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.