var json_comments = new Array("

$\"user-pic\"$

The Queen of Everything

December 20, 2009 8:17 AM

Moderate | Flag for review

That's fairly sadistic.

3 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

Jesse

December 20, 2009 9:40 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

I work at a CPA firm and have to call the IRS every so often for clients. They used to loop \"Waltz of the Flowers\" from the Nutcracker when you were on hold, which could be up to 45 minutes to an hour. I thought it was funny for a government tax collection agency loop something from the Nutcracker score.

$\"user-pic\"$

Shoelace

December 20, 2009 1:18 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Agree, though something like \"California Dreamin'\" or \"Cocomo\" would have been worse.

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 12:44 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Salt belongs on runways, not in wounds.

","

$\"user-pic\"$

wrjohnston91283

December 20, 2009 8:21 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

I hate how companies give people have set up twitter accounts and people who complain via twitter get their issues resolved vs those of us who call customer care (it would be a LITTLE better if the companies advertised twitter as an official customer care method, but if you say call 1-800-COMCAST I'm going to call that number and expect proper service).

The fact that the companies write in \"twitter speak\" is just insulting. I'm 26, and I have to take a few minutes to decipher things like \"Sun a.m. cancels thru NE. U may B rebooked ALREADY. Flt status? Waiver? STEP 1: http://tinyurl.com/yjt4t7p\".

What's wrong with \"Many flights cancelled in New England. Check status at @ http://tinyurl.com/yjt4t7p\"? I'm sure people who didn't grow up in an era of text messaging are confused trying to figure out what the posted message means - only getting more and more frustrated (although they aren't likely to CHECK twitter, if you make it an official customer contact method AT LEAST WRITE CORRECTLY!)

6 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

tbax929

December 20, 2009 9:15 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

What bothers me most about Twitter Speak (and Instant Messaging in general) is that we're raising a whole generation that is unable to write in complete sentence. My niece is a straight-A student. However, her Facebook posts are littered with misspellings, apostrophe abuse, and abbreviations that make no sense. It drives me crazy.

$\"user-pic\"$

AwesomeJerkface

December 20, 2009 6:28 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

1. You may be interested to know that beginning a sentence with an adverb, while not incorrect, does not necessitate a comma. When the use of the word does require a comma, you are using the word as a conjunction and conjunctions should not begin a sentence. For instance:

\"You are using the word as a conjunction. However, a conjunction should not begin a sentence.\" This is incorrect.

You seem like a big fan of using conjunctions to begin a sentence for dramatic effect. It's rhythmically fine for casual writing and speaking. Pst, \"however\" is an adverb and a conjunction.

2. It is very awesome when someone claims they couldn't care less about something, when they took the time to lambaste a bunch of strangers on the internet about why their relative is an idiot.

$\"user-pic\"$

mythago

December 20, 2009 2:03 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Oh pfft. Every generation whines that the next generation's ability to speak and write is going to be ruined because of New-Fangled Technology That We Didn't Need In Our Day.

Your niece is either being sloppy on Facebook in a way she isn't at school, or she's getting straight As from teachers who think you deserve an A for being able to fog a mirror.

$\"user-pic\"$

Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)

December 20, 2009 12:04 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

That's a common misconception; in fact, I find my students who were raised on IM, text, and all the rest, are typically better writers ... they're used to communicating their thoughts in writing, whereas in the past students really resisted writing. Spelling, grammar, and the rest can be taught. Ability to communicate period, however, is a much more difficult thing to teach.

But yeah, studies don't really show any devolution in student command of the finer points of language -- they CAN do it properly at the same rate as prior generations, when they choose to.

$\"user-pic\"$

PsiCop

December 20, 2009 11:23 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

The problem with Twitter is the 140 character limit. Typing out full sentences, all words spelled correctly, with proper punctuation, and the whole thing grammatically compliant, can be difficult to do. One could send a message that spans \"twits\" (or \"tweets\" or whatever they're called) ... but if one of those should fail to get through, then the message is corrupted. So while people could do that, they tend not to, and for good reason.

I fully agree with you that too many young people are being raised with this linguistic handicap imposed on them by IMs and twits and whatever. But given the nature of these media, I'm not sure there's any good alternative to using abbreviations, rebuses (e.g. \"4\" in place of \"for\"), and other tricks. All one can do is hope they still end up capable of using proper language in other venues which permit it.

$\"user-pic\"$

Trai_Dep

December 20, 2009 11:56 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

It's 140 by design. For no reason, besides \"cute\". And to give imbeciles an excuse to write like a first-grader.

