Delta Computer Issues: Is Hawaii NOT in the United States? Back to Paper Tickets? How Did My Wife End Up with My Birthday?

You’d think an airline that boasts about premium experiences would have a premium information technology infrastructure.

Alas, no.

This shouldn’t surprise most of us regular Delta Air Lines customers. Yet we keep coming back for more.

And the last day has really been something dealing with Delta IT.

Trigger Warning: this post deals with First World topics such as airline elite status, premium seating, the privilege to fly on airplanes, and being able to use computers and mobile devices. If you’re here to comment that there are more pressing problems in the world, please know that we agree. Perhaps you’re better off enjoying a blog about social justice issues or curing diseases.

Aloha to a Bunch of Delta Issues

My wife and I are meeting several friends in Boston (BOS) to take the inaugural Delta flight from BOS to Honolulu (HNL). We must be masochists. But we’re Delta fans and think this will be a fun trip.

But it’s not off to a great start.

Whose Birthday is Whose?

When I checked us in for our Los Angeles (LAX) to Boston flight, my boarding pass displayed Sky Priority status, my TSA PreCheck privilege (which I have through Global Entry), and the ability to use Digital ID.

My wife’s boarding pass should’ve shown the same credentials. But Sky Priority was the only badge that popped up.

So, I called Delta.

It turns out that my birthdate was somehow associated with her TSA PreCheck member number for just that reservation. I guess that’s the good news: the bug was limited to just that trip and not the several others we booked.

But this apparently isn’t an uncommon issue. The Delta phone rep said words to the effect of I see this all the time.

Lovely.

More than 20 minutes later (yes, it took that long), she finally resolved the problem. She had to call Delta Global Assist to remedy the issue. She unchecked us in and then had us check back in. Everything on my wife’s boarding pass was correct.

The rep was very professional, kind, and helpful. So, I verbally gave her a Job Well Done certificate’s redemption code. After all, some of them expire at the end of 2024, so this worked out great! She seemed genuinely excited — and that made my day, too!

The Great Check-In Debacle

We originally booked Main Cabin tickets for our BOS to HNL flight. My Platinum Medallion status got us confirmed upgrades to Comfort+ right after booking. The flight was scheduled on a plane with Premium Select seats marketed as Comfort+. Score!

But then Delta pulled a little switcheroo and decided to sell Premium Select service. We got sent back to actual Comfort+ seats. I blogged about this and was raked over the coals here and on social media. (Again, this wasn’t a schedule change — Delta decided to start selling the Premium Select cabin seats as Premium Select after the flight was already on sale. And I was playing by Delta’s rules.)

Anyway, my wife and I applied Regional Upgrade Certificates. We got lucky and scored confirmed upgrades to Premium Select!

Plus, this would put us on the upgrade list for Delta One.

Per Delta:

• All Upgrade Certificates can be redeemed for a one-cabin upgrade above your purchased cabin of service.
  • Each one-way ticket is limited to one Upgrade Certificate per passenger. If you clear into Delta Premium Select, there’s no need to apply an additional Upgrade Certificate; You’ll automatically be added to the waitlist for Delta One and be eligible to clear starting 24 hours prior to departure, pending upgrade availability.

Well, we thought. After all, I called Delta a couple of times and confirmed with reps that we’d be on the upgrade list for Delta One and that everything was in order.

There were 11 seats open in Delta One the day before our flight to Hawaii.

I checked us in at the T-minus 24-hour mark. (At this point, we were in the air en route to BOS.) Just seven seats remained in Delta One. One of my friends who used a Regional Upgrade Certificate was on the Delta One upgrade list.

But we weren’t.

Again, this wasn’t our first rodeo with Delta’s spotty IT. So, I logged out of the Fly Delta app and logged back in. (Yes, using Delta’s free and sometimes fast WiFi.) We still weren’t on the upgrade list.

Hmmm.

I logged on to my SkyMiles account on Delta.com. The only option was to spend about $1040 per passenger to buy up to Delta One.

So, I used Delta’s chat service to solve the issue.

“I have successfully added (you) to the priority waitlist to Delta One,” the rep said.

Great! I checked the upgrade list again. We still weren’t listed.

I logged out and logged back in. Still nothing. I told him I saw one of my friends at the top of the list. That was the only person showing.

“Is it okay if I will uncheck your status and you will need to check back in if the list will be updated?” he asked.

That’s when Delta’s computers really started smoking.

“Oops! We’re Sorry… You don’t have an electronic ticket. Please check in with an agent.”

No electronic ticket? So, did we suddenly have paper tickets? Did we even have a reservation?

The rep told me to try checking in on Delta.com.

My “local reservation office”? Like the old Northwest Airlines ticketing office on Main Street Midwest USA where my parents and grandparents bought tickets in the 1980s and 1990s? (That would make sense, seeing as we suddenly didn’t have electronic tickets anymore?)

The rep tried multiple times to fix the issue but had no luck. He assured me we were on the Delta One waitlist but couldn’t see our position — his list was arranged alphabetically, not by priority.

That was the best we could do until we found someone else to deal with the issue. But we still couldn’t check in.

We went to the A satellite Sky Club when we landed in Boston. A rep checked us in for our flight! But, of course, we weren’t on the Delta One upgrade list. “You’re using Regional Upgrade Certificates?” she asked while looking at the computer. She told me to call Delta.

So, I did. Again.

The rep explained that the Regionals weren’t properly loading and coded as Global Upgrade Certificates. I asked if this was a manual error or Delta IT.

You guessed it.

She got the problem figured out and now we’re on the Delta One upgrade list. (She, too, got a Job Well Done certificate for kicking butt.)

Passport, Please!

I’m in a chat group with my friends who are also taking the Honolulu trip. One of them (just one of the 3 Million Milers/lifetime Diamond Medallions on the flight) dropped a gem.

She tried checking in at her home airport. Now, her home airport isn’t Boston — but this still shouldn’t have been a problem.

The Delta reservation system required that her passport be verified so she could check in.

My friend is a United States citizen. (She has a United States passport.) This particular reservation does not involve any international destinations. She is traveling to Hawaii.

Hawaii is a state in the United States Union. Yes, it was a late addition (the country’s 50th and last state, thus far). Hawaii is a couple thousand miles away from the U.S. mainland. Bit it’s still a state. American citizens don’t require passports to enter Hawaii when traveling from, you know, another state. I’ve been there several times and never had an issue.

I find this amusingly timely because a TikTokker declared he was leaving the United States and moving to Hawaii (yes) after the recent election. Perhaps the Delta computer system is having a rough time post-election.

She then went to a gate agent before boarding her flight to Boston. After “a lot of typing,” he finally got her checked in. And her name popped up on the upgrade list!

Final Approach

Instead of getting all excited about serving Shake Shack burgers in special markets and hinting that they’ll tinker with premium class options, Delta should spend some time and money shoring up its infamous IT.

After all, they made global headlines with how they handled (or didn’t) a little oopsie this past summer.

Just make sure you always travel with your passport. You never know when you’ll need it to visit one of the other 49 states.