If you’re on social media or have been to an airport with a Delta Air Lines presence, then you know it’s a mess out there. Friday’s global IT outage was a mess for many airlines but especially American, Delta and United. However, Delta has not been able to get their schedules back and it’s really a nightmare out there for many of their customers.
See some of these social media posts below:
kenwalkertherealtor: Delta really dropped the ball on this outage. 2 different airports. 18 hours total in the airport. 6 delays. I had drop $400 for Uber to get from ATL to Columbia this morning. I feel bad for the ones that have been stuck for a couple days. Hotels are booked up. Rental Cars are booked up and flights are delayed a couple days in some cases. The amount elderly people and kids sleeping on the floor and chairs was ridiculous!
Post by @kenwalkertherealtorView on Threads
chaser952: The line for help at T4, JFK. Delayed
Post by @chaser952View on Threads
Karentangmd: Hi @delta – I know your staff are probably frazzled, too. But my 80 year old father and 14 year old daughter have been trapped in airports for TWO ENTIRE DAYS at this point, slept on the airport floor, then had to pay for now THREE nights’ hotel stay. They’ve been “re-booked” on 2 flights which they either weren’t allowed on, or canceled altogether after being at the airport waiting most of the day. They’re now standing in line AGAIN in the middle of the night trying to get re-booked a 3rd time.
Post by @karentangmdView on Threads
thenewmrs.robinson: @delta cancelled our flight from jfk to bwi (as part of an international flight from Malaga to Paris to JFK to BWI) and had no alternative flight options for us for the next day so we had to take the train. At the airport, @delta reps would not tell us the reimbursement amount for our flight.. we just found out they are willing to give us $29. When in the US is a flight ever $29 anymore? This was after our flight going to Malaga was delayed in Paris and we missed our flight.
Post by @thenewmrs.robinsonView on Threads
Eatitkatie: When I was stranded at LAX for 14 hours, 6 hours were spent waiting for my Delta flight to take off and 3 hours were spent waiting for the bag I checked for my cancelled flight. 5 hours were spent waiting for my next flight on a different airline. At one point we had a plane, but no flight crew. I offered to fly the plane and they said, “eh maybe.”
Post by @eatitkatieView on Threads
thebaldrican_: Extremely embarrassed to work for my airline right now. Not our finest moment and looks to be a mess for the near future. They need to consider a hard reset unfortunately. Crew members are lost to the system and it isn’t getting better. We cant communicate with the company. 100’s of FA’s in crew rooms around the country that are willing and able to work but we just can’t work. I feel horrible for our passengers. As bad as it is for us, I can’t imagine what they are going through.
Post by @thebaldrican_View on Threads
Alexatwagan: @delta your baggage tracker says my son’s bag is in SEA. His Apple AirTag says it’s in DTW. My son is en route to Asia. deltaairlines debacle. This is his first solo flight and also an international flight. My wife has been on hold for 2 hours now. A little help here?
Post by @alexatwaganView on Threads
rosy.ghost: My husband and I have essentially been living at LAX for 2 days while Delta strings us along with delay after delay, just to finally cancel our flight today and rebook us for tomorrow night. I’m beyond appalled at how this crisis has been handled by Delta compared to other airlines. I’m cancelling our SkyMiles membership and credit card if we ever get home.
Post by @rosy.ghostView on Threads
cindybrown1980_: Thanks @delta for canceling our flight this morning BOS-LAS and then having no flights until Wednesday night!! And they won’t pay for another airline to get us home!!! DoBetter
Post by @cindybrown1980_View on Threads
kenfinity14: dear @delta, you’ve rebooked me on a flight that leaves in 2 days but gave me the 🤷🏽♀️ when I asked about reimbursement for the hotel I’m gonna need. I’m also missing two days of work/pay because of this foolishness. what will you be doing to make me whole?
Post by @kenfinity14View on Threads
Delta is getting a mountain of negative publicity, which may even result in the resignation of their CEO, Ed Bastian. Tens of thousands of passengers were inconvenienced, some of them high profile customers, including ESPN’s NFL senior insider Adam Schefter, who had to hire a taxi from Detroit to New York so his wife could make it back to get her diabetes medicine.
Per TheSpun “We were in line for our flight [feed dies]…for six hours before they canceled our flight at 1 in the morning. It looked like a nightclub, everybody out trying to get an Uber or a Lyft or a cab or whatever it is. Got back to our hotel at 2:30 in the morning, booked for another flight today that was canceled. So I hired a cab to drive us back to New York. We are right now in Pennsylvania, four hours out. My wife is Type I diabetic, so she had insulin for one day. So I had to get her back. And these airlines, zero honesty, zero transparency. And what’s going on is a travesty. I’m just telling you, I’ve spoken to other people at other airports, it’s a disaster right now.”
@PatMcAfeeShow: “Airlines are basically being shut down and I’ve never seen a scene like I saw last night.. I hired a cab to drive us back to New York and we’re still four hours out” ~ @AdamSchefter
“Airlines are basically being shut down and I’ve never seen a scene like I saw last night..
I hired a cab to drive us back to New York and we’re still four hours out” ~ @AdamSchefter #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/3Vgg3GIjhG
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) July 22, 2024
It also appears that WNBA stat Angel Reese was flying Delta as she flew to Paris to attend the Olympic games. She tweeted on X: “They lost our bags & said we only get ‘$100 in euros’ to shop until they find them but we made it to Paris.”
So why has Delta not been able to recover like the other airlines have? According to CNN, “In a note to customers Sunday, Delta CEO Ed Bastian apologized for the disruptions and attributed the problem to the computer program affecting its “crew tracking” software.”
Zach Griff from The Points Guy just tweeted a screenshot of Delta’s letter to travelers who have been impacted by Delta’s meltdown. I don’t think their customers are going to be too happy when they find out what their compensation is going to be: “Looks like that’ll be *just* 12,500 SkyMiles, worth about $140.” Fortunately, “Delta will also cover meals and hotels due to the meltdown, but it hasn’t said anything about last-min flights booked on other airlines.”
Wondering how much @Delta is compensating passengers for the meltdown?
Looks like that’ll be *just* 12,500 SkyMiles, worth about $140.
Delta will also cover meals and hotels due to the meltdown, but it hasn’t said anything about last-min flights booked on other airlines. pic.twitter.com/WvA0G6TUtY
— Zach Griff (@_ZachGriff) July 23, 2024
Let’s hope Delta does the right thing and tries to win back their customers by covering all of their incurred expenses, including flights on other airlines. This debacle is yet another reminder why it’s important to give yourself an extra day or two to get where you’re going if it’s somewhere very important and to always have more medication with you then you think you will need. Because, as many travelers learned the hard way, you just never know what can go wrong.
Were you traveling during the global IT outage? What was your experience like and what compensation, if any, have you received. Share in the comments.
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No comparison to what SWA did for their customers during the Christmas meltdown. They reimbursed for rental cars, hotels, flights on other airlines AND threw in 25,000 miles per person.
My CASH refunds took only 2 to 3 weeks to receive.
They screwed up big time but at least they tried to be fair when attempting to make it right.