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 12:26 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

I thought the reason was so that it would be easy to integrate with SMS

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 12:26 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

It's not 140 to be \"cute.\" It's not an arbitrary number. The universal length of txt messages is 160 characters. Twitter is designed so that their messages can be read on any text-ready device. 140 was decided upon so that it could accommodate usernames and @username messages.

$\"user-pic\"$

johnva

December 20, 2009 4:46 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Text messaging is a crappy medium. I see no reason to build a whole messaging infrastructure when most phones have email these days.

$\"user-pic\"$

Trai_Dep

December 20, 2009 7:20 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Precisely.
It's like mandating postcards follow a 10-character format since beepers have an arbitrary, teensy limit. And Twitter's will be even more silly a few years from now when full texting is on every phone.

$\"user-pic\"$

wrjohnston91283

December 20, 2009 9:33 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

The fact that your niece is a straight-A student shows that she CAN write properly when she wants to, so I think she's a step ahead of many kids, she just doesn't write in proper grammar when she's typing casually to friends. I don't have a huge problem with that (as I've been guilty of the same thing, but not to the extent of some people). However, we're talking about a $2 billion global corporation's official twitter feed. Do they send emails like that to talk about Wall St earnings calls? \"$ Call pstpnd - chk united.com 4 new mtg time\"?

$\"user-pic\"$

tbax929

December 20, 2009 9:53 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Wrong. Her grades only go to show that schools don't give a shit whether or not our kids write correctly. I'm not talking about her text-speak when I say she doesn't know how to write. I'm talking about not knowing the difference between \"its\" and it's\" or \"there\", \"they're\", and \"their\". I couldn't care less about the text-speak she uses.

$\"user-pic\"$

mythago

December 20, 2009 2:09 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

You review all of your niece's homework, so you know what her school writing is like?

$\"user-pic\"$

pervy_the_clown

December 20, 2009 9:42 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

I'm 20, and for a while I wrote in the IM talk. It's just how everyone did it. At some point (I want to say when I turned 18), I realized how annoying it was to read, and how little time you saved. Now I'm a grammar nazi, and I couldn't be happier.

$\"user-pic\"$

tbax929

December 20, 2009 9:56 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Again, I'm not talking about IM talk. Do you think I'm an idiot who doesn't recognize the difference between IM talk and full sentences? I'm talking about when she writes in complete sentences and gets confused by basic homonyms.

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 10:12 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Uhhh. Step 1: Calm down. Step 2: You referenced her Facebook posts as an example of where she fails to meet your grammar standards for her. To many people, FB does = an appropriate time/place for IM speak. Myself included, and I am an NYU graduate, lawyer, professional writer, and blogger.

$\"user-pic\"$

yzerman

December 20, 2009 10:45 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

You do understand there is a 140 char limit on Twitter postings.. so it requires doing what you can to save on characters to get your message across you grumpy old man :P

No go back to standing on your porch and shaking your fist that the young kids as they walk by your house :P

","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 8:22 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

That's a cold piece of work. Is it just me, or is Delta simply trying to go out of the flying biz by driving away their clientele?

What a bunch of morons they got on their payroll...

","

$\"user-pic\"$

Chuck Norris' wig

December 20, 2009 8:38 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Pretty funny, really.

","

$\"user-pic\"$

chocobo

December 20, 2009 8:39 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

This is certainly terrible customer support, but try to see Delta's point of view as well. Weather cancellations on the weekend before Christmas are an incredible headache for them to deal with as well, they're being flooded with calls and just can't handle the volume. (Though maybe they should have more people working the phones.)

I suppose they really ought to have some information available on their website, but they don't, so that's pretty bad. However I wouldn't expect Twitter to be a real solution. It's such a new concept and few companies are able to use it for anything other than boring and happy announcements.

Congrats to United for actually doing something useful with theirs... the abbreviation-speak has got to go though. I have no doubt that it will be gone soon. Just as how many years ago an airline's website was nothing more than a happy advertisement for you to call in and make reservations... very shortly they'll realize that customers want this new tool to be useful and informative, and lose all the gimmicky stuff.

5 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

mythago

December 20, 2009 2:07 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Delta's point of view should be that as an airline, they are often going to deal with bad weather (sometimes with little or no notice) that will disrupt flights, and customers need to know ASAP what the status of those flights is. A competent airline is supposed to anticipate these kinds of problems, which happen all the flapping time, and have systems in place to deal with them.

