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Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines review: bait and switch pricing 6

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3:13 pm EDT
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Below you will find the message that I reported to Delta Customer Service:
"I am appaled by the "bait and switch" tactics of this online service. I spent over an hour booking a flight yesterday because the system gave me a price for the flight, allowed me to enter my credit card information and purchase flight insurance. Then, right before it processes the payment, I receive a message stating "The fare quoted earlier of $139.30 (USD) has changed. The new fare for this itenerary is $237.30. To continue your purchase click Continue. Otherwise start over to return to the Reservations input screen and select different dates and times."

I "started over" several times, clearing cookies, using different browsers. I even took a screen shot to show the price change to customer service. No matter what, the initial price and the price right before the charge would change. When I spoke with customer service about this the following day, they stated that the system was down and that they would NOT honor the price that I had been quoted since the "price is subject to change until the ticket is issued."

In business, this is called a "bait and switch" and it is one of the worst and most frustrating price gimmicks. I find it interesting that businesses are allowed to make "mistakes" and customers are the only ones contractually obligated to pay for "mistakes." As a reputable business, the company should take some responsibility for the "price glitch" and honor the fares that are listed.

I will be certain to notify the public about my experience and to warn them of this unethical practice. Yes, your company is protected and may not legally obligated to honor the price until a ticket is issued, but customer service and reputation should be worth the $100 difference in pricing. For this reason, I will not do business with your company and I will warn others against showing your company patronage, as well. "

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6 comments
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Sam Zaklama
US
Apr 29, 2017 2:03 pm EDT

THIS IS TRUE! I just tried to book with Delta as well and wasted an entire hour trying to book a ticket. They quoted one price and when I entered my credit card info, they said to continue I had to pay more. I as well erased my history, tried changing browsers only to find the same result. This seems unethical.

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LW3462
US
Dec 20, 2017 11:02 am EST

I have tried for over a month, watching airfare for an overseas journey. Three different occasions the price online reduces and I attempt to purchase the fare. The amount displayed on DELTAS site and other sites are within a few dollars however, it wont' let me book the flight after entering all my information. Two of the three times I have called DELTA customer service. They are no help. They simply say, we cannot book that price and offer a substantially higher fare. This airline is a SCAM. The price I tried to book last evening is still showing this morning, 10 hours later. It's apparent that DELTA does not care about customer service. There will always be individuals who don't mind these tactics and they are what keeps this company going. I am not one to complain and have never written on a complaint board before, but this is ridiculous and people need to know about this SCAM. The old "Bait and Switch" tactic. I will tell everyone that will listen to me about the unethical practices Delta is engaging in. So disappointing.

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Donnie San
US
Jul 14, 2018 2:12 am EDT

I was trying to book an international flight via Delta, which, somewhat unsurprisingly in retrospect, was showing the lowest price among all airlines at $890. I even signed up for the Delta Gold Amex card which promises a $200 discount on the first Delta flight you book. My trust in Amex directly contributed to my trust in Delta, trust that was clearly misplaced. As with earlier comments on this thread, as soon as I entered my card details, a message showed up on my screen reading something along the lines of "Oops, the fare you were looking for is no longer available, the new far is $1132, please confirm if you would like to proceed with this fare." Furthermore, the promised discount vanished instantly. At first I thought maybe I had waited too long to book the ticket and, as Delta representatives will tell you, "prices change by the minute". Since I had gotten the Delta Gold card, I thought I'd wait and try again. I tried again a few hours later and the same thing happened, then my friend tried on her laptop using my card details and the exact same price jump showed up.

This is clearly a bait and switch strategy and, since I have started reading about this, I have found records of this dating back to 2014. It is appalling that such a horrible strategy has been allowed to persist all these years. My faith in Delta has been forever broken and I will never fly Delta again. I truly hope that people who read this thread and face the same problem actively choose to boycott Delta and force them to turn to more ethical practices.

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Bosco27
US
Sep 20, 2018 1:00 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

The same thing happened to me last night. Three times! I would go back and they will still show the lower fare even though it was not available when you got to the final step. Customer service is horrendous at most companies these days. It also happened thru Amex Travel.

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scottyman
US
Sep 25, 2018 10:15 am EDT

ditto for me as well...A Mexico vacation, price posted over the weekend...and as soon as I selected the flight...price goes up 211$...call customer service and get a totally BS story about how first class fares are actually in tiers for pricing...when I said thats bogus first class is first class...she said sorry...your new fare is what it is...would you like me to book that for you...when I explained to her that the fare she was quoting me was even higher than the "new" price online she said..well...they must be putting in new pricing...wait til monday and it will all be fixed...nope...same BS, perfect example of bait and switch pricing, and with NO ONE protecting the public in the current political times...guess the 1% win again

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SUZE58
US
Sep 12, 2019 5:15 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I was booking a Delta flight and got a notice that said "save $200 on this flight if you sign up for Delta Gold AMEX".
So I did and booked the flight using my new number. The promo was $200 and 40k miles if you spend 2k on the card in the first 3 months. I did all of that. Nothing showed on the statement. I called many times and AMEX said oh sorry a mistake. Then this last time they said I was denied the promo because I misused one of their previous promos, by accepting the a promo and then not spending enough of the card in the long run. Which is totally not true! SCAMMER...not sure if it's AMEX or Delta. LIES LIES LIES And I'm an attorney and still got scammed.

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