Diverted flight: Compensation
 

Hello, everyone. I'm a newbie to this forum, and I have searched for any related thread but failed to find one.

I was supposed to fly on Delta from JFK to SAN on last Saturday (Jan.31), but due to horrible traffic to JFK (and some hassles at the hotel check-out, etc.), I got to the airport 15 minutes before departure time(5:00pm). Delta rep said that since the missed flight was the only flight to SAN on that day, I had to be rerouted to nearby airport (LAX) if I want to get to San Diego that night. Because my friend who was traveling with me had another flight to catch on next day, it seemed that I had no choice there.

She originally told me that I would be on the JFK-LAX flight departing 6:30pm, but for some reasons took a lot of time (30 min or so) to figure out to rebook my trip, finally saying that changing the final destination should cost me a lot (although the change was not voluntary). Then she tossed me to other ticketing desks, and I was asked to wait for another 40 minutes. After all that wait, it was obvious that I would never be on that 6:30pm flight to LAX because it was already 6:20pm or so when I could talk to another Delta rep.

This rep seemed to be knowledeable enough and rebooked me on the next JFK-LAX flight, which departs 8:30pm. I had to pay changing fee - about $110. I managed to rent a car at LAX and drive down to SAN. All hassles and extra cost aside, it was acceptable until I found that the original flight (5:00pm) was diverted to LAX because of heavy fog in San Diego area.

Related news link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28962796/

Then I came to wonder if other passengers on the original flight received any compensation for ground trip from LAX to San Diego. Because it is likely that Delta had known the diverting of the original flight at the time of my rebooking, I feel like they should've explained the situation and offered compensation for ground transportation. Maybe I am expecting too much, I don't know. But since I couldn't be on the next flight to LAX mainly due to delay of Delta reps' rebooking process and wasted almost two more hours, I felt somewhat disserviced by Delta.

So to gurus at this forum: is there any possibility that I can get any type of compensation from Delta in this situation? Shouldn't they have informed me that even if I had been on the original flight I would have been diverted to LAX anyhow so that I can make a better informed decision? (my friend could've changed the schedule at SAN so that we can take the same flight (JFK-SAN) next day without paying 'changing-final-destination fee'.) Any advice or comments will be very appreciated.

Thank you!

- Disserviced in SAN

Welcome to FlyerTalk!
Just my opinion, but no, I don't think you are due anything. First, the flight from JFK to SAN is a long flight and they probably didn't know that they would have to divert when they took off. They might have known it was a possibility, but not a sure thing.
Secondly, you arrived late at the airport. Unless you had a refundable fare ticket, all bets were off. It was nice of them to rebook you without charging you a change fee (I think you paid a refare, not a change fee, as I don't think there's a $110 change fee). I know some (most) airlines are pretty good about this if you arrive at the airport within 2 hours of your original departure time (flat-tire rule), but it is, after all, your fault, not theirs, that you missed your flight.
As for the time it took to reticket, it really depends on what the problem was.

That's funny.
I arrived in SAN that day an hour before the diverted JFK-SAN flight was supposed to arrive.
There was no sign of fog in sight. Looks like the JFK-SAN was diverted to Ontario.

The people at JFK couldn't have known that the JFK-SAN was going to be diverted, because by the time you left, at 8pm, it was only 5pm in SAN. The original flight probably didn't even know it had to be diverted then.

Welcome to FT. You should receive no compensation and be glad that you got home. You missed your original flight to SAN, not DL's fault but yours. The agents actually helped you out by booking you to LAX in hopes of getting you close to your final destination. You were charged a fee for that change which the agents didn't have to do. They could have easily charged you the difference in fare*, which could have been hundreds of dollars more.

*I missed a MSY-ONT flight recently and was re-routed MSY-LAX. I was charged a fare difference of $450.

Did you by any chance read this thread?
In your case Delta did the right thing by reaccommodating you for just the change fee, and they even routed you to an alternate destination to further accommodate your specific situation.

Am I missing something here? What more can they be expected to do? Sounds to me like you got a pretty fair shake.

It WAS voluntary, you missed your flight. They could have rebooked you for the next day. If you were on the outbound, they could have put the hammer to you bad. They charged you a full Y fare only gave you credit the amount you already paid less $150.
This took a long time because they were trying to find a way around charging you a full fare ticket.

The diversion is not even an issue here. You didn't know about it. They didn't know about it.

Probably not. At least not just handing out money to everyone that got off the plane. They may have provided some type of bus service to SAN.

