My 14 year old daughter, flying from her non-custodial father's house in San Diego with a lay-over in Minneapolis, arrived in Indianapolis tonight to a mess caused by your customer service personnel. First of all, she was listed as an unaccompanied minor in San Diego but listed as an adult in Minneapolis. This caused an issue when I went to get my gate pass to go get her. Finally, that was figured out and we went through security to find her disembarking. There was no paperwork in her envelope so the customer "service" representative (Jodi) looked it up in the computer. She did not bother to explain to me what was going on and barely even acknowledged me. She couldn't figure out what to do and after about 10 minutes finally told me that there was no paperwork to prove who was to pick up Mackenzie and to prove that the $100 fee had been paid. (I could not have cared less about your $100 fee at this point but it seemed to be very important to Jodi.) She called some people, looked around in the computer, and finally found the name of a "J. Mills" and a phone number. This is my ex-mother-in-law. She called Jane and played a guessing game with her, asking if she knew who would be picking Mackenzie up tonight. Jane didn't even know that Mackenzie was traveling today and guessed a "George" (my father). That was wrong and Jodi hung up. At this time, Mackenzie started to cry, fearing that she wouldn't be able to come home with her family.
After about 30 minutes of this fiasco, a gentleman finally noticed that Jodi didn't know what she was doing and pointed out that my name was on the envelope. She had me sign for Mackenzie, never apologized for the confusion, and I practically threw the document at her and left, calling her a moron. Because she was. A third man, another CSR , who was completely uninvolved up to this point, hollered at us as we walked away, "We're only protecting your child." He had no idea what had just happened and had no business making comment.
I have no problem with ensuring that you are handing over children to the proper adult. My problem lies in the lack of communication, the lack of acknowledgement, and the way this was handled. Jodi could have reassured Mackenzie, she could have explained to me earlier on what was going on, she could have left out her concern that Delta get it's $100. My name was on that paper all along. All Jodi had to do was open her eyes and look for it. My daughter left your airline sobbing tonight and that is unacceptable to me. For a child that travels alone 2-4 times a year, I will be hard-pressed to consider Delta in the future.
I would like to hear your response to this matter.
