Looking for an honest Delta Airlines review? Read on for more about my experiences with this airline.
I’d like to preface this review by saying that I’m a longtime Delta SkyMiles member and Delta American Express credit card holder. I have redeemed award flights with Delta and fly with them at least a dozen times a year.
That said, I have a love/hate relationship Delta Airlines.
I’m not one to bash airlines. Despite a 24-hour delay in Venice and the calling of police to prevent a riot in the airport, I wrote a glowing review about Air Transat when their exceptional customer service team acted quickly to make amends after the fact.
Frankly, I don’t care much which airline I fly. My priority is to find cheap flights. It doesn’t matter to me if that flight is on Delta, Spirit or Alaska Air. I’m looking for the best deal to get to where I need to go.
Where the differentiators come in, however, and where these reviews are born are in the headaches often caused by travel.
Let’s be honest — actually getting to a destination is the least enjoyable part of a trip. The point in taking a flight is to minimize the amount of time you spend in transit. If it weren’t for the ease of crossing thousands of miles in a matter of hours, most of us would opt out of the hostage situation otherwise known as flying in the economy cabin.
The situation is so bad that the European Union has enacted strict rules about compensation in the event of flight delays, lost luggage or getting bumped off a flight.
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Unfortunately, the U.S. has no such rules and U.S.-based airlines like Delta can be shameless in pushing the boundaries of what they can get away with.
This post will explore the pros and cons of flying with Delta and include some of my personal experiences as a frequent traveler.
Where is Delta Airlines based out of?
Delta is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, meaning the ATL airport is a “hub” for Delta flights. You’ll find hundreds of routes departing from there daily, to destinations around the world.
Their airline partners include Air France, Alitalia, China Eastern, KLM, LATAM, Virgin Atlantic and more.
This means you can redeem Delta points for flights on partner airlines even if Delta doesn’t service your intended destination.
What are the different cabins and classes?
Delta has various options depending on your budget and the duration of a flight.
For those wanting to spend the bare minimum they have Basic Economy. Everything here is an add-on fee, from luggage to priority boarding and there are no changes allowed to your ticket.
The next step up from that is main cabin, with some flexibility to make changes and food and entertainment on board.
After that, it’s Delta Comfort+. They have more spacious seats, expedited boarding and a dedicated overhead bin. They’re seated right behind the partition of First Class.
After that there is First Class, the premier domestic service with food and drinks, a wider seat and expedited boarding.
If you’re taking an international flight things can get fancy with Premium Select and Delta One on certain routes, including a seat that spans out into a flat bed.
Delta Airlines Baggage Policy
Economy flyers and related tickets are limited to 50 pounds for checked baggage, first class gets 70 pounds.
Delta charges $35 for the first checked bag and $45 for the second.
Delta SkyMiles Medallion Members and American Express card holders get their first checked bag free.
For carry-on bags there is no maximum weight but the dimensions of the bag cannot exceed 22” x 14” x 9”.
Food and Beverage
Delta offers complimentary snacks on every flight over 250 miles. One thing Delta has going for it is its collaboration with Kind bars, so that you get your choice of gingerbread cookies or a Kind bar when you’re on board (occasionally they’ll throw in Cheez-its too).
I usually keep the bar with me as my go-to snack for whenever I land in a new destination, since you never know what the food situation will look like and I like to have backups.
For flights over 900 miles long, they offer a menu with items for purchase.
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Customer Service
I have had unfortunate incidents with Delta Airlines’ customer service team. In my experience, the most responsive method of contacting them and resolving an issue is through Twitter/X.
Incident 1:
The first issue I had was lost baggage on both routes of my Central Asia trip.
I filed a lost luggage report at the airport, was told it would be delivered within 24 hours and when it wasn’t, called in and was notified the lost luggage report was never filed. Despite me having a copy of the paper claim in my hand.
Incident 2:
The next issue I has was with a tarmac delay. It’s against the law to hold passengers on an aircraft that is sitting on a tarmac for more than 2 hours without food and beverage, and for more than 3 hours without allowing customers to deplane.
Once, I was held on the tarmac by Delta for FOUR hours.
The flight attendants and pilots were all apologetic, insisting that we contact Delta and complain because the situation was truly egregious. I did just that.
Nearly a month later I received a reply from the customer service agent. The only reason I even got a reply within that time was because I simultaneously filed a Better Business Bureau complaint.
Delta denied that we were ever on the tarmac and insisted we deplaned after two hours, despite time-stamped pictures and messages on my end.
It was then that I took to Twitter.
