I recently heard from someone looking for help getting a promised reimbursement from Delta. A mother and daughter booked the airline to fly from Kalispell, Montana to Orlando via Minneapolis. They were headed to see their dying father and grandfather. He has since passed away.
The Kalispell flight diverted to Sioux Falls. Crew timed out, and they were offered rebooking a full day later. However, they suggested renting a car and received written assurance that Delta would cover the cost. This was a weather diversion so the Delta wouldn’t have been required to do this.
The mother drove through the night with her eight year old to reach Minneapolis in order to connect onward to Florida. They managed to have that last visit.
After the trip, Delta declined her reimbursement and told her that “all reimbursement requests are up for review. Airport Staff or Support Agents cannot guarantee the process unless they’re the ones providing reimbursement.”
The family told me they’d never have spent the money on the car if they hadn’t been promised reimbursement, since they weren’t in a position to cover the expense.
At the end of the day Delta wasn’t required to cover expenses for the weather diversion. And the car rental was costly! But they told the customer they’d have their back – and I thought that the passengers should be able to rely on that.
I reached out to Delta, they had a look at the correspondence with the customer, and let me know they would honor the reimbursement.
We’re proceeding with getting the customer reimbursed for her costs…It is an exception to what we would usually do given the weather-driven diversion that delayed her travel but we are going to honor it given what she was told.
We apologize to her for the back and forth and offer her and her family condolences for their recent loss.
That’s a great outcome, and Delta is really being a stand up company here. The passengers were caught with front line customer service looking at the details of the flight, and applying standard policy. But once we got beyond that, Delta immediately knew the right thing to do. I was told unequivocally, “Delta does not want our customers to experience being told one thing and then find out later it’s not true in any circumstance.”
Maybe the most interesting thing to me about this case is that it didn’t come from a regular reader. When they contacted me they told me “Chat GPT said you may be able to help.” So score this as a win for AI! It knew that I often do my best to intercede to help travel companies that want to provide great customer service cut through some of the clutter. It predicted I’d be someone that would respond and make the right connection to get them taken care of. The AI was right!
I love a happy ending… (giggity)
@ Gary — How is Delta being a stand up company when they didn’t honor their word without your involvement?
But lets be honest, would Delta had done anything if a prominant industry blogger hadn’t reached out? Of course not, Delta just knew it was cheaper in the long run to pay the rental than deal with a PR headache. There is no reason to put them up for sainthood.
@Ron — Though, maybe the new Pope (from Chicago) would consider Gary! Praise! (I know, I know… ‘the tribe,’ but still, even as an honorary…)
writing this as a thanks … a huge compliment, Gary, the Google computers that decide what’s credible on all the internet, rank it, chose your work as the one to be mentioned over all the others. I used to write/voice breaking news, I’m guessing it was close to what you do: selecting 4-6 topics a day, keeping tabs on updates, working other industry news for tomorrow, traveling, watching posts, managing the Company … readers have no idea what’s involved. Molly Ivins swore the unofficial City Motto for Austin (back in the Day) was: “Let’s knock off early and have a beer!” Always a good idea …
Maybe the grandpa was a fan and dircted them. Thank you for helping them out.
I am, perhaps naively, surprised by this exchange.
How could a customer be expected to know the limits of authority of an employee corresponding with her?
My opinion: Unless, perhaps, an employee offered something clearly outrageous, the employer should honor the commitment made and educate/the employee.
@Hall Decker — Well said. I trust Gary’s posts over the shills at TPG any day. Keep decking the halls!
So, she would not have rented a car to see her dying father one last time if she had to pay herself because she couldn’t afford it?
I’m not buying that.
The bigger issue is that Delta had no intention of honoring their word until a well-known blogger got involved. Just goes to show Delta says a lot, but does little unless it means poor publicity. How incredibly Delta…
How shameful
If I am reading this correctly, the importance of the final meeting with grandpa was a function of the cost of a rental car. Sorry grandpa.
@1990 — Beat me to it again! Giggity indeed.
Bless you, Gary. A Mitzvah done with kindness and compassion. as it is supposed to be. Trolls are the opposite of kindness and compassion.
Congratulations! That’s a great story and a great compliment for your work.
@ Joanne — How, so compassionate.
You just know the person who told them they’d get reimbursed got a “talking to”…
Joanne,
Gary said that the unplanned one-way car rental from Sioux Falls to Minneapolis “was costly!”. (using an exclamation point)
People are compelled to make choices against what their hearts desire. Buying the airline tickets might have already stretched her resources to the breaking point. She may have decided that going further into debt or being unable to pay for rent or groceries was sadly not prudent for her family.
While you and I might not face that constraint, I see no reason to question her honesty.
Smart move by Delta.
It paid for the rental car and received positive publicity on this blog. Willing to bet the ROR on the money is higher than the money it spends paying IG or TikTok influencers.
Gary, This story brought a tear to my eyes. I’ve long thanked you for bringing us content impossible or hard to find anywhere else. But this is on a whole other level. Thanks for sharing — and caring! Mike
Very nicely done, Gary. A great kindness to those in need.
Do not give Delta any credit for providing the promised reimbursement only after they had a public spotlight shone on how egregious their behavior was. A customer needing to reach out to the media to force a corporation to fulfill a writen agreement is not a feel good story, its only proof of how low the bar is set.
I have had several similar experiences where delta chat rep promises something only to be told that delta will not honor that or that it was a different department and others at delta could not honor. I am glad to see delta sticking by this. They should either train reps better or be prepared to honor what they commit to on deltas behalf.