Scarsdale 10583

No matter how many bad airline stories you have heard, this one will shock you. Longtime Greenacres residents Bill and Susan Liebman were vacationing with their family in California last week when they learned that Susan’s only brother had passed away in Detroit. They made arrangements with Delta Airlines to fly from LAX to Detroit, as Delta is the only airline that flies direct between those two cities. They inquired about using Delta’s bereavement fares, which are advertised as a 50% discount off the regular rates, reserved seats and thought they were set to attend the funeral. But this was not to be – due to the airlines incompetence, cold heartedness and benign neglect they never made it to Detroit.

Grief over their loss quickly turned to frustration and anger when they arrived at the airport for their flight, only to learn that due to an error by the reservation agent on the phone, they had been booked on an earlier flight that had already left. Furthermore, though there was another flight that night, the clerk would not allow them to board the plane While they made desperate appeals for help the plane left for Detroit without them –in spite of the fact that there were seats available. Stunned, they missed the funeral and had to watch a stream of the service on a laptop computer.

The Liebman’s daughter, Jessica, is the Managing Editor of the website Business Insider and wrote an account of her parent’s harrowing tale with Delta on the site.

She agreed to let us share it with you here.

Comments (5)

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written by Amelia, August 29, 2012

In reading this, I am reminded that no matter how big a business may be, it really comes down to the individuals with whom we interact. It is appalling that Delta's employees were not interested in solving the problem, no matter how it originated. From the first call asking for a bereavement fare to the final missed flight, it appears that no one felt empowered to fix this. Delta should know that they are only as good as the people who interact with their customers.

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written by flyer, August 29, 2012

A lot of pro active things that could have been done here:
1. When you need to get there, you be proactive. You buy 2 refundable tickets on the 11pm flight, you clear security. Then, with a backup plan, you use the 2 hours to clear up the problem. You call the 800 number and escalate, you don't wait in a line that doesn't move. (If you are a true seasoned traveler, you tweet @DeltaAssist, but leisure travelers don't know that).

2. What everyone else said. When it's important, you check. And you check-in on line or by telephone, etc.

3. "Guess what happened to my friends" isn't exactly a news story. Nor should it be told in the friend-centric way that this one was told. ("Harrowing tale"? When you say "harrowing tale" and "airplane", do you really think of this story).

Like everyone else, I feel badly for these people. Clearly they are not seasoned travelers (not their fault) and were under stress. But because they were not seasoned, they did not know how to escalate or employ self-help. As a result, they were left helpless.

But they do have a daughter and a friend in the media business. So that's why we're reading about it.

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written by BigWill, August 29, 2012

In my view, if you choose to book the last possible flight, which is what they did, you didn't try very hard to get there. Weather happens, crew problems happen, mechanical breakdowns happen. Furthermore, it is no longer considered wise to make major purchases on a handshake, which is basically what the customer did when he did not bother to look at the contract he had made. (He never verified his itinerary -- he didn't have it emailed, didn't log into Delta's website to confirm it, and didn't call into the automated system to check it or he would have known he was booked on an earlier flight.)

The airline's hands aren't completely clean here, particularly in not accommodating them once they arrived after a missed flight. But the entire situation WAS avoidable with very little effort.

The headline ought to be "If you make high risk decisions and don't verify your purchases, then predictable airline screwups will have magnified consequences."

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written by Conrad Peter, August 28, 2012

I don't buy it, either. No attempt at objectivity.

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written by Mike, August 28, 2012

I don't blame the airline for this one, The couple made a mistake booking the wrong flight, or not confirming the correct flight. The reservations are available for review on the internet or by email. If they show up at the airport and are frustrated and angry, they are not going to get much help. The gate agents are busy and if someone asks nicely, they are more likely to be helpful. I can't believe they would allow a flight to leave with empty seats. This sounds like an exaggeration to make the airline look bad. Sorry, I'm not buying it.

I am sorry for their loss.

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