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Delta: Sorry Your Lung Collapsed... We Can't Issue a Refund

consumerist.com — While we would like to offer special consideration in cases such as yours, we are unable to honor the many requests that we receive from others in similar situations. We follow a consistent policy to ensure that Delta is fair to everyone who travels with us. Accordingly, we must respectfully decline your request.

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  • spriggig, on 07/13/2008, -28/+16The end of the article advocates "Executive Email Carpet Bombing", which I've also found to be extremely effective.

    Peruse the company's website to determine the nomenclature used for email addresses (i.e. firstinitial.lastname@domain.com, or firstnamelastname@domain.com) and then use the format to spam every top executive listed on the website and CC the employees with whom you've previously had no luck, with a friendly, truthful email explaining your position. I got $800 refunded from a mortgage company using this method.
    • Myonosken, on 07/13/2008, -4/+18Nah lets not given this guy's a moron whining to the consumerist.
      • Tomchei, on 07/13/2008, -1/+13Delta did noting wrong here.
        The guy should have paid the premium for the refundable ticket.
        1 year is pretty reasonable.
    • SillyRabbits, on 07/13/2008, -2/+14Don't email Delta, this guy is an idiot. Delta already gave him a break when they weren't even required to and he still managed to screw that up. Sometimes companies deserve a little public backlash - however, this certainly isn't one of them.
    • Mononuclear, on 07/13/2008, -1/+2Anyone who travels knows the ticket is good for a year from the DATE OF ISSUE. This is SOP with airlines and has always been that way. Delta does admit when they screw up and offer refunds or help you out. I was told by a delta rep that I could change my ticket anytime within the year after issue, then when I went to change it I was told that I had to have changed it before the return date (I was changing the return leg). Anyway when I nicely explained the situation to delta and they had record of the rep who told me I could change it anytime (It was from online delta chat) they let me make the change with only charging the normal chang fee and difference in price. The price was much lower and I even ended up making $120 off it.
    • xptoast, on 07/13/2008, -8/+1Delta should be boycotted and maybe whoever thought the statement they made was appropriate should have their kneecaps smashed. Sorry but big companies bug me.
      • Myonosken, on 07/13/2008, -1/+3Sorry but 13 year old wannabee anarchists who want to '***** CORPORATIONS' bug me.
      • xptoast, on 07/13/2008, -3/+1Anarchists eh? I hate corporations because they are too large to operate on a competent level. The only reasons they make money is because they tend to micro manage things to the point to where the consumer has little that they get out of it with the corporation left with the large bottom line. An actual corporation took a working product and asked to have it so it has a smaller life cycle so that they could sell more of them. Now tell me that I am an anarchist for using my head like a human should. Idiots like you bug me. Shut your face and go break your fingers so that nobody ever will have to hear from you either in text or in voice you retarded fool of a human. Yes I would say this to your face as well because people like you just are the reason that Corporations do ***** people. So ***** you!

        PS...Age has nothing to do with competence and I am nowhere near the age of 13 you incompetent baboon. Now go do something Darwin like to remove yourself from the gene pool and from everyones life. Thanks.
  • diemunkiesdie, on 07/13/2008, -8/+68It's never indicated if the ticket he bought was a "refundable" ticket or a "non-refundable" ticket. If it was a non-refundable ticket then Delta was more than generous to him. If it's a non-refundable ticket and they still gave him a voucher, I say he should have been more careful to find out a hard date when he needed to use the ticket by. If it was a refundable ticket then he needs to file a complaint because he deserves to have the money back, not just a voucher from the airline. Also, Delta makes it clear that the voucher needs to be redeemed one-year from the date of purchase, see "Ticket Validity" at http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/ticket_chan ... .
    • rnelsonee, on 07/13/2008, -10/+23If it was refundable then he would have gotten his money back - that's pretty much the point of them (I get refundable all the time for work, as schedules can change and flights can get canceled any minute). Airlines do give vouchers for non-refundable tickets as standard practice so this is what he had.

