Regular readers know that I am typically a defender of Pete Buttigieg and think he has done a fine job as US Transportation Secretary. But Buttigieg’s “warning” to Delta Air Lines strikes me as the same sort of unhelpful lip service that has characterized Delta’s own response to its meltdown.
Pete Buttigieg Warns Delta Air Lines To Provide Excellent Customer Service (Or What?)
Buttigieg took to X in a trio of tweets over Delta’s operational difficulties this week. Those include:
- Promising to hold Delta to “applicable passenger protections”
- Reminding Delta it must provide:
- “Prompt refunds” or “free rebooking”
- Timely reimbursements for food and hotel stays incurred due to Delta flight delays or cancellations
- “Adequate” customer service
- No stranding of passengers overnight
- No multi-hour waits to speak to a customer service agent
We have received reports of continued disruptions and unacceptable customer service conditions at Delta Air Lines, including hundreds of complaints filed with @USDOT.
I have made clear to Delta that we will hold them to all applicable passenger protections.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) July 22, 2024
No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent. If any airline fails to honor its customer service requirements, let us know: https://t.co/Noj5A5hE8w
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) July 22, 2024
And I don’t disagree with any of those goals...but what is Delta really supposed to do here? Hire and train thousands of temps to pick up the phone? Force airport agents to work 24-hour shifts? It seems to me that Delta recognizes it is in a mess and is doing all it can to dig out of it. Were there mistakes along the way? Of course…and hopefully, Delta can learn from them and avoid them next time.
But there is no immediate fix. There is no way to get the operation back in a single day or suddenly eliminate hold times. And Buttigieg knows this, which makes his tweet sound as self-serving as Delta’s myopic blame on CrowdStrike when intervening issues were also at work.
Perhaps, giving Buttigieg the benefit of the doubt, his pressure will help shape Delta’s overall response. Reader Evan has been impacted by the meltdown and left the following comment earlier:
To me, the key is what DL is going to do after it gets out of “crisis” mode. Will they keep doing only what they’re legally obligated to do, or will they actually be a premium airline and go above and beyond? I personally lost $1,100 in prepaid deposits. My trip insurance will only cover a fraction of it because it considered what happened a “trip interruption”.
I don’t expect DL to make me whole…it’s not going to happen. A travel voucher of $100 – $200 would be nice. At least for me, it will show DL is a premium airline. However, if DL just says, “Sorry, oh well, legally we don’t have to cover that” and does nothing, then it’s not a premium airline, it’s like every other airline. We’ll see.
I think his sentiment is reasonable and indeed, all eyes will be on Delta in the days ahead to see how generous it will be.
CONCLUSION
I didn’t find Buttigieg’s comments concerning Delta’s meltdown helpful in this circumstance. Rather, they sounded to me like a bad boss who demands solutions immediately when it is clear there are no immediate solutions. Nevertheless, if Buttigieg’s comments can spur Delta to quickly make things right with the hundreds of thousands of people it has stranded, then there will be some good that comes from this.
Damned if you do damned if you don’t.
I’m sure if he said and did nothing you’d be ok with it.
Or if he shrugged his shoulders and said “it happens” you’d be ok as well.
Gurl please. I’ve defended him:
https://liveandletsfly.com/defense-of-buttigieg/
Spoken like a true magat.
Nice. You didn’t even read it.
Pete is just rattling his saber!! However, he’s putting the airlines on notice to follow the rules on cancelled flights which I do appreciate.
To me, the airlines act like first year freshmen attempting to get away with what ever is possible. Periodically, they need a swift kick in the arse to remind them Uncle Sam has the final say.
As an example, looks like WN will be called down to the office over low decent into airports, closed runways, and a few other things. I would image the chief pilot in the room will be responding, “Sir, Yes, Sir” during these pow wows!
And the Dept. of Transportation does such a good job overseeing manufacturing of aircraft ?
And the Dept. of Transportation installed DEI at the FAA ?
Oh please not that tired and racist anti-DEI nonsense again.
