Delta Airlines does the right thing...KUDOS!

This summer, when I came back from the digital shootout in Bonaire, I had a real mishap at the airport. We missed a connection to get home. Delta rerouted us and put us on a commuter flight. Due to the small size of the plane, we had to gate check our camera equipment. Mine was in my hard case.

After landing at my home airport, in the rain, we waited as they were pulling the gate checked bags out of the plane. The baggage handler grabbed my case and pulled it out by the latches. He managed to pull the latches open and spilled the bags contents all over the wet runway right in front of us.

What made matters worse, the guy starts throwing gear back into the bag and tries to push the lid shut by force. After much yelling and gesturing, he finally picks up the bag and assorted loose stuff and gives it to me. The person who i went to to complain almost succeeded in not giving me a claim number. I later found that I would have been sunk without it.

I assembled my equipment and found a DS 125 strobe damaged. The strobe had a cracked case and broken transformer.

I submitted a claim with Delta and, after much e-mail tag and frustration, they came through with a check that covered the whole strobes worth, including the ULCS mount.

How nice to have a company "take care of business" that way. I used the money to buy a DS 160. Now, I have my full set up for my month in PNG starting Feb 5th.

One moral of story....Even if you are carrying you equipment onboard, zip tie your latches to make them secure!!

I was charged 3 times between $50 ~ $70@ for my trip to Galapagos & back few weeks ago. It's really discouraging. I haven't figure out what to do for the next trip yet ... But airline really sucks now.

I had a Lowepro Backpack fully loaded that was gatechecked on a turboprop once and the guy unloading threw it on to the conveyor and I watched screaming 'Noooooooooooooooooooooo...' as it rolled off and fell about 6 feet onto the tarmac in Miami. Fortunately nothing was damaged (domeport, camera, housing ,strobes and lenses in there) but I almost got arrested after I let the guy have it.

This summer, when I came back from the digital shootout in Bonaire, I had a real mishap at the airport. We missed a connection to get home. Delta rerouted us and put us on a commuter flight. Due to the small size of the plane, we had to gate check our camera equipment. Mine was in my hard case.

 

After landing at my home airport, in the rain, we waited as they were pulling the gate checked bags out of the plane. The baggage handler grabbed my case and pulled it out by the latches. He managed to pull the latches open and spilled the bags contents all over the wet runway right in front of us.

 

 

What made matters worse, the guy starts throwing gear back into the bag and tries to push the lid shut by force. After much yelling and gesturing, he finally picks up the bag and assorted loose stuff and gives it to me. The person who i went to to complain almost succeeded in not giving me a claim number. I later found that I would have been sunk without it.

 

I assembled my equipment and found a DS 125 strobe damaged. The strobe had a cracked case and broken transformer.

 

I submitted a claim with Delta and, after much e-mail tag and frustration, they came through with a check that covered the whole strobes worth, including the ULCS mount.

 

How nice to have a company "take care of business" that way. I used the money to buy a DS 160. Now, I have my full set up for my month in PNG starting Feb 5th.

 

One moral of story....Even if you are carrying you equipment onboard, zip tie your latches to make them secure!!

Glad it worked out, sounds like a big runaround even though they finally paid up.