Lo and Behold - Delta's response was an automated form letter

You probably already guessed that the response I received from Delta/Northwest Airlines was an automated "bot" form letter... something about the response was fishy, but I chalked it up to being a boiler plate letter with a few things in there to personalize it. So imagine my surprise when, after sending my counter-response, I received exactly the same letter again! Word for word. Clearly, no one is reading these letters at Delta/NWA Airlines. There is simply a computer that kicks out a "response" letter no matter what you write.

My next step is to try and find an actual address for them and send an actual letter. I don't know if it will do any good but I'm going to try. Wish me luck.

Related to this, I ran across this interesting post about Delta/Northwest:

http://sank63.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/at-least-buy-me-a-drink/#comment-2090

Delta Responds

I suppose it was partially due to the specter of having this episode exposed on a blog that finally got Delta to respond to my letter from a month ago. Here is there response and below it is my reply.

***

November 25, 2009

Dear Mr. Winkler,

Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding the service provided while traveling with us. On behalf of everyone at Delta Air Lines, I sincerely apologize for the stress and inconvenience you experienced.

I realize the inconvenience you were caused. We know travelers need an airline they can count on, and I recognize how upsetting it is when plans are disrupted. Feedback like you have provided will help us to improve our overall customer experience.

Our goal is to surpass our customer?s expectations every day. We appreciate your kind comments and will continue to work hard to provide superior service. Be assured we take our commitment to serving you veryseriously. Your feelings are important to us, and I have shared your comments with the responsible leadership team.

I regret the inconvenience you were caused with your checked baggage. Like you, we certainly wish that instances of mishandled bags never occurred. Please know I will be sharing your comments with our Airport Customer Service leadership team. Your feedback is valued and we thank you for taking the time to bring this disappointing experience to our attention.

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. I am truly sorry to disappoint you, as I am sure this is not the answer you expected.

Mr. Winkler, your business is important to us and given the opportunity of serving you in the future, I am confident Delta will not only meet but exceed your expectations.

Sincerely,

John M. Smith
Coordinator
Customer Care

***

My response:

November 25, 2009

Dear Mr. Smith,

Thank you for replying to my letter although I find it interesting that I did not hear from you earlier. Actually, this is approximately the response I expected. I think we are now well into the era when companies like yours do not take responsibility for your actions. I understand that you must have a policy on such matters and that you must be consistent. But if you are not taking steps towards ensuring that A) this kind of thing does not happen and B) if it does, your customers are taken care of, then you will continue to lose customers and ultimately you will go out of business.

I suspect that if you made the decision to properly compensate those that have been wronged in the way that I was, you would A) see the need to take concrete steps to avoid such costs in the first place and B) end up developing a more loyal customer base. It has been proven that customers are more loyal to a company when something goes wrong but the company "takes care of them" vs. when nothing goes wrong in the first place.

All of this, to me, is another example of why it is so critical that each merger or acquisition is carefully scrutinized before it is allowed to take place. Once companies, like Delta, become so large that there are few alternatives for their customers, they will act as Delta has acted in this case - without "doing the right thing". There are many things that you could learn from your competitors like Korean Air (trans-pacific) and Southwest Airlines (domestic). They "get it" from my point of view, and Delta does not. You are not alone. United is even worse, in my experience, and American is not far behind.

Sincerely,

Karl Winkler

A month so far and still no reply.

I sent another note to Delta Airlines today to let them know that it has been a month since my original complaint and I still have not received a reply. I let them know that I plan to continue posting about it here until we reach a resolution, whatever that means.

Delta Northwest Airlines... No Response

Recently, I went to Japan on a business trip. On my return, I flew NWA/Delta from Tokyo to LAX Los Angeles, then had a connection from there back to Albuquerque. The flight from Tokyo Narita was delayed by 2.5 hours without any explanation, and thus I missed my connecting flight home and had to spend additional money and several hours of waiting at LAX. Below is the letter I sent to Delta/Northwest.

I used their web form to send the letter, and carefully filled in the flight number, ticket number, confirmation number, and all the other required details.

I have yet to receive a reply.

***
October 28, 2009
RE: NW Flight 2
Dear Delta/Northwest Airlines

Much about this flight was fine, including professional flight attendants, food, entertainment, and the flight itself, but I wanted to comment on some specific issues.

1. The flight was delayed in departing by 2.5 hours. This flight and one other Delta/NW flight were the only two on the entire board at Tokyo Narita that were delayed. No reason was given for the delay.

2. Several announcements were made that "if you miss your connecting flight in Los Angeles, please go to a Delta or Northwest customer service agent to be re-routed to your destination."

3. Despite having a planned 3-hour layover in LAX, I missed my connecting flight on another airline. Part of the reason for this, beyond arriving more than 2 hours late, was that baggage was very slow to be delivered to baggage claim. I waited quite some time for my bag. One thing to note is that bags went onto two separate carousels (one for Delta, one for Northwest) and this was not clear to the passengers, causing confusion and costing time.

4. Once I had my bag and cleared customs, I approached the Delta/NW ticket counter, as instructed, for help in getting home to Albuquerque. I was told that because my connecting flight was on another carrier, that I was out of luck. As mentioned above, the announcements about this did not state "IF your connecting flight is on Delta/NW...." only that we should go to the Delta/NW ticket counter if we missed our connections.

5. To get home, I had to pay a $116 up-charge with my carrier, and spend several extra hours at LAX. The receipt for this is available on request - I can email, fax or mail a copy if needed.