We were supposed to take off at 3:59pm. We were held on the tarmac until 8:01pm. No food. No water. Very limited bathroom use.
Shout-out to the Twitter agent who issued me $100 in a flight credit as compensation. While minimal it at least showed an effort to right a wrong and didn’t fabricate times of departure.
Incident 3:
The third issue I had with Delta was regarding one of my carry-on bags.
I was going back to Florida after Christmas and had my brand new roller bag in hand. At the gate they suspected the flight would be full so they started asking for volunteers to gate check their bags.
As I was in line to board, another announcement went off: “The overhead bin space is getting full and we’re still looking for people to check their bags.”
One second later I went to scan my boarding pass when the agent tells me the bin space was full and I had no choice but to check my bag.
Between the announcement that the plane was “getting full” and the scanning of my boarding pass, not a single person had boarded the plane.
So naturally, I was flummoxed as to how we went from “getting full” to “full” in an instant.
I just about lost it when I boarded to find no less than 20 overhead bins still open with space.
Incident 4:
I had a nonstop flight booked from Tampa to LAX.
The flight was delayed about 3 hours due to thunderstorms. No problem.
Before we even left Tampa, we were told that the flight would be going to Atlanta since the pilots did not have enough flight hours to get us to LAX, purportedly because of a delay.
I spoke with a pilot friend who says this is false, by the way. You either have enough hours to make the whole flight, or the flight doesn’t take off. There’s no such thing as partial hours and fly to where you can make it in that time.
Nevertheless, we get to Atlanta and are told there is a new crew waiting to board, we just have to pull up to the jet bridge.
We get there and, surprise! No crew. In fact, they’re not even at the airport. They’re about 40 minutes away and driving in.
2 hours later, the crew is there, but now we have a mechanical issue.
An hour later, there’s an issue with IT and computing, so they need to do manual math calculations for us to take off. It was here that they lost me.
We believe the issue was a plane problem the whole time and they were not straightforward. They didn’t offer food or water while we were on the tarmac in Atlanta on my supposed direct flight to LAX at 3am.
In my experience, Delta’s customer service leaves much to be desired.
The Verdict
If you have points or miles from a travel credit card, Delta can get you to a lot of places for reasonable prices. I flew from Bangkok to Miami for $80 using Delta miles.
The wonderful thing about commercial markets is that there is plenty of competition. You have options when choosing who to fly.
If you fly Delta, make sure you’re holding on to your luggage and have a Twitter/X account, just in case.
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Till next time, safe travels!
Honestly I don’t have a favorite company to fly I research best price for me, but I don’t want to lose my baggage aso I fly only with hand luggage and for the moment it worked really well
That’s great! I’ve had better luck with that in the US than overseas since baggage restrictions for carry-ons outside the US usually include weight limits and are a much smaller size.
I would not fly with Delta ever again. This covid is not my fault nor Deltas but Delta decided even though there is no travel into any closed European Union countries, Delta has decided that they will not refund any tickets purchased. They will only issue a voucher, what good is a voucher to someone in their older years. If I die soon I lost all my money to this cheap money-hungry airline. If you do not take care of your customers, they will not come back to you and your business will fall eventually like TWA and others. I will spread my disappointment to every person I come across, young and old. DO NOT FLY WITH THIS AIRLINE.
Brilliant, Jen. You’ve laid out your argument and convinced me. Won’t be flying Delta if I can avoid it. Looks too painful.
I hope others have different experiences but on multiple occasions their service really leaves something to be desired. Things go wrong with every airline but the way Delta handles it is just shameful.
I left Delta long ago after I witnessed the horrible treatment of an active duty military person returning from the Middle East for a family emergency. The uncaring agent and the supervisor that followed were complete jerks. I personally offered to pay the fee for the 1 pound overage of her duffel bag as did others. The service member was crying, had no money and was treated horribly wrong. The supervisor threatened to have me arrested. Delta never apologized and I never flew them again.
I don’t fly that much, but more than the average person, around 30 flights a year. But I also take teams with me and Spend 3-5K for each one. Delta has lost my business and will never get it back. This is just more reason to say NO!
Thanks for sharing Jen.
The LISA FRANK COMMENT!!!! Sorry you’ve had bad experiences, I don’t fly delta because it’s generally inconvenient and more expensive.
It’s like they’re toying with me at this point lol, I know Lisa Frank isn’t her real name.
I’m with you… I’ve had a few terrible experiences with Delta, enough that I try to avoid flying Delta if at all possible. It’s the worst airline I’ve ever used — consistently.
