Delta Customer Service: nice, but worthless

My professors in college often like to use airline companies as examples of bad business models. (Aeronautical engineering and airline management are totally different things) I remember one statistics professor who performed a little experiment while on a layover during a flight: He stood observing the baggage claim area as one flight came in after another. He counted how many passengers lost their baggage in transit, and found that of the 48 flights that came through, 45 of those flights had lost luggage. A 6.3% success rate is not what I'd consider good business.

I never check bags at the airport unless absolutely necessary, and this is one of my three reasons why:

1. I don't want to pay extra baggage fees
2. Checked bags can make leaving the perfect curbside pickup much more difficult, because you never know how long it could take to get your luggage. It could be waiting for you on the carousel when you get there, or it could be twenty minutes later.
3. I had heard plenty of horror stories about lost luggage, and I didn't want my own.

End introduction, commence story

Amy and I were flying back from our vacation in Utah to Columbus on Monday, June 20, with a layover in Minneapolis. At the gate in SLC, the plane, unsurprisingly, ran out of carry-on space and remaining carry-on luggage would be checked. It's a natural consequence, that if rates are increased for checked baggage, more people will bring carry-on. I had expected this, but I had expected a simple plane-side check, where they would return the luggage at the gate in Minneapolis. Instead, they were doing a full baggage check, marking the bags with tags and their final destination. I was a little nervous about this, because our flight was already delayed and the person writing the tags was:

1. rushed, writing tags for a couple dozen bags with various destinations,
2. didn't initially know the acronym for the Columbus airport,
3. and didn't give me a tag stub for my luggage tag. He admitted he should have given me one, and he gave Amy hers, and told me not to worry about it. What could possibly go wrong?
4. We asked why he wasn't doing a simple plane-side check, to which he responded, "Delta usually does it this way." Well, I've flown carry-on only on dozens of flights over the past few years, and this was a first for me.

As you expected, my carry-on luggage didn't arrive in Columbus.
The fact that I didn't have a tag stub was disappointing, but the baggage claim receptionist was optimistic that the bag simply didn't make the flight out of Minneapolis, that it would be on the next flight early the next morning, arrive in Columbus at 9:00 AM, and be shipped to our doorstep early Tuesday afternoon.

That didn't happen.

I had been given a claim ticket which I could use to track my luggage and receive updates either through an online tracking system or a customer service phone number. Both systems are jokes.

For the online tracking system, this is what I get when I put in my name and claim ticket number

We are unable to locate baggage data based on the information you provided. Please check your entries and try again.

Initially, I thought this meant I had the wrong number or perhaps my name had been misspelled when Delta put it into the system, so I called the customer service line:

beep... beep... beep... A busy signal!

I called repeatedly, and eventually I got through to an automated response. (This was Wednesday afternoon. I had been trying to contact them since early Tuesday)

"We're sorry about the issue with your baggage. Please pick an option that... "

After navigating through a few options and giving my claim reference number I received a

"It seems we have no information about your baggage at this time. Please try again later..."

It continued:

"Usually, our customer service representatives have no additional information, but if you'd like to speak to one of our representatives, say 'representative'"

Me: Representative

Commence elevator music, which continues for about ten seconds, "It seems that all of our customer service representatives are busy at the moment. Instead of waiting on the line, our representative can call you as soon as one becomes available. It is expected that one will be available in...{robotic voice} more... than... three... hours..."

Obviously annoyed, I acquiesced to the conditions. I did receive a call back that night... around midnight! (I think my original call was about four hours earlier) Although I was about to go to sleep, I was relieved to finally speak to somebody... However, when I picked up the phone, and confirming to a robot that I was Brian Casaday, I got this AUTOMATED RESPONSE:

"You will be connected to the next available representative..." Recommence elevator music...

I waited, on the line, on hold, for twenty minutes without a single word! I then hung up and went to sleep angry.


The following day I did get a call from Delta customer service, and I was able to speak to what appeared to be a real person.

Before I asked questions, the guy on the other line asked me to describe the contents of my bag, so I repeated everything I had said on Monday, with some added detail. The conversation proceeded:

Me: So you don't know where my bag is?
Delta rep: No, sir.
Me: Did they find anything in Minneapolis?
Delta rep: I don't know, Mr. Casaday.
Me: Did they look for anything in Minneapolis? or anywhere else?
Delta rep: I don't know, sir.
I confirmed that the spelling of my name on file was, indeed, correct.
Me: Do you know why the online tracking system doesn't even recognize my claim?
Delta rep: I don't know, Mr. Casaday. It should.
Me: What do I do now?
Delta rep: Keep checking for updates online or through our baggage hotline.

Well, that was useless. Maybe it wasn't a real person.

At this point, you may wonder what was even in my bag...
Well, a suit, my dress shoes, about half of my socks and underwear, a few pairs of shorts, some dress shirts, etc. Luckily, I had both my laptop and iPad in my backpack, which stayed with me on the plane. (btw, Delta claims they are not liable for lost or damaged electronics, which passengers should keep with them in their carry-on luggage) However, I also had a number of irreplaceable items. I had run the Ragnar Relay the weekend before, so I had a lot of my running gear, such as four marathon tech shirts, including my Boston Marathon shirt. I also had my recently acquired Ragnar Relay medal.

At this point, I'm trying to figure out what to do, and what I'm entitled to if my luggage is permanently lost. The Delta website says that all reimbursed items require a receipt, which is, frankly, a joke.

Having itemized everything I could remember, and without any updates from my luggage, I drove to the airport on Saturday afternoon. (I still get the busy signal at the customer service phone number over 90% of the time.) I spoke to a man there who, like the representative before, was sincere and profession, but was unable to give me any useful information about anything to do with my bag, other than it's probably been sent to Atlanta with all other lost baggage in the region. He couldn't tell me anything about compensation or reimbursement, other than telling me to fill out a reimbursement form online.

So I came home and did, which asks for details on every item I want reimbursement for, such as description, size, material, purchase date, price, location, and store.

It took me an hour or two to fill out the form as best I could, and upon submitting it (and agreeing that submitting the form does not guarantee reimbursement), I received... nothing. No email confirmation, no notice indicating what to expect and when... just a return to the reimbursement form menu.

So here I am now... having documented my experience... needing to wash my underwear twice as often... and fairly mad.

I'll update as needed. (I understand this is currently a weak conclusion to the blog post, but who knows, maybe something cool will happen, like my bag arrives on my doorstep in the morning, filled with gold bouillon, and Delta decides to give me my own 737 to compensate for the inconvenience.)