A Delta Air Lines passenger felt abandoned at the gate during the carrier’s meltdown over the weekend. They appear to be delayed with no staff anywhere. So he takes matters into his own hands – using the gate PA handset to summon help:
“Delta associates that aren’t paying attention, please come to 30B.”
He repeatedly asks Delta staff to come to 30B because “you have a customer waiting.” “Delta, Delta, is anybody working?” At least he’s not yelling at an actual employee, not trying to open a jet bridge door, and not threatening anyone.
That is one creative way to get some help. I wonder if it backfired though. If I worked for Delta I’d just laugh it off. pic.twitter.com/hvChpc29KQ
— Suzee Q (@SusieM414141) May 2, 2026
Delta of course has been having several rough days operationally. 30B suggests to me that this may be LAX, and I’ve flown Delta from there a several times recently but it doesn’t match my recollection of the gate area. What do you think?
Grabbing the PA and using it as a passenger is generally dumb, but I feel for him. The airline’s operation isn’t operating, and there’s no one to help. Passengers do this all the time, too.
In the fall, passengers were stranded at Chicago O’Hare. Customer service desks were empty, since American had stopped staffing those. And one passenger grabbed the PA and announced, “Terminal K… please send somebody here. You can’t be that inept.”
A couple of years ago a late-arriving passenger commandeered the PA in New Orleans to demand that the gate be re-opened. That customer wasn’t dealing with disservice or abandonment – they were trying to get onto a flight after boarding had closed.
@kieraadavisss Never a dull moment when traveling #delta #neworleans #airport ♬ original sound – Kiera
And after a Spirit Atlanta – Detroit five hour delay where gate agents shut the boarding door to block rowdy passengers, one passenger took control of the PA to call for a supervisor. Pro wrestler Matt Riddle grabbed a gate microphone during a delay at New York JFK and shouted about when the plane would leave.
It’s more likely to get a law enforcement response than better customer service, but there’s also a decent chance there’s no one around to report it. And it makes the passenger feel like they’re doing something in a situation where they otherwise have no control.
Typical for this ‘airline’ that just keeps failing. New rankings are out and they fell from 1st to 6th in reliability also. With a massive meltdown coming, as there is no end in sight to their horrid IT and planning, one suspects they will keep losing money as they did first quarter. Last week, their own hometown newspaper did a great piece on their struggles. The hits keep coming in ATL sadly…
That was a PREMIUM Delta Air Lines customer focused public address announcement.
Who knew? American Airlines is improving and Delta is declining.
While it’s frustrating is this worth being taken off the flight, denied travel and having the cops come to escort you off the airport property? Depending how far the authorities wanted to take this he could have been trespassed from the airport. And there’s not another airport at New Orleans.
I’m extremely excited to get the optimized Spirit Airlines experience on “premium” Delta Airlines.
Delta really needs to step up with its BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) offerings. I mean, Delta has corporate travel office employer-paid or hopelessly wealthy travel at the pointy end, and then there’s the out-of-pocket leisure travel for the rest of us.
I see that all the metal, that is, all the old Spirit aircraft, are headed to be recycled (repurposed) to capitalist-friendly Vietnam.
Meanwhile, the tech-savvy travelers are searching the dark web for cheap post-Spirit opportunities.
I’m also looking at JetBlue options. I flew JetBlue once: I timely got from Point A to Point B; but, the service was amatuerish. And JetBlue routes don’t jive with my life.
Is Amtrak really the best alternative travel mode?
Don’t worry, Ed will be stopping by to walk over stranded customers as he boards his non rev flight to Paris.
Premium SOP.
@Captain Freedom — Sorry, Ed is still swimming in his $100,000,000 incentive package, like Scrooge McDuck in the vault with the gold coins… let them eat Biscoff!
@BigTee the way things are going, soon all U.S. airlines will be bankrupt except UA and DL, which will merge and be Amtrak of the skies. It will be mediocre at best and will turn into domestic-only as people choose foreign airlines for international flights.
@JonC
I’ve been telling Tim Dunn for weeks now DL has peaked and is falling fast. He’s been in meltdown mode as well.
A premium melt down at Delta
Jim
no one expects you to accurately handle data but DL’s 6th place was for cancellation rate. and that 6th place was above average for the industry and the average was pulled down because of AA’s massive number of cancellations.
DL was 4th in ontime.
reliability isn’t just about on-time and cancellation rates
UA was 8th in baggage handling, up just one place from 2025; speaks volumes about how unreliable UA’s baggage handling is that they can’t seem to want to fix it – apparently they don’t care
And UA’s regional jet on-time and cancellation rates are far worse than for mainline. Apparently UA is happy to have an inferior RJ operation – even as UA keeps adding RJ flights.
and don’t forget that DL ended up the most profitable airline and still led the industry in operational stats for 2024 when DL “melted down” because of CrowdStrike.
We have data for one month out of 12. I know you and others love to kick your heels up hoping that DL is falling from its pedestal but let’s wait to see what the rest of the data says.
including UA’s baggage handling.
I will bet DL will fix its staffing problems long before UA hits the top tier for baggage handling and RJ operations
Spectrum Boy was triggered by Georgia Klan Air’s failing and falling numbers. Is your dafe space in 36D? That AJC article and this most recent meltdown must really have you a sad. Not sure what UA has to do with me or the most recent of DL’s many meltdowns but that seems to be your coping mechanism. Such feckless and inane drivel doesn’t bother me. My highest U.S. status is Executive Platinum on AA but facts are facts when it comes to this ATL meltdowns. Poor Glen too .
Why do you call his PA announcement “DUMB”. No available employees has become PERVASIVE. Obviously, he had enough and vented his frustration.
When do you say “ Enough is Enough”?
Jim
Glen has left the building and he didn’t run operations even when he was here.
And if AA is your target, they performed far worse than DL for Jan
If UA is your target, then they selectively outperformed DL – but selectively is how their leadership and social media plan works.
WN is running the best operation of the big 4 but they can’t yet convince enough people that they are competitive in product w/ the big 3.
The only person on the spectrum is you. l
I am tracking the center line