Delta Air Lines — Local services in Atlanta

Is asking a flight attendant to help me to close the overhead bin door a ‘favor’?

This review is for a female flight attendant in the main section, on Delta flight DL0101, from Atlanta ATL to Buenos Aires EZE on January 16 (took off 9:18pm arriving BA the following day, at 8:39am – all local time).

It was sleeping time during the flight. The hall was dark. I opened the overhead bin door and put my bag back in, but unable to close it. I’m too short, apparently. I looked to my left, hoping my husband would have done his business. No, he hadn’t but I saw the tall and slender flight attendant with short hair was watching. Leaving the bin door open, I’d think it’s dangerous. When I saw her making no move, I tried the second time. Still unable. Guess I don’t grow tall in a few second. So I walked to her, and whispered, “Can you help me to close it?!”

Please is part of my sentence structure but this time I left it out, because of the situation – it’s her job and she made no attempt to help.

She said, “what?” “Close the bin” I said. Thinking isn’t it obvious?!? “Are you ask me a favor?” She said. “No. I’m not.” I thought it’s her duty. Isn’t it dangerous to leave the bin door open while in the air? By now my husband is out of the bathroom, who closed it in a snap.

I remembered this attendant: when we met in the aisle before taking off, she coldly walked straight at me, as if I wasn’t there. How rude!

As I was walking away, she said, “if you ask for a favor, you should say please.” Is she teaching a kid, or talk down to a little old Chinese woman? Why did she consider closing the bin door a favor?

A few hours later, at breakfast, I asked for a supervisor. An attendant said, “what’s up?” I asked her if closing the overhead bin door, a part of their job? And what is that short hair attendant’s name. She said, “Ill talk to her in a minutes.”

“Ma’am, I’m asking you two straightforward questions.”

“I’ll talk to her in a minute.” The supervisor repeated.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“I’ll talk to her in a minute.”

Guess the supervisor’s name is I’ll talk to her in a minute.

What’s going on in the corporate America? No one wants to take any responsibility.

I guess their names are off limit too. So I took two photos (side and back) to identify the attendant and the ‘supervisor’ – I did ask another woman who assured me, the lady I was speaking with, is a supervisor.

… the flight attendant who won’t help to close the bin door and the supervisor I spoke with…

Unintentional, I’ve been flying – almost exclusively – with Delta for decades. Have been a satisfied customer. This kind of rude behavior is a first, actually is the first from any airline: leaving the overhead bin door open.

2024.6.20 I received the following reply:

Dear Irene Eng,

The FAA's Delta Airlines Certificate Management Office completed their investigation of your allegations in case AAE-EHL-20240217-443. The investigation did not substantiate that a violation of an order, regulation or standard of the FAA occurred related to Delta’s crewmember willingly refused to close an open overhead bin door while enroute, thus jeopardizing safety.

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

Sincerely, Federal Aviation Administration | Office of Audit and Evaluation |...

So I am bumping this up to a 5 again I flew from PHX to JFK and than on to SDQ - and back The Service on every flight was great. The food was good and the bet part all flights where on time.

I hope that my next flights to Germany will be as good as these. after my last flight I am changing my 5 Star Rating to a 3 Star. The only reason I give it a 3 Star and not a 2 or 1 is because of the Food, the great Onboard Service and how Mel handled my Situation. My recent Delta Airlines experience: Just like most Airlines Delta has turned into a disaster. Delay after delay. Mechanical problems. Delta Crews are rude and don't care about passengers when they are faced with delays and thus miss connecting flights and can't make it to the planned final destination. This delay made me miss my flight to Europe and in turn made me miss my Cruise. This entire trip has been a disaster. I guess Delta no longer gives a damn about the people that pay the bills. It appears to me that Delta keeps these schedules so tight without keeping in mind that people have connecting flights. When a flight is delayed and you miss the connection the entire vacation is effected and ruined. When you try to figure out what is going on you basically hear we don't care and that's your problem. Even the flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam was delayed and I almost missed my connecting flight. I am very disappointed with Delta.

I was put up for the night in Atlanta. I arrived at the Airport at 9am. I spend over 1 hour trying to get a flight to Europe. Mel at the Service counter did a great job. At 1st I was supposed to fly to Detroit but I suggested to Mel that I would be willing to wait in Atlanta to catch a flight rather than flying to another City. Mel made a few calls and was able to put me on a flight to Amsterdam on a Delta Flight. My flight was not until 8:20pm. It would have been nice to be able to use the Sky Lounge but he told me that this is not possible even though I booked a Delta One Ticket.

KLM never put my suite case on my flight - they left it in Amsterdam. This mistake cost me another day of my Vacation. I am not sure how this can happen that the Airline does not put the Suite case on the Plane.

Overall I am very disappointed in both Delta and KLM I love flying with Delta. The Service is implacable and the Food is very good. I have been flying with Delta for years and never had a bad experience. When I fly I always book Delta One - especially when I fly...

Ed Bastian the self congratulating and most in authentic man I have ever met.

An open letter to Delta Airlines and Ed Bastian. I dont appreciate the premise that a CEO can drive a large corporation of Investors and stakeholders driven by the CEOs values. Delta is an extremely poorly run organization under Ed.

Frankly, their IT infrastructure is a joke with several outages since Ed has taken the reigns. They reached out to me to become Chief Architect and I promptly turned the position down. If you don't believe in Deltas leadership or their service how can you work for them. As a software Innovator they also attempted to interview me with a bit that looked at facial gestures. It's funny that a company that literally has the worst backoffice IT I have ever personally witnessed is trying to interview executives they are begging to hire using a largely unproven technology that's proven to be biased.

Speak of biased, Ed recently went on a rant perching well up on his high horse defaming the NRA. Why? Because of the Parkland shootings. Now those of us that are more sophisticated in our thinking know one has nothing to do with the other statistically or logically. But Ed needs attention. His hackish and immature comments about not knowing their was an NRA discount then in moments of pathetic self congratulating nonsense Ed fights to overcome the horrible NRA and taking the lead in canceling the discount program.

Ed Bastian is CEO of Delta, an organization that lacks any sense of pride in cleaning its planes, with teams of unhappy and frankly worn out looking flight attendants. No that's not an age thing that's a reflective sign of how much they dislike their jobs. It's very clear the mood has changed since their previous CEO retired.

As a recently former Diamond and Platinum member for the better part of nine years I gave up on Delta and not just as a customer but as my New Years resolution and I am so. Much happier traveling today because of my decision.

It's amazing how disallusioned one can become with an airline with your tied to status.

Following are a few musings which I will publish over a multi part series.

I lovingly remember the First Class International flight I took on Delta to Spain. It started with the disgusting condition of the plane and was forced to take pictures of the food and garbage wedged between my seat and the interior panels of the plane. The fun didn't stop there wherein two stewardesses got into a fight that were serving its first class customers. I remember a pastry being thrown at one of the stewardesses and commensurate swearing ensued throughout the rest of the flight. After contacting the Office of the CEO I was given 1,000 miles in lieu of horrible and hostile service on a...