Worldtraveler,
I didn't have a real great experience with Delta this past summer and would be relunctant to give them my business again. As an F9 employee I still have a son that goes to visit his mother every summer in the Republic of Panama and I don't fly him STDBY. First Continental lost my business because they did not include the UM fee in the ticket price and gave me a big hassle in IAH before my son could board the plane. That was last summer!,
This past summer I tried Delta out of Atlanta to give them their shot. Before leaving Denver on an F9 flight with my son we stopped by the Delta ticket counter to pay the UM fee so I wouldn't have to hassle with it in Atlanta the following day. There was no other customers at the Delta counter so I figured giving them $60 bucks cash wouldn't take to long. I quess they weren't using bar codes this day because it took the CSR (and I mean no Sh!T) over 45 minutes to take the fee and give me the UM paper work.
The following day his flight was scheduled to leave just after 5PM. We arrived at the international area 2HRS and 15 mins ahead of schedule. The line was long, but the gentleman from Delta assured me that it was only about a 20 min wait. I guess there bar code readers broke down, becuase I got to the counter FINALLy and was informed that his flight closed 5 minutes earlier. They didn't even acknowledge that I had been in line well over the two hour limit and they still couldn't get people to their flights on time.
The next thing I was told was that I was going to be charged another $1000 bucks for a ticket the next day. And then these Legacy Carriers wonder why people HATE getting F&#%ed by them every time they turn around. I raised hell, they threatened to call F9 I told them to go ahead F9 would give tow Sh!ts about it because it was a full fair ticket that I'd payed for, not non-rev travel. I demanded a supervisor and told her that due to their in ability to get customers through the line in a timely fashion I was accused of not arriving at the airport on time by their CSR. The Super and I came to an agreement that I''d only pay the 100 highway robbery fee, for their incompetent customer service. SO I had to do it all over AGAIn the following week, arriving 3 hours early and no there wasn't a soul in the international line. Whther than being flexible and saving me another trip for them not getting me through the 5 minutes earlier, my son won't fly Delta again.
So this summer it will have to be American out of Miami, I have NEVER had a bad experience with AA. USAIR says that they want to serve Panama from FLL, but those plans are pobably fading fast. But I'll put my trust in AA to Panama from now on.
