Delta is still EVIL

I have now used the last of my credits with Delta. I have 40,000 frequent flyer miles that I may just let lapse.

The latest: Last year, we purchased a set of tickets to go see Mr. Mac's dad when he was ill. Unfortunately, Dr. Mac died in July. The tickets we had purchased for our August visit went unused - Mr. Mac had gone overseas for his father's funeral in his home country, and we wanted to wait to go back up to NC.

So I still had these Delta e-ticket credits. I decided I'm going to use them now. See, Mr. Mac and I are going back to see Duke v. UNC on March 4. JJ's last game in Cameron. I'm certain to cry. And, Miss M is going to see her Grandma for part of Spring Break. I could buy those tickets for a total investment of $80 per ticket**, or at least so I thought.

Incidentally, the gentleman at the reissue desk was VERY nice and VERY helpful and VERY apologetic for his company's inanity. I had to deal with the reissue desk because I *could not understand* the person at the call center. Sigh.

I book my and Mr. Mac's tickets easy as pie. They recorded Miss Baby's name and date of birth for the "Infant in Lap" portion of my ticket. Then we booked Miss M's ticket as well. We filled out all the requisite information for her unaccompanied minor status and everything was taken care of on that end. So then, the kind gentleman says "This portion of her fare is $80.20. Now, that doesn't include her Unaccompanied Minor Administrative Fee."

Oh, says I. Okay - how much will that be?

He tells me it's $50. Each way.

Please, people. The only thing you administer when you've got an 8 year old on the flight is her trip up and down the jetway. There is nothing else that you do. I checked. AirTran charges $25. Southwest charges nothing.

Delta wonders why it's in bankruptcy. Customer Service and Customer Satisfaction have fallen to the bottom of the barrell. It's awful! I would not be flying this airline except for the fact that I had $450 worth of e-credits to use up (that's the value of the tickets less the $50/ticket change fee).

Bah. Boo them. Yay discount carriers. I <3 SOUTHWEST.

** I must say that even the $80 per ticket is too much. We bought our original tickets to see my father in law. He died before we could take the trip. The entire family was *out of the country* when we would have taken the trip to visit him. I don't believe we should have had to pay the $50 per ticket change fee. They are such cheap little bastards.