Since when does this useless DEI hire care about transportation? Maybe he’s angling to be the first polesmoking VP and wants to show that he actually works instead of just collecting government paychecks and benefits at his do-nothing job.
He has always cared, it’s just your hateful bigotry that prevents you from seeing it.
It’s called reality you ignorant dimwit.
@Aaron … “Caring” is not Rational Management .
“Ooooo he cares and he feels” .
What do you mean by polesmoking? I don’t understand, please explain.
Let me explain: The act of oral sex is a long-running sexual activity among humans. Given the shape of the human penis as a long, hard shaft crowned with a big sensual head, it is commonly associated with a pole. Smoking of course is a slang term of “sucking”. Ergo, the act of oral sex on a male is colloquially known as “polesmoking”. When it comes to creepy homosexuals like Pete Ballgag, the term is used as a denigrative term for both his sexual orientation and his lack of ability.
Hope that clears things up for you.
Wow! What a bloody hatred human being you are
We will pray for you
NOT
And people thought the SWA Christmas meltdown was bad. SWA passengers were at least made “whole”. Getting reimbursements for hotels, cars and flights on other airlines. SWA even threw in miles on top of all that. 25,000 to be exact. And the reimbursement (in cash) only took a couple of weeks)
It will be interesting to see what, if anything Delta does, to try and make up for it.
I take his messaging as less “fix it now” and more posturing to signal what DOT will take action on as follow up.
“More posturing to signal” his stupidity … there will be No action as follow up .
That clown could not change a wheel if he had a flat ; he wouldn’t wish to touch the wheel with his manicured hands .
The real solution is enforcing EU 261 like protection here in the US , not this grand standing by Pete.
@Mike.
This is 100% the real solution. Make the rules and penalties upfront and clear. It’s so hypocritical that an airline can cancel on passengers with nothing to show for it, but passengers can not do the same
The solution is very simple. There needs to be at most two agreements between airlines. Maybe one agreement between United, American, Delta, Alaska + Hawaiian. Another agreement between Frontier, Spirit, Allegiant, Sun Country, and others. JetBlue and Southwest can decide which one they want to join. Then when there is a major meltdown, the airline must endorse the ticket to another airline within the agreement.
Even better is to allow Westjet and Air Canada to join in. If there is a meltdown, then cabotage would be temporarily allowed. For example, in the Delta meltdown, a passenger could get to their destination via Toronto even if the origin and destination is in the US. If there is an Air Canada meltdown, a passenger could be ticketed to fly from Vancouver to O’Hare then to Toronto.
Pete is full of it if he doesn’t recognize that. Refunds only is worthless if you are stuck in Atlanta trying to get from Little Rock to Scranton.
@Derek. This already exist for the most part. Airlines already have these agreements in place with fixed price to rebook passengers if a seat is open. I think it is Delta unwillingness to pay and possibly heard that technology limitations that allow for mass rebookings (whether on Delta or another carrier) that are holding this meltdown down
Reference for 2018… https://thepointsguy.com/2018/01/delta-american-interline-agreement/
Better to go from Little Rock to Dallas , to Los Angeles , to Honolulu , to San Francisco , to Chicago , to Pittsburg , to Scranton .
Always avoid Atlanta or Denver .
I would argue the other side Matthew. I think Delta can do a lot in the immediate and long term. And for the long-term items, I think they could and should have learned from their previous meltdowns in the last 5-10 years. I think they had a few bad ones and they all should have been learning and improvement opportunities.
Immediately. Delta could start issuing hotel and meal credits for stranded passengers, offer to guarantee refunds for other travel like train, rental car, bus and critically rely on rebooking passengers on other airlines at whatever costs it takes. Lets not forget that in 2016 Delta cut interline with AA with massive amounts of hubris only to have a meltdown and not rely on their closet hub airline (AA at CLT) to help rebook passengers
In the longterm, they should have learned from the previous meltdowns and have the right technologies and solutions in place. An easy change and cancel feature in the app. ability to change to a nearby airport (flying to PHL instead of NYC for example) and more executable playbook plans for situations like this.