If you’ve got upcoming travel plans with Delta Airlines, you may have trouble getting home. According to View From The Wing, the airline has suddenly become more stringent about the fine print, leaving flyers in the lurch. The airline claims it’s trying to protect travelers against fraud, yet in the end, Delta is charging them thousands of extra dollars to get home.
A Seattle couple had issues getting home
A Seattle couple had an unpleasant surprise at Heathrow Airport
(Andy Soloman via Getty Images)
Herb Weisbaum recently wrote about his problem in Consumers’ Checkbook. The problem started when Weisbaum and his wife arrived at Heathrow Airport in London to fly back home to Seattle. They were unable to check in at the kiosk because it needed them to swipe the credit card used to book their ticket. Unfortunately, they hadn’t brought it on the trip.
The couple asked to speak to a supervisor, who also refused to help without the original credit card. The policy, they were told, was implemented to prevent fraud. The Weisbaums were puzzled since they could verify their identity with passports and driver’s licenses. Perhaps more confusingly, no one had asked them to present the original credit card at the airport in Seattle. Now they were seemingly stuck in London.
The problem is reportedly most common at Heathrow Airport
(Ceri Breeze via Getty Images)
A manager presented the Weisbaums with a few options: remain in London, purchase new one-way tickets for three times the price, have someone drive the credit card to the Delta counter in Seattle, or find someone who could text them a photo of the card.
Weisbaum and his wife opted for the latter, which involved calling their neighbor in the middle of the night and telling him how to disable their burglar alarm and break into their house. The neighbor came through like a champ, and Delta printed the Weisbaums’ boarding passes after viewing the photo he sent.
The policy caused issues previously
In some cases, the airline requires to see the original credit card
(Michael Derrer Fuchs via Getty Images)
The Weisbaums aren’t the only customers blindsided by Delta’s policy. Reddit is populated with similar stories. One poster reported purchasing tickets for their parents and child, who were told they’d need to spend a whopping $4,000 more for new flights to get home since they didn’t have the original credit card.
According to Thrifty Traveler, other major U.S. airlines such as Alaska, American, Southwest, and United don’t have similar policies.
Delta responded to the controversy
Delta provided a minimal response
(Boarding1Now via Getty Images)
Weisbaum reached out to Delta after he was nearly stranded in London, asking why he wasn’t warned about the policy. He also asked, “How long this policy has been in place, at which airports, and why Delta did not have a workaround for people like me who did not have the correct credit card with them?”
Delta spokesperson Samantha Moore Facteau chose to respond by directing Weisbaum to a link to the airline’s “Booking a Flight” webpage, which says:
“To safeguard against credit/debit card fraud, the purchaser may have to show us the credit/debit card along with a valid photo ID. The time varies based on the billing address of the credit/debit card or the country of travel. If the purchaser is not traveling, they can show us their credit/debit card and ID at an airport ticket counter or another ticket office location, whichever is most convenient.”
The bottom line
If Delta is genuinely concerned about preventing fraud and protecting passengers, it should take proactive steps to notify customers about these requirements. The practice of surprising passengers at the airport and then “offering” to selll them new tickets at inflated prices is not an acceptable example of customer service. It makes one wonder who they’re “protecting” in the first place.