      It is a dirty little tactic for the airlines to have the voucher expire from date of issue (although it is standard practice). It usually takes getting a voucher one time to realize this. The reason it's a dirty tactic is that when you cancel a flight, 90% of the time it's to get a flight later than the first flight. Also, if applying the voucher to travel before the original date, you'll have to put up more cash, as flights generally get more expensive as the time between purchase and departure get smaller.

      What really sucks is when the voucher is only good for the same departure and arrival airports. Continental does this. I have a $2,500 ticket that expires in August. The reason I can't use it? It's only good from Guam to Baltimore (I flew to Guam last year for work, canceled flight home as I left on a ship). How the hell am I going to use that? I can't can't eBay the ticket as no name changes are allowed. It's crap.
      • godzilla8nj, on 07/13/2008, -3/+5Why is this being dug down? It's an informative post.
    • mcquitty, on 07/13/2008, -1/+3Not only that, but on the voucher he received, it should have said the date the ticket was good through. Every refunded ticket I have ever had stated this information on the front of the ticket/voucher.
    • msheidi, on 07/14/2008, -0/+0DELTA SUCKS. REALLY. I flew on them to Orlando, after a flight cancellation, disney took us back to the hotel to sleep and didn't get out of there til 24 hours later even though we called and confirmed, and Disney travel called and confirmed the flight

  • atb12688, on 07/13/2008, -17/+123This dude just needs to deal with it. Life isn't fair. Grow a pair and realize the world doesn't revolve around you and your problems. Customer service representatives may not have made it very clear, but Delta has certainly made it very clear on their website. You can't use "internet age" in your email having not checked out their website thoroughly. Common sense...
    • NuclearIsShit, on 07/13/2008, -15/+4Ya just grow a pair and if you can't breath because of your lungs then your a weak little wiener! I mean I had two collapsed lungs and I beat up a hippie and ran in a marathon right after.

      So what if the person who sold you the ticket lied to you and gave you false information that led to you losing money, just pull up your boot straps and accept it, the corporation is NEVER wrong and the sooner you get it, the better we all are. Damn liberals ruining the country with their "equal rights" talk and their "Constitution". They should just think and act ignorant and uncaring like me, and then they will truly be strong. Just like a fricken ape strong to be exact.
      • utahnkid, on 07/13/2008, -0/+6It's funny how the major logical fallacies have been so clearly outlined for such a long time and they just keep popping up.

        All I'm going to say is you're wrong and not significant enough for me to explain in detail why. Read what you said a few times, think about it, and I'm sure you'll figure it out.
    • tyho, on 07/13/2008, -2/+4I agree. I can't understand why so many like to prop up whiners and feel sorry for them. The fellow had some bad luck, that much is sure. What is the price of our moral outrage - $365.58.
    • Shogi, on 07/13/2008, -4/+4What, so you say we should just bend over and take it evertime life decides to be "unfair"?

      That's a great plan. Let me know how it works out.
  • ElHubcapo, on 07/13/2008, -24/+1Another case of airlines doing what airlines do best; not caring for the customer
    • Myonosken, on 07/13/2008, -1/+7The dude bought a non-refundable ticket. That's the whole point of paying a little more to make it refundable.
  • acid0426, on 07/13/2008, -4/+69The decision was in line with their policy, which is what I want. I want the airline to make all decisions in accordance with their posted policies.
    • PilotHead, on 07/13/2008, -14/+1While I agree that business should uphold policies (they're there for a reason, mostly to prevent people taking advantage of them) they should at least cut this guy a break like give him a credit for another flight.

      One of the main reasons airlines are losing millions of dollars because they forgot the 2 most important rules in business.

      Build good Repore and Repeat business.

