ATTN!! Delta continually separates gay couple

[bobbieinok]

Last edited Tue Jun 27, 2017, 11:07 AM - Edit history (2)

This was reported today at bilgrimage.blogspot.com.
William Lindsey and his partner of over 40 years
booked seats together on Delta out of Little Rock.
When they got their tickets before boarding, they
found Delta had separated them. This pattern was
repeated on their connecting flight and on their return.
Each time they booked seats side by side, but each
time they learned Delta had changed their seats
separating them. Delta has given them the run-around
each of the several times they tried by mail and phone
to get an explanation.
Lindsey also reported some funny busness with his
laptop in the airport while he was posting this info on
social media.

[Skittles]

1. makes little sense

how would Delta know they were gay men and not two brothers or two coworkers?

[bobbieinok]

2. Have no idea BUT

Lindsey is an active blogger about LGBT rights, and his
family has lived in Arkansas for generations. He and his
husband got married when that became legal in Arkansas.
Their wedding was celebrated in social media and got some
attention locally.
He recently was a featured speaker at a pubic protest in
support of a judge whom some are trying to recall because
of the judge's opposition to the record numbers of recent
executions in Arkansas.
He is a well-known gay activist and thus would be known to
local airline employees who might want to 'act on their
conscience.'

[Skittles]

3. have they asked for explanations?

[bobbieinok]

6. Yes. Several times. By mail and phone.

In his post, Ĺindsey discusses in some detail his
and his husband's attempts to get an explanation.
According to Lindsey, at least one phone spokesperson
was quite rude.

[snooper2]

44. FYI- Delta doesn't care one way or another what his orientation is

Trust me LOL

[bobbieinok]

4. Also...

WHY would Delta separate two brothers or two coworkers?!?

[Skittles]

10. why would they separate two gay people?

why do they keep flying Delta if they think there is some kind of homophobic conspiracy going on?

[bobbieinok]

11. Some thoughts

--This was first trip this has happened to them.
--Arkansas/Little Rock right in Bible Belt.
--Lindsey states Delta dominates flights into and
out of Little Rock

[Skittles]

12. first? you said "continually"

[LesterKasai]

13. First time it happened to them on Delta, but the first trip included multiple flights...

...so in each of those multiple flights, Delta continually separated them.

[bobbieinok]

14. This is accurate

This happened each time they changed planes on
this round-trip journey.

[mnhtnbb]

16. It's about their only option out of Little Rock.

[Initech]

5. Link or fake news.

[bobbieinok]

7. Tablet new to me

Don't know how to do link. The blog is--bilgrimage.blogspot.com

[WillowTree]

8. Not buying it.

[bobbieinok]

9. Up to you

Ìf you truly think he has made this up.why don't
you challenge Lindsey directly??
He has been fighting the homophobia of
Catholic intellectuals and theologians for some
time.
I'm sure he'd welcome the chance to talk with
someone looking for truth.

[Dave Starsky]

25. Me, neither.

This happened to my wife and me the last time we flew. We were separated on all the legs of our trip. Probably depends on when you buy your tickets and how you get them.

NBD. Shit happens when you travel.

[bobbieinok]

30. If you don't believe this happened

Read Lindsey's own report and challenge him!! Link kindly provided
in comment #15.

[stevenleser]

40. That isnt the way proof works. It's your burden and his to prove the account. nt

[bobbieinok]

47. If you want proof

You will have to read his report and then ask him about it. Isn't that
how communication works? After reading, tell him what further info you
need from him before you have enough proof.

All I can do personally is try to relate as accurately as possible what I
have read.

[mnhtnbb]

15. Here's the link.

http://bilgrimage.blogspot.com/2017/06/flying-not-so-friendly-skies-report-on.html


Quite an interesting blog from a theologian who has been with his-- now husband--for 46 years. Link to his profile below.

https://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965

Thanks for posting the story.

[Cha]

17. Mahalo, mnhtnbb

[HipChick]

18. Not buying it...They do know that they can change their own seats right?

as long as there is availability?

[bobbieinok]

24. They tried to

Attendants didn't allow them to. Lindsey describes
several of their attempts in detail.
Read Lindsey's own report!! (Link kindly provided by a
commenter in this discussion.)

[cwydro]

19. Oh ffs.

I've flown Delta with various partners over the years.

This never happened. What utter nonsense.

And what "funny business" with his laptop? Is that you Wally Cleaver? Who even says that anymore?

[uriel1972]

20. :( I say "funny business" now and then...

What I don't understand is the funny bits (accents?) on the letters of Delta... I wouldn't even know how to put them there if I tried.

[bobbieinok]

22. My goodness.

I'm learning to use the tablet. The least bit of pressure
adds strange accents, I assume from a different language.
Ì don't always catch them before posting.

[MineralMan]

34. I'll bet you can turn that feature off.

Try your Settings menu.

[bobbieinok]

35. Thanks. I'll try

My son--living 500 miles away--says i should play
with it to get comfortable with it. BUT I always feel
like I'll break something if I do.

[MineralMan]

36. What tablet do you have? Brand and model.

You can look up how to shut off foreign language characters for your specific tablet on Google. Just include the brand and model, in a search for shut off accented characters on {brand} {model} tablet. That will get you step by step instructions.

[mercuryblues]

53. By play with it

he doesn't mean playing baseball.



