We recently booked business class travel through Delta. Delta sold us codeshare seats on KLM and Air France. The flights themselves went without a hitch, and we were especially impressed by the seats, food, beverage and service on Air France. To say we were unimpressed by Delta customer service is an understatement. Delta refused to help us when Air France downgraded us on a segment because they incorrectly coded our fare. And when our seats were separated they again refused to help us. Their indifference caused us to spend hours chasing after KLM and Air France. Their errors finally corrected by a friend who works in management at AF/KLM. We were ready to start migration of our loyalty to delta for long haul flights now that we’ve moved south from the sf Bay Area, but delta’s shamefully bad and indifferent customer service has disabused us of that idea. Use caution with delta if you do not have high status with them, even with a high value business class ticket your service lies in the hands of ignorant, disrespectful and unhelpful customer representatives. Moreover. Responses to complaints were met by AI responses that alternated between promising to make it up to us and saying we are sorry for wasting your time on your vacation but “tough luck”. So, beware of delta as they try to cultivate relationships with high value customers if you’ve yet to achieve status. Is there any precedence for getting compensation for poor customer service from Delta.
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
3270 posts
I have an equally "horrid" story on Air France, American, United and Virgin
Happens on all of them. Your luck was having a friend because otherwise AF is known for the gallic shrug.
Since you got what you paid for you might get a few skymiles from DL but you aren't really due any compensation. And of course telling an airline "we won't use you again" pretty much tells them 'why bother'?
Posted by
Northern Minnesota
1059 posts
When Air France left all our bags in Paris, Delta, as they should be, was very helpful.
Delta is probably not going to miss you any more than you will miss them.
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
18239 posts
Delta sold us codeshare seats on KLM and Air France. The flights
themselves went without a hitch, and we were especially impressed by
the seats, food, beverage and service on Air France.
Welcome to the RS forum -
I am confused. You say that the booked business-travel flights "went off without a hitch" and that you
pleased with Air France. Then you backtrack and say that "Delta refused to help us when Air France downgraded us on a segment because they incorrectly coded our fare. And when our seats were separated they again refused to help us."
These two narratives don't match up. How were you 'downgraded' other than your seats being separated? ? Were you both still in business class? How long was that flight segment?
As well, "Their errors finally corrected by a friend who works in management at AF/KLM." OK so the issue was addressed and resolved. So why are you asking for "...precedence for getting compensation for poor customer service from Delta."? What do you hope to get from them at this point?
Posted by
Duluth, MN🌲
12357 posts
I don't understand the complaint either. As others have pointed out, it sounds like your problem was rectified by a friend. Most of us don't have friends who work in management, so you were lucky.
Regardless, I have nothing but praise for Delta's customer service overall. Are there glitches occasionally? Sure, but really I haven't had any real problems. In fact, the last time I had a problem, which was when a flight was canceled at the last minute, they compensated me promptly and were extremely polite when they communicated with me.
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
10290 posts
I am guessing part of the confusion with this post is that the downgrade and subsequent time with customer service happened in the days prior to the flight, hence the flights went off without a hitch.
It must have been very stressful for the OP, let ff vent. It doesn’t hurt anything. However, it probably doesn’t impact anyone’s decisions about air travel.
Posted by
Lexington, KY (formerly Southeast US)
4703 posts
I'm curious when you contacted Delta about the downgrades. Delta was the "marketing airline" (the airline that sold the ticket); Air France was the "operating airline" (the airline whose airplane actually made the flight). At check-in (usually 24 hours prior to the flight), the marketing airline (in this case, Delta) hands off control of your ticket completely to the operating airline (Air France). At that point, the operating airline is 100% in control of seating, gaits, travel disruptions, and any customer service problems that arise related to the flights on the operating airline.
So, if you contacted Delta about the issue on the day of flight, Delta was unable to service your ticket. It's not a matter of Delta providing bad customer service; it's a matter of Delta physically being unable to do anything related to your ticket because it was under the control of Air France. This process is not unique to Delta; it's how all marketing airline/operating airline relationships are set up.
If you contacted Delta about the issue on the day of the flight, no compensation is warranted because Delta had no control over the situation. But, hey, if you want to ask for compensation, they may throw 1,000 or 2,000 SkyMiles your way.
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
7355 posts
Perhaps a benefit of the doubt is on order if code share tickets are something the OP has not encountered before. Even though code shares have been around for nearly 40 years. Before making a similar purchase in the future, the OP might want to educate themselves on the peculiarities of the system; especially which airline is responsible for what at different stages.