Goodbye Delta, it's over
Ok Delta, I give up. You win. Here is the towel. I am done with you.
As you know, I am not happy with Song, your low fare carrier. I am going to spare you the verbal beating you so very much deserve because I simply don?t have the energy. Plus when someone stops caring, they stop arguing.
Here is why I have finally quit caring. First, I have to fight my way through your reservation system to get a seating zone that will allow me to store my one small pull bag next to the thousands of make shift travel bags the Disney crowd try to shove in the overhead compartment. I pay 4 times the price of your advertised fare and there is nothing I get for it. I, as a preferred traveler, do not even get to board the plane first because with Song, frequent traveler status means as much as me telling you I am the king of Milton.
So last Monday morning, there I was, sitting on your plane, helping people find row three, seats A, B and C because after all, a 3 looks like a 4 and if they are sitting in row 4 but have row 3 seats, it does take a lot of mental concentration to figure out that you in fact have to get up and move to your assigned seat. And sitting next to me is a large guy with his little kid. In the row behind us is the guy?s wife with their other two kids. It was obvious that it was the first time they traveled in a long time because two of the three kids, probably around 7 or 8, were pretty excited about ?going into the sky?. But the family was taking pictures, and talking to each other like they were back in their basement family room shouting up to the kitchen to bring down more Mountain Dew. This nice little family had not a care in the world, or concern in the world for other passengers, God love them. They were shouting away, me next to the guy, from one row to another. So cute. So I guess the guy got up and asked the flight attendant something that she thought was cute, like ?my kids are so excited about being in an airplane, can you just cry? because before I knew it, the flight attendant brought over two free roundtrip tickets anywhere Song flies, and gave them to this guy. I am not joking. Wish I were, but not. She said that Song is having a promotion and that if you fly once every 10 years, on really cheap seats, and are oblivious to others around you, Delta will reward you with free stuff.
Now as you can imagine, I was delighted. I got up, high-fived the guy, hugged the flight attendant, and got on the PA to announce the good fortune to the rest of the plane. Then I proceeded to pour scolding hot coffee in my eyes to scale down the pain I was feeling inside. ARE YOU KIDDING ME.? Not only do I get the shaft from you, but you throw it in my face by giving a free ticket to someone, wait, two free tickets, to someone who NEVER TRAVELS. I asked to be bumped from Silver to Gold and you tell me to pound sand. And you turn around and give this guy and his family, who you KNOW bought the seats at a super cheap rate, FREE TICKETS. Sweet mercy I was ticked. Did I mention that my seat was broken so I had to sit with my stomach clenched so the stupid thing did not keep reclining on its own? That was fun. A little stomach exercise at 8 in the morning for 3 hours.
Oh, one other thing. When I call the normal number and the idiots working there can?t talk to me because I am Silver Medallion, you should try to implement a system that 1) won?t make me put in my sky miles number again and 2) WILL NOT HANG UP ON ME YOU IDIOTS. I can?t confirm this, but I am pretty sure there are magical phone systems that route calls to the proper group without requiring the caller to do it HIMSELF.
Anyway, I am glad for that guy and his wife. Just because I am bitter and sour doesn?t mean he has to be. He was very nice to me and I can?t fault him for his enthusiasm for going on vacation. Heck, if I were taking my family for 10 days to Disney, I would be pretty jazzed too. But I can fault you, Delta, for throwing in my face the fact that I travel every week, pay a lot of money to do so and get zero preferential treatment for it. You, Delta, Song, or whoever you are, should be ashamed of yourself and your stupid gimmicks. Instead of having a promotion to reward people who seldom fly, how about having a promotion to reward those of us who have no choice.