    • DrPh0bius, on 07/13/2008, -1/+12Sorry, Im with acid0426 on this. Policy is policy, and when you start making exceptions, you open yourself up to all kinds of other problems. People being as litiguos as they are these days, you have to stick to policy.
      They make an exception for one person, then the next person says "Why cant I have an exception when that guy did? Is it because Im black/female/latino/gay/fat?"
      Scoff if you want, but this kind of thing happens all the time and corporations know it. The only recourse is to stick to policy. Thank all the sue-crazy people out there for the death of discretion.
  • use2bacanadian, on 07/13/2008, -4/+48The price of the ticket is so LOW that it pretty much indicates a non- refundable ticket. So WHY exactly should the airline, after giving a huge break on the price of the ticket, give a refund to a guy who took the gamble that nothing would happen to him and lost? The airline was over generous in giving him a voucher and then he screwed that up as well. Loser time two in my book. Learn from your misatkes, pay the extra price for a refundable ticket, and stop wining and trying to make it a national campaign against a big corporation who has treated you so unfairly.
    • SillyRabbits, on 07/13/2008, -1/+9Exactly! It almost had to be a non-refundable ticket at that price. So, Delta goes through the trouble of giving him a break (since they didn't have to at all) and he still screws it up, and now he wants to use the internet to bully the company. With some people you just can't win. I'd tell him to learn how to take a little personal responsibility for once and go screw himself...
      • CosmicJustice, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4You are correct. With some people you just can't win and those people don't seem to get that companies are happy to lose their business because their business isn't profitable.
      • wolferz, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3@CosmicJustice

        Their business is profitable... if only just. They don't care about losing his business because they know he is in the wrong and keeping him as a customer would most likely result in additional money lost to his ***** ups. Also he is only one customer... out of how many?
  • Jovensdisciple, on 07/13/2008, -13/+6What if that guy was just pretending that his lung collapsed? I bet he was. You can come up with a lot of excuses in life and it would save you a lot of time and money, but it makes you reliant on others who think you're a liar.
    • Eldorian, on 07/13/2008, -2/+2You're an idiot for not reading the article. He had a signed document that was sent from his physician.
      • wolferz, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1You know Jovensdisciple is probably wrong... but the only idiot here is you.

        I have lots of friends who are doctors... It is possibly other doctors out there have friends too (a stretch... I know). It is also possible some doctors are stupid enough to sign this ***** for their buddy.

        Not saying that is what happened... just that your an idiot for being so willing to talk down to some one based on your own inability to apply rational thought.
  • aphexcoil, on 07/13/2008, -4/+74Don't carpet-bomb delta with e-mails -- this is standard policy with any commercial airline. I used to believe that the consumerist had good intentions (protecting the little guy from big corporations) but it has since just catered to sensationalism and emotions without giving the corporations side of the story.

    Corporations exist to make money. They don't exist to "screw the little person." Most of the time, everything you need to know is right there in the small print. The problem is that most people have such a sense of entitlement that they believe the rules don't ever apply to them or that they can just bitch and moan and get their way.

    • dragon76, on 07/13/2008, -1/+9OMG, you have NO idea the sense of entitlement people have. I used to work in professional retail (Saks, Bloomingdale's) before becoming an esthetician. Every customer believes they are the sole reason the company exists and makes money. Unless you are at the top tier of their private card you can forget about it. Your best bet is to always try and make friends with someone than it is to bitch and moan or to threaten.

      When I was a manager for A&F we were given instructions from corporate that anyone who acted like that was to be asked to leave the store, with security escort if "desired" and uninvited back to the store.
      • sv650touring, on 07/14/2008, -0/+2Damn, that's the coolest thing I ever heard about Abercrombie & Fitch. I mean, after that song I never really gave them a chance. But I like their policy on douche customers.
  • Lax32, on 07/13/2008, -3/+86Whats the problem? They didn't cause his collapsed lung, they went out of their way to give him any kind of refund in the first place. But now you are complaining about when they decided to start counting down the expiration date from?

    They are a business, not a charity. You aren't entitled to anything.
    • use2bacanadian, on 07/13/2008, -3/+2Well if you read a post form yeaterday a lot of people think that they have aconstitutional "RIGHT" to owna car and fly on na airplane.
      • willfe, on 07/14/2008, -1/+1Gonna go get that space bar fixed soon?
    • khyberkitsune, on 07/13/2008, -11/+2You're a moron. This person paid money for a service they could not receive. No company, not even the President, has the power to force a person to violate a doctor's orders. The person paid for a service, and due to medical conditions they were unable to use their service. The company took money and NEVER PROVIDED THE SERVICE.

      In law, that's grounds for a lien on Delta's property. They're REQUIRED to provide the service if you paid for it.

