The Pandemic’s Impact On Delta Customer Service – Will it Ever Return to What it Once Was?

Back “in the day”, one of the best kept secrets that I never blogged about (but did share at events like the Chicago Seminars) was the old direct Platinum Medallion number 218-254-7725 that rang into the Chisholm Minnesota call center. Even if you were not a Platinum you could simply hold and not put in your Platinum (or Diamond) number and get amazing service from some of the most experienced and professional phone agents working for Delta. It was amazing. The phone number still works but no longer does what it once did.

Right now one of the only “tricks,” if you will, if you want to call it that is to use the phone line that is supposed to be dedicated to travelers needing rapid support to avoid sometimes spending many hours on hold.

Delta began to destroy having top dedicated phone reps even before the pandemic but that move accelerated, for obvious reasons, during the pandemic. You are now just as likely to end up being routed to a phone rep’s home as to anywhere else.

I have found the level of both knowledge and power reps have in 2023 is sorely lacking. You can have reps telling you information that is directly the opposite of what is published on Delta.com and even if you read it to them off the site – they are most times unwilling to do what is right – or they do not have the tools to do what is right. This is either due to the software that Delta has pushed for them to use or unwillingness to take the risk of getting in trouble for doing what is right for loyal passages.

Another thing that is dead was the simply over-the-top amazing and professional Delta Twitter support team. I saw them firsthand when I visited the OCC in Atlanta years ago. When I was constantly flying with Delta they were always there to quickly and correctly fix anything I needed and I could put up the request and NOT have to be on hold on the phone – no, I simply typed everything I needed and wait for them to have time to review and fix it. This too was amazing.

That is gone, dead and history. And dead not just for Delta as Mr. Musk, head Twit, is destroying Twitter for every single airline that attempted to keep this avenue of direct support open. So sad.

Delta  does  did have a very friendly and powerful app that would fix a great many things quickly and simply but they have now made that so ridiculous with the latest update that I am forced to run an older version of the Fly Delta App and now have to take the risk of always manually updating all the apps on my phone just so I am not auto forced again and again to run the new horrid one. The same ugly changes are rolling out to Delta.com as well but at least we have the very powerful schedule change rule to save us under many situations. The latter however only works when there are not unique things like upgrade certificates attached to your reservation then you are back to calling once again and playing phone rep roulette!

So is there a great solution? Delta could rebuild what once was but I just don’t see it happening. They are focused, like with SkyPennies, to drive down value for us as they are selling every seat anyway so why make things better when it is not needed. – René

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