$\"user-pic\"$

catastrophegirl chooses not to fly

December 20, 2009 5:03 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

one of the problems might be if the people who are supposed to answer the phones can even get to work.
i don't know where their call center/s is/are located, but it/some of them may be affected by weather

$\"user-pic\"$

Hogan1

December 20, 2009 4:25 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

It's impossible and unrealistic for a business to have ready the thousands of additional customer assistance reps to deal with acts of god in an instant. If you'd be willing to pay more for a ticket so the airline can have on standby these workers, please by all means call Delta and let them know.

$\"user-pic\"$

mythago

December 20, 2009 5:24 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

It is possible and realistic to expect an airline to have a plan in place for bad-weather disruptions, especially disruptions that can be easily anticipated. Like, you know, snowstorms hitting New England. (Gosh! Who knew THAT would ever happen, and in winter even!) If you're willing to pay less for a ticket so that you won't be able to figure out what's going on if your flight is predictably canceled, by all means do so.

$\"user-pic\"$

Hogan1

December 20, 2009 5:44 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

It's unrealistic for them to have 1,000's of additional trained personal on hand just for such storms and ready to go on the phones at a moments notice. This shouldn't be that hard for a person with an average level of common sense to understand.

Snowstorm = Hold time. Deal with it and move on.

$\"user-pic\"$

mythago

December 20, 2009 8:12 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

So you think United summoned up CSR Elementals to handle the massive job of running a Twitter update feed, or what? This is the 21st century. Delta does not need to have \"1,000's of additional trained personal\" if they have an automated system set up to handle flight delays and information updates. It does not even take hundreds of additional trained personnel to keep such a system up-to-date.

Oh, and it's a little hard to \"move on\" if you're trapped at an airport on the wrong coast. Travel sometime and you might find these things out.

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 10:20 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Agreed - I don't tweet, and I would have never thought to use Twitter for flight updates in a situation like this. United has taken a great first step, and is halfway there on how to provide a step above in service to its customers. But I think that the vast majority of people booking flights are adults, with business travel being a key part of that. I recognize that they might want to reach out and build rep with a younger, emerging customer, but the folks I know who fly a lot for business would appreciate these updates too. If only they could easily understand them!

I also recognize space is key, but it seems like they have room to be more clear. As is, the updates read like haikus and take me a few read-throughs to decipher.

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 11:11 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

This weekend is the start of holiday breaks for a lot of colleges/universities, so I suspect the number of younger, non-business travelers is considerably higher than normal.

Still, I agree that twitter should be an added bonus, not a primary means of communication.

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 12:54 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

You know, you may have a good point - if you go back in time to before the 'college break' on United's Twitter, you see many more full sentences, etc.

$\"user-pic\"$

catastrophegirl chooses not to fly

December 20, 2009 5:05 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

and if you look at it in the last couple of hours since this article posted, you see that the abbreviations are now more normal.
i think @UnitedAirlines might be reading this. hehe

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 1:19 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

One problem with Twitter, however, is the 140 character limit. I'm as sick of internet shorthand as the next person might be, but when you're on a strict character limit, there's at least a slightly better justification for it. IMHO. :)

","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 8:49 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

My bf and I are each on our cell phones on hold with Delta. I've decided that \"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year\" might be worse than \"Let it Snow\". We're going to try and make a snow plane to fly to Florida. It would probably be faster at this point.

1 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 3:25 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Staples ruined that song.

","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 9:06 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

My flight with Delta was canceled as well. However, I was super impressed with how easy it was at Delta.com to rebook my flight online without having to talk to a single person. I was convinced I would be on the phone all night. But instead I just clicked on the new flight schedule I liked and I was rebooked in 5 minutes. I'm trying to get home again today, wish me luck.

1 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 10:01 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Where are you flying to and from? I'm trying to fly from boston to orlando and the next flight Delta gave me was on Thursday. Very unhelpful.

","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 9:09 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

It's funny. I don't think anyone blames Delta for making it snow.

Well, maybe Consumerist.

3 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

tbax929

December 20, 2009 9:17 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

The complaint isn't that it snowed. Shit happens. The complaint is that Delta's customers are having a hard time getting information about when their flights will be rescheduled; which flights were canceled; and the like.

$\"user-pic\"$

katzeroo

December 20, 2009 11:28 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Delta has a flight tracker built right into their site. Maybe they need a real prominent link to show it to people, but as long as you have your flight # and the day, you can get the info you need. Maybe people just need to be spoon fed the info. I dunno. The truth IS out there.

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 9:56 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

I was joking! But I doubt anyone can get through to any airline on the phone at the moment...

$\"user-pic\"$

mythago

December 20, 2009 2:05 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

RTFA. The issue is that Delta is completely incommunicado, whereas other airlines are managing to at least attempt to keep their customers up-to-date. You know, like customers who signed up for SMS alerts?

