A long-time reader shared their experience flying Delta this past weekend from Dallas to Detroit. They’re a Diamond Medallion member, and they were flying on a paid first class ticket. When they boarded the narrowbody jet, they discovered that their seat had no tray table. It was missing, “so I can’t eat, drink or do work with my computer.”
In his opinion, he should have been given another seat in the cabin. There was one passenger upgraded at the gate. That shouldn’t have happened. The tray table was taped off, so Delta was aware of the issue prior to boarding. And he thought – and asked a flight attendant – maybe this could be addressed?
Flight attendants agreed with me but the gate agent wouldn’t call maintenance or hold the flight for it to be fixed. I asked for a red jacket. He refused to downgrade the one passenger who got a complimentary upgrade and put me in that seat.
Delta ‘red coats’ are elite customer service agents distinguished by their red jackets. They are trained to handle complex passenger issues, including rebooking flights, issuing compensation, and providing assistance to passengers with disabilities.
And, the passenger shared, the red coat made clear that Delta policy “is that [a passenger is] entitled to a seat, not a tray table and not anything else.”
So what should have happened?
- Delta should have dealt with this prior to boarding
- They could have taken the seat out of service (and reassigned the affected passenger to the remaining open seat)
- Or they could have offered the tray-less seat as an upgrade under less than ideal conditions, letting the customer being upgraded know about its condition and being given a choice as to whether to accept it or not.
But Delta isn’t going to just offload the passenger that received the first class upgrade. Once seated, there are Devid Dao rules about that. However, airlines do have involuntary downgrade procedures because it’s possible an agent makes a mistake and upgrades someone in error or passengers board and find that a seat is in a condition where the airline isn’t permitted to have someone fly in it.
The real issue here is that airlines advertise a specific product, but in their fine print only promise transportation. They sell customers something better than standard coach. Delta in particular sells themselves as ‘premium’.
However, when the airline fails to deliver they say they owe you nothing because they transported you. For instance, first class promises a meal (on flights over a certain length). American Airlines has said they don’t actually have to provide it. When a customer complained that their flight didn’t get the promised meal in first class, American said “Our ticket price reflects the cost of transportation. Any meals and snacks served on our flights are considered complimentary conveniences.”
It’s like the eBay seller that promises something they aren’t allowed to sell, but claims they’re really only selling “a white envelope” and the contents of that envelope are just a free gift.
People often blame deregulation for problems with airlines, but that misunderstands the issue. Many problems actually stem from the Airline Deregulation Act itself, but it’s not lack of rules in the industry. Airlines are one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has interpreted the Airline Deregulation Act’s pre-emption of state-level regulation of schedules and pricing to also mean that most common law tort claims against airlines are pre-empted as well.
While myriad federal rules for airlines have largely grown over the past 46 years, regulation via tort is lacking. Customers have a much harder time suing an airline. Airlines are no longer subject to common law duties of good faith and fair dealing.
@ Gary — The tray table is now unbundled. Please swipe to release.
Did you really think they were going to hold the flight and fix the tray table? Dude, you’re not that important.
One underappreciated thing about holding airlines accountable is the situation in the US when the carrier is a foreign carrier. If they are one of the overseas carriers with no US agent for service there is apparently no economic way to sue them, even in the cases where you can.
One example is Iberia. They downgraded me to coach from business and first of all refused any adjustment in the fare. I found that unbelievable, and after going through the “usual channels” got a derisory points refund. A DoT complaint got a tiny adjustment in that. Suing them would have required filing in Madrid or London. I was quoted $6,500 by a commerical servicer.
The passenger can hold their pre-departure and in-flight beverages in their hand.
Problem solved.
Lower expectations, then you won’t be as disappointed. No one is coming to save you. The law is not going to help. Your best bet is to roll with the punches, turn the other cheek, de-escalate, document any issues, then request ‘goodwill’ via customer service later, probably 5,000 SkyPesos for your troubles. That’s where we’re at in late-2024. Moving forward, things are not looking good for ‘consumer protection’ either. Safe travels everyone. Do svidaniya, comrades!
I agree with Eileen the long time “reader” must be FNT Delta Diamond. That person is obsessed with and despises everything Delta does, probably because he feels like a Hub captive having to transit through DTW
His mistake is the belief that Delta International is a “premium” airline company. It is not — they can hardly provide the basics.
I traveled a few years ago First Class to South America and was served as a FC meal a bowl of noodles with Hunt’s catsup squirted on top, and the FC steward sealed himself behind the curtain in the galley for the entire flight — I could hear his thumbs frantically pressing buttons on his telephone. I had to ring him every goddamned hour for a refill of my coca-cola, and boy did I get the stink eye from that stinker.
Just sit in Economy like Timothy Chalamet — then when you are expecting basic transportation without any “conveniences” you’ll never be disappointed.
“Premium” missing seat tray…
This is exactly why airlines are (mostly) exempt from tort laws. Despite that you think it is somehow wrong. Any business in fact that is simply providing a service, rather than a product, and does so as to a contract or agreement, should be free of $2 contingency lawyers attacking them for any tiny thing so long as the service got them from point A to Point B and was delivered. If airlines were somehow subjected to tort laws as a regular course they would cease to exist. Every little thing would become fair game for contingency lawyers to go after, like your tray table not working. Sorry, Gary, as much as I know you would love to see tort laws become a thing for airline passengers, it would destroy the industry. Oh, I assume give you, as an attorney, great riches in the process.
