Over the weekend I flew back into Ecuador from New York. Having booked a red-eye flight with Delta from Newark to Quito via Atlanta the travel time was long. As the last train from Manhattan to Newark left at 1:22am and the flight was at 6:05am no sleep was had the night before the flight, other than trying to get comfortable in the deserted Newark airport check-in area.
When checking in, we were told that even though we had a 9 hour layover in Atlanta airport, our luggage would be checked all the way through to Quito. So after arriving at 8:30am we spent a long and tiring day in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport until our flight departed at 5:00pm.
On-board the Delta flight crew were wonderful, making the 5 hour flight comfortable for everyone. As we hadn’t slept the night before and had only been able to catch an hour or so of sleep on the floor in Atlanta, upon landing we were very keen to get through customs, grab our bags, get to our hostel and collapse into bed. This unfortunately was not to be.
Back at Newark airport my boyfriend and I had checked three bags in total. Waiting in Quito airport baggage claim only two came through, our main luggage was nowhere to be found. As it was past midnight and we’d been awake for 40 hours, this was the last thing we wanted.
Finding a Delta worker in baggage claim, she took our tickets to check where the missing bag was only to inform us that it was still in Atlanta.
‘Okay,’ we said, ‘What do we do now?’ The Delta worker told us that the bag would be sent over on the next flight, but that wouldn’t be until the following day on the same flight that we had just traveled on, with the bag therefore arriving at midnight the following night. This was not welcome news. The bag contained all of our toiletries and all of my boyfriend’s clothing and underwear.
We also discovered that another of our bags that had been checked had a large hole, after we had purchased it new in New York. After being told that there was nothing more the woman in baggage claim could do for us, we were directed upstairs to the Delta office to speak with the manager about possibly having the bag put on an earlier flight. So at 1am and carrying all of our luggage that had been delivered we went up to the Delta airlines office, only to be told no one knew where the manager was. Apparently he was on a flight somewhere and we might have to wait anywhere between fifteen mins to an hour.
This was too much for me. I was exhausted, annoyed and upset that we were missing half of our stuff. Asking what we were supposed to do with no toiletries or underwear and only the clothes my boyfriend was wearing, we were told by Delta staff that we would be reimbursed for the toiletries we needed to buy whilst we waited for the bag to be delivered to our hostel, but only the toiletries, nothing else. We would need to visit the Delta office in Quito with the receipt in my boyfriend’s name to be reimbursed. When we questioned the Delta worker about our torn bag, she told us that it’s very normal and bags are damaged all the time. There was nothing they could do.
Annoyed with the lack of helpful customer service and somewhat outraged by the treatment our luggage had received we finally left and made it to our hostel at 2am.
The next morning we received a call from Delta to let us know our bag would be delivered at 3am the following morning. When asked if Delta would reimburse us for the toiletries that we needed to buy that day we were told over the phone that the items would possibly be reimbursed. However it would take 8 days to give us cash once they had considered our items, at which time we will no longer be in Quito, or they can give us a cheque immediately however it can only be deposited in the USA. Again not a solution that works for us.
Very unimpressed with the custom service we had so far received from Delta, we bought the necessary items we needed such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, soap etc and waited for our bag to arrive. At 3am this morning the bag was delivered.
However adding insult to injury we discovered that a padlock had disappeared from the bag and some of our items are missing, products we had bought specifically in the States. According to Delta however, we apparently are lying. They told us that the weight of the bag when we checked it in was the same as the weight when it finally arrived in Quito. Clearly one of us is lying in this situation and I can assure everyone it’s not us.
So we are not at all happy with the Delta. We asked when we checked our bags in Newark if we could have fragile stickers put on them due to the supplies we had purchased, only to discover they had received incredibly rough treatment, been opened and had items taken.
As today is Sunday the Delta office here is Quito is not open, but we will be visiting during the week to find out how we can claim back money for the items we needed to buy through no fault of our own.
As someone who travels the world and flies frequently, this entire incident has left a very bad impression at the end of an otherwise awesome trip. Whilst the flight crew were excellent, I would suggest anyone thinking of flying Delta in the future seriously consider other airlines.
This literally just happened to me. But in Peru. I’m waiting on this bag before I can head out for a flight to go on a 5 day hike in Cuzco. Haven’t slept, and been in the same clothes for 60+ hours now.
Did you ever get anything more than an apology from them?
Hi Steven,
I’m sorry to hear that you have had this problem. We unfortunately did not receive anything at all from Delta. We visited the Delta office in Quito with the receipt of the toiletries products we needed to by however we were met with completely blank stares by the Delta office staff and told that there was no way we would be refunded. It was an unfortunate end to a great trip. I hope you receive your luggage back soon and wish you well for Cusco.