$\"user-pic\"$

friday3

December 21, 2009 12:23 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

The problem with that, is UNITED has way more flights in the midwest and west, while Delta is very heavily east coast. The storm did not cause as many issues for United

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 5:42 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

The article says nothing about other airlines except that the OP found lots of info on one other airline's twitter feed.

Whereas other airlines are managing to at least attempt to keep their customers up-to-date.

Where does it say that in the article? It doesn't say how other airlines are doing at all. And the article actually says \"Let us know what's going on and how the major airlines are handling a major storm at one of the busiest travel times of the year.\" That would be because... they don't know yet how other airlines doing.

Did you actually say the RTFA and then misquote the article? Unbelievable.

$\"user-pic\"$

mythago

December 20, 2009 8:16 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Did you actually whine to RTFA after you posted comments making it clear you never RTFA? Unbelievable. (That, or you knew that Consumerist isn't unfairly blaming poor, poor Delta for the weather, but chose to ignore it. Whatevs, as the kids these days say.)

United, which is on nobody's Customer Service Excellence award, has managed to keep up a Twitter feed. If you're suggesting that more-competent airlines are doing worse than United, I'm gonna be a bit skeptical. There is absolutely no reason a major airline should not be able to anticipate bad-weather disruptions and plan to keep consumers in communication as much as possible.

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 8:54 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

","","","

$\"user-pic\"$

Auz

December 20, 2009 9:30 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Sitting in San Francisco International. They canceled the JFK flights around 9pm PST without an email, sms, or anything. Finally got through to Delta at 3am, and can confirm that they do indeed have 'let it snow' on a loop (with some other song I was trying not to listen to). In the terminal they set up a special 'you got screwed for going to jfk' line- which was so long they had to split it to let people get to security- was barely moving, as none of the ticket agents wanted to deal with seriously pissed off travelers. There are still people waiting for reassignments.

","","","","","","

$\"user-pic\"$

Rachacha

December 20, 2009 9:56 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

The \"Let it snow\" music is kind of funny, but here in Washington DC, all of the news stations and teh DC Airport Authority have recommended that people go to the airline's website to get information about their flight and to re-book (or find out what flight they have been re-booked on). It is obvious that Delta is not using Twitter so get over it...most of America is not using Twitter, however most Americans have acess to a company website.

Looking at Delta.com, they have a travel advisory on their front page which links to http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/flight_status_updates/advisories/ne_midatl_winterstorm/index.jsp

","

$\"user-pic\"$

lehrdude

December 20, 2009 10:00 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

I guess it's better than being forced to listen to \"Shake It Up Baby\" after an earthquake...

2 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

tutleman

December 21, 2009 1:31 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Or the latest Disney \"star\" at any time. *shudder*

$\"user-pic\"$

humphrmi

December 20, 2009 10:33 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

...Or, Jailhouse Rock in your holding cell.

","","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 10:04 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Ha! I am actually hearing 'Let It Snow' right now. Here's a Delta is bad/United is good story:

I knew I had to change my 3 PM Saturday flight, so I sat at the computer Friday afternoon hitting reload until the alert went up on Delta's home page that allows customers to re-book flights for free. Of course that option didn't work for me. My flight from Laguardia wasn't available for re-booking. Ok, fine, I know it is, so I call them instead. Hold time isn't too bad.. about 10 minutes.. and I got rebooked on a 9 AM flight. Perfect!

Except I could never check into the 9 AM flight. Because Delta never ACTUALLY re-booked me on the flight. I was always on the now-cancelled 3 PM flight. So I called and called and called and from Friday night through Saturday was on hold for 8 hours and 7 minutes. That's several different calls throughout the day. Each one was about 2 hours max.

Since my flight was re-booked, I was able to re-book online. There was only one option total, a flight at 4 PM today (Sunday). Fine, I'll take it. Except when I try to check-in, they are saying I must see a ticketing agent at the airport. I have no seat assignment. The last time this happened with Delta, I got to the airport and was told I \"wasn't actually booked\" on my flight. I'm trying to get through to get a human answer before I actually go to the airport as it's about an $80 round-trip car ride.

So at this point: Delta has not rebooked me after they said they rebooked me (glad I didn't show up at the airport), has kept me on hold for going on 9 hours and I am fairly certain I'm \"not actually\" on a flight today, but there is no way to know without going to the airport. I'm sure LaGuardia will be complete madness.

** The upside to this is that our friends @UnitedAirlines DMd me last night after I complimented them on Twitter and told me to hang up and call again if I have been on hold with Delta for a long time because they may not have me in their queue. How great is that! Also, I think their \"Twitter speak\" is clearly for character limits.

