Delta Helps You Escape Chicago Before The Winter Storm Of Doom
There's a nasty winter storm coming to Chicagoland — a mix of rain, sleet and snow that might result in 12" of accumulation. Jennifer was scheduled to fly right in the middle of it.
She called Delta to ask if her flight could be changed — and at first they wanted to charge her a $150 fee.
I've got a flight out of Chicago O'Hare tomorrow morning, right in the middle of a massive winter storm that's expected to come through here. I decided to give it a shot and call Delta and see if they would change my flight out for one leaving today. I spoke with Latoya, who initially told me that since the flight tomorrow had not been cancelled, there would still be a $150 change fee as well as any fare increase. She was very nice and apologetic, so I tried reason and explained that this storm hitting the city was a near certainty, that O'Hare would be a mad house tomorrow of angry fliers and cranky flight personnel and that if they got me out tonight instead of tomorrow I would be one less person to worry about. It worked! She put me on hold, came back and the fees were waived, no fare increase and I've got a flight out later this afternoon.
Just thought you'd like to know that, occasionally, reason does prevail.
Hooray for that.
(Photo: Wayne Gunn )
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nice to know that being nice and reasonable still gets you somewhere
Bah...I'm in the NW suburbs and don't believe the hype. The more the media hype a storm, the more likely it will turn out to be a few, scattered flurries.
Of course, I may be eating my words tomorrow...
@Sndtrkman: yeah I work in rosemont(If I had a decent BBgun I could hit a o'hare runway). Our office likely going to be closed tomorrow but I'll still ahve to come in to find out that we'll be closed.
I'm flying into MDW on Saturday, hopefully things will have calmed down by then.
@NotATool: After this past Tuesday evening's rush hour crawl, I would be somewhat worried.
...I just hope that I won't have to go into work tomorrow, that would be awesome.
@NotATool: I am really trying not to get my hopes up that work could be canceled so I am taking the same route as you.
@Sndtrkman: If Lisle gets even 9 inches I'm just sleeping in till 11:30am and telling people i got stuck in traffic... =)
I'm flying out (of Ohare) tomorrow night. I'm so, so jealous of her. Luckily, I fully plan on having an airport buddy! One of my friends is supposed to get out at 11:30am. I'm supposed to get out at 7:30pm. I predict she will still be there when I get to the airport.
It's 65 where I live. We don't get snow. It's good, but not great.
I will sometimes pay extra to fly Delta. They have done similar things for me in the past. They have treated me better than *any* of the major airlines.
Southwest has always been accomodating to me, without having to jump thru hoops like with Delta
this isn't an especially kind or generous act from Delta, and it's silly to say "I'll only fly Delta (or xyz)" because of this anecdotal story. Many other carriers are issuing waivers regarding travel through Chicago. For example: [www.united.com]
Check with your carrier for the latest, always.
tonight will SUCK. Work cannot be canceled, it's one of our most important days of the year. Ugh.
The last time I had to spend the night in Ohare, it was FREEZING. Be aware of this and bring very warm socks and travel blanket should you be caught in the worst case scenario.
Also, they might let you hang out in the kids's room (kids w/o guardians flying alone, I assume). I discovered this toward the morning, but it helped immensely. It was kind of surreal hanging out with about 15 random kids at 5am helping them color within the lines!
Even on a good day, Ohare bites the big one! No free WiFi, or TVs to pass the time while waiting for a flight.
Wow. Total customer service jiujitsu there by Jennifer.
"...if they got me out tonight instead of tomorrow I would be one less person to worry about."
Brilliant. I personally would have said "$150 not to have to deal with holiday plus weather madness at O'HARE?! What a bargain!"
@Ninja007: I've also had good luck with Delta (Southwest is great, but doesn't count here due to lack of routes...whole different ballgame).
I used to think Delta was just meh, but then I flew United and AA this past summer for the first time in more than a decade. Horrible. Every step of the way, including O'Hare's United ground crews. Worst bunch of employees I've ever seen in any business, anywhere, ever.
@richcreamerybutter: Um, the second half of your post was way creepy. I hope they do NOT let adults hang out with the unsupervised children.
Acutally, I used to do this at no charge as an airline supervisor. Why not rebook the person? They'll be grateful and we'll have one less person to figure out what to do with...
Looking forward to flying into ORD tomorrow early afternoon. And by that I mean I'm NOT excited at all.
This is not a new policy--various arlines have waived the change fee for us on several occasions (here in the snowy NE). .
@Sndtrkman: I'm downstate and I'm a *little* bit looking forward to it because my husband's arranged to work from home and I have nowhere to go tomorrow (semester's over!) so I look forward to making hot chocolate and watching frantic weathermen on TV talk about the weather for hours while wearing a heavy sweater and spoiling the cats.
