It was time to take action! ... or spend a lot of time on hold. Navigating their automated phone service was as you would expect -- extremely time consuming and not fruitful. When I called to tell them that I wanted a refund, as they had canceled my flight, their automated system said it would be a 17 minute hold time. I waited for over an hour before getting to talk to someone.

Then, when trying to explain the situation to their representative, who was either not very bright, or just being obtuse, I lost another 30 minutes. Eventually this person got tired of me explaining what the Department of Transportation said, so she transferred me on.

I then got the pleasure of talking to someone of a higher pay grade, whose job it was to say, "NO". She said that the change of flight number was not a cancellation, so she would not refund my money.

The argument went like this:

• Me:   You canceled my flight, so you must refund my money.
• Her:   We didn't cancel your flight. We just put you on a different one.
• Me:   You didn't cancel my flight??   Great!   I want to be put back on the original flight that I booked, and for which I paid.
• Her:   I can't do that.
• Me:   Why not?
• Her:   It doesn't exist anymore.
• Me:   Why does it not exist anymore?
• Her:   ...(silence)...
• Me:   Oh... I know. It's because you CANCELED it!
            You canceled my flight, so you must refund my money.

That went around a few times before she realized she had no valid argument. She then stated that she would not be issuing a refund. She asked if I wanted an "e-credit".

I told her not to do anything yet. I didn't want them playing games, saying I accepted a credit. I knew that if I did let them mess with my ticket, they would claim that I accepted a credit, not a refund.

Again, Delta plays right into the hands of Irony. Only an hour after Delta declared that a cancelation is not a cancelation, I got an email from the CEO, Ed Bastian! Apparently, it only took an hour for the news of my dissatisfaction to travel from their "Customer Service" representative all the way to the top! I was SO excited to learn that he was looking at my case directly! In his email, he touted their commitment to, and I quote... "Getting you to your destination as you originally booked it." And in the next paragraph, he said, "Your loyalty to Delta has never been more important, and we're committed to earning it as we move into the recovery and beyond." My new friend, Ed was going to sort this all out.

Thanks, Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta! I'm glad you're my friend and you're on my side here and... Wait. Just a minnnnnnnute. That was not a letter to me -- that was a cheap form letter they sent to EVERYONE, lying about how they care for their customers! That was nothing more than email spam!!! I was heartbroken and shocked -- yes, SHOCKED to find that the things that my new friend Ed said in the letter weren't actually true. And worst of all -- maybe Ed wasn't really my friend after all! Maybe that letter was just a cheap ploy to make money! So in my complaint to the Department of Transportation, I did not mention my new ex-friend Ed at all, as he had betrayed my trust, both as a friend and as a business leader.

Next: Part THREE