","","","

$\"user-pic\"$

Munchie

December 20, 2009 10:33 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Well someone had a sense of humor when putting that song on a loop. If they rely wanted to be mean they could have put on \"Its a small world\" or several other choice children's songs. I would think a bag pipe ballad would be against the Geneva convention.

1 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 3:06 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

\"It's A Small World\" is actually very pacifying, at least it would be compared to the bagpipe ballad.

","","

$\"user-pic\"$

Hakib

December 20, 2009 10:37 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

My mother was scheduled on a flight from ATL to CRW Saturday afternoon, when Delta canceled her flight. She was comped 1 night in a nearby hotel (not for food), and given a standby ticket for the first flight out in the morning. She was told that she would almost certainly be able to get on that flight, since the connecting flights would almost certainly be canceled as well.... Wait, huh?
Why would the connecting flights be canceled? Why would someone leaving a snowy airport (north) go to Atlanta (south) only to catch a connecting flight back into the snow? (north)

Needless to say, the flight the next morning was full...not with standby riders, but regular ticket holders.

Now my mother is having to fly into Columbus, Ohio, and then drive 4 hours through potentially hazardous conditions, just to make it home before Monday night.

I feel that this situation could have been helped by 1) Delta corporate keeping the local Delta reps informed - specifically about how many seats would be expected to be open on the next flight, and 2) Offering to refund the tickets, or purchasing tickets for a different airline that may have had an earlier flight to Columbus or another surrounding city.

(Note: It's probably worth noting that the Charleston, WV airport is closer to an aircraft carrier than an airport. If pilots don't want to attempt landing there, for fear of slamming into the cliff before the runway, or falling off the cliff at the end of the runway, then I completely and totally understand. But weather delays deserve a certain level of customer service, despite the inconvenience to the company.)

2 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

r081984

December 20, 2009 11:39 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

This is not the airlines fault. Your mom could have asked for a refund instead of taking a stanby ticket knowing that whole airports were closed and there was no gaurantee of getting on that flight.

They had 10s of thousands of people bitching to get somewhere when whole airports where closed due to weather. All they will tell you is what they can try to do, it is up to the customer to choose their only option or try another carrier. Also, I would think that every other carrier would have been booked solid so I bet going to columbus and driving was the best anyone could do and she should be happy they gave her a free night in a hotel.

If you think it is hazardous, then why not have her stay in columbus for another day, or you should drive and pick her up????

$\"user-pic\"$

mythago

December 20, 2009 5:26 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

It's not the airline's fault that it failed to communicate with local customer reps? Come again?

","","

$\"user-pic\"$

H3ion

December 20, 2009 11:00 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

It probably beats sitting in a plane for 8 hours and then getting a voucher for Subway.

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/22014551/detail.html

","","

$\"user-pic\"$

katzeroo

December 20, 2009 11:17 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

I am overseas right now and there was fairly obvious indication at the top while checking my itinerary last night. I clicked the link and re-booked my flight for the next non stop 24 hours later....the best anyone could have done. Took me 5 mins to do as well. Even got the same aisle seat. Call if you HAVE to, but if you can find the info online, that's the way to go.

","","","

$\"user-pic\"$

r081984

December 20, 2009 11:31 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Customers cannot complain. All the numbers are busy because everyone is try to reschedule when they know the airport is closed. You can't blame Delta for that.

If I had to get home, I would have went online and booked another ticket and worked out the compensation from my canceled flight later. Only a fool would try to call their number when whole airports are closed right before christmas.

","","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 11:39 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Yeah, I waited on hold for 3.5 hours before I talked to a rep. My cancellation was mechanical, not weather though... so it wasn't so ironic.

","

$\"user-pic\"$

Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)

December 20, 2009 11:49 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

My dad already missed his flight in North Carolina due to like 17\" of snow (he couldn't have gotten to the airport anyway!) ... and my sister and brother are (going to be) stuck in DC. Her flight is a day later than his; she thinks she might actually get out first because they may have some runways clear by the time her flight leaves, but his will never leave on time and they're not sure when they can bump him to. The airline told my dad that they'll be rebooking people as fast as they can to get people out for Christmas, but they really couldn't give him anything firm on when he'd be able to get back to the parental homestead.

I am SO glad I'm close enough to drive home for the holidays these days and not have to deal with the airlines, but I'm really bummed that half my family is stranded on the east coast!

","

$\"user-pic\"$

Trai_Dep

December 20, 2009 11:52 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Thank you Laura, for calling out TwitSpek. It's like trying to read a first-grader's essay. Or an Alaskan governor's.

