‘I was literally shaking numb furious’: Delta passenger goes to counter. No one can find her ticket number in costly ‘nightmare’
A Delta Airlines customer went viral on TikTok after sharing the various obstacles she endured while trying to get home from a vacation in Santorini, Greece. Even in a summer filled with viral travel horror stories, this one stood out.
Tori Elyse (@imtorielyse), a hair and beauty influencer, warned viewers to “buckle up” before she told her “flight horror story.”
The content creator added, too, that said she normally doesn’t post videos “like this,” but felt compelled to share her story after an “insane” ordeal with Delta Airlines.
“So, story-time,” Elyse said. “Let’s get into it.” As of Thursday, her clip had amassed more than 551,500 views.
A Delta ticket number worth 'thousands'
Elyse said that, three months ago, she and her husband purchased round-trip tickets to Greece. “All the confirmations [were] set,” she said. “We [had] everything well in advance.”
To return back to the U.S., she said, they had to fly from Santorini to Athens; then from Athens to Atlanta; and, finally, from Atlanta to Phoenix.
She said that problems arose once the couple arrived in Athens, however.
“Once we get to Athens, we go to check our bags,” she said. “When I go to give them my confirmation number… they start to look a little funky and are like, ‘Oh, do you maybe have your ticket number or another confirmation?”
Elyse said the workers told her that they could see she reserved her seat on the plane. However, they were unable to locate her ticket number. Elyse said she offered to provide proof that her flight was paid for and confirmed, to no avail. She said that she and her husband waited for over an hour while a Delta Airlines worker attempted to help.
They were told it wasn't there fault, but that the ticket number was basically lost in the airlines' system.
“I’m starting to panic because it is 30 to 40 minutes before our flight leaves,” Elyse said.
She said she asked the worker how much longer this snag would take, but the worker wasn’t able to provide a clear answer. Instead, he said there was a miscommunication on the “back-end” that prevented Elyse from getting a ticket number. And without a ticket number, she was unable to board her flight back home.
“At this point, our flight takes off in 25 minutes,” Elyse said. “They look at me and go, ‘Ma’am, if you want to make this flight, you’re going to have to pay for a new one.’”
Elyse said she initially refused, in part, because she had already paid thousands of dollars for her first ticket. Eventually, however, she said she was left with no choice but to pay for another one.
“They made me pay... thousands of dollars to get on this flight,” she said. “If I didn’t pay it, we were going to be stuck in Athens.”
Wait... what is a ticket number?
According to Delta, it's a 13-digit number that begins with 006 and can be found "on your emailed flight purchase receipt." But in this case, the number was nowhere to be found. The airline recommends finding it online under the "My Profile" section of the page, which again failed to apparently work in her case because the airline itself lost it. The airline also says it's chiefly in your confirmation email: To find your ticket number, in your email inbox search for "Your Flight Receipt" and locate the email that applies to the trip you previously canceled. Scroll down until you reach the “Flight Receipt” section in that email. Your ticket number will be the first item listed in that section.
Was the passenger able to board her flight?
After paying, Elyse said she and her husband were rushed through security and only barely made their flight back. But her issues didn’t stop there.
“This is where it starts to get even better,” the content creator said.
While on her 11-hour flight to Atlanta, she said, her TV didn’t work. She said there was also no Wi-Fi and she said she was told by a flight attendant that “this plane kind of sucks.”
“I just purchased another flight… for thousands and thousands of dollars,” she said. “Now I’m sitting here in a seat with no working TV, no sound, and no Wi-Fi.”
Instead of offering to help, though, she said the flight attendants only offered her a $50 flight credit.
And upon getting to Atlanta, Elyse said she noticed yet another error with her ticket: The workers in Athens, who made her purchase a new flight, had also changed her flight coming home. Instead of being on the same plane as her husband, she said, Elyse was now on an earlier flight to Phoenix that left two hours earlier than her husband’s plane.
“I sprint to the next flight, I get to the gate… I’m about to scan my boarding pass [and] I get flagged,” she said. When the workers scanned her ticket, she said, another person’s name popped up—meaning that Elyse and another passenger were assigned the same seat. Elyse said the workers in Atlanta asked where she got her ticket, and Elyse told them it was printed by someone at Delta Airlines.
At this point, Elyse said, “I was literally shaking numb furious.”
The workers put her on standby and, thankfully, Elyse was able to board the final plane ride home. She landed safely, she said, but had to return to the airport two hours later to get her husband.
Then more problems arose: Apparently the couple’s bags never made it to Arizona. They were still in Atlanta.
“I know a lot of people like Delta Airlines and haven’t had problems before, but I’ve never experienced anything more chaotic than this,” she said.
Is this a common occurrence with Delta?
According to various Delta Airlines passengers and workers, this is a somewhat regular ordeal.
“An an ex delta FA this happens way more often than people realize,” one former employee wrote.
“No literally delta airlines has been so chaotic recently,” another affirmed.
“This happened to a friend of mine,” a third viewer said. “Turns out they lied to her just to make her pay for another ticket KNOWING she would bc she has to get back home.” This story had a happy(ish) ending however. The commenter said that her friend retained a lawyer and that the airline ultimately paid her back.
As a result, a few others encouraged Elyse to seek legal action, too.
“Lawyer, lawyer, lawyer,” one person said. “Delta, this is embarrassingly bad.”
But, mostly, viewers expressed anger toward Delta Airlines. Many pledged to never fly internationally with them ever again.
“Won’t be flying Delta,” one woman wrote.
“Wow! I will never buy Delta tickets for any international trip after hearing your nightmare! I am so sorry this happened to you,” another said.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Elyse via TikTok comment and to Delta Airlines through its online media form.
Editor's note: It's a holiday week, several key players are on vacation, and your neighborhood-friendly substitute teacher editor accidentally covered/assigned this story twice. The Daily Dot regrets the double-post.
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