Delta Airlines

If I could write a letter to Delta Airlines customer service, it would go something like this:

Dear Delta,
I have a few tips for you that might help you in the customer service department. I have noticed that you have ranked at the bottom for customer service among airlines out there, and seeing as I have spent several years in the customer service industry, I thought I might have a few pointers to help you out.

1. When you say that you have a flight at 2:25pm every day, it is helpful to schedule an airplane to be at the gate at 2:25pm to actually make the flight. One thing that will really make your ratings tank is when people check in two hours early for their 2:25pm flight only to get to the gate and realize that it is not actually leaving until 3:15pm, or 4:30pm, or worse yet, 6:30pm. That doesn't sit well with anyone. So, do yourself a favor and make sure there's an airplane available at 2:25pm to take these people where they want to go.

2. Staffing, staffing, staffing!! I can't stress this enough. Staff your airports adequately. Running 3 flights back to back out of the same gate because there isn't enough staff to run 2 departure gates is unacceptable. Also, unacceptable is when 3 spaced out flights become 3 back to back flights because of delays. See point 1.

3. When there is a gate change, for the love of God, announce it. And get the airport to change the gate number on the monitors, just in case someone missed your unintelligible loudspeaker announcement.

4. People are paying lots of money to check their bags. When the bag arrives with a wheel missing and the pull handle broken, it doesn't look good for you. Just sayin'. If I was paying $60 to check my bag and it was all busted up when it came back, I'd be pretty upset. (Not my bag by the way, although you did manage to tear one of the zipper pulls off my expensive Travelpro suitcase. Not sure how you managed that one.)

5. Passengers traveling with lap babies who check their car seats actually need those car seats on the other end of their travels in order to leave the airport. You see, we cannot just say "Oh, well, I'll come back and pick it up." Our babies need to be in those car seats in order to travel. Next time you leave my car seat behind you can babysit my child for seven hours at the airport while my husband and I go out to dinner and to a movie. We will be back later to pick him up after all. Another note on car seats... Having many different types of loaner seats will ensure that you don't end up with babysitting duty. Offering me an infant seat for my 25lb. 2 year old isn't going to cut it.

6. Standard Operating Procedure (as well as common curtesy) suggests that if you do perchance leave my car seat behind, it should arrive on the next flight. I should not have to request that you write a letter to the ground crew at the Minneapolis airport and ask them pretty please with a cherry on top to send the car seat on the next flight out. It should automatically be there. Just in case this isn't SOP for Delta, your baggage agents, or ticketing agents, or whoever handles the claim should be smart enough to realize that they need to request that the car seat be on the next flight. Many times the passenger doesn't know there needs to be a written request posted, so they won't ask for it. Don't assume that just because they don't ask for it means they don't want it. Again, common sense, people. I'm pretty sure the frazzled mother with the screaming toddler would LOVE to have her $300 car seat back as soon as possible.

7. Lastly, when something does go wrong, APOLOGIZE to your customers! Don't treat them like it's their fault the airplane had a mechanical problem in Timbuktu and so is 5 hours late getting to MSP. Because I'm POSITIVE that one of your passengers booked on the MSP to ICT flight flew to Timbuktu and sabotaged the aircraft. Doesn't everyone want to spend more time in the airport??

I hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Sarah

(Of course I could never actually write this letter. After all, I'm just a non-rev.)