No way. Planes take off from across the country all the time when weather is bad at the destination. It's a long flight and weather, especially along the California coastline changes very rapidly with the marine layer coming in and out. As most FF knows, some ATCs will put ground stops on traffic destined to particular destinations. They rarely do this on transcon flights or any flight with extended length because they know the situation will like change (or a few times) before that plane gets there. When it gets close, they deal with it.

[QUOTE=mrperinoid;11201613] Maybe I am expecting too much, I don't know.
Yes, you are.

The fact that this little deal only cost you $110 is really lucky. This could easily been a $1,000 deal.

You can write if you want to. Stranger things have happened. But figure the chances are a lot closer to none than slim. As I write this one, no one has said on this thread that they think you deserve compensation. We have some pretty consumer friendly people posting here....I don't think Delta will consider it.
Again, they didn't know. I suspect the captain didn't know until less than an hour from arriving that it was going to happen.

The "next day" would have been even worse. They would have almost compelled to collect a full Y fare on you at that point. Normally, people get saved by SDC ("Same Day Confirmed") by missing a flight and making a later one to the same destination. But that only applies to "same day" changes.

Oh and all of this and welcome to FlyerTalk.

And you can't SDC to another airport so it wouldn't have worked in this situation. It could have been possible for the OP to have SDCed to another routing to SAN, but only if seats were available. The OP got very lucky and is not due anything more.

Welcome to FT.

No you can't and that is why the OP was VERY lucky they didn't hammer him for a full Y.

Welcome to FT.

I would have agree with the others here...

I know it is frustrating to be stuck in traffic and miss your flight... if you travel enough, it is bound to happen.

Even though your original flight you were scheduled to take was diverted, you are not (IMO) entitled to compensation for that. In fact, I think you were lucky to get on a later flight that day for just a small change fee, compared to what you could have been charged.

I really do doubt that the flight diversion was known the staff in NY at the time they rebooked you, but even if they had known that, you weren't on the flight anyway, so I am not sure why that really matters here.

My advice to you, if to count this one as a series of events that lead to an inconvience, but it appears that they did what they could to help you here, as it really could have been a lot more expensive and compounded the misery even more.

Hope you have a better experience next time!

I do not understand anything about OPs claim to obtain compensation. OP missed the plane because he did not check out of his hotel in a timely fashion and then became caught in traffic.

I am happily printing and saving this thread to give it to my husband next time I insist on leaving for the airport so we arrive with 90 minutes to spare. I often factor in flat tire or freeway accident delays into our ground transportation time.

DL does not care why you are late. Your contract with them is to deliver you from Point A to Point B on a specific date at a specific time. If you are not there at the contracted time they have no obligation to you at all, unless you are on a fully refundable ticket. It is not the fault of DL that you did not get to the airport on time.

As I always tell my husband. You have to leave early because you do not know what might happen on the way to the airport!

Did you try to reroute JFK-ATL-SAN using Same Day Change?

Belated thanks
 

Thank you all for informative postings ! Due to personal situations, I haven't been able to be active here at FT. But now I am back, I just wanted to leave you a thank-you note for all who shared thoughts with me. :)

Compensation: Diversion and Diverted Flight
 

I was on Delta 260 from PDX to AMS on July 6 that ended up being diverted to Goose Bay and then had problems with a replacement aircraft. Delta was proactive with compensation and all passengers were given a $200 credit and a free roundtrip ticket to anywhere Delta flies, including an international ticket. Overall, I think they responded well given. However, for a variety of reasons, especially since the pool that free tickets must pull from is so small, I might prefer $ credit or cash instead of the free ticket.

So my question, has anyone ever asked for different compensation than what is being offered the entire plane, how did you do it, and what was your success?

Thanks, and I appreciate the advice.

PS. The flight crews, both the original crew and the resplacement crew (who ended up just boarding and deboarding us) were great.

Ask and see what you get.

IMHO, they gave you a fairly nice deal. But if you prefer cash, that is that (I do not care why you prefer cash, your choice).

I would guess that DL would be talking around $400 at most for the ticket.

If the freebie they give you is transferable, let us know. I would pay more for it depending on the fine print.

I agree that Delta made us a nice offer. But I already have over 250,000 miles to use, and I understand that these free tickets come out of the same bucket as reward tickets. I've been frustrated using the miles for travel when my family can go, hence worry the ticket would be wasted. I haven't decided yet whether to ask for something different, was just wondering if others had any similar experience.

Ticket can't really be transferred, as "If the certificate is issued in an individual's name, the certificate may be used by a different person as long as the original recipient is traveling with that person in the same reservation." Hence, I can use it for my wife if we are traveling together, which is what I'll probably end up doing.

Thanks for the input.