      And yes, I've won this type of suit, so STFU.
      • use2bacanadian, on 07/13/2008, -3/+3Wow - smoke a joint and calm down you little illiterate digg *****....The guy bought a non refundable ticket! Do you understand what "non refundable" means - you moron! There is no evidence that his lung collapsed! Do you understand what "evidence" means - moron! Do you understand that the Airline did not have to give him ANYTHING because he bought a non-refundable ticket - moron. Do you understand the the Airline - out of good will - provided him with a voucher that had an expiration date? - MORON. And do you realize that that this equally ignorant moronic crybaby let the voucher he was not even entitled to expire? MORON! You know nothing about the Law - Contracts - Airlines or Life. So why don't you go get a life and stop commenting on stuff you have little understanding of or appreciation for! MORON
      • Lax32, on 07/13/2008, -0/+11Haha, really? Thats just funny. You really don't have any idea what you are talking about.

        They did provide a service. He bought a ticket to a plane leaving destination X on date Y. The airlines gave him a seat on a plane leaving destination X on date Y, and that plane left when they said it would with a space for him on it. He didn't pay delta to get him to his destination by any means necessary, he paid them to use a seat on one of their flights. The only way you are entitled to anything is if the flight you paid for doesn't leave.

        If I buy a movie ticket, but for some reason can't go to the movie, are they required to give me a refund? How about if I go by Wendys and after they give me my food I can't eat it because I come down with an illness? Are they required by law to keep cooking me food until I consume what I paid for?

        They had NO obligation to give him ANYTHING. They did exactly what he paid them to do, they gave him a seat on an airplane that left when they said it would. Delta did way more than they should have... they could have probably lost a couple hundred dollars in profits by giving him a free ticket.
  • myhandleondigg, on 07/13/2008, -5/+41big deal. consumerist is turning into a witch hunt.
  • smacksaw, on 07/13/2008, -14/+2As if they think "well, I'm sure he'll be eager to spend a bunch more money to buy another ticket now that he's accepted our procedures!"

    Even if he's wrong (which he might be, not many people buy a fully refundable ticket sans restrictions these days), no one in their right mind could think he would take this.

    Personally, I hate Delta. This is exactly why. I avoid them at all costs. So what have you achieved Delta? Negative publicity? And now you have people like me, echoing the sentiment that you suck. You can't just toss money at a problem and make it go away. You toss money at it BEFORE it becomes a problem. How does Delta fix this negative PR now? They don't.

    And another thing - why do WE keep bailing these airlines out? We're allowing a diseased animal to live on and infect the herd. Delta and their ***** philosophies and broken business model need to be allowed to go into natural extinction. If using the hand of gov't as the hand of God is some sort of intelligent design for corporate airlines, we're pretty damned foolish in our arrogant pseudo-omniscience.
    • use2bacanadian, on 07/13/2008, -1/+0How exactly are "we" bailing out these airlines???? That is a gross misrepresentation on your part! NO ONE is bailing out airlines, in fact, 4 of them went bankrupt in ONE WEEK. Three of them liquidated --- where is the bailout? Several are on the verge of bankruptcy again because no one controls the market, oil is high, competition is demanding and the airlines fail or succeed with no help form the government. I am actually only 50% right about that last statement. The government HELPS the airlines to fail by taxing them in excess of 25% on every ticket!!!!! It is the most heavily taxed and heavily regulated industry in the country! While foreign airlines actually enjoy being subsidized by their governments and are in direct competition with US airlines they are playing on an unfair playing field.
    • wolferz, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4That isn't the problem.

      Do you know why vouchers and rebates and things of that nature expire? Rebates expire because the company doesn't want those rebates coming home 3 years later when the company can no longer afford to honor them (such as if the company falls on hard times). Vouchers are for a similar but slightly different reason.

      A voucher represents money that a client made available to the company for it's use in return for a service or product that the client for some reason could not use. It is an effort by the company to do right by the client while at the same time limiting it's own loses. The airline business is very competitive right now... profit margins are still shrinking... a little bit of money lost multiplied by thousands of separate occasions becomes a lot of money lost and a risk for bankruptcy... and yes refunds actually cost a company money. Companies like Walmart can absorb that cost by making it up in the hundreds of thousands of purchases that don't come back.

