Delta + Atlanta = Misery

When you say that you wont fly through Atlanta, you bnlame the City.
How is any of this Atlanta's fault. It isn't as though the Mayor can
just choose the weather. I have never been to Atlanta but have always
wanted to go.
That said, weather is completely unpredictable. I was flying from
Toronto to LAGuardia airport in New York a couple years back for a
friends stag and doe, and my friend had gotten really sweet knicks
tickets and because it was pouring rain and incredibly foggy that day
in New York, and I was on the second to last flight of the day, I lost
out, all planes to New York and New Jersey were grounded. Was it the
airlines fault, no. Was it mine, no. It's just one of those things
that happens in travel.
I personally would rather be safe on the ground (regardless of the
city), then in a plane in bad weather hoping that we can land safely.

To add to what my fellow travel agent Tracey said, even though the
weather where you are is perfectly fine, the weather where the
aircraft is coming from might not be. I have heard time and again
people complaining of flight delays and cancellations because of
weather and it is a bright sunny day, but they aren't taking into
consideration what I stated above.

Now, the rudeness. While rudeness in business is never a good idea or
acceptable, here is something to think about. I understand your
frustrations in that you feel that they were not adequately staffed,
but, how do you know that they didn't have every person that was on
duty at the time there working on the records of those in your
situation? Weather is unpredictable, and Delta, nor any other airline
for that matter, can schedule people to be at work to man the counters
on the chance that they're going to have massive delays or
cancellations. And lets be honest, how many people do you think are
going to come in on their day off or after their shift is over to
work. Especially in the bigger cities where sometimes it can take an
hour or more to get to the airport.

The agents shouldn't have been rude, given, but allow me to play
devils advocate for a moment. If you were on the other side of the
counter, dealing with the mass of people who were being delayed or had
their flights cancelled and who were angry, and who probably weren't
at their friendliest with the agents, I bet your attitude would have
gone south pretty quickly too.

Here is another piece of advice for the traveling public, and lets see
if Tracy agrees. If you ever find yourself in the situation of being
delayed significantly or your flight is cancelled, get on the phone to
your travel agent and see what they can do to protect you on the next
flight. If you didn't use a travel agent, call the airlines 1-800
number while you're standing in line. That way you're killing 2 birds
with one stone, and when you do get to the front of the line to the
airline agent, everything has been taken care of, and all they have to
do is re-issue the documents that need to be re-issued, and you're on
your way to where ever it is you need to go at that moment.

Hi Firebrat - I like your style - you're cool. I would never yell at
you if you were my travel agent....

You know, I have traveled through the Windy City on American and
through Charlotte on USAir, have experienced delays, but nothing
compares to the problems I have seen with Delta in Atlanta over the
last several trips.

I do agree that the problems seem to be getting exponentially worse
with the entire system - I am tempted to just drive in the future. My
last trip from Tucson, AZ to Albany, NY would have been easier and
quicker to drive - how is that for troubling...

Regards,

Trust me when I tell you that it's ALL of the airlines pulling this
crap, not just Delta. As a travel agent, I've witnessed the very same
behavior from American, United and USAir just to name a few, over the
passed three weeks.

It's a sad commentary about air travel today. The airlines truly don't
give a damn.

But you're very much mistaken if you think that boycotting Delta and
going with another carrier will fix the issue.

If you try American through Chicago or Dallas, you'll be worse off
than Delta through Atlanta. Same with
United through Chicago or Dulles. Or USAir through Charlotte or
Philly.

It sucks, but the only thing you can do is grit your teeth and go on.


So here is some advice:

When a flight is cancelled due to weather and there are many people
stranded the first thing you want to focus on is securing lodging for
the evening. Everything else pales in comparison. The airlines' only
obligation when there is a weather cancellation is to protect you on
THEIR next available flight. Depending on the situation, this could be
hours or days. I've seen it happen. If you find another carrier to fly
on, the amount of their fare is your burden. The original airline has
no obligation to contribute.

If a flight is delayed due to mechanical or crew issues, KNOW YOUR
RIGHTS. The validating carrier must take steps to protect you on any
other carrier, at no cost to you. There are a few exceptions. The low
cost carriers like AirTran, Jet Blue and Southwest...the majors don't
have agreements with these carriers.

Unfortnately both of these options usually mean, yes, standing in the
awful lines and waiting your turn. There is no way around it.

I don't mean you specifically, but you'd be amazed at the amount of
people who refuse to get into the line and then call their travel
agent and scream at them because we tell them that, yes - we can give
options, but revalidating must be done at the counter, for the most
part.

Air travel today is a tricky game and it sucks, I know. But until the
government steps in and forces them to deal with their issues, nothing
is going to change.

Ah, well, it actually was cancelled several hours AFTER the storm hit
the airport (weather was fine) so it wasn't actually cancelled due to
the weather. But it really does not matter why they canceled my
flight or the numerous others (seemed like the cancelled ALL flights
the remainder of the night) what matters is how they handled the
people stranded (in the thousands???). They did NOT have adequate
customer service people available do deal the demand, nor were the
customer service personnel responsive and concerned with the needs of
the stranded people. Ok, sure, the customer service people were
overloaded and thus cranky, but they got to go home at the end of
their shift, so I see no excuse for the rude behavior I witnessed. If
you want to fly Delta through Atlanta, knock yourself out I hope you
like receiving abuse...

This was a flight cancellation due to weather. What did you expect
them to do?