Yet another reason why I refuse to fly Delta and support anything with Ted Turner’s signature on it. I spent 2 years in Aghanistan as a civilian contractor, been around the world several times in a dozen countries and never been put through what Delta, the TSA and the employees at Hartsfield-Jackson leveled on me. I know they don’t know me or owe me, but I wasn’t asking for special favors….just treated like a human. They couldn’t pull it off. I encourage all Military and civilians to use a different carrier, even if it means a few extra dollars for the ticket. I’ll not only never fly Delta again but I have and will continue to go out of my way to avoid Atlanta completely.
Catherine MacLeod
13 years ago
Well when I come over to America I know not to use Delta Airlines….
Randy
13 years ago
To be fair, the government has soldiers personally hauling loads of gear with them when they travel. My last two trips to Iraq required me to take a considerable amount of gear (most I never used) to the mobilization station. I eventually recovered most of the costs 15 months later when I filed a travel voucher but not all. Most of my unit sorted out the gear we would not use and sent it home at our expense. Our families sent the unused gear back when we returned. It would have been much cheaper for the travel orders to have allowed the shipment of gear by ground.
Delta and especially Alaska Airlines do allow 3 bags if you are traveling on orders (must be 50 lbs or less). Try spending a year in a combat zone with less than 150 lbs of gear! I have never had any difficulties with them. This is really an issue that the US Government doesn’t want to address since 2001 with the start of combat in Afghanistan. Soldiers are uninformed as to their options when traveling. They do not know enough to question their travel orders. This is especially true of the young and inexperienced enlisted soldiers. I have been traveling for over 35 years and cope very well. With my military rank and now my civilian grade, I usually get orders modified to meet the mission. Orders should realistically provide options for soldiers to get their gear to their destination. Someone needs to look out for these young soldiers and that should be the 1st SGT and the Company Commander! It is not the responsibility of the airlines to accomodate our soldiers on official duty for the government. That is what they pay taxes for. Most airlines are very accommodating to soldiers though.
CJ I was just contacted with a request to go to Afghanistan to protect soldiers and contrators from formaldehyde! I guess I will not need an M-4 to do that!
@John Cooper: How much you wanna bet the Army is responsible for that? I bet his commander’s found out about the video threatened them. I say that from experience when I put up video of my local school official’s treatment of me and my family at a PTA meeting. I had Colonels and Command Sergeants Major ordering me to take it down from my personal blog. The difference is that I refused because it wasn’t a legal order.
another vet
13 years ago
Apparently Delta has reversed its policy and issued an apology.
Yet another reason why I refuse to fly Delta and support anything with Ted Turner’s signature on it. I spent 2 years in Aghanistan as a civilian contractor, been around the world several times in a dozen countries and never been put through what Delta, the TSA and the employees at Hartsfield-Jackson leveled on me. I know they don’t know me or owe me, but I wasn’t asking for special favors….just treated like a human. They couldn’t pull it off. I encourage all Military and civilians to use a different carrier, even if it means a few extra dollars for the ticket. I’ll not only never fly Delta again but I have and will continue to go out of my way to avoid Atlanta completely.
Well when I come over to America I know not to use Delta Airlines….
To be fair, the government has soldiers personally hauling loads of gear with them when they travel. My last two trips to Iraq required me to take a considerable amount of gear (most I never used) to the mobilization station. I eventually recovered most of the costs 15 months later when I filed a travel voucher but not all. Most of my unit sorted out the gear we would not use and sent it home at our expense. Our families sent the unused gear back when we returned. It would have been much cheaper for the travel orders to have allowed the shipment of gear by ground.
Delta and especially Alaska Airlines do allow 3 bags if you are traveling on orders (must be 50 lbs or less). Try spending a year in a combat zone with less than 150 lbs of gear! I have never had any difficulties with them. This is really an issue that the US Government doesn’t want to address since 2001 with the start of combat in Afghanistan. Soldiers are uninformed as to their options when traveling. They do not know enough to question their travel orders. This is especially true of the young and inexperienced enlisted soldiers. I have been traveling for over 35 years and cope very well. With my military rank and now my civilian grade, I usually get orders modified to meet the mission. Orders should realistically provide options for soldiers to get their gear to their destination. Someone needs to look out for these young soldiers and that should be the 1st SGT and the Company Commander! It is not the responsibility of the airlines to accomodate our soldiers on official duty for the government. That is what they pay taxes for. Most airlines are very accommodating to soldiers though.
CJ I was just contacted with a request to go to Afghanistan to protect soldiers and contrators from formaldehyde! I guess I will not need an M-4 to do that!
“This video has been removed by the user”
@John Cooper: How much you wanna bet the Army is responsible for that? I bet his commander’s found out about the video threatened them. I say that from experience when I put up video of my local school official’s treatment of me and my family at a PTA meeting. I had Colonels and Command Sergeants Major ordering me to take it down from my personal blog. The difference is that I refused because it wasn’t a legal order.
Apparently Delta has reversed its policy and issued an apology.
@another vet: I sure hope they refunded those troops with CASH and not a stinking voucher, like they normally do!
All they really said is that they were ending the practice and that the military would reimburse them for the charges.
CJ: I think you’re right about the Army doing the censoring. I was in the Army once…