Online-Only Tickets To Save $3 Million Annually

If you want to buy a paper ticket from Delta Air Lines, in person you may have to fly to New York -- on another airline -- to do it.

Delta plans to close its 16 free-standing ticketing outlets worldwide, with the exception of the Manhattan office on East 45th Street, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Atlanta-based airline's decision includes offices in Atlanta, one in Cincinnati and 10 in Europe and Latin America. The ticket offices will close their doors on December 15, according to company officials.

Booking online tickets -- a move most airlines have promoted to cut agent fees -- is the reason, according to Delta officials.

As more customers booked online, Delta began closing ticket offices to cut costs, spokeswoman Chris Kelly said. "It's just not the way people buy their tickets anymore," Kelly said.

The move should save Delta about $3 million annually, according to Kelly. The closures affect about 60 employees who generally will be offered other positions, she said.

The airline is keeping the Manhattan office to maintain "brand presence" in that city, Kelly said.

But, a retired personal shopper who has used Atlanta's Perimeter Mall Delta ticket office three or four times a year, isn't happy about the change.

"I'm mad ... about it," Kay Holt, 62, said. "I prefer to go in and hand my credit card to a person. I don't think that's unreasonable."

FMI: www.delta.com