Delta Nightmare

So sorry this happened, but if you travel enough - it will happen to us all. We've had terrible things happen on American Airlines & United. We've always had great experiences with Delta and they are our 1st choice, followed by AA (we are hesitant with them because of past issues).

We do always get Trip Insurance on our own which helps tremendously with unplanned hotels, lost luggage, delayed flights, etc

Thanks for your reply.

You can also file a complaint with the Dept. of Transportation...

https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/file-consumer-complaint

I see you went to the airport 1 1/2 hours early for a flight and also had luggage. Typically the airlines say to arrive a minimum of two hours early for a domestic flight & three hours for an international. Even at our little Spokane airport, I arrive two hours early with a carry on and just enjoy some coffee while waiting to try to mitigate any issues I can avoid.

Whichever airline & car rental you decide to use in the future, download apps ahead of time to avoid the long lines.

Was this the Crowdstrike issue? If so, the impact to passengers is well known to the media and the government. I believe Crowdstrike was brought before congress and DOT is investigating the issue. There were around 7,000 flights canceled by Delta.

I have been mad at BA for several years now. They lost my luggage and changed my European itinerary due to one of their infamous IT meltdowns. No compensation or apology. I have moved on after receiving compensation from my travel insurance. Not excusing their behavior, but they all tend to act this way.

I have also had several fight cancellations in the past few years with AA and Delta. They usually try to offer an alternative flight, but I try to be one step ahead of their automated reticketing. I always have an alternative flight in mind and call the airline. The key is to refresh your app frequently the closer the departure gets.

I try to be proactive these days and do not rely on the airline to make a new itinerary for me. They usually don't pick the best schedule. If you fly frequently, you are almost guaranteed some type of travel chaos these days.

My only surprise about any of this is that Delta still flies to little Monroe, LA.

Thank you Eric. I’ll pursue! As to get there earlier… that was far from the problem. It wouldn’t have mattered. We checked in 90 minutes early. There were zero alternate flights. To all, I’m grateful for the replies.

Delta still flies to Monroe , Louisiana because Monroe Louisiana is the birthplace of Delta Airlines.

And you’re never going to fly Delta again. I have a feeling you told them that and. have removed all of your bargaining power. Why do they want to make you happy? You’re never flying them again. You’ve made your statement. They’re moving onto customers they can keep.

Of course, if I was never going to fly an airline again that stranded me someplace and caused me problems I would never get to travel. I think the only airline I’ve flown that I haven’t had a major issue on was Singapore I’ve been stranded for days with American, united, Southwest, British airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Delta (and several more that are no longer flying) .

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/delta-days-restore-normal-service-after-crowdstrike-outage/story?id=112299966

Pretty good explanation of the situation, Delta was the victim, not the perpetrator of the problem.

The frustration with your trip being disrupted is understandable, but raging at Delta may not be the correct target.

Maybe the original poster lives in Monroe. I have flown to Monroe for work. I will say that if you’re going to go to Monroe Louisiana, you have two options you can go to Atlanta and go to Monroe or you can go to Dallas and go to Monroe. you cannot go on a plane from Monroe to any place else. Since the original poster probably lives in Monroe. They will only be flying American to Dallas. I expect they’re not going to be much happier with American at some point.

I'm still trying to figure out what happened to you. Very confusing.

We live in a medium size market, and our airport is mostly serviced by medium size commuter jets--except for Delta's short flights into Atlanta on full size airplanes.

We missed a connection in Dulles last year because American couldn't get our long haul plane in Frankfurt loaded promptly. And American's flights into our home city were packed full for 2 days--no seat availability in smaller jets. We ended up having to fly to Atlanta, rent a van and drive 200 miles home. Thankfully we had flight insurance that picked up the expense.

I will only use Delta in the future into Atlanta because their full size jets are not flying at 100% occupancy. They're most likely going to have seat availability if there are any scheduling problems

On international flights, American is not knee high to Delta's level of service anyway. We only fly internationally in retirement.

I'd dream of driving 498 miles on $56.10 of gas. It costs me more than that for the 60 mile drive to Heathrow airport.

Hi, Debbie. Sorry to hear about your experience and certainly understand your frustration. The Crowd Strike issue was a big deal for businesses of all types. I went to my local Honda dealership that day to try to get a new key for my car, and they told me they could do nothing on the parts/inventory side of the dealership because systems were down. Obviously, your issue was much bigger than my key issue, and Delta was impacted far worse than any other airline by the Crowd Strike issue, which Crowd Strike asserts was due to Delta's antiquated computer systems and rejection of Crowd Strike's offer of assistance in getting systems back up. I would disagree with the Delta as victim comment above, though Delta has pushed that narrative.

The recommendation for a Dept of Transportation complaint is a good one. Airlines tend to notice those and are required by law to respond.

Casting dispersion on Delta on whatever social media sites you can find is not so helpful. I don't think you're going to influence anyone not to use Delta. Delta remains my airline of choice... headed to Cancun on one of their planes on Saturday to see Mayan ruins, to Atlanta the following weekend for a travel group meeting, and to Grand Rapids the weekend after that to visit the Gerald Ford Presidential Library & Museum.

Debbie, Do you realize what a good job you did solving this problem. Thousands were stranded but you managed to get a seat to Atlanta. You managed to rent the last car. You drove 9 hours in bad weather. You managed to get some clothes. You made the goal! Bravo.

You are getting feedback from a lot of very experienced travelers who have gone through many, many travel situations. My first was in 1981 getting stuck in London for five days with a young baby and no money during the air controllers strike. The US Embassy stepped in due to the baby. Once, I had to wear my daughter-in-law's clothes for a trip when my suitcases were a week late. The most recent fiasco was last year, a cancelled flight home, similar to yours. You had a particularly difficult, multi-faceted problem to solve and you did a good job.

