Delta Airline Woes: A Frustrating Experience of Booking Flights and Pricing Issues

If you’re Delta, I need you to stop scrolling and listen because I have some beef with you that I’m ready to share. My husband and I live in Tunisia and we’re trying to buy tickets to go to the US for the summer. I look on Google Flights like I normally do. I find a ticket that’s $730 per person, which is a really good deal to get to the US during the summer. So I go to book it and Google Flights leads me to Delta.

I go through the whole Delta process. I even sign up for a Sky Miles membership. I go to check out, put my credit card in, and it says, sorry, your credit card was declined. So I go on to my Capital One app. I realize my credit card declined it because it was a big charge. And so they just, you know, didn’t know if it was fraud or not. So I approved the charge.

The charge goes through. So it’s pending on my card, on my credit card. So I got online with Delta chat support and they said, hey, that’s no problem. Just try it again. So I tried it again. Same thing happened. This time the charge just went through Capital One, didn’t rejected or anything. The charge went and it’s pending and it’s like 15 dollars for both of us. So like that’s a massive amount of credit. And the flight still didn’t book.

They say no worries. All you need to do is try booking on a different computer because it might have something to do with your cookies on your computer. I go to my husband’s computer and I tried booking the ticket and the exact same things happen.

So now I’ve tried to book 3 different times and the charge does not go through either time. They say no problem. All you need to do is wait 24 to 48 hours for the credit on the card to can get cancelled and then you can try again. I have a 10,000 dollar credit limit and this has now taken up about 5,000 dollars. So if I just keep trying, I’m gonna run out of credit on my credit card, which I don’t wanna happen, which is why I stop trying. So I wait 48 hours.

It is now Saturday. I get on the phone with them because my credit card has still not canceled those charges. So I still don’t wanna go ahead and go through with trying to book it. But I was like, hey, maybe I can just ask the Delta people to book it. My credit card is in my Sky Miles membership account. They should be able to book it for me. That way they can make sure it actually goes through. I get on the phone with them, I explain that I’ve tried to book three different times and it hasn’t gone through and it’s given me an error code and I took screenshots of every single part of this. So I have a screenshot of like the error code number that it was. And I tell them that error number and they’re like, oh, that’s the error number to tell us that flight that you’re trying to book is actually no longer available, doesn’t exist anymore. Like, what do you mean it doesn’t exist? Like I’m looking at it right now on my computer. It’s still on Google Flights. It’s still on Delta. Like, what do you mean? And they’re like, well, because this is actually Air France operated by Delta. It’s actually fully updated on the Air France website, but not on Delta. So this flight doesn’t exist. That’s why every time you try to book, it didn’t go through because there’s nothing to book. And I’m like, well, first of all, that seems like a you problem. You need to have that sorted and you at least need to be refunding me a lot faster than 48 hours for a flight that doesn’t exist, that’s on your website. I shouldn’t have to go and book with a different airline. It’s like two times as expensive to book that same flight with Airfronts as it is to book it with Delta. So of course I’m gonna choose Delta. You need to chop with your updates on your website. And I’m looking at it now on Monday and it’s still telling me that it’s available. And that first time when I tried to book it was on Thursday, which means that it’s not been five days. And that is still on your website. That is not fast enough. You need to be pulling those things way faster if the flight no longer exists.

So I said, no problem. You know, we have some flexibility with what day we can leave, with what time we can leave. Let’s choose a different flight. So I let him know before booking.

Cuz again, I don’t wanna go through the whole process and not actually book. I said, how about this one? It leaves like a little bit earlier, but that’s okay. So I tell him which flight it is and everything. And I say, you know, for me, I’m seeing right now that $750 per person, can you book that? And he says, we’re seeing on our end that it’s $950 per person. And I’m like, well, we can’t afford that. Like we budgeted for this trip with 750 dollar of mine because that’s what I’ve been seeing for the last few months. And I finally have the finances to actually purchase it. And he’s like, no, it’s $950. And I’m like, well, I’m looking at it right now on the Delta website and it is telling me that it’s $750 per person. And he’s like, yeah, that’s just not updated. It’s not the correct price. It’s actually the most updated on our end. I can’t book it for you at that price. Tell me how is anyone, not just me living Indonesia, anyone ever supposed to be able to book a flight with Delta if 1, you don’t know if the flight actually exists or not, and 2, you don’t even know if the price is correct or not. You’re telling me that all of your flights potentially could just be incorrect?

I sent him multiple different flights. I was like, we could leave at 1 in the morning, could leave at three in the morning. There’s all these different flight options. Every single flight was 200 to 300 dollars more that he was seeing than I was seeing on my computer. And he was like, no, we can’t book it at the flight that you see again, like because of Air France, it’s not actually updated.

Tell me why it’s not updated if I’m seeing it on my computer at $750, I should be able to book it at $750. You need to honor the prices that your customers are seeing. I just genuinely don’t understand how anyone, how is this a sustainable business model? How are you, does this mean that all your customers are going to Delta, trying to book and then getting an error code and they’re just moving to a different airline. Like you’re gonna lose business because of this. If nobody can use your website to book anything, why would they continue to fly with you? How is anyone supposed to ever book a flight with you if they don’t know if it’s the right price or if the flight even exists? So it’s not Monday.

I’m still waiting for those charges to cancel. They’re still pending on my credit card. I’m still looking at that exact flight that I would love to take. That apparently no longer exists. I’m too scared to try to book anything else that’s within, you know, a window of a few days of that because I’m afraid that it’s actually gonna be way more expensive. And they told me that if I try to book a flight that’s actually a different price, then it’s not gonna let the charge go through. So now I feel stuck. I really wanted to book these tickets like a week ago because time is running out and these flights are gonna get more and more expensive and I would love to book with Delta.

This is a great price. This is a great route. I’ve had great experiences with Delta in the past. But if I can’t book a flight with you, I can’t fly with you. So I might have to go and get a flight on Lufthansa, and I would love to not do that. If you have any tips for me, please let me know. And if you’re Delta, please reach out to me to the email in my bio so that we can get this sorted. Because again, I would love to book with you, but you’re not letting me.