MikeyZBT

My father and I were traveling ATL-AMS-EDI last Sunday/Monday for a week long father/son trip.

It was supposed to start on Delta 72, upstairs in a 747, for the first time for us both and a dream come true for me.

The morning of the flight Delta changed equipment, due to mechanical, gave us an A330 (still nice business class, but not the same experience).

However, we were then 2 hours late, missed our AMS-EDI, got rebooked on City Jet and British Airways 5 HOURS LATER. Arrived in EDI about 6 hours later than originally planned.

And to top it off, they lost our luggage that we didn't get for 18 hours after we were at our hotel and over 24 hours later than when we were originally supposed to be arrive.

What should/ought Delta provide for us?

TTT

Some miles might be given to you. You will also likely get some reimbursement of necessities if you needed to purchase anything while your luggage was re-routed.

Navig8R

How do you know Delta lost your luggage? You will get miles and reimbursement for amenities (as TTT mentioned), but I wouldn't expect much more.

StuckOnSegments

When the flight went MX, why didn't you re-book to ATL - LHR/MAN?

jrl767

mechanicals happen, tail swaps and equipment substitutions happen, baggage delays happen

DL's main job is to safely get a lot of people where they're going, and while the happiness of one or two particular passengers with respect to particular aspects of some of these off-normal events is important, it really isn't their top priority

you and your father got to your destination safely, and your luggage arrived in what seems to be a reasonably timely manner once recovery was initiated

if you send DL a simple statement expressing your disappointment with missing out on the 744, and outlining the facts of the baggage delay, you will likely get some number of miles (perhaps 7500, perhaps 10000, perhaps ???) in apology; I don't know DL's policy about reimbursement for amenities, because our only experience with a lost bag was on a return flight rather than an outbound

not to speak for OP, but looking for another 744 was probably the farthest thing from his mind at the time ... more important to make sure he and his father got to EDI with (what looked to be) the least additional disruption

MikeyZBT

I was going to agree with you everywhere, but here. The luggage arrived 18 hour later than we did. Plus, we found out that the luggage actually arrived at EDI in the middle of the night, but no one initiated delivery until 11am the following morning... Delta can't just shrug it's responsibility to see the luggage to me just because they chose to book me on a partner.

During the disruption and delay even before we left Atlanta, I kept asking the Platinum and Gold desks to help us, but they said they can't do anything until we leave Atlanta. Even though EVERYONE knew we'd miss our connection in AMS, they chose to make us get stranded there instead of being proactive and rebooking us via CDG/LHR/MAN... I'm sorry, but Delta showed just how little they care once they have your money.

kop84

Did you try to do anything proactive calling DL or talking to someone at the airport to get re-routed? If the ATL/AMS flight was delayed 2 hours you should have had plenty of time.

I think if you called and were told no options now try to have it fixed in AMS, you have a better case for compensation than if you knew you were going to miss-connect but assumed the system would automatically fix a international itinerary.


Also legally speaking the luggage issue is handled by the last carrier. It may have been DL's fault not giving BA the bag or BA might have lost the bag. --- you may be able to double dip and get compensation out of BA too.

TTT

That's exactly what the contract of carriage says as does international baggage convention. The final carrier to deliver you to your destination is responsible for baggage recovery and compensation.

aviatorzz

+10000

People seem to forget that.

As an aside, that is terrible about not getting on the 744. But they have had some downright terrible luck with those birds, with the one getting stuck in SNN and the other with the nose cone damage.

Grouchy

Didn't VIPER offer you any options? Normally when a flight is delayed for even 10 minutes the app immediately start to offer a lot of different options.

jimquan

Why should he even have to ask for compensation?

Anyone remember the service recovery kits NWA used to give out? They had a voucher for miles and maybe food and a $25 gift cert. It's been a while.

Perhaps Delta should bring back the service recovery kits.

Jim

exwannabe

One of the few rules (IATA) put in place that clearly is intended to help out the pax.

In the absense of this rule, all interconnecting pax would be caught in a finger pointing war between the airlines. With this rule, you only have to deal with one airline. And clearly (in most cases) it is easier to deal with the carrier local to where yoiu have arrived.

In some cases it might not make sense, but the rule is clearly good on balance.

MSPeconomist

.....or sometimes VIPER rebooks you automatically and cancels your existing reservation when you don't what it to do that.

ksu

I came to this thread using the link on the "Must read" on the front page of Flyer Talk, where the title was "Delta Ruined My Dream. How Can They Make It Up to Me?"

Without belitteling the experience of the OP, a six-hour delay on a transatlantic in mid-summer and a luggage delay of 18 hours, though inconvenient, is simply one of the things one must be prepared can happen. Two-hour delays meaning that one misses the connecting flight leading on to a several-hour delay further on are all too common. This is one of the reasons that passengers joining a cruise are told to arrive the day before sailing for instance. Equipment swap is a nuisance, but the OP was still in the same class, even on the wrong bird.

Try and get some compensation by all means, but not a very terrible experience IMHO

apodo77

The OP did not write the hyperbolic thread title that is on the front page. They seemed to have taken pieces of his post and made a thread title out of it.

Not sure why FT did that.