Dear Peter,
My friend and I recently had a lovely time in Mazatlan, Mexico, once we finally arrived.
We had an absolutely terrible experience on Delta Airlines trying to get from Seattle to MZT.
We submitted a very long letter to Delta. We are wondering what you suggest we do differently on the next trip.
In short, Delta cancelled our SEA-SLC 6 am 5/22/06 flight because of mechanical reasons, so we missed our 9 am SLC-MZT connection arriving at 1:05. After waiting 90 minutes to be rebooked, we were treated very rudely by the agent. She rebooked us without discussing itinerary options. She was surly and dismissive, saying things like “you booked on Expedia” and “you should be glad we cancelled the flight since it is to protect your safety.” Our new itinerary took us on 2 other airlines and 5 airports (3 in Mexico) with an unannounced stop; we arrived at 21:00 in MZT. Two itineraries on Alaska with fewer stops were available but not offered. My friend’s bags were lost for 24 hrs. Please advise!
-Jennifer, Seattle, WA
Dear Jennifer,
Welcome to the wonderful world of modern air travel! Here are a couple of things I might suggest you do differently on your next trip.
1) While waiting in line for the gate agent seems to be a natural reaction to a cancelled flight—don’t give in to this urge! Instead, call the reservations or customer service phone number. Sure, you may be calling an 800 number that routes you to an Indian call center, but in this case, even India is probably going to be much less chaotic than the airport. You may find the less-harried agents there to be more helpful, and they also have access to the same methods and solutions that the gate agent would.
2) I’m not sure exactly what happened with the gate agent, but if you knew of the Alaska itinerary, suggesting it couldn’t hurt. Delta wouldn’t be required to book you on it, but it never hurts to ask.
3) “You booked on Expedia”: While this shouldn’t be a reason for a gate agent to be surly, it does usually result in you being placed last in the pecking order of cancelled flyers. Just be aware of this if you are using third-party sites to book tickets.
4) If you’re booking online, it’s usually preferable to book through an airline’s website. Why? Usually, you won’t pay a booking fee and you’ll score more frequent flyer miles, plus, most airlines now have low-fare guarantees on their sites.
And remember, Jennifer, if you feel strongly that you were treated poorly and get no response from your letter, you can always vote with your pocketbook–there are quite a few other airlines that would gladly fly you from Seattle to Mazatlan. Unless I’m missing something, though, Delta did fulfill at least its contractual obligations to you, even if they didn’t exactly set the gold standard in customer service.
Regards,
Peter Greenberg, Travel Detective
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