Skift Take

Why is dealing with an airline on a customer service issue sometimes like speaking with a bureaucratic brick wall, an experience that would be anathema in another industry? Small claims court can be time-consuming, but it is an option for redress.

Nov. 22 — Thanksgiving Day — seemed like a good day for my band to fly from Washington to Germany for our fall 2012 European tour. But when we got to a suspiciously deserted Dulles International Airport on Turkey Day, we learned that there was no flight to check in for. Delta, which had already rescheduled our party to depart on Black Friday, said that our flight had been canceled weeks earlier.

Our airline and our online travel agency blamed each other for the mistake as the few remaining Europe-bound flights departing the East Coast on Thanksgiving evening took off across the Atlantic. There was a cheaper option than filing a lawsuit to recoup our funds: small claims court. The DOT even recommends it.

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Tags: customer experience, delta air lines

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