      So a voucher represents money you gave a company for it to use for it's own needs but it can't actually use it because if that voucher comes home it will incur the cost of providing the original service or product... and if they already used your money they may not actually be able to afford that... result? Expiration dates. If you don;t use it by a certain time the voucher expires and they can go ahead and use the money you gave them.

      Is this unfair? Put simply... no. It would be if you didn't agree to this at the time of the original purchase... but you did, whether you knew it or not. Is that unfair? Yes... but that's a problem with the law, not Delta. Delta could try to be better than the competition... but in doing so their prices would go up and in the end they would be worse off than now.

      If they were the evil company every one is trying to make them out to be they wouldn't offer vouchers. You pay for the possibility of a refund upfront... or you don't, and if you don't then too bad.

      Does this make them look bad? Yes. Is this going to lose them some business? Yes. Is that worse than making exceptions to policy? In the long run... no.
  • toetagger, on 07/13/2008, -13/+1"So because we've screwed all the other people, we have to screw you too". People - DON"T FLY!
  • AthelReiki, on 07/13/2008, -2/+9He bought the ticket using Travelocity? If thats the case he should be dealing with them, not Delta directly. When I worked for United, we wouldn't be able to see reservations made by 3rd parties. Which is why they probably had such a hard time locating his record.
    • bdbr, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2I had to cancel a non-refundable flight on Expedia, and the only way to get credits was to contact the airline. I don't think the websites can issue the travel vouchers. The airline was United, BTW.
  • NuclearIsShit, on 07/13/2008, -15/+1***** DELTA! AND ***** ROGERS!
  • TetchyTony, on 07/13/2008, -7/+2Did they fly an empty seat they could have filled? - hard cheese to him! Did they (in fact) have adequate notice? - give the guy a break, if you can find a way of doing it without creating a legal precedent. But he's just made that very difficult.
  • HappyScrappy, on 07/13/2008, -1/+22You save a bundle buying a non-refundable/non-changeable ticket. And part of that is you take a risk of losing your money if you can't use the ticket. It's your risk, not the airlines'.
  • Borgcube636, on 07/13/2008, -6/+5Awhile back, some guy sued Nintendo b/c he got a seizure while playing. Should he get reimbursed? NO! It's not Nintendo's fault, it's his own.
  • ferrariman60, on 07/13/2008, -2/+21Why is this on digg? I hate the consumerist, they're so whiny it's incredible. He collapses a lung, and wants his money back? Why? You bought a ticket, then you couldn't fly. ***** happens buddy, the fact that they even offered a refund is pretty damn nice of them. Get over it. We all eat ***** sometimes, it's just your turn now. Don't whine to the consumerist. Does anyone take them seriously anyways?
  • CoMpUtErITGuY, on 07/13/2008, -1/+20Looks like most people agree with Delta on the consumerist article from their responses.
    • smacksaw, on 07/13/2008, -8/+1It's indicative of the poor customer service that plagues every industry that so many people would agree.

      The guy's story is clear. What Delta told him was inaccurate and easily misconstrued.

      The fact so many people agree with Delta anyway is why so many companies can get away with screwing people. There's no fear. The sympathy lies with the corporation, not the consumer.
      • utahnkid, on 07/13/2008, -0/+6No, it's indicative of those people having a more realistic grasp on reality. I want big corporations complying to their extremely easy to access, publicly posted rules and standards. Every time.

        And so does everyone else.
    • uncouthyouth, on 07/13/2008, -1/+1Correction: One really noisy person agrees with Delta, and one other guy who mentioned 4chan and is therefore disqualified from serious discussion.

