I'm in the middle of writing my trip report for my recent 5+ week England trip, but thought I would post this separately. Last year I booked a flight from MSP to London through Flying Blue, as I had some miles I wanted to use. The nonstop flight in March to LHR was on Delta. Coming back (a week ago), I had a KLM flight from LHR to AMS, then a Delta flight back to MSP.
Unfortunately, as I was flying into Schiphol this past Thursday on my way home, I received a text from Delta that my 12:10 pm flight had been cancelled and they could not fight a way to reroute me. It was odd, but I tried to keep from panicking. Once I disembarked and made down the jetway into the airport, I walked over to the KLM gate and told them my situation. A female KLM agent told me not to worry, picked up the phone and in 15 minutes, had rebooked me onto another Delta flight to MSP that was leaving at 5:20 pm. So everything was good and I made my way home, albeit 5 hours later than I had planned.
But the best part was the day after I got home, I received an email from Delta, apologizing for the cancellation (it turned out to be a mechanical error) and telling me that if I had any expenses due to the delay, to please send them. I had already gotten a voucher to use for food at the airport from KLM, and so I sent a response back to Delta, asking for reimbursement for my Comfort+ seat that I did not get to use.
One day later, I received a second email from Delta (from a real person), who told me Delta would be refunding the money for the lost seat to my AMEX account (that happened w/in 5 days). They were also transferring a payment of $643 to me for the delay due to the cancelled flight. I know EU rules mandate this but I was not aware that it would be done automatically and so quickly. The money was in my bank account by the next day. ETA: I also received an additional 16,000 Delta SkyMiles.
I do think I jinxed myself because I was talking to a friend before I left about how I had never had a fully canceled flight. :-)