Delta airlines,
I and my husband were planning to travel on 08/24/2018 to Anchorage, Alaska from Phoenix Sky Harbor airport with layover in Seattle. We arrived at the airport at 5:45AM to get to the gate with plenty of time to board the plane. Our plane was to leave at 7:15AM with boarding starting at 6:35PM. until it was 7 AM, the time on the monitor behind the desk at the gate changed to 8AM. No problem. We waited and it was okay waiting for one hour. Until it got closer to 8 AM, the time changed again to 9 AM. So the pilot came out stating that there was too much smoke by Seattle and they were waiting for clearance. Then the time changed again to 9:45am and the pilot presented another reason for the hold, which was that computer on the plane was not working and the engineers were working on it and in 20 minutes, we should be okay to leave. When it got closer to 9:30am, the time on the screen changed again to 10:45am. Pilot did not show up at this change but instead the desk representatives were talking to the passengers to tell them that the "engineers were working on it". People were started to get angry and impatient with the reasons as we were trying to figure out if it was the weather or the computer?? Until the time on the screen changed to 11:30am, where the pilot showed up and mentioned that all the computers have been fixed except one and we should be good to go. And then it happened again, time on the monitor changed to 12:30pm. At this point, we have been sitting in the airport since 6:30am by the gate and all we heard was one excuse after another. My husband went and talked to the representative- Matthew and it was easy to see that none of them were going to help and or had any answers other than more reasons and telling us to wait. When I went to speak with the desk at 12:30pm, while waiting in the line, time changed to 1:30PM. I asked them if we were ever going to leave, he had no answers for me. We are waiting for 7.5 hours at this point with no straight answers. My husband asked the desk that why they have not bothered to even offer a bottle of water for all the passengers waiting that is the least they could do. After my husband talked to them, they decided to bring the carts out with snack only. The desk representative was okay with reimbursing us for the flights since that was the easy way for him to get rid of us. And I wouldn't have loved anything more than that other than we spent our money on the hotel and the cruise line in Alaska which I knew they weren't going to pay us back on for waiting at the airport whole day with no answers. After asking him if there was a backup plane for passengers in case this happens, he did not have any answer. After asking him for a different flight, his answer was there are no seats anywhere. The demeanor and manner of answering our questions, it was apparent that he had no way of helping and no desire to help anyone either. Speaking with another representative at a different gate, where the plane landed coming from Seattle, we were told that something was wrong with our plane the night before. And i was shocked to hear that we were being fooled by the Delta Airlines.This is unacceptable and poor customer service at its best. I understand that things happen anytime, and we have no control over it. If the plane was not functioning the night before, as a business, you should have the courtesy to notify the people that are making the effort to get to the airport on time and following the regulations and what is expected of them. As a passenger, we expected to get to our destination safely with the money that we paid in a timely manner. We expected to get better customer service and concerns from the flight we picked to get to our destination. We expected professionalism from their front desk and possibly a "Sorry" for making us wait for all this time with no certainty of when we are going to arrive at our destination. The only courtesy that we received was for 14 dollar voucher for the both of us for one of the restaurants by the gate. We paid additionally while using the voucher and ended up throwing it away as the food was horrible. I understand that has nothing to do with Delta. After talking to Matthew the third time and asking him to please help us, the only option we were given was change the route to go through Salt Lake City and that flight was not leaving until 2:50PM. As much as we were tired of waiting at the airport whole day, there was no other choice other than having over $1000 of money go to waste just because Delta airlines was not what we expected. You, as an airline, have lost the way of handling your business with your customers and the core values of your flight is not what you portray to be. Your core values of honesty, integrity and respect is a total lie. All i received was lies, poor customer service, unprofessionalism and ignorance from your representatives for choosing your flight. This was my last time flying with you. read more