The issue remains that if DL can use the excuse of ATC/weather delay to strand you in a distant city and tell you that you cannot be booked to fly home, unless you buy an expensive walk-up one way ticket, then the value of your miles is not just worthless -- by using the miles you have actually LOST a great deal of money. All of this discussion of miles-earning credit cards vs. grocery-cashback credit cards vs. hotel programs completely misses the point of the Original Post. If my hotel program suddenly decides mid vacation that I don't have a room, big deal, I can stay in a hostel or a tent or a B&B or any number of choices that are actually cheaper and more of a travel experience anyway. But if I'm stranded halfway across the world and the airline suddenly decides to cancel the flight I'm on and refuse to put me on another unless I pay again, then it would have been far, far, far better if I'd never participated in that program to begin with. This happening once could wipe out the entire lifetime savings from being in that program.

Let me be clear: I'm worried about paying for my trip upfront with miles plus taxes/fees, as I have already paid for several trips upcoming on DL, then being stranded as this person describes and being told that I will not be transported home. In that case, yes, the miles are not just "b.s." they would truly be a scam used to cheat me out of a lot of money.

Apparently, this poster is not the only person to report this experience. THAT'S the issue. The other stuff is trivia. Let's get back to finding out if we have any legal rights in this situation. If we don't, the OP is correct, and you would have to be an idiot to earn/redeem on DL because the risk of being stranded at certain destinations could easily wipe out a year or more worth of savings by participating in the loyalty program in the first place.

Any airline employee can make a one time mistake but if this is a recurring issue on DL, then it needs to be discussed and fixed ASAP, in my humble view. The airport is not a place where a person can raise their voice, stomp their feet, and demand a supervisor. You may get the supervisor if you ask nicely, or you may get threatened with arrest because the person who doesn't want you speaking with their supervisor pretends not to like your tone. We all know the score. You can ask to speak with a higher-up, and you can suddenly meet with an attitude or a threat. We've all seen it happen. So we need to know our rights in advance. At least the number of someone we can call ourselves, on our own phone. Something!