Let It Snow isn't half-bad. An endless loop of White Christmas (original, Bing \"I'm An Assh*ole\" Crosby version), on the other hand, tops my list of what Hell is like. By a long shot.

1 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

catastrophegirl chooses not to fly

December 20, 2009 5:13 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

my version of auditory hell is the jackson five \"i saw mommy kissing saaaaaaaaanta claws' - it's a holdover from toy store holiday muzak. i can tune out just about any other sound but hearing that in a store during the holidays gives me a headache now

","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 11:53 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

I wouldn't say that that's cruel...Just extremely ironic considering the situation

","","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 11:57 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Lawrence, I feel your frustration, but did you need to go with the f-bomb?

","","

$\"user-pic\"$

salvo

December 20, 2009 12:25 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

What do you do if you try to rebook a flight on the Delta website and it just says \"no flights available,\" with no other information? I tried for any flights out today and tomorrow, and both times the result was \"no flights available.\"

I'm trying to fly out of Logan, my morning flight was canceled, and there is zero information about future flights out of Logan.

Should I just go to the airport and hang out, hoping that flights will resume later today, with the chance that I end up sitting there for 18 hours?

My bags are packed, I'm sitting in my living room, with no idea how to proceed right now, because there is no information about when flights might resume, or what a passnger in my situation should do.

","","","","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 12:48 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Ive been honestly pretty impressed with United's tweets. I have family members flying on UA today and abbreviated or not, its refreshing to at least seeing an attempt to keep customers updated.

","","","","

$\"user-pic\"$

Colonel Jack O'neill

December 20, 2009 1:28 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

They was a big ass snow storm, how the hell do you not expect your flight to get canceled.
It's not like it was Delta's fault, they had thousands of people trying to call them to check the status of their flight.
Is it that hard to go and look it up on Delta's site for their flight status, it would only take a few seconds.

And that twitter speak is annoying, especially a business that is doing it. People hire these young guys who can't write proper english, if people can not write proper english in a businesses environment, they shouldn't be working there then.

6 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

mythago

December 20, 2009 2:10 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Yes, how unfair to expect Delta to actually have a plan to deal with service disruptions and customers wanting information. After all, bad weather so rarely strikes and it's not like an airline can EVER be expected to anticipate a snowstorm!'

Man, we used to get better trolls around here.

$\"user-pic\"$

friday3

December 21, 2009 12:28 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

There is a plan. In this day and age NORMAL customers would head online. The problem is thousands of people call and every person NEEDS to be somewhere by such and such a date. The problem is there are new customers who are booked on Sunday and Monday etc. I would rather have Delta worry about getting planes available and where they need to be to get people out than dealing with phone callers whining Go to their web site and there is a LOT of info available

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 5:48 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Word.

$\"user-pic\"$

dantsea

December 20, 2009 3:00 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Maybe if you pound your high chair a little harder, all the trolls will vanish.

$\"user-pic\"$

mythago

December 20, 2009 5:29 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Tried that. You're still here, so no luck. Guess I better go dig up that bingo card.

$\"user-pic\"$

salvo

December 20, 2009 1:35 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

No one is complaining about canceled flights.

The issue is with the lack of communication after the cancellation, and the total dearth of any information for people in the Northeast.. Even something like \"flights may be resuming this afternoon, at which time there will be more specific information available.\"

There has been ZERO attempt to inform since the storm hit. We KNOW our flights are canceled, what next? When I go online to try and reschedule/rebook--even for tomorrow or later-- there aren't any flights showing up AT ALL, I guess (but I don't know) because I'm flying out of Logan...

$\"user-pic\"$

AwesomeJerkface

December 20, 2009 6:29 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Don't forget playing \"Let It Snow\" is pretty insensitive. Though hilarious to me because I'm not flying anywhere.

","","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 1:50 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Maybe I'm just mean, but who cares.....

So let it snow

","

$\"user-pic\"$

Bunnyhat

December 20, 2009 1:59 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

It's a bloody snowstorm that's shut down almost the entire Northeast in terms of travel.

What the bloody hell do you think is gonna happen?
They have thousands upon thousands of people all trying to do the same thing you are, even though the airports are still closed. When you hear that an entire region is shut down due to storms, you can bloody well assume you're flight is too and it's not gonna be rescheduled until they can open up again.

3 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

mythago

December 20, 2009 5:34 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Maybe the bloody passengers bloody think that if the airline is going to bloody cancel flights, it might have some bloody information for its paying bloody passengers.

The problem isn't that flights are canceled. The problem is that Delta apparently has its colloquial thumb up its ass in terms of getting information to its paying customers - something that even United fercrissakes seems to be doing at least semi-successfully.

