Involuntary bumped off flight from foreign location
Question about compensation for involuntary bumping. We had a confirmed reservation to fly on Delta from Cape Town to Atlanta for my family of 5 (two minors). 3.5 hours before the flight we had not checked in and going online to check in, we noticed we had been involuntarily rebooked on the next nights flight. We were never notified. At the airport Delta said that we were bumped because the flight had been diverted to MIA then ATL and our seats were given to additional crew members even though there was no change in equipment. We asked several times to be put back on the original flight (any seat) and were denied. We were offered no compensation even for taxi or lodging. We don’t even know if Delta asked for volunteers- we were just left to find someplace to sleep.
On our original flight we had paid to upgrade from main cabin to Comfort Plus and had 5 nice seats together. On our new flight (16 hours) all five of us were given middle seats in main cabin Not together at all. This is probably the most frustrating part. The only compensation we’ve been given is a refund of the Comfort Plus upgrade which they said was sold out and we could not get on our new flight.
I was wondering if anyone has guidance on the best way to get compensation both for the expenses incurred plus the inconvenience of a 24 hour delay and horrible seat arrangements. Just for background, I don’t have silver medallion status - I have 800k lifetime miles flown and a gold and a platinum Amex Delta credit card.
Thank you for your help dealing with this customer service problem.