Although I'm sure you have a specific policy about this, I don't think this is right, and I don't think Delta/NW did a good job at all of communicating with me or other passengers. I am requesting to be reimbursed for this extra cost of $116. Not in a travel voucher, please. This was money out of my company's pocket.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Karl Winkler

APO Chamber Concert, Bach, Mozart, Hindemith

On July 25th and 29th, the APO Chamber Orchestra will be providing two concerts of great classical music. The first concert, on Friday, July 25, at 7:30 PM will be held at UNM's Keller Hall, and will feature David Felberg, conductor and Joel Scott, horn soloist. On the program is Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances Suite #3, Mozart's Concerto No 3 for Horn, and also his Gran Partita in B flat. This last piece was featured prominently in the movie Amadeus in the scene where Salieri first encounters the adult Mozart. Regarding the horn concerto, Joel is a tremendous horn player who has played with the APO for many years both as an orchestral musician but also in various chamber ensembles. You might have even caught his playing in the NMSO. Don't miss this one!

The second concert will be on Sunday, July 27th at 2:00 PM at the African-American Cultural Center on the Expo NM grounds (Fairgrounds)and features David Felberg, conductor, Jacqueline Zander-Wall, mezzo-soprano and Karl Winkler (me), viola. On the program is Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 (includes the famous "Air"), Hindemith's Trauermusik for solo viola and Strings, Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and his Cantata BWV 170 Vergnugte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust. This is some great music, especially if you love Bach. The inclusion of the Hindemith is due to the last part being based around a Bach chorale. And for those of you who have already heard Jacqueline Zander-Wall (such as in the Habanera from Carmen at our Opera concert earlier this year) you already know what a great singer she is. For those who have never heard her, you're in for a treat!

Hypermiling - this is something new?

I've just started catching on to the fact that a new trend is emerging due to the ever-increasing cost of gasoline. Now we're at $4 a gallon and I can't imagine how it will come down any time soon if ever.

So there's this story on ABC News about "hypermilers" - people who, by altering their driving behaviors, are improving the MPG of their cars to above the original EPA ratings for the cars.

I had actually first noticed this some months ago on a forum called Clean MPG. Members there discuss their approaches to improving mileage, and tout their results.

There is a lot of good info in these sources. But what surprised me most was that I had discovered most of these techniques, and even some that they don't mention, independently over the years.

I think it started when I got a used 1996 BMW 328i. One of the features I found most interesting was the "MPG" gauge on the dash board, right under the speedometer. It was easy to see how driving habits would affect this gauge - being stopped would register zero MPH and acceleration would yield low numbers. But cruising along at a constant speed, especially if it was a moderate speed, would yield something like 40MPH, which is pretty good for a 2.8L six-cylinder car putting out 190BPH.

Then, the second feature of that car that I began to learn about was the trip computer. This system would calculate the average speed, MPH, the amount of miles left on the current tank of gas. With these tools, I started to learn how to drive more efficiently. And if anything were wrong with the car, i.e. low tire pressure, bad gas, engine not running right, etc. I could immediately see a reduction in mileage.

Here are the main things I learned to do to get more MPG (some are already mentioned above, some are not):

1. Slow down. Driving too fast, i.e. more than the optimum speed to get the best MPG will definitely eat gas. On the highway, there is not much difference in MPG between 45 and 65 for most cars. But faster than that and wind resistance, and having the engine at higher RPMs begins to cut into efficiency.
2. Accelerate slowly. Gunning the car from a stop - remember physics here - is applying the max energy to get the car moving when it doesn't want to (inertia). Slow careful acceleration is better, although it should be practiced within reason especially if there are cars behind you.
3. Try not to stop, if possible. Stopping and starting rob the most MPG from your car than anything else. Starting (see above) takes a lot of energy, and stopping just turns forward momentum into heat (brakes).
4. Make sure you have good, clean oil in your engine, and the right amount of air pressure in your tires. In fact, you may want to inflate the tires closer to their cold max than you normally would. This decreases rolling resistance.
5. Coast down hills in neutral, especially if you can maintain an appropriate speed for that road. I don't advocate turning off your engine because you will lose power steering, and reduce lubrication to drive train components in some cases.
6. Fill up in the morning, so that your car and the gas is at a lower temperature (slightly more dense). Fill up on the first (slow) notch on the pump.
7. Time the stoplights on your route to figure out if there are relationships between lights - this can often help you arrive at intersections when the lights are green, rather than having to stop every time. I've noticed that here in Albuquerque, every once in a while, the light timings change. Not sure why, but I suspect that city engineers are experimenting with traffic flow based on light timings.
8. Choose routes that have the least stops. This may actually take you farther, but the reduction in consumption by not having to stop and start as many times may outweigh the increased distance. Plus, you won't be wearing out your brakes as quickly, either.
9. Choose routes that have as few left turns as possible. There is a lot less waiting to turn right than waiting to turn left.
10. Always hug the inside of the curve, or take the inner lane around a curve. This means that you actually go less distance since the smaller radius means smaller circumference. Although this does not show as increased MPG, it adds up slightly over time to less actual distance traveled. As with slow acceleration, be careful not to weave in and out of lanes with other cars around.

With these techniques, I've been able to consistently get 30MPG out of a car that is rated 22 city, 29 highway, has 6 cylinders with 225BPH, weighs 3800 lbs, and is a full size, four door sedan. On the round trip to Taos a few weekends ago, I got 34.5 MPG out of a tank of gas. Sure, 40, 50 or more MPG would be better. I bet you can get those kinds of figures out of smaller, 4 cylinder cars with EPA est. 25 city, 35 Hwy ratings. Give it a try!

Wedding Season!!

We've got quartet and trio engagements to keep us very busy for the next couple of weeks. We're at the Albuquerque Museum of Art, Hotel Albuquerque, up in Cerrillos, and at the Immaculate Conception Church this weekend. Maybe we'll see you at one of these weddings! If so, please say hello.