On the 10.5 hour flight from JFK to Istanbul, we had the most incredibly rude flight attendants. Any time we asked for something, they bit our heads off. We ordered vegetarian meals - Delta says they have a whole plethora of vegetarian options - haha! When we got our main courses, there were no sides - no salads, no cookies, no water…nothing! Zip! And then, after picking up the meal service, they completely disappeared.
Returning from Istanbul to JFK was not much better flight attendant wise. I was snoozing, got jostled awake by the male flight attendant who was bringing me my lunch - except it wasn't mind - and, he wanted to argue with me about it! Sorry, I did not order a "muslim" meal! Really! We ordered one "Asian vegetarian meal" and one "dairy acceptable vegetarian meal" - but guess what, they were absolutely the same! I don't mind that they were absolutely the same but don't tell me I have an option for a different kind of vegetarian meal when I don't. Again, we were given little packets of food - no salad (which we had to ask for), no cookies (which we didn't bother with) and…no water!
Okay, Delta, I know you are hurting -that $549m profit (excluding special expenses) must just not be enough! Is it asking too much to hire nice flight attendants? Is it asking too much to make sure your flight attendants are customer service oriented? I am polite, I'm not demanding but really continue to feel like the flight attendants (at least those I have flown with lately) feel like they are doing me a huge favor by even serving me anything at all! I feel like they have got the general malaise I see all over the USA - "what are you going to do for me now?"
My other issue comes from buying tickets, reserving seats and then finding out, when I check in to the flight that the equipment has been changed and my exit row seats are no longer existent. Well they are still there but I do not get to have them, even though I had them to start with. I don't understand why, when you change equipment Delta, you can't honor my seat request. My sky miles status isn't that high (my husband's is) but I am Silver and I do get to access premium seats - at least that's what I think. Preferred seat selection is supposed to be one of the highly touted but few benefits I get for flying at least 25,000 miles a year on Delta. Instead, my exit row aisle seat turned into a middle seat on a plane that even I didn't have room to move around in.
But there were two incidents on my return trip from Minneapolis to Atlanta. A very large man was sitting on the aisle directly across from me; an equally large woman came in and had the window seat; a skinny little guy had the middle seat…about two minutes into the flight, the rude guy in front of the very large man laid his seat back into the man's lap! Unbelievable. This guy had bulkhead seats - plenty of space. He laid right down in the lap of the very large man! The very large man could not move, he could not get up without almost pulling the other guy's seat completely down. When we landed, the guy sitting right behind me opened one of the overhead bins and something fell out and hit a lady in the head. Unfortunate, sure. But the lady wanted the man's information so she could sue him if she needed to! Good for him - he apologized but refused to give her his information. Talk to Delta he said! Haha.
I am going to post stories from Istanbul, I promise. Pictures too maybe one day…