I can only remember once when my seat got changed after booking. I don't remember the carrier's name. I was upset because that made extra hassles for me. I was traveling with my 10 year old son and they separated us. Even though the tickets were booked together and his age was on his ticket, saying he was with an adult. It took them 20 minutes to fix it.

So yes, after booking tickets with a seat assignment for some reason airlines do change them.

[Skittles]

51. lools like your laptop is the one involved in "funny business"

[bobbieinok]

23. Someone tried something with his computer

I didn't understand what he was describing. Again, if you
have a problem with the content of this post, read Lindsey's
own report of the events. A commenter has kindly posted
the link.

[mnhtnbb]

21. The airline industry has ways of monitoring tickets sold

and I'm sure they can put flags on the names of certain people.

It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest for some Kim Davis type activist in Delta's employ to think it fun
to separate gay activists when they fly together.

At least they didn't have their tickets canceled.

I once used a ticket broker to book us an upgrade on United (using someone else's miles) and somehow United
found out about it and canceled our tickets. The ticket broker discovered it on a routine 48 hour before flight check.
We had not been notified our tickets were canceled. We could have ended up at the airport and prevented from
boarding the flight. The ticket broker booked us on alternate flights using a partner airline to book the seats and apparently
United didn't catch it. Instead, we only had the usual delays/missed connections/rebookings to deal with on the day
of the trip.

It's not a stretch to believe that Delta could have employees who know how to monitor ticket purchases and think
they are doing "God's work" to deny equal rights to gays. Not a stretch at all.

[WinkyDink]

26. Why does your "Delta" have funny symbols over two letters?

[bobbieinok]

27. See my comment #22 (nt)

[WinkyDink]

28. But one can edit.

[bobbieinok]

31. Sure, if one catches it in time.( NT)

[Iggo]

46. You can edit any time you want.

No time limit.

[bobbieinok]

48. Didn't realize that

Thank you. Assumed there was a time limit. Will be
more noticing next time.

[bobbieinok]

50. Just edited title

THANK YOU

[Agschmid]

29. Fake.

[bobbieinok]

32. Challenge Lindsey at link in comment #15!!

[Lee-Lee]

52. You seem really eager to drive traffic to that blog

Every other post you make here is trying to push people to go post over there.

[MineralMan]

33. Sounds like bloggery to me.

Not every story on every blog is actually true, you know. I can't imagine that Delta (no diacritical marks) cares one whit about two people sitting next to each other. That's my first clue that this story is inaccurate. Next, Delta doesn't care whether LGBTQ people sit next to each other, either. Why would they?

Frankly, Delta doesn't care all that much about its passengers, generally.

Bogus story, I believe.

[bobbieinok]

38. Challenge Lindsey directly!!

Link in earlier comment.
Remember possible local Arkansas employees!!

[JCMach1]

37. Happened to my family of 4 all the time

Sometimes on international flights. It happens.

[stevenleser]

39. Has happened to my wife and I a few times.

Is it possible that this is homophobia at play, assuming the accounts are accurate? Sure. I have a feeling though that if this was happening with LGBT couples with any regularity, we wouldn't be hearing just one account on a blog. And if this happens to be the first time someone raised it and it HAS been happening a lot, we will here other folks say "me too".

[bobbieinok]

42. Remember they're in Little Rock

AND Lindsey's recent very public support of the judge.

It probably doesn't help that the judge is Black and
supports gay rights. A minister, he officiated at
the wedding of Lindsey and his partner.

Remember Kim Davis and her 'crisis of conscience??'
And the loud support for her from Huckabee, the former
governor of Arkansas??

[brooklynite]

41. Can I ruin your conspiracy theory for you?

First, I actually read the story, rather than just reacting to the group outrage. Did you notice the part about someone getting an upgrade? Well, that means the author is a Medallion frequent flyer. Let me therefore explain something. Delta has three classes of service: coach, economy comfort and first. Premium frequent flyers are eligible for upgrades from Coach to either EC or First. EC are obviously more likely. However, seating in EC is the same as coach: 3 and 3, and if seats are available for upgrade, they're not usually together. The computer assigns them automatically when upgrades are issued, and there's nothing the gates agent can do at that point because all the other seats have been been filled at the same time, and the seats you were in have been automatically filled with standby customers, so you can't switch back. This has been a known problem with Delta's computers for a year or so.

The alternative theory seems to be that someone at Delta who could manipulate seat reservations managed to come across the author's name amongst tens of thousands of daily passenger reservations AND knew who he was AND decided to change seating just to be annoying. Which is more likely.

[bobbieinok]

43. If I understand you correctly

And recall the report correctly, their first attempts
had nothing to do with an upgrade. And after the
upgrade of only one seat, there were several upgrade
seats open.

Thank you very much for actually reading Lindsey's
report.

[left-of-center2012]

45. I googled "William Lindsey and delta airlines" and found nothing

Just saying.
.................................

In the 70's my significant other of the time and I booked a room at the Sheraton in Boston.
I reserved a room with a king sized bed.

When we arrived I guess they didn't like that it was two guys,
and the bellhop took us to a room with two twin beds.

I raised hell and we were moved to a room with a king sized bed.

('course that was 40 years ago)

[bobbieinok]

49. Don't know how things end on google

Sorry

[brooklynite]

54. Delta commemorates Pride Week

Link to tweet