Originally Posted by
jdrtravel
We are meeting my family in AMS on Wednesday. My expectation is that systems will be back to normal by a Wed. PM departure. However, they don't have status and are flying on award tickets in J MSP-AMS. Does anyone think they are in danger of IDB or a downgrade to make space for paid J pax who have been displaced? What advice can I give them should this occur?
I'd start by seeing how many MSP-AMS flights have been cancelled and how many of the obvious alternatives, such as MSP-CDG or DTW-AMS, have also been cancelled. Check for today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. You can also experiment with some dummy bookings to see whether DL is selling tickets on this route and roughly how much inventory in each fare class. EF does this well, but you can also get a lot of the same information from delta.dumb with some pain.
Check the DL CoC for their policies about priorities for IDBs and downgrades. Check the EC261 rules too. Tell them to do OLCI if possible and get to the airport early.
International flights are somewhat more likely, when necessary, just to do IDBs and invol downgrades rather than asking for volunteers, but they might want to think about the amount at which they would be willing/happy to take a VDB or downgrade. You should also look at alternatives for them and give them some "Plan B" flight numbers, routes and times to feed to GAs if needed.