Hello All,

Here's the scoop. I was on (physically boarded and seated) on a Delta flight to Amsterdam departing from JFK and connecting on to Mumbai. Delta announced that anyone with a KLM connection MUST (not should consider - no option was given despite protests) deplane and that those passengers baggage was being removed as they made the announcement. The reason given was that KLM was experiencing weather difficulties but that Delta, including Delta connections in Amsterdam, was flying normally.

Having no choice, a bunch of us were booted back into the JFK terminal into the teeth of an approaching blizzard and stranding most. Our bags were promptly lost. After waiting hours in line to try to rebook, Delta basically said "tough luck, its the weather". I pointed out that Delta, which I was flying, was fine and I would prefer to be stranded in Europe closer to my destination than in New York without a bag. Delta declined to help at all and, as a result, numerous passengers were stranded in New York. In discussions, almost all would have preferred to go to Amsterdam and just take trains or other transportation home but we were not given that option - just summarily booted and then told tough luck.

Here is my question - has anyone else been booted or denied passage on a plane that was flying as scheduled just because another airline in your future itinerary was having issues?

I am trying to find out if this is even legal. First, Delta denied passage due to weather impacting another airline and that it fully admitted was not impacting its own flights.
Second, it appears to be discriminatory against a particular class of passengers, namely those with connections on another airline and not on Delta.

Lastly, given that if the passengers arrived in Europe they would be entitled to compensation under the EU rules if KLM could not service them but if Delta kicks the passengers off in the USA dues to "weather" then the passengers get basically nothing under the crappy USA passenger protection rules. It appears to me the Delta and its partners may be intentionally actively preventing travel from the USA to Europe while the travellers are still in the USA in order to avoid the partner airline having to compensate European travellers under the EU rules.

Please let me know if anyone else has experienced this phenomena. I know there were a couple dozen of us just on the JFK to Amsterdam Delta flight and I would like to know if there is a pattern here and if its legal under the contracts of carriage or DOT rules.

All tll the best,

Stacy Kenworthy
Atlanta GA.