Aileen Friedman

Usually, I don’t make official complaints as it rarely gets you anywhere; although I never got anywhere this time either I feel compelled to share my experience of Delta Airlines.

Excitedly I boarded my Delta flight DL682 from Cozumel, Mexico to Hartsfield Jackson International airport, Atlanta, Georgia, USA on July 17^th 2018. The flight was about 4 hours, and I have no issues with the cabin crew; they were pleasant enough.

Just before we started making the descent to Atlanta, I became very itchy on my side, upper shoulder and inner legs near the knees; thinking nothing of it, I scratched the itchy areas as a person normally does.  I had an 8-hour layover in Atlanta and decided to make use of the Delta VIP facilities (no complaints here either.) By the time I had reached the Delta VIP I was itchy all over my body, mostly on my legs. I made use of their showers and changed my clothing; the itching did not stop, and I noticed that there were bite marks where I was scratching.

My next flight from Atlanta to Incheon International airport, Seoul South Korea was 15hrs. By the time I landed in Seoul I was bat crazy from the itching. My daughter, Cara was horrified to see the number of bites and the size of them.

 

I emailed Delta from their website and having taken photos of the bites I uploaded one photo as evidence (you are only permitted one attachment.) On 30 July I received a reply from Delta and a case no. They informed me that their planes are sanitized after every passenger has disembarked. Well, I was not accepting this and replied saying that I had attached photos of most of the bites and trust that they would investigate the matter. Their reply to my rebuttal was “Thank you once again for your comments.  We understand your point of view and although we cannot deny your state, thanks to the pictures you sent, at the same time, we cannot confirm you suffered this in a Delta establishment. Additional to this, we have no record of another passenger suffering from the same condition.

We are very sorry for your situation and wish you get well soon”

And that was that conversation and matter closed. I did reply to say I thought they were very inconsiderate and even if every passenger complained I would never know so naturally they would say that.

A month since that flight and I still have scars on my person from the bites.

 

I guess there is no way I could ever prove my case but all I can say is I was bitten by something not once but many times on that Delta DL 682 flight regardless of what they say.

My return flights were without issues, I will, however, reserve my right to avoid flying with them again.