Delta Passenger’s CEO Name-Drop Backfires Spectacularly As Flight Attendant Fires Back, ‘You Should Have Kept in Touch!’
One of the most frustrating things traveling with a carry on bag is being made to give up the bag at the boarding gate, because overhead bins are already full. Even worse is when you’re told you have to gate check the bag because bins are full – and you board the plane only to see there was actually still plenty of room. You could have kept your bag with you!
One Delta passenger had this happen to her and took her frustration out on a flight attendant – who isn’t the one that made her gate check the bag in the first place. And it’s too late for the flight attendant to help, anyway. The bag has already been checked.
The woman said to the crewmember that she “went to college with” Delta CEO Ed Bastian. The Delta flight attendant snapped back, “you should have kept in touch” then! I guess they weren’t that close. Attempted ‘don’t you know who I am’ failed.
Lady behind me on this @delta flight is complaining to the stewardess because they made her check her bag and there’s a ton of room.
Her husband to the stewardess: “you know she went to college with the CEO of Delta”
Stewardess: “You should have kept in touch.”
— Melissa Perri (@lissijean) August 19, 2024
Many airlines, including Delta, have installed larger overhead bins on planes to allow for more carry-on bags. However Delta hasn’t done it for their Boeing 737-800s, and even as they refresh the interiors of these planes still doesn’t plan to do so. The airline isn’t nearly as premium as they often like to suggest. However larger overhead bins are the ultimate in win-win.
Delta Boeing 737-800
More bin space is great for customers:
- Most customers have to pay for checked bags. They’d rather carry on.
- People don’t want to waste their time at baggage claim.
- Checked bags get lost.
More bin space is great for airlines:
- It reduces the need to gate check bags.
- This is work at the last minute, right before push back.
- It can cause a delay of a few minutes, and those delays have ripple effects throughout the day and can be costly to the airline.
A lot more people bring bags onto the plane because of bag fees, and that causes schedule and reliability issues and the need to make investments retrofitting aircraft interiors. There are real costs associated with bag fees that are often ignored. But given the system that’s in place, bigger overhead bins are great – for both customer and airline.
The only problem with these bigger bins? To maximize use of space passengers generally need to turn bags on their sides. They do not do this. Passengers are going to need to re-learn how to stow their bags.
However airlines make customers gate check bags even when there’s plenty of bin space available because they don’t wait until bins fill up to make the decision. They don’t want passengers boarding, hunting for space, and discovering there isn’t any before having to gate check at the last minute. That can cause delays of a few minutes that they’re trying to avoid.
@AmericanAir
Was forced to check bag at gate even tho there were open spaces. Ridiculous pic.twitter.com/xJK0zzsDff— blonde—6 (@wthpeeps666) August 18, 2024
@Delta : all overhead storage is full we have to check your carryon bag
Me: *gets on plane and gestures wildly* pic.twitter.com/Ll2DgLxPQq— Joia (@joia1231) August 18, 2024
As a result they end up inconveniencing the customer. And they do it in a way that seems visibly unnecessary, as passengers look up at empty bins where the bag they just had taken from them could have gone. It’s one of the two most frequent complaints I see with photos in airline social media each day, along with damaged checked bags.