DELTA AIR LINES

Which airline passengers drive you the craziest?

As any new parent knows, air travel with young kids isn’t always easy. But few experiences come close to the Suelings’ Thanksgiving flight from Westchester County to Atlanta on Delta Air Lines.

After the family boarded, their children, ages 3 and 1 1/2, began “crying, screaming and hitting,” according to Christopher Sueling. His wife, Melissa, tried to calm her baby by nursing her, but it didn’t work.

“The flight attendants were just standing there, looking pissed off,” he says.

The jet taxied out to the runway, but then stopped and returned to the gate. The Suelings were told to get off the plane and that they needed to write to Delta if they wanted their money back. They even took a snapshot (see image, above) to document their ejection.
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Bitten by bugs on my Delta Air Lines flight to New York

Patricia Sweeney says she suffered multiple insect bites on a recent Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to New York. “The bites were most likely bed bugs or fleas,” she says. “I had a severe reaction to them and developed an infection.”

But that wasn’t the worst part. Sweeney, who later that day made a connection to another Delta flight to Shannon, Ireland, notified her flight crew about the bites. She says they gave her three choices:
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The painful truth about luggage fees your airline doesn’t want you to know

We got yet another painful reminder of how fee-crazy the airline industry has become when this video clip went viral yesterday. As if we needed one.

In it, two soldiers returning from Afghanistan describe how Delta Air Lines charged the 34 men in their unit more than $2,800 in excess baggage fees. The disclosure outraged many and forced the airline to issue a rare public apology.

But behind the incident is a truth the airline industry in general, and Delta in particular, would probably prefer you don’t know: Airline are not really sorry they charge for luggage. In fact, they depend on luggage fees to turn a profit. Delta collected an impressive $733 million in baggage fees in just the first nine months of 2010, according to the Transportation Department. That’s close to twice as much as the number-two airline, American.
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Case dismissed: A strange delay dooms a ticket rebooking request

This may be one of the oddest cases I’ve ever been involved in. It’s particularly upsetting because someone, somewhere pushed a wrong button and made the problem impossible to fix.

Here’s what happened: A few days ago, I received the following email from Sherlene Stepp:

I hope you can help me. I was supposed to fly to Ohio on Delta to assist my sick grandmother. I booked the ticket through Priceline.com.

I was getting ready for the trip when I received a call that my brother was in a very bad accident. I rushed to the hospital. My brother died about three hours later.

My brother was a police officer and his partner actually called Delta for me to let them know that I had an emergency and could not fly. They gave him a confirmation number and said when I was ready to rebook to call them.

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Can this trip be saved? Airline promises to refund hotel room, then reneges

Back in October, Sandy Antiporda and her husband flew from San Francisco to Venice on Delta Air Lines. But a scheduled stopover in New York became a layover when their plane had engine trouble.

A Delta representative assured the Antipordas their vacation would be saved. The airline paid for a hotel at JFK and upgraded the couple to business class on their transatlantic flight. It also verbally promised to reimburse them for one night of their nonrefundable room in Venice, which was an extraordinarily generous offer.

But the check never arrived.

“When I sent a letter to Delta requesting reimbursement, I never heard from them,” says Antiporda. “Then I sent an email. They gave us each $200 travel vouchers, and finally they gave me an additional $148 travel voucher all of which expire in one year. We never wanted any travel vouchers. We just wanted to be reimbursed for our hotel in Venice, which was about $148.”

Can this trip be saved?
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Is this enough compensation? A $150 voucher for denied boarding in Bremen

Ted Oehlerking’s flight from Bremen, German, to Seattle, via Amsterdam was canceled all the way down the line. Although his airline, KLM, put him on the next available flight and upgraded him, it didn’t offer him any financial compensation for the delays.

Thing is, under EU 261, the European airline consumer protection law, his airline owed him €250 for the denied boarding actions and delays — and perhaps more. Here’s the full text of the rule.

It’s worth taking a closer look at how a regulation like this can affect air travel, since the Transportation Department is on the verge of creating a similar set of rules for the domestic airline industry. And it’s worth asking if there’s ever a point when enough compensation is enough.

A subsequent email to Delta Air Lines, KLM’s codeshare partner, generated a form-letter apology, agreeing that Oehlerking and his wife were, indeed, subject to EU compensation rules. It offered him either a €250 in cash or a €350 voucher for the canceled flights. Is that, plus the courtesy upgrade, enough?
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Can this trip be saved? My 17-year-old booked a ticket on Orbitz — actually, two tickets

Booking a flight online may be convenient, but it’s far from problem-free. Just ask Charles Bornheim, whose son is holding an extra airline ticket he booked through Orbitz.

Bornheim is trying to get a refund, but is having no luck. Airlines can be pretty unforgiving with their refund policies, and at some point when you’re booking online, you have to take responsibility for your own actions.

But is this a case where no one is really to blame — and should I try to help him secure a refund?
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