The whole point of things like email alerts, recorded information lines and website updates is to allow large numbers of people to find out what information is available - even if that information is \"Stay tuned and we'll keep you as informed as we can.\"

$\"user-pic\"$

salvo

December 20, 2009 2:29 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

So, Bunnyhat, what would your next move be if you were scheduled for a morning flight today, and it was canceled, and there has been no information of any kind available regarding any aspect of rescheduling, or even, more generically, what Delta's \"SOP\" is in this situation.

What would YOU do, exactly, and when would you do it---knowing that your bags are packed, and you have people awaiting your arrival on the other end?

$\"user-pic\"$

Bunnyhat

December 20, 2009 3:45 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Watch the bloody news?

That fact that all airports were closed was not a secret only known to a few airline employs.

$\"user-pic\"$

salvo

December 29, 2009 9:47 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Bunnyhat wrote: \"Watch the bloody news?

That fact that all airports were closed was not a secret only known to a few airline employs.\"

Again, point missed. The problem was Delta's lack of communication and failure to provide any information to its affected customers, even via a generic message on its website.

First off, the airport was not closed. As of early Sunday afternoon all kinds of flights---not Delta flights, but other airlines' flights---were departing from Logan, and were showing up on Massport's website as being scheduled for departure at some point.

As for Delta, no accessible source anywhere---not phone (I couldn't get through for 16 hours on autodial, from 10pm Saturday until I finally stopped calling), not internet, not \"SMS updates\" that I signed up for---provided ANY information about any Delta flights, canceled, or future.

As for your suggestion that I \"watch the news\"---what would that tell me that I didn't already know? That there was a big snowstorm? That my flight was canceled? I already knew that!!

Instead, about 3:45 Sunday, I just took my packed bags and headed to Logan. I waited in line from 4:15 until 6:15---by which time a couple of random Delta flights had come on board, and I was able to get the last seat on the last Delta flight to Atlanta (which wasn't my destination) with the suggestion that I spend the night there and then try to fly standby the next morning from Atlanta o my destination. Which I did.

If I hadn't just decided to go to the airport and stand in the Delta line for 2 hours, I wouldn't have gotten to my destination the next day. I live two \"T\" stops away from Logan and was traveling solo, so it was relatively easy for me to just head off to the airport and see what the scoop was. But it's still ridiculous that, in this day and age, that ended up being my only option by which to get information from Delta. (BTW, the Delta people behind the counter, both in Boston and in Atlanta, were terrific.)

","","

$\"user-pic\"$

Reit

December 20, 2009 2:04 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

I was scheduled to fly out of LGA at 11am today (Sunday). I was signed up for email alerts and had a phone number registered also. They cancelled it without any notification until around 9am this morning. When I figured out it was cancelled last night, I called. 1 hour on hold (yes, with the \"Let it snow\" song and \"a representative will be with you shortly). Hung up and tried a foreign language line (I speak it, so I wasn't trying a complete end around), but no dice. Went back to the rebook line and after 4 hours (11pm to 3am EST) on hold, I gave up. The repeated \"a representative will be with you shortly\" over those 4 hours made me want to do something violent. Only once did I get a time estimate and that was \"more than 8 minutes\" (gee, ya think?!) We called back this morning around 7am and finally got through after about 45 minutes. Now we're flying out on Christmas Eve, assuming everything goes smoothly. Oh joy.

After 4 hours on hold with no resolution, I'm crossing off NWA/Delta whenever I have another choice.

","","","","","","","","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 3:10 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

We have had a good experience with Delta this weekend. My daughter was booked on a flight from Dublin to Boston on Friday. The flight was canceled. We waited on the phone for a long while but ended up getting her the last seat on a flight from Dublin to Atlanta that left two hours after her original flight. Her connecting flight to Boston was canceled while she was in the air on the way to Atlanta. We called again and she was booked on a flight on Sunday afternoon. She spent Saturday night in a hotel near the airport in Atlanta (it was not comped). She just boarded the Sunday afternoon flight and is on her way to Boston as I write this.
The hold times were excessive but with flights canceled up and down the east coast it is understandable. We must have talked to eight or nine different customer support agents on the phone and each one was both sympathetic and went out of their way to help us.
We have heard a lot of negatives about Delta but we were very impressed this weekend.

1 replies

$\"user-pic\"$

salvo

December 20, 2009 3:33 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

How were you able to reach them by phone??? I've gotten a busy signal for 18 hours...