      Also WTF is up with the capitalization in your name? Are you a 14 year old girl from Southern California? Usually when I see people doing that, their name is along the lines of jOnAsBrOsRhOt91. What are your feelings on the Jonas Brothers, CoMpUtErITGuY?
  • Maddoktor2, on 07/13/2008, -5/+1The best way to avoid situations of this nature would be to simply "reset the clock" once a voucher is issued. You'd then have one year to use the voucher from the date of its issuance, and if you didn't, then you'd have nobody to blame but yourself, and no cause to complain.
    • wolferz, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1I don;t know why you are being dugg down. I totally agree... even though I thing this guy has nothing to complain about under the current circumstances.
  • danj321, on 07/13/2008, -11/+3That was a generic response letter from Delta... She probably didn't even read his letter.
  • zippy757, on 07/13/2008, -3/+20The Consumerist is just a bunch of immature babies with keyboards... They routinely provide 'advice' that candidly, is simply wrong or highly uninformed and devoid of facts.

    If the ticket was refundable, there would be no story here. If it was nonrefundable, which is what I suspect, then Delta was very kind.

    The fact his lung collapsed is interesting, and sad, but things happen like that virtually every day, on every flight, on every airline. People have car accidents, sick kids, appendicitis, tooth pain, broken bones, diarrhea, hangovers, and panic attacks... all of which cause them to miss flights.

    It sucks, but that's life.

    PS: As a proof point about Consumerists positions, who exactly do you think pays the bill for refunds ? As virtually no airline in 50 years has been right-side-up financially, all they do is spread the lost revenue back into the ticket cost basis on the next price increase... so when someone does the 'I'm too sick to fly' deal, basically the consumers pick up the tab....So the
    Consumerist's position is in the end, anti-consumer.

    It use to be a good site.
  • bc289, on 07/13/2008, -1/+1Another fellow pneumothorax-er. I had the same thing happen to me (lung collapse) on the day of my flight from Long Beach to NY, but I had a flight with JetBlue instead. They gave me a refund, although it was in the form of JetBlue credit. I'm happy I got anything back though.
    • crackerjack20, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Cool, I had spontaneous pneumothorax too. Did you get a cool chest tube? I had mine in for 13 days before my lung stopped leaking. Now I've got a real cool scar to show the ladies.
      • bc289, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1Yeah my lung actually collapsed three times in the last 4 years. Each time I got a chest tube, and the last two times I had preventative surgery (VATS surgery). I've got like 5 scars on each side of my chest. 13 days is a long time, each time I had it in for around 4-5 days.
    • use2bacanadian, on 07/13/2008, -1/+1And where is jet blue now? Selling equipment to make payroll!
  • jasonalangraves, on 07/13/2008, -8/+1I fly quite a lot internationally, and this is yet another reason why I specifically do everything possible to not fly with ANY American airline. Don't get me wrong, I do try to buy products made in the US, but the US airline industry provides a quality of service that is poor at best. American airline companies are not in bad financial shape because of the cost of oil, but rather due to the fact that they provide piss poor service. Like every company that does the same, they ought to change, go out of business, or get the hell out of the way of the airlines that do provide a high level of service.
  • sjh0313, on 07/13/2008, -0/+9An airline company is driven by scheduling. And in one airport alone, an airline faces hundreds (thousands) of "miss my flight" complaints a day. This is no different, just in a less direct fashion, with the deadline relating to the voucher instead of a flight, and missing the deadline being Trevor's fault, not Delta's. I can't work up much sympathy for Trevor.
  • Ex3poo, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1When,flying to another country you should always fly the airline that has its main Hub in that destination.They are always very easy to deal with.But of course if your money short,flying with a go everywhere airline like Delta, its the price you have to pay.
  • InfiniteNothing, on 07/13/2008, -10/+3I like how we have come to expect corporations to be essentially soulless. Anything to save a buck I guess.
    • myhandleondigg, on 07/13/2008, -1/+9like buying a cheap nonrefundable ticket and then getting mad that you can't use it a year after your flight?
  • FuZi0nDET, on 07/13/2008, -0/+10I fly Delta around 4 times a month for business travel and I try to arrange my personal travel on Delta when ever I can. They've taken very good care of me. I had a flight delayed two times by a total of 10 hours once, they put me on another flight in first class for free. My experience with other air lines hasn't been so nice. Their flight attendants are pretty cool too, normally no one says anything to me when I leave my headphones in as long as long as I keep my i-pod in my pocket.

