My Delta nightmare-
To start- I’ve not heard good things about Delta- EVER. I only flew Delta because I was going to my best friend’s funeral, and had to find the least expensive ticket. After this experience, I will NEVER fly with Delta again.
Beginning with my flight out on Thursday, July 21, 2022, flight 396 from PDX to JFK.
*I am having mobility issues due to a back injury and severe pain. I called ahead to customer service to arrange a wheelchair, as well as arranging for it online. I was told that I could check in at the curb baggage check and get one there. There was no one at the curb when I arrived, I could not get there attention of the desk staff to simply ask the question of where to go for one. I tried to walk to my gate anyway, when someone noted me struggling and flagged down an airport employee to get me some help. I then got parked at the gate in a chair that was not a wheelchair but an adult-sized stroller that had to be pushed- I couldn’t move it only my own, hence couldn’t even go get a cup of coffee- I was stuck sitting at the gate until my flight left.
*I have NEVER been in a more uncomfortable airplane seat. It was miniscule. The seats are the very opposite of good ergonomic design, and my back hurt so much worse after sitting in one. There’s extremely limited leg room. I know coach is tight, but I am only 5’4”, and my knees were touching the back of the seat in front of me. I pulled a tape measure from my purse and found that between the edge of my seat and the back of the seat ahead of me was all of 9” of clearance. That explained why it was so difficult to get in and out of the seat. And it was even worse when the man in front of me decided to recline his seat. I tried to use my laptop, but the space was so tight, I could only open it about 45 degrees, and because of that, it kept switching itself off.
*I had the misfortune to be hungry (because I was stuck at the gate instead of being able to wheel myself to find food), and the tiny bag of SunChips (gag) were not enough, so I paid $12 dollars for the most wretched sandwich I’ve ever had. It was allegedly chicken salad, on a soggy croissant, and filled with arugula, which is definitely an acquired taste. (It tastes absolutely vile to me.)
*The flight was delayed about 45 minutes, which caused problems for the friends picking me up at JFK. Especially since…
*The
woman who got me off of the plane in the stroller didn’t take me to
Arrivals- she took me to Departures, and left me there and walked
off. I had no idea where I was, and couldn’t tell my friends where
I was so they could find me, making the delay there even
worse.
Sunday, July 24th, I flew home from JFK
to PDX, on flight 2656.
*Again, I double-checked that
there would be a chair available for me. There was not. While I was
getting out of the car, my friend went to the curb check agents and
explained that I was supposed to have had a chair waiting for me.
They blew him off completely, saying they didn’t know anything
about a wheelchair. By this time, I was exhausted and in tears. My
friend went in with me, grabbed a random wheelchair from another
airline, and badgered people until someone got a Delta employee to
put me in an adult stroller and wheel me to my gate. And there, he
left me sitting in a seat and walked off with the chair.
*I
managed to limp to the desk, told the gate agent that I was supposed
to have a wheelchair to get on the plane. She said she’d call for
someone. She may have done it online, but I didn’t see either gate
agent call anyone. At any rate, no one came. Everyone else boarded,
and I was like ‘Hey, I’m still here!’ Finally, another employee
got tired of waiting and pushed me down to the plane herself. TO the
plane, but didn’t help me board or with the carry on. Other
passengers did that. (Why are your passengers doing your jobs?) I got
to board DEAD LAST.
*Seat
was, again, tiny.
*The wifi kept cutting out or something
on my phone, so I got out my laptop, only to find that I had to PAY
FOR the wifi that I’d understood was free. And it kept dropping me,
and I had to keep re-signing in. And when my battery was down, I
switched back to the phone, which still couldn’t keep the
connection. So I had no way to tell my roommate that we were going to
be late.
*The media screen in the seat back was not working. The flight staff was like ‘Not our problem’. With phone and laptop not options, I mostly looked at the back of the seat in front of me. I had a book with me, but there was not enough room to hold it comfortably.
*Again, I’d been stuck at gate, in a stroller, with no way to get food, so I have to pay for a disgusting, overpriced sandwich and two very thin apple slices. It was pathetic, but my blood sugar was crashing.
*Oh- and the carpet in the aisle was filthy.
Delta is #1- for customer complaints. I can see why. For an airline that’s been around as long as Delta has, you’d think it was better at basic competence. Seems I was wrong. But I’m mad, and intend to spread the word.
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