When I was flying from Washington Dulles to Florida their system crashed due to incompetent software engineering (a storm caused a lot of cancellations, and when it reached a certain number per month, their scheduling system simply crashed). It took more than four hours to find out what our new itinerary would be, and there were people trying to claim bags that belonged to them and the reps refused to hand them over. My mother tried to get some information from one of the Delta morons and they actually threatened to call the police on her — I told my mother she should have pressed the issue; who would the police side with, the 500 stranded passengers being ignored or insulted left and right, or the idiots who were insulting those passengers because their own employer’s screwup?
Yeah, friends don’t let friends fly Delta.
I was sent this article by Sue Riddle after posting my OWN bad travel experience on Delta.II agree completely about Twitter (the lone positive) and those danged overhead bin announcements. Unfortunately, Delta is not the only airline treating passengers like boxes of cargo. Here’s my story: https://www.pubclub.com/lifestyle/travel/bogger/a-warning-about-delta-and-possibly-other-airlines-too/
My son was on a flight back to college until Mr. Corona postponed all classes. I went online to cancel his flight since all over the internet Delta announced that they would refund tickets.
They refunded $3 on the $60 flight. Small amount, but it confirmed for me that Delta is run by a bunch of freaking liars.
Thank you for the comments Jen, we had our plans cancelled due to covid-19 only to miss seeing our dying relative for the last time. Even though this cancellation was put in place by the government and to no fault of our own, Delta refuses to refund our money. They told us that the money is actually at the third party booking agent, and that we should call them. When we called them, they said that they would need a waiver code by Delta to be able to refund us. This is highway robbery, and amazing that in the middle of a pandemic and due to no fault of our own, the airlines can refuse to refund our money. The government and tax payers are on the hook to bail them out, and yet they can legally steal peoples money. I am very displease with Delta airlines and the third party providers and will think twice about them being my first choice in the future.
Delta is horrible!! They kept $4000.00 of our money and won’t give it back!!! They said Covid was the reason! They won’t give us a refund or let us use the 4k credit!!
I’m flying Delta on May 1st. Going from Oregon to Florida … I was hearing good things but then I read these comments and now I’m a little worried……
I think you’ll be fine. Every airline is going to have people who love them and hate them. The important thing is to enjoy your trip!
@Jen on a Jet Plane, my 17 and 15yr old grandchildren will be flying on delta in june should i be worried?
I’m flying delta for the first time in june from jacksonville fl to nyc reading tjis has me a lil worried i usually fly jet blue
You’ll be fine! Delta is a reliable airline. I’m not the biggest fan of their customer service but you and your children are safe.
Whatever you do, if you must travel to Mexico, do NOT fly Delta and most importantly do NOT get on an AeroMexico plane. I have been flying for business for 42 years and this was horrific. Missed my connection, no communication, couldn’t locate my luggage so I could get booked on another flight. Had to spend a day and a half in the Mexico City Airport. Truly a nightmare.
Delta changed my name in their profile (deleted my middle name and combined as one word my first name and middle name. No wonder it no longer matches TSA records. And now to get it changed back I need to submit proof of identity. What a bunch of Horse S__t.
Then after purchasing a Comfort Class ticket, they seated me in economy.
I addressed this in a letter to Ed Bastian. NO reply.
Don’t fly Delta. Don’t trust Delta.
Delta is the worst airline in the US. I would take a bus before flying this airline again. I spent 5 hours trying to cancel a holiday flight because I was too sick to fly and didn’t want to expose other passengers. Despite 3 days notice and a physician’s direction not to fly, Delta refused any refund or remuneration AND failed to cancel my reservation so I kept getting messages on my phone – awful communication, awful customer service – fly United or American – did I say Delta and it’s personnel are AWFUL?!?’
Delta airlines is getting ridiculous. Every day I have never seen a airline, so greedy for money I wish one day the government would step in and stop this airlines in their track or possibly put them out of business and make them give every passenger a check for the way they have rob them delta airlines planes are nasty, dirty they don’t like the seats. The handles down the carpet needs cleaning it smells they should make this airline provide lunch for every flight over 2 1/2 hours like they did before bags should be free the prices they are charging for flights it’s just ridiculous highway robbery they double their prices after Covid and they made the money back and they’re still robbing. The customers airline stewardess are nasty. And when you work so hard to reach status, they get tired of giving you something for free so they turn around and take it away and make you start all over again. This should be a law. I pray that the government will step step in and stop this airlines from Miss treating customers all over the world.