto voice says, more than two hours wait. Call back feature wasn’t available.
  4. Agent 4 on April 22, at 800-221-1212. Luckily the call back feature kicked in. I asked for a supervisor and Michelle soon came online. Repeating myself. She did her research while putting me on hold as usual, and eventually restored 40,000 miles to my account and sent me an email to confirm.

All the agents did their due diligence, plus the texting, each agent spent about an hour. It was my four hours wasted. It was Delta’s four hours wasted. On our flights, the middle seats are kept vacant, now I’m wondering: CAN Delta make their bottomline met?

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