Originally Posted by
powerful pete
DL150 - LIM-ATL, Saturday 15 December on my way home to DCA for Christmas.
The Flux Capacitor broke, or something to that effect. We board, are told there may be an issue that is being looked into. Three-odd hours later we are still on board and are informed the doohickey can't be fixed. Everyone off. I am eventually rerouted on Avianca AV 962 LIM-MIA and then on to DC on a surprisingly pleasant American flight on a brand new Airbus 321. I know that most without status were not offered a rerouting and were put on a the following evening's flight and a second flight was then organized (the usual DL150 leaves Lima at around 2AM, a second flight was set up for 4AM departure).
Have since received an apology message from DL and 17.5K miles. All in all well handled by DL for a clear case of force majeure. I am satisfied that I made it home, if 12-odd hours late (another conversation for the dad and three boys he could not control in my row/row behind me, but let's leave that story for another day).
No rants, no issues - just a mechanical that was well handled by DL. They did what could be done to get me home despite the challenges of the situation. Just sharing as many are quick to complain, but I was taken care of. And after three years of event free frequent travel, an broken plane is ok...
Same thing happened to me in September. I'll spare you the details, the whole thing was handled pretty badly on the ground (as in 30 min delay intervals from 10pm to 1am, etc). In the end I was 24 hours late, and Delta offered 20K miles "as a good will gesture". I wrote a complaint about the mismanaged IROOPS handling at LIM. Delta called me back and informed me that in addition to the 20K miles they would write me a check of $500+ as required by the Peruvian air transport authority (or some such agency). You may want to inquire about that.