They are scenes straight out of a travel nightmare: Airline passengers, including unaccompanied minors, stranded for days in strange cities amid a cascading wave of flight cancellations—with little hope of catching a plane home in a hurry.
23.07.2024 - 23:50 / skift.com / Delta Skymiles / Ed Bastian / Delta Air Lines / Delta Ceo / Jackson Hole / Meghna Maharishi
Delta is facing increasing pressure from its customers and Washington as a meltdown caused by an IT outage on Friday continues.
In particular, Delta’s customer service practices have come to the forefront. Passengers have complained on social media that the airline hasn’t offered them refunds, reimbursement for hotel accommodations or meal vouchers. Some passengers have reported waiting for hours to get on the phone with a customer service agent and others have been rebooking their flights with a different carrier.
One traveler told Skift he was unable to talk to a customer service agent after being put on hold for three hours.
Tuesday looked a little better for Delta, with 467 cancellations and 1,067 delays as of 3:25 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware. On Monday, Delta canceled 1,160 flights and delayed 1,809. Since Friday, Delta has canceled over 5,000 flights.
Other airlines have recovered far more quickly than Delta after an issue with a CrowdStrike software update Friday caused systems that rely on Microsoft Windows to crash.
Delta has long prided itself on its operational reliability and on-time performance, but so far, hasn’t given a timeline for when it expects operations to stabilize.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian told customers in a letter on Sunday that the airline would provide Delta SkyMiles and travel vouchers as a “gesture of apology.” However, some customers said they never received any vouchers.
Brian Sifford, a resident of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, said his flight back home has been canceled for two days. He said a customer service agent at Nashville International Airport initially told him that they weren’t giving any hotel vouchers. He was ultimately able to receive a hotel accommodation after speaking with the agent for 20 minutes. Delta also gave him a $36 food voucher, which he said didn’t cover meals for two days.
The Department of Transportation requires airlines to cover hotel accommodations if a flight is delayed or canceled overnight.
“Usually you book Delta knowing that they’ll get you there on time or 30 minutes late,” Sifford said.
Sifford said he hadn’t received any communication from Delta about providing SkyMiles for the disruptions. Some reported on X receiving an email from Delta that they would receive as many as 12,500 SkyMiles — worth about $140 — in the next five business days.
Hedy Carter, a resident of Austin, said she was traveling from New Hampshire but her flights got canceled. She said she then tried to get a flight from Boston, but those flights were canceled twice.
Ultimately, she was able to snag a flight from Boston to Nashville, but that flight was delayed causing her to miss her connection to Austin. She’s been waiting at the Nashville airport for six
They are scenes straight out of a travel nightmare: Airline passengers, including unaccompanied minors, stranded for days in strange cities amid a cascading wave of flight cancellations—with little hope of catching a plane home in a hurry.
Delta Air Lines has offered its most substantial assistance to passengers yet following the IT outage that canceled thousands of flights last week.
Delta Air Lines has been in the spotlight of the airline industry this week following a five-day-long operational meltdown that led to more than 5,000 flight cancellations and stranded passengers and their checked bags for days.
Delta Air Lines says its operations are getting back on track, signaling the likely end of a multi-day meltdown that's seen the carrier cancel more than 5,000 flights since an IT outage on Friday.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said Wednesday morning operations were beginning to improve after days of struggling to recover from a tech outage.
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The Biden administration is opening up an investigation into Delta Air Lines as the carrier's operational meltdown stretched to a fifth day of mass cancellations in the wake of an IT outage affecting industries worldwide on Friday.
The Department of Transportation announced Tuesday that it is launching an investigation into Delta Air Lines as the carrier struggles to recover from a meltdown that has led it to cancel thousands of flights.
Delta's flight disruptions have continued as hundreds of flights were canceled and delayed on Tuesday, which has now led to the Department of Transportation to open an investigation into the airline.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, July 23, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Delta Air Lines canceled around 20% of its schedule on Monday as it grapples with lingering flight disruptions that were caused by a major IT outage.
Cancellations at Delta Air Lines continue to pile up more than 72 hours after an IT outage affecting industries around the world first disrupted travel Friday.