Some of you know that I attended the Coeur d'Alene get-together at the end of September (we had a great time!). I booked my flight with Delta, as I usually do, but this time I booked the flight out of Duluth. I usually initiate the flight in MSP, as the timing works out better. I figured it was a quick 3-day trip, so what could go wrong.
Famous last words. The night before my flight, I was heading to bed when I got a text from Delta telling me that the first leg of the flight was going to be delayed by at least 2 hours because of mechanical difficulties. The problem was that if my first flight was delayed, I would miss my second flight in Minneapolis. They were offering me flights leaving on Saturday afternoon and another one on Sunday, but considering most of the events were taking place on Friday night and Saturday, those would have done me no good. I thought about driving down, but then I would have to drive back at the end of it, and I already had a flight scheduled coming back. So I finally decided to book the airport shuttle that goes there. I got that done first because I wanted to make sure that it was available and that they were still taking reservations that late. It was, and they were.
After that, I got on my Delta app and started messaging. The first answer was from a bot, who told me that if I missed the first leg, the remainder of my flight would be canceled. I asked to speak to a human and got someone right away. That person was very helpful after I explained what I wanted, and said they were going to cancel the leg, but leave the remainder of my flight intact. And after I was completely finished with the trip once I got home, I should contact Delta and ask for a refund for the unused portion.
So that's what I did. I managed to get on the shuttle, made my way to MSP, got on the flight with no problem, flew to Spokane, and had an absolutely wonderful time at the group meetup. Everything went smoothly on the way home as well.
I was trying to decide how to contact Delta about the refund, when I remembered I had a flight canceled from AMS to MSP back in 2024 and wound up getting EU compensation for that, as well as a refund for the Comfort Plus seat I wasn't able to use. I still had that email, because I keep stuff like that forever. You never know when you might need it, and in this case, it came in handy. I pulled up the email and sent a new email to that address explaining what had happened. I received a response fairly quickly, telling me that they were assigning me a case number and that they would get back with me within 21 days
That was about 10 days ago, and this morning I received a response from a real person at Delta, telling me that they were sorry that this had happened, that they understood my dilemma, and that they were awarding me $125 in an e-credit to use for a future trip (valid for 1 year). She then said that she could not handle my request for a refund for the unused portion of the trip but was forwarding my request to the refunds department, and that they would be in contact after assessing my request.
I will wait to hear from them, but considering there was a negligible difference in cost between booking it from MSP to Spokane and booking it from Duluth, I won't be crushed if I don't get any refund. But I thought it was very nice of them to respond so promptly and award me the e-credit. This is one reason why I continue to fly Delta.