    Sorry for this guys bad luck but, customer service reps. don't know everything, that's why you should ask them questions. It's not like any of them said point blank that it was good until date X they simply said a year. I bet this is the same type of person that boards the plane with two large carry on bags and places them both in the over head, so you get to place your one carry on bag under the seat in front of you. Don't blast Delta for your lack of diligence.
  • ryanwritescopy, on 07/13/2008, -0/+13The solution is simple. Delta should issue free, one-way tickets to Antarctica for all Consumerist regulars.
  • crackerjack20, on 07/13/2008, -1/+12This guy is a spoiled brat. I had spontaneous pneumothorax (collapsed lung) while sitting in physics class during my freshman year of college. I missed 3 weeks of classes. I didn't ask the university for a refund of my tuition. I just sucked it up, worked my ass off, and still completed all the courses. And these were engineering classes at an Ivy league school. Surely this guy can get over the fact that ***** happens and he should just suck it up and deal with the loss of a couple hundred bucks. He should be happy his heart didn't stop or that he got brain damage during the collapse.
  • TwoBlowFish, on 07/13/2008, -8/+1Well to be honest, it is a sign of poorness for such a big company like Delta. Not a single customer can be treated like this. I think Delta should give the guy his flight. He's only ONE guy, but with such actions Delta takes reactions from all diggers. ;)
    • TheKeithD, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4Looking at the comments that are getting dugg up and the ones that are getting dugg down, I'd say Delta's not "taking reactions" (what in the world is this supposed to mean?) from most of the diggers, or negative ones at least.
      Besides, TONS of customers get treated like this. I'd imagine keeping an airline schedule is no easy task, and they're not going to go out of their way just because ONE person forgot something at home 10 minutes before the flight takes off, or if ONE person's lung collapsed and they had to miss their plane. He should be grateful that he even got a voucher.
  • lohphat, on 07/13/2008, -1/+6It's not the job of the airlines to arbitrate why you couldn't make your flight be it a collapsed lung or a broken leg from skiing.

    This is EXACTLY what travel insurance is for.

    If he wanted to protect his money he could have purchased a full-fare ticket. If you buy the cheapest fare YOU are taking a gamble.
  • Soave, on 07/13/2008, -1/+10Every Consumerist article I read makes me want to kick both the writer of the article and the 'consumer' in the face and tell them both to grow up and quit crying.
  • senatorpjt, on 07/13/2008, -1/+9What part of "non-refundable" does this guy not understand? He's lucky to have gotten a voucher at all.
  • Chronictrees, on 07/13/2008, -0/+9This guy got his refund in June 2007, waited till June 2008 to try and use it, and gets all butt hurt that it expired? This and the Colgate article were both cases where the consumers were at fault imo.
  • SiSurfer, on 07/13/2008, -1/+5I wish I had the ability to write such a brilliantly worded ***** you letter.
  • burjzyntski, on 07/13/2008, -8/+0I remember years ago when Delta was one of the most respectable airlines out there...now they just suck in general.
  • e2superman, on 07/13/2008, -0/+9I am with Delta on this one. They already gave him more than their policy said they had to. Likfe sucks and ***** happens. Expecting other people to bail you out of your problems every time (that are not theirs) is just silly and becoming too common place in the US.
  • bbqsalad, on 07/13/2008, -0/+6Consumerist: Wahhhhhhhh
  • wattersm, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3From now on I'm burying any story that links to the Consumerists. Bunch of whiney brats, ***** happens and Delta owes you nothing.
  • Wootstapler, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1Delta still provides the best in flight meals I've ever had on an airplane.
  • narcofiche, on 07/13/2008, -1/+3The Consumerist is a great website, but they ruin their credibility with stories like this. Maybe if they just stuck to the true injustices caused by corporations then more people would listen to them.
  • tomarocco, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Real men don't let their lungs collapse then go running to the Consumerist for sympathy.
  • dgreichert, on 07/13/2008, -3/+1The big airline companies are crooks.. this doesn't surprise me one bit.
  • wolferz, on 07/13/2008, -0/+6This guy is an idiot. Sorry... but he is.

