Complaint Review: Delta Airlines

I have been dealing unsuccessfully with many Delta employees over the past 9 months trying to resolve a baggage issue which began last July. At this point, money is not the issue; it is a matter of principle. I would simply like Delta to acknowledge their mistake and reimburse the skymiles expended for the air portion of this vacation fiasco. The attached document details the events and my frustration with the process.

I have been a loyal customer of Amex/Delta Skymiles for over 20 years. During this time, most of my experiences have been very good. However, on a recent vacation trip to St. Maarten, this experience became anything but good. Upon arrival at St. Marteen airport on 7/2, I found that 4 pieces of my luggage for my wife and I did not arrive with our plane. I later found out that 6 other passengers on the same Delta connecting flight from Atlanta had also not received their luggage. I filed a claim with the Delta baggage claim rep. and was told that it should be on the next flight and would be delivered to my hotel room by tomorrow. This luggage contained clothing for our entire trip, prescription medicines, camera, cellphone charger and all the cosmetics and toiletries for the week.



On 7/3, the luggage was not delivered to my hotel as had been indicated by the baggage claim rep; I returned to the airport to find no baggage, no assistance from Delta and information that Delta only flies into St. Maarten once a week on Saturday. Upon my return to the hotel, I began making phone calls to the front desk at the hotel to try to track down my luggage. While they were very sympathetic and helpful, they could not offer any assistance with my lost luggage. I tried to call Delta at the Airport and in the US, but found that none on the numbers that I had would work.

On Monday July 4th, I began to call Delta skymiles using my Amex credit card for international calls since my cellphone battery was dead and my charger was in the luggage. I made 4 phone calls to Delta skymiles, Delta luggage in Atlanta, Delta, and Amex since my service was now being denied. Each one of these phone calls resulted in little or no information and included hang-ups, no answers, and Amex not knowing why my service would be denied. I did indicate in these initial phone calls that I would have to start replacing some of my necessary clothing; the Delta rep concurred.

I returned to the airport. After speaking with 6-7 other people, I was finally directed to Charlene Vanderlinden, the Delta contact in St Maarten. She was very apologetic, could offer little help in finding my luggage, but promised to continue working on it. She also agreed that I should start to replace some of my articles that were lost.

Upon my return to the hotel, I spoke with Esther Brown of Delta; she said that she had worked in customer service so that she would try to help me. I gave her my contact information.

On Tuesday, I received a phone message from Charlene saying that they had located my luggage and would try to get it to me as soon as possible on another airline. I checked with the hotel several times in the course of the day, but they had not received any lost luggage. On this day, I began to replace some of the necessary clothing items, but found that my Amex charge card was being denied. It took nearly one hour after talking with Amex customer service reps to approve charges on this card.

I returned to the airport on Wednesday and spoke with a Delta baggage handler who indicated that hey had not yet received my luggage but would let me know. I again called the Delta skymiles number but had to use another credit card since the original card was still not being accepted. I indicated to the rep that I was told that my luggage was supposed to be there today. They did confirm finding it at San Juan, but no indications after that.

On Thursday a.m., I returned to the airport before leaving for the day, they still had no further information. On Thursday evening, I called Delta skymiles and spoke with Kathy Gibson. I indicated to her that at this point in time I would rather that my luggage be returned to my home airport in Boston, I had already replaced a number of clothing and accessory items and I expected full compensation for my extra expenditures and reimbursement for my phone calls. She indicated that this was acceptable.

On Friday evening, I received a phone call from the front desk of my hotel saying that the luggage had been delivered.

While I was pleased to see that it had been found and returned, it was now of little use since we were leaving the next morning.

Both my wife and I have been very patient and understanding during this entire ordeal, but I do have certain expectations from Delta at this time.

I expected Delta to compensate for the additional clothing and accessory purchases necessitated by the loss of our luggage. A detailed claim was submitted via fax and US mail to the Baggage claim Department.

W
leicester, Massachusetts
U.S.A.

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