Description

On Wednesday September 25, 2024, I received a notification on my Delta App that there was an advisory for my flights for 09/27 from Boston to Destin/Fort Walton through Atlanta may be impacted with Hurricane Helene. My wife Googled "How will I know if my flight was cancelled on Delta". This number appeared in the search 877-777-5206, I called and spoke with a reservationist Harry. He represented himself as a Delta reservationist. Several times I during my conversation I stated that you Delta are canceling my flights, he never denied this. He stated that he was showing that my flight was canceled. I asked him why it was showing still active and I didn’t receive any notification, he stated that they get the cancelations before they are put on the website. I explained to him that I needed to get to Fort Walton on Friday for a family wedding and an extended trip for our 36th wedding anniversary. Harry told me that the flight that I booked was cancelled and that I would need to book other travel. He told me that he could get me on an American Airlines flight on Friday 9/27 that would connect through Atlanta to VPS for $3500. I explained to him that why would American flight take off with the same itinerary as my original reservation that is canceled by Delta. I was extremely upset that and this led to a continuous discussion about the fact that Delta cancelled my flight that we used points for and why would I take the same itinerary through the same cities and pay $3500. He told me that my reservation was non-refundable and that I would need to pay for my new reservations. I again reiterated that I wasn’t canceling my flight, that Delta cancelled it and that he should be rerouting me at no cost. I asked him if he could rebook me through New Orleans and I would rent a car and drive over. He at first said he couldn’t do that because of my nonrefundable reservation. He needed to cancel my reservation first. He put me on hold for a few minutes then came back to the call saying that the new reservation from Boston to New Orleans round trip. I told him that I wanted to keep my original return flight and just book the front end to New Orleans. His said that he could do that but the cost was $3600 and he could apply some coupons for approx. $2000 and that my cost was going to be $1600. There was some back and forth conversations and most of this surrounded me having to pay out of pocket for my flights when an act of god and Delta was responsible for the cancelation. I asked to speak to his supervisor as I felt this was unjust considering it was Delta that canceled my flight with no notification and the flight status was still showing that it was on time. I them spoke with Chris his supervisor. We had a very similar back and for concerning my flight. I explained to him my situation of having to get to Fort Walton for a family wedding on Saturday. Chris stated that all that he could do for me was cancel my original reservation and rebook me through New Orleans on the 26th instead of the 27th and returning on October 2nd as we wanted with the return flight leaving out of VPS. He stated that he could do this for $2699.00 but could get me refunds of $1745, with the total out of pocket for me was $954. He said that he only had 4 seats on the plane and that I needed to make this decision immediately. I felt pressured into this decision. I spoke with my wife and we decided we needed to get down to Florida for the wedding so despite feeling as though we were lied to and We called Harry back and booked the flight. He stated that he would reimburse us our Miles and a refund check of $1745 would be sent in the next 60 days, not coming. When I tried to pay for the flights with my Delta American Express card he told me that I couldn’t use this card and that I needed to use another payment source. This I felt was sketchy but I had to use my wife’s debit card. When checking into the flight I was forced to purchase my 2 bags. Throughout Thursday and Friday morning, I kept checking the Delta flights in my original reservations. Each time I checked the flights showed a status of on time. On Friday morning I received text messages on our flight DL967 was boarding at gate A17 and actually took off to and landing in Atlanta. I also received notification that my original connecting flight to VPS DL5297 was boarding at gate D24 in Atlanta. I then received notification that our flight landed in VPS at 145pm CST; at gate B2 in VPS. How was a flight that was canceled take off and never shown as canceled on the website? This wasn’t an instance where the flight was canceled then reinstated. This is a case of 2 Delta reservationists taking advantage of Delta passengers (loyal Delta patrons and SkyMiles members) in need of travel when the flights were never canceled. In the end, I called delta and spoke to a customer care agent, disputing the charges. She stated to me that we were scammed . provider her with the numbers I had she stated they were Delta numbers. She also said that our flights were refundable that we originally booked. I feel that these two Harry and Chris took advantage of our desperate need to travel and used the pending storm to their advantage which is extremely disappointing. We feel as though we were taken advantage of, lied to and possibly scammed by an aggressive overzealous reservationist as well as his supervisor taking advantage of those in need. This is disappointing, outrageous and maddening that this would happen. I also believe the reason I was not able to use my Delta SkyMiles AMEX is because I could dispute the charges through AMEX and he knew that; again, tremendously upsetting and disheartening.