Passenger “blown away” after Delta Air Lines waives $30 mileage transfer fee

Posted by

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this story.

In the olden days — before “no waivers, no favors” — fees were routinely overlooked by helpful ticket agents. But in the era of ancillary revenues, where airline employees are evaluated based on the amount of money they collect from passengers, even a few dollars can be cause for celebration.

And Sara Davis is celebrating. Delta forgave a $30 mileage transfer fee, an act that she says she’s “blown away” by.

She writes:

My husband and I recently booked a trip to Jackson, Wyo., from New York. When I checked online, I was thrilled to see that we could book flights on miles. Although he was a little short, the purchasing of enough miles was much less expensive than purchasing a full ticket.

To make a long story short, I booked my flight and then discovered I had the last remaining seat at that level of miles, necessitating the purchase of more miles. Lesson learned – what I should have done was call Delta and make sure there were two seats and booked them at the same time, rather than one at a time under our different accounts.

I’m used to traveling alone for business, what can I say?

Well, each time you transfer miles there is a surcharge. I completed the transactions and then wrote a letter to Delta explaining the whole process and asking if they would be willing to refund one of the $30 transaction fees. Just one – not all of them. Not an outrageous request.

I also explained that while I had managed to make Silver Medallion status the prior two years, my company had cut back on travel and I would not be qualifying for 2010, although I continued to fly Delta as often as possible.

Davis all but forgot about her request. Until yesterday. That’s when she received the following email from Delta:

I received your transfer transaction fee waiver request. While we do not normally refund these fees, we have decided to do this for you under the circumstances. The refund was processed today in the amount of $30 back to your original method of payment. It should take approximately 3-5 business days for you to see the refund. Please feel free to reach out to me if there are any problems with this process.

Thank you for your business and for your loyalty. We understand that travel plans are being cut back as a result of the economy, but hope that when you do fly you will continue to choose Delta.

What a nice gesture.

I think I’m laughing — and crying. Laughing, because it suggests there are people at Delta who want to make their customers happy. And who do.

And crying, because I remember a time when waiving a $30 fee was no big deal. We even expected it.

Ah, those were the days …

(Photo: ponte1112/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • http://www.roamingtales.com Caitlin

    Yeah $30 isn’t much but it’s a nice gesture. Thank goodness the people at my bank aren’t directly compensated based on how many fees they charge me.

  • Justin

    @ Chris,

    I think the crying you hear is the sound of the money often leaving our wallets in a single direction and flowing towards individuals who do not deserve it. Unfortunately, when all hop on the same boat, you really only got a choice of sink or swim. Glad to see Delta extended a kind gesture.

  • Madeline

    That’s hilarious, and nice of Delta. I wonder if it was just because of her Silver Medallion status and history of flying the airline? Over the course of a couple moves, I have changed from having “status” on Northwest to Continental to United over the last few years. Each time when I’ve lost my status, I started being treated like cargo, and when I gained status on the new airline, the perks (fee waivers, exceptions, vouchers, upgrades) came rolling in with ease. There’s definitely a large gap between how they treat status customers and regular customers.

  • Mort B

    I think Madeline is perhaps confusing ‘perks’ with ‘nice gestures’. If being a ‘status’ passenger doesn’t come with a few perks, then what’s the point of being ‘status’? Nice gestures, as in the case of Sara Davis, are not perks, but are just what the name implies, and can be extended to anyone, ‘status’ or not.

  • Madeline

    I wasn’t referring to formal benefits (like a separate boarding line), I was referring to informal perks or “nice gestures” that everybody complains is missing these days. When I’ve had status and asked, airlines have waived the $100 change fee on a non-refundable ticket, waived a $50 mileage transfer fee, changed my name on a ticket with no hassle (my friend who booked the ticket for me accidentally spelled my name Madeleine). Once I emailed to complain about a 12-hour flight delay, and the airline immediately replied with a $150 travel voucher. I was upset and wrote back saying this was not enough, and they replied with an additional $200 voucher and two free domestic upgrades. The kicker was that my friend who was also on this flight, who had no status with the airline, also emailed to complain and received nothing and a form letter in return (saying the delay was not the fault of the airline). These things don’t happen all of them time, but I would say maybe half the time I get the “nice gesture” without much aggravation when I have status. I have never – I am pretty sure not even once in my life – received any of these perks without first wanting to pull my hair out as a “non status” flyer.

    I’d be interested to hear if other people share these drastically different experiences as a status vs. non-status flyer. I always knew there were formal benefits to having status, but it seems like lately airlines will go above and beyond for “loyal” passengers while taking the extreme hard line on everyone else.