Can’t work on your computer? Why not? It’s called a a laptop, ta traytop.
Can’t work on your computer? Why not? It’s called a laptop, not a traytop.
Detroit to Dallas, not sure that would even qualify for a meal. If it’s a snack basket service this person could either deal with it (I don’t use the tray table for snacks) or take a seat in the back where he/she would get a tray table. Airplanes aren’t perfect and at some point a decision needs to be made as to what should delay a flight, above no fly items, and what shouldn’t. Even I’d still take the seat if a meal was served.
Yes, so I pay for FC so drinks and food if you say, i expect. If you let me off the plane to get food, that is different. A tray table isn’t important unless I am eating
Got to read that premium fine print.
Whether the longtime reader deserved another accommodation or not – I think a good rule is never to ask for another passenger to be downgraded once that passenger is sat in his/her seat. If you are trying to get other passengers downgraded, you are behaving like a spoiled brat
I don’t think it is unreasonable that Delta should have taken this seat out of service and not upgraded the one passenger. The passenger impacted by the broken seat should have been re-booked into the one empty seat.
@George N Romey: Yes, it’s a meal flight.
@Eileen: Yes, it was me.
I had the *exact* same experience on a 1.5 hour United flight. They comped me a $200 travel credit. I was happy.
Delta is now on my no-fly list.
There was a story in 2023 (not sure if I read it here or another blog) about a customer who booked flight and specifically chose the flight due to the lie-flat seat. Plane was swapped and he received a premium seat that wasn’t lie-flat.
He complaint and airline’s response was “your ticket promised you transport and service from A to B in a (name of product) seat. You received what we promised.”
I booked the first class ticket for $3,100 bucks one way. Had to cancel. Delta kept the money and put an expiration date on it.
I sent a letter to Ed Bastian I told him that if he was working the customer service counter at Walmart and a customer brought back a $3,000 item and he had to tell the customer that they were not going to get their money back and their credit would expire he would most likely get the snot beat out of him. I also told him Delta’s new slogan should be “your Skymiles don’t expire but your money does.”
A few days later I had a credit of 3,100 on my AmEx account.
I am the voice of dissent, I guess. No matter how “important” or “entitled” you perceive a passenger to be, he is on a PAID ticket and pays the salary of those flight attendants and red coats who can’t be bothered to address his issue. Now, we KNOW that they aren’t going to fix the issue, but a paid passenger should be reaccommodated into the operable seat before the upgrade. So many of these comments are willing to let corporations get away with less than adequate service and product. If he wanted to be uncomfortable and unproductive, he would have flown Frontier.
Makes you wonder how some people make it through the day?
“Shit happens!”
There are people dealing with real problems,…like losing everything they have from recent weather events.
So your tray table is broken, and can’t be fixed in time inorder to protect the on-time departure of a flight.
“Get off your high horse!”
Sorry,…I have no tears for you.
Good grief! Stop bitching about this First World problem. What takes the cake, is that you’d expect them to delay the flight to fix it, or downgrade someone. Get a life!
Die hard Delta flyer here… I had this exact same thing happen to me last year when I had a paid first class ticket from Miami Florida to Seattle Washington and the tray table was non-existent… And true to form, Delta employees both at the gate and on the aircraft refused to validate the seriousness of the issue which meant that I couldn’t work on my laptop on the flight and had to eat my dinner on my lap… But I reached out to customer service when I got home and they made sure that I was well compensated for the inconvenience… And to me that’s the Delta difference, in situations like this they often don’t get it right, but on the back end, on more than one occasion they have always come through and made it right. No other US carrier gets it right 90% to 95% of the time and then compensates in the 5% to 10% of the time they don’t get it right.
It’s not the advertised product. This wouldn’t happen on China Airlines, Singapore Airlines, or Vietnam Airlines. Why do US airlines suck so much compared to pretty much everywhere else?
@Aaron: Correct.
How many of the people who made the snarky comments fly? Have ever paid for Comfort+, First class or better?
Yes, everybody on the flight has paid one way or another for transportation from point A to point B.
One has to pay more for certain comforts and I believe it’s a reasonable to expect those comforts to be in place.
Just in the last month, I have flown first class, Delta, comfort, and basic coach. Flying is not fun to begin with, but having to hold your drink for hours on end and you’re empty glass until they come and pick it up.?
If all it was about was transportation from point A to point B all of the seats sizes, legroom, etc… would be exactly the same.
Yeah, No, not the case.
In the end, I hope you did somehow get compensated.
Attitude is so important. Delta FAs and other personnel who deal with customers can soothe or irritate the souls of disappointed or disgruntled passengers. I’m reminded of the famous remark in “Cool Hand Luke”: “What We’ve Got Here is Failure to Communicate”.
I’ve no solution because I can’t get FAs and others to treat others as they’d like to be treated. I doubt even their unions can do that. Pity.
I realize stuff like this happens, but I expect generous compensation when it does. I usually get it if I am polite and persistent.