So now the problem seems to be Delta's lack of communication. Others here have given you an idea of how to proceed, to get their attention, hopefully with better response this time. Good luck. You have a thread of very experienced travelers giving you feedback.

This is the best response I received -- about bravo. It doesn't pay the bills but does give me a chance to feel that I did "take control" of the situation. I used to travel by myself with four tots. Horrible. So bravo to you, too. What I'm finding both with this post and the ones I did on trip advisor and the Delta website, is that I'm getting flooded with phony customer service people. I responded to the first one -- and I'm afraid I'm setting myself up for a scam. AARGH there is no winning. But bravo to us all anyway. Re Dept. of transportation -- they are going along with whatever Delta decides. So no help there. To all legitimate people, thanks for responding.

I haven't seen any post on here that looks like advice from phony customer services and all the posts that I have seen are from legitimate posters who frequent this forum regularly. This place is a far cry from TripAdvisor.

You won’t get the phoney and scammers here, but careful on TA. For Delta, try text messaging instead of an open website anyone can access.

I'd dream of driving 498 miles on $56.10 of gas. It costs me more than that for the 60 mile drive to Heathrow airport.

JC, what are you driving? A semi truck? ( i.e., a lorry?)

The $56 for gas represents about 20 gallons and a car would need only average 25 mpg to cover the distance which is mostly cruising on an Interstate freeway.

Re Dept. of transportation -- they are going along with whatever Delta
decides. So no help there.

So, you didn't contact them?

One small note, Delta is not alone in antiquated computer systems. There’s not an airline out there that has a decent computer system.

Unfortunately, the cost of rebuilding your system
is substantial, but that’s what most of them need to do. Some may remember the southwest debacle a few years ago when there was a storm and they couldn’t figure out where the crews and the planes were

investing in IT has not been high on airline executives to do list. If you follow British Airways their system makes Delta look state of the art and Delta makes southwest look pretty good.

I have a friend who is an IT executive for American, l
he says they got out of crowd strike pretty easy but they have other things he says could completely bring them to their knees. He won’t tell me what just in case I turned out to be a secret hacker LOL

As for the DoT just going along with Delta, they have not been doing that and have been penalizing airlines

And if the original poster has been on TripAdvisor and has contacted one of those numbers they found there than yes, they have been scammed. But you can’t blame the airline you can blame TripAdvisor. The numbers on the airline website are the only ones you should ever use. Do not use random numbers you find even on here. Don’t respond to unsolicited emails or messages even on here that have people telling you they can help you. Yes, they can help you by helping themselves to your money.

And Debbie, everyone who responded on here responded legitimately. Just because you may not have liked the response does not mean it was not legitimate.

The price of gas in the UK is around £1.30 a litre, which is just about £6 per UK gallon, or about £5 per US gallon.
That is about $7 and 6 US dollars respectively, so well over US prices.
Just as in the UK the price varies quite a lot deep depending where you live. According to Gas Buddy regular is $4.09 in Edmonds (which isn't $56 for 20 gallons) but only $3.29 in Cle Elum. Given the Facebook complaints in CE about gas prices the latter surprises me. But thats what it is showing for Warrior quick stop and Safeway.
In the UK places like that, just off the freeway, would be higher prices than normal.

I've been unable to reach the Dept of Transportation except for a site that basically says they agree with the airlines.

https://www.transportation.gov/

https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/file-consumer-complaint

Not sure what you are looking for but it’s very easy and since it’s the official site it’s much more reliable and does not say anything like you are reporting

How do I send a text message to Delta?

On their Facebook page, you can send a representative a private message using Messenger.

To text delta... Go here

https://www.delta.com/us/en/need-help/overview#messageUs Click on the Message us link

Since the OP appears to have been on some unofficial pages make sure you are on the OFFICAL Facebook page before you do anything.

chatting with DELTA is VERY easy on the Delta App - I do it often - they are very receptive

On a side note, the original post describes the Atlanta airport being a complete zoo. That often happens when there are widespread flight cancellations due to weather or other issues. If you get stuck and need a hotel room and the nearby hotels are already full, look for something in the Midtown, Buckhead or Dunwoody/Sandy Springs areas. You can easily ride the MARTA train from the airport and then walk or take a short taxi ride to hotels there. You could even take a taxi or Uber from the North Springs station to Alpharetta or from the Doraville station to Duluth or Suwanee if need be. With the sheer quantity of hotels in metro Atlanta there no need to spend days on the airport floor!

True, but rooms are expensive, and with sales and hotel tax, even more so. It's not a negligible cost (as someone who stays in Atlanta at least 3-4 times a year).

Well it might have been cheaper for the OP than the many expenses they list out as "estimate" But I expect that we have seen the last of this poster. They were only here to complain not participate.

For me this story reiterates that you never depend on the airline to solve your travel problems, even if it is their fault. They are an airline, not a travel agency. I have flown over 3 million miles and if something goes wrong I always take it upon myself to find a new way to get to my destination. I don't know if I could have managed around a total systemwide outage and failure like Delta's, but I definately would not have waited on Delta to solve the problem for me.

Yes, this one was unique because it originally not only affected Delta, it affected just about every other carrier. Delta did have the hardest time getting back to normal but that morning when it occurred everyone was off.

But this is why a lot of us say have the app on your phone for the airlines you’re flying so you can look at those options and sometimes rebook. have the phone number written down or in your phone so you can call. standing in that line was the worst decision. I was actually at the airport that morning trying to get home from Los Angeles and I did call and talk to Delta. I did know what my options were if my plane did not take off. There was no way I would have even bothered with the mile long lines at LAX My plane did eventually take off but instead of getting home at 11 AM I got home closer to midnight.