Originally Posted by BoatyMcBoatface

So parents had a flight today for two people + pet leaving this afternoon. You cannot check in early with pet, so they go to the airport for their flight and are told they were rebooked to a morning flight and of course missed it. They are forced to fly tomorrow.
Delta did not send any notification (not to email/text message/phone call/nothing...).
I called and spoke with an agent and supervisor and he acknowledged the lack of notification to contact info. I asked if this is effectively an involuntary bump with > 2 hour delay. He said no because "there was notification" in the form of "online notification." By this, he means if my parents decided to login and cross check their flight details they might have noticed a morning flight instead of an afternoon flight. For context, recall that they cannot check in early.
My thought is this is ludicrous. Rebooking is meaningless if you do not notify - particularly when there is no ability to check in before arriving at the airport.
Is this okay for Delta to treat as our mistake and not offer compensation as per DOT? First level supervisor would not let me talk to anyone else and made no offer other than to rebook another day.