","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 20, 2009 6:11 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

My brother was supposed to fly into DCA last night for the holidays, from Colorado Springs through Houston on Continental Airlines. Well, we're currently digging out of 22\" of snow here in Maryland, so we correctly deduced that there was no way in hell he was getting in yesterday and rebooked him for today. The Continental change fee was $150. Entirely new one-way ticket on American: $124. Go figure.

Anyway, he was rebooked through DFW for today. In an amusing twist, as soon as we did that, Continental sent an e-mail that his connecting flight from HOU->DCA had been rebooked due to the cancellation...to MONDAY! The first leg was not moved, meaning he would have been stranded in Houston for 2 days. When he did not check in for those, his return flights on Jan. 7 were cancelled.

Long story short, I don't know if my brother would have managed to fly into DCA today. They didn't even start accepting arrivals until this afternoon, and the check-in lines apparently stretched the entire length of the terminal 3 times. The issue is now moot because he managed to badly hurt his arm last night and the ER docs told him no flying until Thursday. So maybe we'll see him eventually.

","","","","","","

$\"user-pic\"$

mythago

December 20, 2009 8:22 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Oh, let's see if we can roll this all into one comment: I have absolutely no sympathy for the OP because in addition to flying at all, much less on Delta, it's the OP's own fault for living in/traveling to the East Coast in winter without having at least two different alternate routes of transportation, six weeks' saved PTO before getting back to work and enough supplies (sleeping bag, MREs, toothbrush) to let him camp out at the airport overnight if necessary. Besides, the OP should have called at least eight days before the flight and showed up at the airport 10 hours early to avoid delays. *ahem*

Seriously though, WTF is with the music? If it were a clip at the beginning of a new phone call it would be kinda funny. On a loop it's more like they're mocking their customers.

","","","

$\"user-pic\"$

_hi_

December 20, 2009 10:47 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

The song itself is about being stuck inside while it's snowing outside so.. why does this upset you? Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.... you can't do anything about it. Nothing wrong with that. Would you rather they endanger people by making them wait outside in the cold with no music or better yet fly in bad weather conditions and possibly kill everyone?

","

$\"user-pic\"$

thisistobehelpful

December 20, 2009 11:53 PM

Moderate |Flag for review

Ok well I laughed.

","

$\"user-pic\"$

December 21, 2009 12:06 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Now that I think about it, the last time I was forced to call Delta, they played a loop of a man whining about fuel prices. It was fairly amusing for the first minute. The next 24, not so much.

","","","","

$\"user-pic\"$

Wayne D LeFevre

December 21, 2009 8:57 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

So... I'm not seeing anyone actually say \"Hey, I called the number and you know what? They are right!! It is playing that!\" So does anyone know if it's actually true? Or is it simply a Holiday CD that is just playing over and over??

As far as customer service, I used to work at Delta as an aircraft mechanic. Customer service on ALL the airlines started going downhill the day the airlines were unregulated. Before, when all airlines were regulated by the government, all the airline had to go on was customer service. Of course, that was when you flew you wore your \"Sunday go to church\" clothes. :) Once it the de-reg went into effect, prices went down, planes started going longer and longer between checks, mechanical delays went up, flights get cancelled, people get upset, employees don't give a crap about the customer because the company doesn't give a crap anymore about the employee, wages go down, and it all goes into a huge tail-spin. Pun intended. Of course, you can go to Florida for $29.99!!!! It usually cost more nowadays to drive your freakin' car to airport than the plane ticket itself. And you wonder why customer service on ANY airline sucks.
(Not an excuse, just an explanation.)

","

$\"user-pic\"$

tatum780

December 21, 2009 11:45 AM

Moderate |Flag for review

Yesterday I flew home to Newark, NJ from Durham, NC. My Continental flight, originally slated to take off at 2:45pm and arrive Newark at 4:40pm, did not take off until 7:27pm because of \"backups at Newark.\" But in the intervening time we were told our flight would take off at 4:30, then 5:30, then 6:15, with a final (incorrect) update of 7:00pm. In addition, because takeoff spots were \"fluctuating\", we were told not to leave the gate (or if we did, to check back every 10 minutes) because we could get a new takeoff slot at any time and the boarding time could be moved up. Once we actually got on the plane takeoff happened pretty quickly, but when we were nearing Newark we were forced into the congestion 'circling pattern' for 45 minutes until they could slot us in on a runway. Then the flight stationed at our arrival gate had been delayed so they made us wait on the tarmac for 20 minutes while they found another arrival gate for us.

Recognizing that they had provided crappy, incorrect information for most of our trip, and that, more than the circumstances themselves had pissed people off, continental handed out coupons for a free alcoholic beverage on a future flight and 10% off a published, full price fare. PS - they handed these out to every passenger, including children.

","");