Sir, your flight is cancelled

In this country, you have to know your rights, and when you know the other party made a mistake, you have to act tough and you'll get what you should deserve. Otherwise you get sh*t and you'll be ripped off. I did get $6000 discount on the Mustang after all...

I'm getting better at this! B-)

This week I went to a client in Philadelphia. Well, they were cheap and booked us on connecting flights, and in a hotel an hour away, and I got in bed at 1am and was at their place working at 8:30am. But that's another story. But I was damn tired and wanted to come back home. But the flight on the way back got cancelled. We were taxiing for an hour, and our plane was literally the next one to take off when all the lights except for the exit signs went off. So the captain decided to take the plane back to the gate. I had a connection...

Well, not anymore.

When British Airways left my luggage in London 4 years ago, I got a $100 Visa prepaid card (with ATM code so I could cash it in) to buy clothes and toothbrush etc until they get my luggage over by tomorrow. When my flight got cancelled because of the Icelandic volcano eruption last year, Lufthansa put me on another flight a week later (as I chose). They didn't have to, it was a vis major. They could just refund my ticket (about 19€, the other 150€ was airport fees and taxes) and the rest is my problem, but they didn't...

Now that's customer service, isn't it?!

Need help? Fight for it, otherwise you ain't getting one!

Delta seems to treat its passengers/customers as livestock. If it was a mayhem, i could sleep in the airport and be happy if they put me on a standby list on any of their flights. But this time, it was their fault, so I'm in the winning position. The law backs me up!

So we had to get off the plane, people were frustrated. The flight wasn't cancelled yet, however we were said that it didn't look good. I've missed my connection in Minneapolis, so I was aiming for the re-booking right away. I need to mention that I have a Gold/Elite status with the airline, and this is the treatment what I got. Imagine somebody who's not even part of their loyalty program!

So, I acted though, so the guy at the ticket counter didn't even try to put me on a standby list. Another passenger next to me in the other line, who was not that loud, got a standby list ticket, on a flight the next day ad 6am. I bet he didn't sleep much that night and I bet he didn't make it :-( So I got a U.S. Airways confirmed ticket to San Francisco, the next day. Direct flight. So did my colleague, thanks to my acting. Accommodation? "The hotel is full, sir." Well, this is a freakin' international airport. Within 10 minutes there're at least 20 hotels, inns and motels. I was advised to call the 1-800 number on the information card. I did. The lady was really helpful, and told me she cannot give me a hotel reservation, but she'd be happy to redirect me to Delta Reservations, and they'll book something for me on hotels.com and I'll get a discount. I asked how I do I get my money back then. The answer was that she gives me a corporate number where I can submit my receipts by fax, and I may get reimbursed. I'd like to emphasize the may here. This is exactly how she put it... I told her this is not enough (I ain't trusting these bastards), and that they are required by law to provide me accommodation in this case, so she redirected me to the gate agent.

$10 at the airport is not much

I went back to the fine gentlemen at the gate, who I think was neither friendly nor helpful at all. I told him, the 1-800 decision. He was annoyed but so was I. He repeated that the hotel has no more rooms, but he gave me the hotel and the meal vouchers anyway. Before that I've checked on my hotels.com app though, that there're at least a dozen of hotels within a couple of miles who still sell rooms for that night, so if the hotel is sold out as he claimed, we still have options.

At the hotel, we got our rooms without problems. They had plenty. After all of us there, the hotel still wasn't full. Now, why the gate agent thought the hotel has no rooms left? Beats me! I bet nor he and none of his colleagues confirmed that information with the hotel... I think they just wanted to be cheap, and save some money on us.

Buy the time I've checked in my hotel, my Delta app, notified me, that even they sent me a message half an hour ago, that the flight is officially cancelled, it did take off 3-4 hours after its scheduled departure time to Minneapolis. Well, without me.

I got a nice long flight back the next day without any problem, and I'm also glad that the electrical problem, however serious it was, happened on the ground. No airplanes stick up in the air, now don't they? All of them come down, the only question is how... This one was certainly less painful.

Customer service? Delta could definitely improve on that one! Passengers in trouble, please learn from me ;-)

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In unrelated news, if somebody realizes that I'm a foreigner, and I'm not just a tourist but I work here, why is the question 'And when are you planning to move back?' is the first thing they ask right away and all the time??