Stuck in my Craw

This has been here for a while, luckily I’m not taking this airline for Thanksgiving……

October 21, 2010
Richard Anderson, CEO
Delta Airlines
1030 Delta Blvd.
Atlanta GA, 30320

Dear Mr. Anderson:
I was a resident of Houston TX where you were Prosecutor, for five years. I now live near one of your major hubs.
A few months ago my husband I went to his family’s home in Texas. We were not given seating assignments because we flew coach so we could only get seats at the gate. I sent a scathing email of our plight and was sent a $50 gift certificate for use on a future flight.
Last month my brother was trying to board a plane in the midwest and security was taking forever. The TSA agent said that Delta was vastly overbooking their flights and not assigning seats so that they would not have to accommodate their over-bookings by putting people on future flights or paying for hotels.
Delta uses our money weeks in advance for a ticket, doesn’t give a seat until one gets to the gate, and turns away many ticket holders or my brother paid $150 for an upgrade to first class because he needed to get to a meeting.
From my experience, TSA people don’t talk, but when the Federal government is mad at you for sending many times more people through security than you have a place for on the plane, that’s an issue I hope will be dealt with on many levels, at least I hope the locals, state and feds will be on it.
We got seats, last row of the plane. At the window I could reach over and touch the bathroom door. I had claustrophobia and nausea and that wasn’t worth the $50 certificate for future travel cost me. My time and wellness are worth much more than that. But money isn’t the issue, except your using our money to make money weeks before a trip then denying the trip.
Think about this. We plan for air travel and give you our money weeks in advance. You make us take care of pets and pack and drive to the airport and go through security, then you tell us we don’t have a seat and to drive home (or to a hotel we’ve checked out of) or pay extra to upgrade to first class.
Sir, I don’t believe you have a first class, because your company has no class. You use our money for weeks then deny boarding when we’ve gone through all that is needed in post 9/11 security. You should be ashamed. Fix this, please. This letter will be on my blog so it’ll get traffic and people will expect a response.
Hoping for a better experience, Dee