10,500 miles away: slightly underwhelming Jet Airways Business class and upto mark Delta customer service!

On my recent travels to SEA, I chose to take the following routing BOM-BRU-JFK on Jet Airways Premiere and JFK-CVG-SEA on Delta Coach. So, if you want to really kill a good 18 hour flying experience, you get onto coach, specially that of Delta to meet some (un)grateful customer service agents to start with.

I flew BOM-BRU on 9w228 and BRU-JFK on 9w226. The flights were overall good but there were minor irritants that I found. For example, on the BOM-BRU sector the meal service was rushed, and on BRU-JFK the in-flight power just would not work. So, this was not the best Jet Airways experience I had, but still much better than so many others! Here are some pictures

 

 So, it was pretty awesome except for the broken power plugs. However, arriving at JFK was reality check. I arrived at Terminal 8 (the AA terminal) and went through passport control and collected my bags. I put the 2 bags on the cart and started to drag them to Terminal 3 where Delta operated from. I was sweating like a pig by the time I got there.

The check-in agents were pretty ‘system-driven’ as I would say. First they told me I had not checked in yet, while I had checked in using the iPhone app the night before. Then, they asked me for 60USD for my two checked bags. On being reminded that I was a FlyingBlue Platinum and Elite+ with Skyteam, I was denied the benefits. I showed them the membership card and also the rules from the Delta website, but they stood steadfast! This was not what I had in mind while booking Delta, because I thought eventually they’d ignore the IT issues when they saw the membership card, but they still went by their IT systems which they know don’t work, and made me pay. The ignorant agents went to the extent of telling me to pay up, and take care of this later with FlyingBlue (who incidentally was not at fault).

I was asked to take care of this before leaving by calling the Gold Medallion Line, but I thought just tweeting Delta Assist would be good enough. They assured me (yeah!) that once I checked in my status would show up. Heck, anyways, I paid up. The only Sky Priority benefit I could make use of was the shorter access to the Security Check queue. So, I’d like to give the best Customer Disservice award to Delta 😀

Just this morning I tweeted Delta Assist and they promised the charges will be reversed. Though there is not much to show for the Delta leg of the trip, here is the picture of the welcomedrink

That is about it for now. The complete trip report will come up shortly!

About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. Always hate to see those things happen at the connect from a long flight. You seem to have handled it well—congrats. I’m a fan of Jet Airways as well … love those airplane swizzle sticks in your drink!

  2. Did you get the name of the DL agents at T4? In these situations, it’s best to politely note your disagreement, pay, then send in a well written letter. You’ll get your dough back, plus some miles or something else.

    Importantly, a well written letter will also get drawn to the attention of the agent who misapplied the rules. This helps everyone!

    • @NYBanker it was actually T3 and I rectified subsequent to your post. I did just that except I don’t remember the name. The refund has been done except I haven’t pushed for anything else yet. I will report this shortly to DL but the problem is it seems they just don’t care!

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