Each February 1 (for endless years now), Delta Air Lines has given me, as a published benefit on Delta.com for reaching Gold Medallion or higher, a number of free drink coupons that can be used on Delta and Delta Connection flights.
But there has been an issue this year.
As we posted about here, many of our readers who are Medallions have not received their yearly published perk. A very limited number did get “Have One on Us” (or “HOOU”) coupons and they had an unlikely expiration date of 2025 rather than 2024 as expected.
The problem with this failure in Delta IT is that many loyal Delta Air Lines elites have paid for drinks onboard when they could have had them “free” as a published benefit (see why this matters)!
In fact, the wording on the Gold, Platinum, and Diamond pages on Delta.com all have similar wording that says:
“BAG TAGS & DRINK VOUCHERS
As a Gold Medallion Member, look forward to receiving bag tags to help show off your Status! Plus, you’ll find drink vouchers in the My Wallet section of the Fly Delta App upon earning Status.” – (bold mine)
Chris reached out to Delta Air Lines corporate folks about this issue several weeks ago. It is now almost halfway through 2023. Plenty of Medallions still don’t have their drink coupons. Follow-up messages have resulted in something like, “Haven’t heard anything about that and are still looking into it.”
Being a Diamond Medallion (at least for this year), I was disappointed not to get this published perk. Even with my limited Delta flying, I would have liked to have had a few HOOUs because rather than choosing Comfort+ seats, which are just like the rest of coach, I would rather pick an exit row seat with so much more legroom.
Like Chris, for example. He received his drink coupons and burned through a couple so he could review the canned espresso martini and bourbon cream (gee, what a guy). And he won’t stop talking about a specific row on a Delta 757 which happens to be in the Main Cabin.
After no response on this from Delta folks, I decided to use the Delta complaint link on Delta.com. After almost a month, I got a call from the airline. Here is what they, in summary, said:
The very nice rep opened with the fact they were responding to my inquiry about my missing (again, a published benefit) drink coupons and an apology I did not get them.
I then asked why, when every year for as long as I can remember, I did not get them this year.
I was told the reason “may” have been because I had so many expired ones in the past!
Wait. What? Really?
So, because I did not use them, I did not get the new ones as promised? Mmmkay. So, is this THE answer as to why Delta drink coupons are missing? Maybe. Was the rep guessing? Maybe. Was the rep disclosing something they weren’t supposed to? Maybe.
I then asked the question that really matters as I know a number of my friends who still are loyal Delta top elites who have paid out of pocket for drinks onboard this year – who should have had vouchers: what they should do?
I was told that Delta could not comment on individual circumstances but that they should, like me, reach out to Delta via the complaint link on Delta.com and they would “make it right.”
Well, that is saying something!
This also was really the right answer because, as mentioned over and over, compliance and published benefits matters and why if you either paid for drinks or did not get your HOOUs you should reach out to Delta and give them a chance to make this right.
Not just that, but you really should share this post with everyone you know who also is a Delta Medallion. They, too, should follow the advice Delta has given us! – René
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What about bag times and flight attendant compliment cards? I don’t think I’ve received them since the pandemic.
@FNT – We are trying to fix our #FristWorldProblems one at a time – so give us time! 😉
Weren’t the compliment cards officially discontinued a few years ago? Instead some e-mail address was put up where you could write Delta and praise a specific person (flight attendant, sky club agent, …). I’m not sure if I remember that correctly or I am mixing things up and talking nonsense. If so, sorry about that.
@Ralfinho – I got my JWD certs as well as my DM tags this year.
My +1 and I are typical Silver flyers but thanks to Rollover MQMs we once managed to reach Gold status and were provided the drink coupons. Yay! But it was difficult to use them and most of them expired. Either we were upgraded or we were forgotten when it came to paying for our drinks. One flight the seats were labelled wrongly (there was still something that said “Economy Comfort”, though it was regular Main Cabin, not Comfort+) so we accidentally got our drinks for free.
Then there was a flight where the passengers sitting in front of us paid for their drinks and those sitting in the row behind us paid. But we were left out …
Anyway, this year we are even Platinums, woohoo! This came due to the pandemic and Delta’s actions. Like rolling over all MQMs, not just those over some threshold. Or the bonus MQMs (50% for Main Cabin and 75% for Comfort+ and up), which we could take advantage of right after the US reopened to Europeans. We belong to those who received coupons valid till Jan 31, 2025. I’m happy about that because this year … well, we don’t say no to Comfort+ (personally, we don’t like the exit row seats … it’s just a personal preference). So not really a chance to use them this year. But next year we will be Silver again. A good chance we will be “stuck” in Main Cabin 😉
I requalified for PM last month and the other day I received the bag tags and Employee thank you cards. I have never received thank you cards in all of my previous bag tag mailings, in the past they were a separate mailing. In regards to the Delta customer service claiming that they didn’t send Drink Vouchers because they were not used and expired is false. I received my vouchers this year and I don’t think I have ever used more than two because I am usually up front. I had a bunch expire on 01/31/23 and still have eight in my wallet.
PM/DM for the past 10+ years. I’ve always had 8-16 HOOU drink coupons in my wallet at any one time. I’ve never used even one during this time as I don’t drink and they always just expire. Makes sense that I don’t currently have them anymore as a DM. From DL’s perspective it is a waste to give them to me.
I re-qualified as Diamond on December 30, 2022 and in mid January received 8 HOOU vouchers with 1/31/25 expiration dates.
I also received Diamond tags, but it took a couple months.
I’m in main cabin for 2 fights this week and No coupons…
I called 3 times after I read your initial post. The first Diamond rep told me to go to Delta.com. The 2nd rep told me the drink vouchers are “arbitrary” and Delta decides who gets them on a random basis (seriously!) The third rep knew what she was talking about and told me she would “elevate” my claim. Still have not received my bag tags and no one has responded to my Delta.Com complaint. I guess they are all too busy with their “team building” exercises to care about their high value customers who are paying for them to have their fun.
@Stevie G – That is par for course of bad phone reps. You need to use the link to Delta.com in post to start a complaint like I did to get your vouchers!
So did you get your drink vouchers? If you did, do you think you would have still gotten the vouchers if you had not picked up the call?
@Dave – Yes. I think they were there before they called. The call was just a courtesy.