Delta Air Lines Inc — Local services in College Park

Avoid Delta – A Nightmare of Delays, Abandonment, and Zero Accountability

Booking reference: GDHAB8

My partner’s experience with Delta Airlines was nothing short of disgraceful — a catalogue of delays, abandonment, and total failure to uphold basic customer care, rights, and decency. Both legs of her international journey were marred by unacceptable treatment that left her stranded, stressed, and significantly out of pocket.

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Outbound Journey (Charleston to Boston to London) – June 15 to 17, 2025 Her first Delta flight from Charleston to Boston (DL5938) was delayed due to staffing issues. Because of this, she missed her international connection to London (KL7439), which was booked on the same itinerary.

She was passed from terminal to terminal in Boston Airport, queuing five separate times before a security guard finally pointed her to the correct rebooking desk. At that desk, the Delta representative initially refused to help until she insisted on an explanation. Only then was it admitted that the delay was due to the pilot being unavailable.

She received no food, water, or support for over four hours. She was finally put in a hotel and rebooked for a flight 24 hours later, arriving in London a day late and missing scheduled plans we were unable to recover or refund.

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Return Journey (London to JFK to Charleston) – June 27 to 28, 2025 The second half of the journey was just as chaotic. While mid-air from London to JFK (KL6128), she received a text informing her that her connecting flight (DL5196) had been cancelled. Despite being rebooked via Atlanta the next morning, she still landed at JFK on the original flight — hours before her rebooked departure.

At JFK, she waited in line for over three hours, only to be told to call a Delta number instead. After calling, she was instructed to go back into the terminal and queue for another three and a half hours. She eventually received a hotel room and meal voucher — by which point it was midnight, and she had spent nearly ten hours without food or water, completely alone in a chaotic airport.

To make matters worse, during that time she was harassed and followed by a male stranger, adding real fear to what was already a dangerous and degrading experience.

She finally got home the next day — a full 18 hours late, missing a day of work and incurring more travel costs.

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Delta’s Failure of Duty Delta failed on multiple fronts: • No proactive support during delays • No adequate care at airports (despite their Customer Service Plan commitments) • Delays that fall clearly under EU and UK EC261 compensation law • Complete disregard for passenger wellbeing

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Lack of Transparency or Access to Support Delta has made it nearly impossible to raise a formal complaint properly: • Their online complaint form only allows you to submit one flight segment, which is useless for connected itineraries • There is no email contact and they refuse to discuss complaints or compensation by phone • I have been forced to print and post my complaint by mail, which delays any resolution and adds further out-of-pocket costs

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In short, Delta abandoned my partner twice, failed in their legal and moral obligations, and created a deeply traumatic experience. I strongly urge others to avoid flying with them — especially if you are relying on connections or need responsive...

Shockingly bad experience. The gate agent in RDU forced my mother to check her bag at the gate or “not get on the flight”.

Then she arrives in ATL and waits at the carousel for 30 minutes before going to ask for help. One guy really tried to help by calling down in the back and looking around for about 15 minutes. The next step was talking with a service agent. Since they couldn’t find the bag below and I had already circled the airport about 6 or 7 times, one person offered to let her file a claim for missing baggage. She began filing the claim when a second agent comes over to interfere and tell her she can just wait for another 20 minutes and see what happens before filing a claim. It had been over an hour at this point. However the first agent had some courage and basically told the other agent to mind her own business.

I fly with Delta exclusively, so this really shocked me but I’ve heard from a lot of colleagues and friends their customer service has been on the decline recently.

So, the fun part. She files a claim, we are driving to my house and when we are nearly home 45 minutes or so later, she gets a notification that her bag is at the carousel. No big deal at this point because it should be being delivered today from their shuttle service. This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with this so we thought it was inconvenient but fine enough.

The day goes on and we don’t hear anything so she calls the number on the claim they ticket they gave her, which is only to an automated service thing that keeps telling her her bag is at the carousel. We called back again and said “speak to agent” probably 25 times before finally getting through to customer service (22 minutes of waiting for that). Finally someone answers and says yes it at the carousel still. Transfers us over the baggage (another wait).

I’d been on the fence about dropping my delta cc because of recent changes to the “perks” which basically no longer exist. Now, after hours and hours of trying to work with Delta I completely empathize with so many others, and I probably will drop the card.

Who knows if we’ll actually...

12-20-21

And this is where Delta shows its sometimes ugly face...

I don't have an airline preference. I have had great experiences with Delta, particularly at smaller airports, but here in Atlanta the past maybe 10 times I've flown here, the inconsistencies are evident.

Flight delayed for 6 or so (in total) hours because of mechanical issue. Ok. I get it. Not the first time issues have happened and won't be. They just can't magically repair a plane or get a new one. We sat on a plane, at the gate, for two hours and were then asked to get off. All we were told is that there "is no solution currently." Again, fine. But then...

Upon disembarking, no employees in sight. Nada. I would equate it to asking someone to leave, locking the door behind them, with no house in the neighborhood having folks home. You then have to go to a different neighborhood altogether to speak to someone. It was like this for maybe an hour. So a plane full of folks are sitting around this gate with no employees around. None. After wondering about the rest of my itinerary, people, including myself, sometimes have to take initiative.

I walked for maybe 20 minutes in total to the end of the terminal (it's huge) to find a Delta employee at any gate, much less close to my original gate. Where did everyone go? No one was offered flight options, food vouchers, nothing. It's like we got off and the employees walked away with a, "Bye, find your way." I had to beg for food vouchers, and ask about flight options. Employee was burdened by my asking (I wasn't confrontational). Where did basic customer service and common sense go? I get machines have issues. But just abandoning a plane full of customers, having them sit there for an hour, and not giving them options is a head scratcher.

Delta, you are potentially great, but the past few go-rounds here in Atlanta, you clearly have taken a...