    FTA: "Due to human error, Delta has stolen—that may sound like a strong word, but is in fact the ONLY way to refer to it—almost five hundred dollars from me."

    Stolen is not a strong word, it is the wrong word. For example: If I purchase a ticket to fly on August 1st and then come August 1st I just decided to sleep in and not show up to the terminal then try to show up on August 2nd and use the ticket... their refusal is not stealing. This is why such dates and times are market on tickets.

    The same goes for the voucher. If there is no expiration date on the voucher then it can not expire. Such offers must be marked with their expiration date by law. He didn't use it before the expiration and in doing so forfeited the voucher and the money behind it. No theft involved... just him being stupid and giving away his money.

    FTA "If you have many requests from “others in similar situations” than you have an institutional problem that needs to be fixed and I do not feel I should pay the price for that failure."

    He's only seeing what he wants to see. When they mention "others in similar situations" they are referring to people who have suffered injuries that prevented them from flying. I do see how trying to accommodate such people could create a situation where fairness is not always enforced. Even if the vast majority of the time it worked perfectly there would still be some people who don't deserve consideration would get it some who do wouldn't. In this situation the only way to ensure fairness is to treat every one exactly the same.

    FTA: "one ticket, just one, bought by me could erase any loss you’d take from giving me MY MONEY back"

    How does he think Delta pays for fuel, maintenance, and infrastructure? Does he think that all tickets sold by delta are 100% profit? This statement by him could only be true if this was the case. I am not in the airline business but with the level of competition in the airline business right now I would say profit per ticket is probably razor thin... maybe 5-10 dollars a ticket... the rest is over head. So no, one ticket would not make up for money lost. Assuming my estimate is right it would take almost 75... that's far more than the average number of flights a person will take in their entire lifetime.

    FTA: "You have no right to this money and with poor customer service from top to bottom, have taken advantage of my illness."

    If every any one has stretched the facts this is definitely one of those times. They took advantage of the illness? I'm sorry what? He would be able to fly again, according to his doctor, in 6 months. Lets see here. The claim that the departure date was in august would mean he could fly again in... whoops... February. It's his own fault for waiting till June again. And that is just based on the information presented in the article. I don't fly... and I've never laid eyes on one of these vouchers but several people have pointed out the expiration date is clearly marked on them and, unless I'm mistaken, that is also required by law.

    • wolferz, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1Actually my analogy is off. It would be more accurate to say If I mistakenly thought that the departure was august 2nd even though it was august 1st and then showed up august 2nd.
  • Roniniku, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3Why is buddy surprised at the dates? It's stated clearly in Delta's policies. Like many others have stated, he is LUCKY he was given a voucher at all. He could have always purchased travel insurance but he doesn't seem to have done that. Even if someone wanted to blast Delta in an email campaign, where is the guys last name? You think they are going to spend the time to investigate this when they don't even have the specifics necessary to do so?
  • NeVeRmOrE82, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4Lame. Why is Delta responsible for accommodating this guy's collapsed lung? How pompous. Anything Delta did to help this guy in terms of vouchers was above and beyond expectations. If he thinks he's suffering, he needs to take a look at the industry he's whining about.

    BTW, I've actually had TWO collapsed lungs within the span of a single month (pneumothorax) due to a genetic defect and I was on a plane in 2 months. This dude is just melodramatic.
  • Hosalabad, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1The letter writer is a douchebag. He's recovering from a collapsed lung and he's worried about $365?
    He's probably looking at 10 times that in gaps in his medical insurance coverage.
  • Mennodus, on 07/14/2008, -0/+0Personally i detest arguments where people use rules to support their arguments, or even use the rules as an argument in itself. The fact that it is a rule that he should not be paid is a "sophism", it is a false argument because it does not discuss the content of the matter. Moving right along to the content of the matter, the question is: is it RIGHT for his lung collapse to cost him hundreds of dollars? The answer, clearly, is no.
  • richw, on 07/14/2008, -0/+1That guy really needs to get a life. Honestly it is Delta's fault his lung collapsed? No. So why should Delta break the rules for this guy? It shouldn't. What's next is he gonna sue McDonald's for a refund after throwing up because of it? LOL wouldn't surprise me.
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