My War with Delta

I've said it before but this time I'm doing everything in my power to stick to it. Delta Airlines is terrible and I have absolutely no use for them. I have one more booked flight and then it will take an extreme situation for me to ever use them again. I am currently sitting in the Detroit airport at 9:30 pm. I was supposed to land in Green Bay almost an hour ago. But because Delta apparently doesn't understand the purpose of a maintenance department, I once again missed connections. For the third time in 4 flights since June 22nd, I have had flights significantly delayed because maintenance wasn't done or they found something at the last minute or there was a light that wouldn't go off or something along those lines. And I've had enough. The company's lack of care or concern for their customers time or travel/vacation plans has left me bitter, furious and robbed of quality time with family and friends. When you are so geographically distant from said family and friends, losing 5-9 hours of time with them is a BIG FREAKING DEAL!!!!  

Today's situation went something like this...flight from Key West to Atlanta was a bit delayed but that was due more to passenger issues and not maintenance. So I had to quickly get to the gate for my 2:50 pm flight to Detroit.  Fine. That happens. But then we get on the plane and push back from the gate relatively close to on time. Once we push back, and sit on the tarmac for a good 5-10 minutes, the captain comes on the overhead and says "well folks, we pushed back okay but we have a light indicator that has not gone off and we can't leave until it does. So we have a call into maintenance to determine if we can fix it without going back to the gate?" Are you freaking kidding me??? Again??? This is unbelievable. Actually, I take that back. Given Delta's track record of late, it is completely believable. 

Another 10 minutes later, we are informed that we have to go back to the gate to get it fixed. So we do and then after about 20 more minutes, we are told everyone is to deplane and wait in the gate area. Seriously?? Fine, whatever. So we deplane. At that point it was 3:55 pm when I got off the plane. The captain comes out and tells us it will be about 4:30 before we can board again. Do we believe him at this point?? So eventually we board and then we sit there ...........

Turns out that because some passengers had been sent to another flight because they were going to miss their connection, the weight of the plane had changed and so they had to re-calculate weight distribution, gas etc. ARE YOU FEAKNG KIDDING ME???  And then, apparently, the control tower re-routed them so they had to spend another 30 minutes redoing all of that. So what time did we leave, you ask? Oh about 6:00 pm.  And remember what time we were supposed to leave?? 2:50 pm. 

Needless to say, that 3 hour layover in Detroit was obliterated. We landed in Detroit 7 minutes before my flight to Green Bay was leaving. Color me absolutely freaking furious at this point. Well "luckily", if you can even call it that, there was another flight to Green Bay leaving at 10 pm. That flight (which I'm now currently sitting on the plane but not going anywhere) gets me to GB at 10:30 Central time and then I have a 2 hour drive home. Oh and I have to go to work in the morning. 

As I was sitting in the gate area, the gate agent tells us (and this is honest to God what she said) "The crew wants to get to Green Bay early so we are going to board early and go." Okay, so let me get this straight...because the CREW wants to leave early, then that's ok. But you can't hold a plane for a paying customer for a few minutes because her incoming flight was delayed by 3 hours for a maintenance issue??? Really?? Oh and it is now 10:02 pm and our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:06 pm so are we really leaving early? (Update: we are officially in the air and my clock reads 10:27pm. We pushed back at 10:15 pm which, according to my math, means we did not in fact leave early or even on time.) 

The ironic thing, well maybe not ironic just interesting to note, is that at the beginning of their "safety video" the CEO of Delta talks about how great the employees are and the "Delta Difference." If that guy really thinks so highly of his employees, he clearly has never spent time in the maintenance department. If he has, then he and whoever the head of maintenance is need to be fired. I know some great maintenance people that would be happy to take their places. 

Needless to say, I am not happy. Not happy at all.  I have another flight on Delta this Friday to go to Memphis for the weekend and so help me God if any of my flights are delayed for any reason other than weather...well they will understand the power of social media. 

So what is the point of this rant, you ask? Well, I needed to get it off my chest but mostly to hold myself accountable. While it means always having to drive to Green Bay and flying through Chicago, I will no longer be booking flights with Delta, unless it's an emergency. Since Delta is the only airline in and out of Iron Mountain, I will just have to deal with the drive to and from Green Bay to fly United or American (which will be my preferred carrier). 

I know I said in my last post that I wasn't going to rehash all my troubles with Delta last Thursday and Friday. After today's issues, though, I am going to rehash it. However, I will have to do that tomorrow because I just can't do anymore tonight. 

So if you are a co-worker and I seem grumpy, grouchy or just plain bitchy tomorrow, I apologize in advance. You can thank Delta for that.