Delta SkyMiles: Really Delta SuxMiles

If you take a flight using Delta SkyMiles --Delta's points program with American Express, you may get to fly for "free." But the cost is you end up at the lowest end of the totem pole if you run into problems and you'll find yourself facing an army of Delta employees whose sole mission in life is not to help you.

That's what confronted us on our trip home from Peru. I was going to let my anger against Delta drop, but in going through the mail I found a promo from Delta extolling their SkyMiles program.

Let me tell you our experience with Delta SkyMiles.

We have many points on American Express and used them to "purchase" our return flight from Lima, Peru to Atlanta and on to DC. However, our connecting flight on Peruvian airline LAN from Juliaca, Peru in Southern Peru back to Lima was canceled. We found this out when we showed up at the Juliaca airport and were told the airport was closed because they couldn't get the lights turned on the runway.

This meant we couldn't get to Lima to catch our Delta flight for Atlanta that night scheduled for 12:20 am. (it's nearly a two day trip from Juliaca to Lima by land). On the taxi ride back to our hotel in Puno, 30 miles away, we immediately began our siege of calls to Delta.

We were immediately given the runaround. The long story short is that since we purchased our tickets through SkyMiles NO ONE COULD HELP US. We were told we could purchase tickets home, at a cost of more than $3,000. Or wait until the 18th, (four days hence) when SkyMiles seats were available (BTW, according to Delta's Web site, there were 50 seats available on the flight we wanted to get on that night when I checked from the hotel's computer).

Eventually we were told that if we went to the ticket desk at Lima they could help us as agents on the ground had more "leeway." When arrived at Lima (taking the first plane out of Juliaca the next day), arriving at 11:30 am, we found out the Delta desk didn't open until 9 pm that night.

What to do?

We could buy tixs on Spirit airline for $511 each. That flight left at 10:30 pm. So if we waited until 9 to find out our Delta fate it would be too late to get on that flight.

The LTR kept up a seemingly Quixotic effort to call Delta under the theory he eventually might find someone to help us. He finally succeeded.

At about 4 pm Lima time, the LTR reached an agent who transferred him to "International Re-Issue." He spoke to a Delta agent named Saint Teresa of Distressed Delta Travelers (well, her name was just Teresa, but this is what we called her) who listened to our tale and confirmed us on the flight out at that night. Although the lines were long and the flight took off nearly two hours later than scheduled (2 a.m. instead of 12:20 a.m.) we made it home safe albeit with one less bag than we started with.

Do you know the scene in the Wizard of Oz where Glinda tells Dorothy she had the power to go home all along? Wouldn't you feel like beating Glinda upside the head for holding back that important little bit of info after all the calamities faced on the Yellow Brick Road? That's the way I feel about Delta:

Each agent we spoke to could have confirmed us on the flight or transfered us to Saint Teresa (or her equivalent) who could have confirmed us. Because we were SkyMiles passengers, however, each agent chose not to. Delta's internal rules are obviously rigged to discourage agents from helping SkyMiles travelers.

So -- traveler beware -- SkyMiles may be "free" but the cost may be your abandonment by Delta if you run into problems.