This is cool of Delta and all but if you're in Chicago and it's cold, shouldn't you expect that the weather might go horribly wrong? Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the city get hit by some massive evil storm every year? Then the news always acts like it's never happened before and interviews people that act like they didn't even know snow was real? I lived in Iowa, we expected the worst and got by most of the time... but we always heard about the storm "we should have gotten" hitting Chicago.
@narq: This is not the reason for this story. It's an example of good customer service, that uses logic (!), for once, to satisfy a customer.
So you are blaming the poster for ... ?
Any of those fancy presidential clubs or whatever each airline calls it at O'Hare? ? I would look into buying a one day pass If I was planning to travel tomorrow. Some of them even have showers you can use, others charge an extra 5-10 bucks for the use of a shower which I find to very reasonable. I mean truck stops charge about $ 5-10 bucks and I find the airports to be much cleaner and of better clientele !
I have even bought a one day pass when I knew in advance I was going to have a long layover. Some provide free drinks, snacks, WIFI, a printer/fax, desk to work at, an area to make phone calls, couches, satellite tv, billiards, etc.
I'm so happy I don't live in western Michigan and have to route all my flights through Chicago anymore. That whole city is a pit of despair and its airports are Hell on Earth. I can't tell you how many times United deserted me in O'Hare after cancelling a leg of my flight. Not to mention O'Hare is still stuck in 1990.
Nice move by the Delta rep though. I'd pay $150 not to be stuck in O'Hare!!
@narq: My favorite is when the news shows the video footage of Chicago's giant pile of salt. As if that's ground breaking news that we have lots of salt for the roads...
It is nice to hear a good experience. Being nice always helps tremendously. It sucked having to explain the situation to the call center, but being stuck in a call center sometime takes you away from reality.
@FatLynn: I have hung out in the kids area before... it's not unsupervised, and it's a hell of a lot more comfortable than dealing with a bunch of pompous egotistical middle management jerks yelling into their blackberries about how they're more important than God and nature, and how this is absolutely unacceptable that someone would DARE to have a snowstorm when they were traveling...
and besides, the kids area typically gives you cookies, snack cakes, and fruit juice... the crayons are just the bonus.
It's still not doing anything in KC, even though they were gloom-an-dooming us all last night.
On the news last night United put out a call to those going to, from, or through Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin could re-book their flight of get a voucher with no fees if they fly out today or tomorrow and purchased their ticket before yesterday. I appreciate their proactive approach!
We're scheduled to fly out of Detroit tomorrow afternoon, and I've been fretting about the same storm. Can't travel today, though. Wonder if it'd be a good idea just to bite the bullet and see if my airline would reschedule me for Saturday?
Ha! That sounds like a good plan. I was already only planning on working the first couple hours of the day anyway, so being "late" would make a perfect excuse not to work at all!
i'm leaving from midway tomorrow night...hopefully the delays in the morning dont screw my plans to fly out in the evening.
@nicemarmot617: I have lived in the NW burbs since I was born and I quite like it.I've also flown out of O'Hare more times than I can count, and you know what? It's no worse than any other airport. I really appreciate it when people make wholesale generalizations about the character of a city and its people based on a few lousy experiences.
@NotATool: Unfortunately, I work in a school and we don't get late arrival. I get to wait for the 5am call that school is canceled. But, they are letting us leave at 3:15 today which is nice.
Obviously the snow isn't going to just hit one of the airports, but for the record, I LOVE Midway and always choose to fly to/from there when given the option.
@NikkiSweet: Exactly. If they didn't have a problem with me hanging out then I'm sure it was fine. I was a young-looking woman in my late 20s at the time...not exactly an intimidating figure.
Most importantly, it was the only room in the airport that was heated throughout the night. Before a lone employee told me I could stay there, I had to keep moving if I didn't want to freeze (sleeping was not an option - it was THAT cold). I also frequently visited the restrooms in search of blow dryers for brief comfort.
@melking: I come from areas that have historical, political and sports rivalries with Chicago, Southern Illinois/St. Louis & Wisconsin/Milwaukee area... and I love Chicago. I would never want to live there, would gladly fight for Southern Illinois' secession, and the Cubs suck, but I always have a fantastic time visiting Chicago.
@PixiePerson: If you're stuck, I highly recommend the Gaslight at the Hilton - total cheeseball piano bar with waitresses in horrible polyester bunny suits. Love it.
@richcreamerybutter: Last time I was there, a couple months ago, they had the ad-sponsored option. It would only work on my mother's iPod, though, and not on my father's laptop.
If you book through a travel agency they might still charge for the change of flights even if the airline didn't.
Another angle to use if this happens to someone is to mention to the airline that they would be putting you on a plane that has an empty seat. They have your money. You leave early. They can resell your other seat.
It is so nice to hear that someone was able to use actual logic in a situation, instead of being bound by a policy. No policy can account for every possible scenario.
Good for her. I'm in the NW Suburbs and honestly not looking forward to the weather that we're about to get.