Local woman says Delta Air Lines not living up to promise

It has been a trying month for commercial airline businesses. Several events have given the industry a black eye.

On April 9, a violent confrontation on a United Airlines flight left one man bloodied. He was dragged off the plane after he refused to leave an overbooked flight. Then, on April 21, a dispute between passengers and an American Airlines employee almost turned violent after the employee allegedly took a stroller from a woman and hit her with it, narrowly missing the baby she was holding.

Air carriers have since been doing damage control, issuing statements and increasing the amount of money they will reward to people who willingly give up their seats on overbooked flights, but some people are questioning if that will really fix the problem.

Rancho Mirage resident Ginny Lund said she has been waiting to be reimbursed for a flight that she never took.

“They didn’t email or text saying the flight was canceled, so we showed up at the airport that morning,” Lund told KESQ News Channel 3’s and CBS Local 2’s Katie Widner.

Lund said that on April 7, she and a friend drove to Orange County for an early morning Delta Air Lines flight. The pair was headed to Augusta, Georgia, to catch the final round of the Masters Tournament and were told the flight was overbooked. They were turned away and had to book an American Airlines flight out of San Diego, but were promised a full refund of close to $2,400 for both tickets.

Lund said she recieved money back for one of the seats, plus two $200 vouchers for a future flight, but she is still missing reimbursement on the second ticket she bought for $1,194. She said the problem now is that she cannot get through to the airline.

“This morning, I called three times,” she said. “You try to call and you try to call and then you’re just hung up on.”

A voice recording at an 800 number for Delta stated, “Due to extremely high call volume, we are unable to take your call. Please try again later.” It then disconnected. Lund said she has been calling for weeks and has also tried to reach out by email, to no avail.

KESQ News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 reached out to the airline via email and connected with someone over the phone Monday morning. The station was told someone would be taking a look at the complaint, but Delta did not respond by our 5 p.m. deadline.

In a letter on the airline’s website, the company apologized for a series of issues that happened during the first week of April, blaming them on severe weather and a high volume of spring break travelers. It read, in part, “While we can’t control the weather, we understand the resulting recovery has not been ideal and we apologize for that.” The letter linked to a page that supposedly gives more information on canceled, or significantly delayed flights, but the link was broken.

A similar apology was included in the travel voucher Lund recieved. She said she cannot help but feel that she is being given the runaround on purpose.

“I just feel like, like they’re grinding you down when you try to call and you can’t gt through so you’ll just go away and that’s very frustrating. That shouldn’t happen,” Lund said.

Lund said she is worried her window for reimbursement is closing and that, with or without the voucher, she will not be booking with Delta again.