Monday, August 14, 2006

My worst flying nightmare: don't fly Delta Airlines

Preposterous incompetence, that is how I describe Delta Airlines'. Here is a chronicle of my worst flying nightmare:

16:00 - Arrived at Boston Logan Airport two hours prior to departure. Completed check-in and security screening in Boston Logan Airport in 18 minutes. I thought I was on for a good start for my vacation. Boy, was I wrong.

18:00 - My flight was due to depart at 18:00 and arrive at NY JFK at 19:25 so that I can catch a 21:30 flight to Frankfurt. At 18:00, there still there was no plane on sight. Delta staff was unhelpful in explaining why the plane was late. We were repeatedly told that the plane will arrive any minute from now.

19:30 - This is the time I should be arriving at NY JFK, not the time when I boarded the plane. The plane did not arrive at the gate until 19:30. In fact, the 19:00 flight to NY JFK left earlier than the 18:00 flight - unbelievable.

21:00 - I finally arrived at NY JFK at 21:00. Because my flight to Frankfurt is operated by a different carrier, I have to run to the Singapore Airlines check-in counter in Terminal 4.

21:05 - Arrived at the Singapore Airline check-in counter, but the staff were all gone. As you can see, many international airlines in NY JFK do not have permanent check-in stations as they only have a few flights per week. These companies were assigned with temporary stations 4 hours before flight departures to perform passenger check-ins.

21:10 - Without a boarding pass, my only chance is to talk an airline staff at the departure gate. But I first have to go through security screening, which requires a boarding pass. At the security screening station, I met Dirk, a German traveler who was in the exact same predicament as I am. We explained to a security staff who finally agreed to pass the message onto a Singapore Airline staff. But by then it was already too late. We looked out of the window and watch the flight which we are supposed to be on took off - a very sad and disappointing moment.

21:45 - Dirk and I met one of the Singapore Airline staff, the first competent person whom we met that night. She rebooked us for the next flight (the following day) to Frankfurt.

21:50 - Now it's our time to get even with Delta Airlines. Finding a Delta Airline counter was onerous because of the navigating around in termnal 3 was difficult with many doors locked and sections sealed.

22:40 - Yeah, it took us this long to find a Delta staff who could help us with our problem. Dirk and I were going to demand Delta for free accommodation and other compensations for the trouble they have caused us. To our surprise, we weren't the only passengers whom Delta has left stranded at NY JFK. There were about 50 (at least) passengers waiting around that section to sort out their logistical mess with Delta. They were fuming with frustrations and worry. I empathized with them. While there were some yelling and shouting, the situation was pretty civil.

23:10 - After 30 minutes of waiting in the line, we finally spoke to a staff. Despite our rage at the airline, Dirk and I decided to play it nice while talking to the staff so that we can at least get our issue resolved and have Delta to put us at some hotel for the night.

23:13 - I got free vouchers for hotel accommodation and food. The problem is that the hotel is located in Ronkonkoma - in the middle of Long Island, about 60 miles from NY JFK. We were told to wait outside the terminal for a bus that Delta had charted to transport stranded passengers to the hotel. We couldn't believe our eyes, there were literally hundreds (yes, read my words hundreds) of ticked off stranded passengers waiting outside the terminal for the chartered bus to take them to the hotel. Some passengers had been waiting for more than 4 hours for he bus. From talking to my fellow stranded passengers, I found that they either have their flight abruptly canceled or delayed, hence missing their next flight. Yep, there were plenty of delayed flights that night. One of the airport staff told me that it has been like this the whole summer. He said that this is the busiest traveling season since 9/11. One may argue that with the elevated terror alert and high traveling season delays are inevitable. Even this assertion is true, why do I observe that Delta Airlines is the only carrier at NY JFK having logistical problems? I am convinced that it is not demand or security threats, but rather poor operational management at Delta as the root cause of all woes at the airport.

23:45 - The bus finally showed up but it only has a capacity for about 50 people. Perhaps people were so ticked off or simply dead tired but no one were in a hurry to get onto the bus. I told Dirk that we should rush into the bus right now while there is still room, and we did.

23:55 - The bus finally left NY JFK. I started talking to Alex, an attractive lady who was sitting right next to me. We shared our horror stories but hers was definitely more distributing. She was on a layover in NY JFK while traveling from Boston to Richmond, VA (yeah, it turned out that we were on the same flight from Boston to NY). While waiting on the plane, she was suddenly told by the crew to get off from the plane. So she and other passengers complied. Once they were in ther terminal, they witnessed the plane flew off without them. Upon further inquiry, she was told by the staff on the ground that their flight to Richmond has been canceled and that they should go find a ticketing rep to reschedule them for the next flight. This story is distributing in many ways. Fundamentally, it violates the terms and conditions of a transportation service. Here is an analogy to the story: Imagine taking a taxi to a destination and halfway through the journey, you are suddenly kicked out by the taxi driver in a middle of nowhere. Such practice is totally unacceptable!!!

0:30 - We have been traveling for the last 30 minutes and we are now in the middle of nowhere.

1:00 - Can you believe this? We are still on the road. The driver was lost!!! He stopped twice to asked for directions.

1:05 - We finally arrived at the Holiday Inn in Ronkokoma but we were told by the hotel manager that he can only accept two passengers from the bus as the hotel was filled to capacity with stranded passengers. Thankfully, they have arranged to place us in another hotel two blocks down the road.

1:10 - We arrived at Hilton Garden Inn. I was assigned with a room with two king size beds. I asked the hotel manager how much the room would normally cost and he said: $99 + tax. Wow!!! This is what I don't understand. I paid $70 for a single trip ticket from Boston to NY JFK and Delta has to spend:

Cost of flight operations (very rough assumption, let's say 50% of the ticket price) = $35
Cost of hotel (assuming that Delta don't get any bulk discount rate) = $99
Cost of meals (what an insult, we were offered only $7 for dinner and $7 for breakfast) = $14
Cost of chartered bus service = $25
Total cost for Delta = $173

In other words, based on my very conservative estimation, for every $100 that they earn, they lose about $247!!! And with hundreds of ticked off passengers stranded in NY JFK each day (during this summer according to the airport staff), that translates to a huge operational loss. Personally, I incurred a big loss because of Delta's preposterous incompetence. I had to pay $115 euros to rebook my flight from Frankfurt to Amsterdam; not to mention the loss of my precious time, and the stress, grief, and anger that they have caused. And I am not alone. Seriously, why would these stranded passengers be flying Delta airlines ever again? Overall, Delta Airlines' incompetence translate to a much bigger opportunity cost for them. How can they continue to sustain their business with flight delays, unannounced cancellations, and incompetent staff? I feel bad for the employees at Delta too. They were severely understaffed and their morale completely shattered because of the company's financial dire straits. How can they be motivated, quality-oriented service providers? More importantly, how can the company continue to operate under such strains. After some digging on the Internet, it has become clear to me the circumstances surrounding my snafu last weekend. Earlier this year, Delta made the announcement of offering both domestic and international flights at NY JFK. There many similarities between Delta's expansion to JFK and the People Express case that I wrote a month ago. I think that Delta's expansion to JFK is a grave mistake. From my observation, Delta seemed ill-equiped and resource constrained to manage this new move successfully.

The moral of this story is simple: