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Now here is something mind numbing.....

Delta Airlines Makes Worst ... PR Move ... Ever



Most everyone in Ameirca hates airlines and their increasingly strident and wallet-milking rules. Most everyone in America supports -- or at least purports to support -- our troops. Into this yawning dichotomy flew Delta Airlines(DAL_) this week, when several U.S. soldiers returning from active duty in Afghanistan shamed the airline by taking to YouTube to complain about being charged $2,800 to check bags onto a flight.

According Staff Sgts. Robert O'Hair and Fred Hilliker, who filmed the video while aboard a Delta flight, soldiers traveling with a fourth bag were required by the airline to pay a $200 baggage fee, despite what the soldiers said was an agreement between the government and Delta to allow military personnel to check four bags. What's more, the soldiers said their military orders authorized them to carry the gear.

In the video, O'Hair says that the fourth bag he was charged for contained the weapon that he used to "protect myself and Afghan citizens while I was deployed in the country."

After a few days of being bludgeoned in the court of public opinion, Delta came to its senses, and altered its rules, allowing soldiers on active duty to check up to four bags free of charge when flying coach and up to five bags free of charge when flying in first and business class. The change also applies to dependents traveling with active military on orders. (Previously, Delta's policy allotted three free checked bags in coach and four in first and business class for military members traveling on orders.)
American Airlines, U.S. Airways and the recently merged United and Continental all have similar baggage policies to Delta in regards to military personnel.

In the wake of the embarrassment, Delta summoned its sincerest corporate mea culpa. "We would like to publicly apologize to those service men and women for any miscommunication regarding our current policies as well as any inconvenience we may have caused," a spokesperson from Delta wrote on the company's blog after the video was posted. "We are currently looking further into the situation, and will be reaching out to each of them personally to address their concerns and work to correct any issues they have faced."

The apology did little to quell public outrage as U.S. residents posted comments of support on the video's YouTube page. "These men risk their lives to protect out country and they get treated like this?" one viewer wrote. "Delta should be ashamed."

What about the money, you ask? Unsurprisingly, that's a little unclear. For its part, Delta didn't say whether it would reimburse the soldiers. But Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Association, did tell MainStreet that the U.S. government would most likely compensate the men -- so long as the offending parcels were indeed authorized by the soldiers' written orders.

"A $200 bill for extra baggage by a government-contracted airline is the worst welcome home any soldier could receive," Davis said. "We know this is a business issue and that the troops will be reimbursed if they are authorized additional baggage in their orders, but the shock of even being charged is enough to make most servicemen and women simply shake their heads and wonder who or what it is they are protecting."

TheStreet Says: The airline industry is innovative in at least one respect: figuring out fresh and creative ways to bring itself to new public-relations lows.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11148631/1/the-5-dumbest-things-on-wall-street-june-10.html