They can give you more if you don't need a hotel...

For a mx with a 24 hour delay SYD-LAX, we got the hotel room with dinner, 10K SkyPesos plus $100. I don't know if I should try to angle for more since it does seem a bit skimpy.

However, I have never, in more than 40 years of flying on business, ever written to and airline to get compensation and it is unlikely that I will start now.

Compensation or not - providing accurate and timely feedback of your travel experience and issues is a value feedback tool, that they can use to continue to improve their operations.

Flying KLM NBO - AMS on DL codeshare. SkyMiles botched the reticketing of an upgrade and Kenya Airways (KLM's agents in NBO) denied me checkin until I resolved the issue with Delta directly. This took about two hours of me calling on my US-based cell phone on my own dime to get resolved, otherwise I was staying in Nairobi. The Kenya staff was really unhelpful. When it finally got resolved Delta was able to correctly process the upgrade, but overcharged me by 5k miles (I was on a full Y ticket).

Compensation was 7,500 miles, no refund of the overcharge. In other words, they gave me 2.5k miles net for something that caused me 2 hours of time and expense on an international call, spent in a dingy check-in area at NBO. And almost caused me to miss my flight.

Earlier this year everyone on a transpac I was on got 15k miles, $100 flight credit, and $50 airport credit for an inop in-flight entertainment system. This was a lot worse of a situation than that, yet I got 1/6th of the miles compensation alone. Pretty pathetic. Especially when I see that someone got 15k miles for having a fly in his soup.

July 10 DL 1643 JFK->SEA 11 hours late, plus diversion through ATL
 

* Flight initially delayed at JFK when copilot called in sick; we waited for on-call reserve first officer to show up.
* Lined up for the runway, reached #3, and then due to long delay a passenger had to be deplaned because she was going to miss her timing for a required medication by not landing in SEA on time.
* Returned to the gate
* Required passenger deplaning option due to 3 hour delay threshhold.
* Pushed back again and lined up for runway; and then while in line for the runway the copilot we just got timed out. (He was at the end of his on-call shift when we got him.)
* Returned to the gate.
* All passengers deplaned, flight status held for cancellation pending search for new copilot.
* Announced new plan - flying us to ATL with current copilot, who had time to get to ATL before timeout but not SEA.
* Boarded.
* ~2 hour (?) delay then to de-fuel the aircraft for the shorter trip.
* Weight/balance issue due to de-fueling required transfering fuel to another fuel tank.
* Pushed back again, off to ATL!
* All fresh food had been thrown away (I was in Business Elite). No restocking of catering. Fritos and twixes and snickers only.
* Arrived in ATL.
* 2 hours on ground awaiting new crew and sorting out catering and similar with ATL ground ops.
* No catering available for ATL-SEA. Captain personally exited plane and bought up stocks from vendomatic service personnel using cash in his pocket.
* Pushed back in ATL. Uneventful journey to SEA.
* Plane arrived in SEA at ~8.30am Friday instead of 10pm Thursday.

I am a diamond medallion.

Delta offered $50 + 15,000 skymiles, below.

-------------


On behalf of Delta Air Lines, I would like to offer you my sincere apology for the inconvenience caused on July 10 when Flight 1643 from New York to Seattle returned to the gate twice and subsequently made a stop in Atlanta for a crew change.

We are extremely sensitive to your experience and understand the frustration you may have felt with the initial gate return due to a passenger medical issue and subsequent gate return due to crew duty limitations. While I am glad the flight ultimately departed to Atlanta for a crew replacement, I regret the additional delay this caused you. We recognize the value of your time and are genuinely sorry you arrived at your destination much later than planned. Despite our best efforts, flight irregularities occur; however, the concern for public safety will always remain our top priority.

As you may be aware, in an effort to demonstrate how truly sorry we are for this flight disruption, we initially issued an Electronic Transportation Credit Voucher (eTCV) in the amount of $50.00. To redeem your voucher, please contact Reservations at 1-800-221-1212 with your name, flight number and flight date. Alternatively, SkyMiles members may go to www.delta.com/redeem and select "View Certificates and eCredits by SkyMiles or Certificate number" to redeem their voucher. It is also important to remind you that there is no Direct Ticketing fee for reservations confirmed online at delta.com.

In addition, as a further gesture of goodwill, I have added 15,000 bonus miles to your SkyMiles account XXXXXXXX. Please allow three business days for the mileage to reflect in your account.

While we hope that all Delta team members you came in contact with were helpful and supportive at all times, if you have any feedback regarding the handling of Flight 1643, please consider sharing any additional comments by visiting us at www.delta.com/talktous (select Customer Care). Once feedback is received, your comments will be shared with our Airport Operations and Customer Service leadership teams.

In closing, I pledge to you that we are dedicated to providing safe and on-time transportation. We hope you will allow us a future opportunity to serve you on a Delta flight. Thank you for your understanding and for flying Delta Air Lines.

Sincerely,

Jason Hausner
Director, Customer Care

Wow... what a fustercluck...

DL 1240 TUS-ATL July 17 in paid F. No pre-departure beverage. FA said lunch was a "chef salad" and was instead a garden salad (i.e. no meat, cheese, eggs, bacon, etc.). FAs did not pass snack tray until asked by another F passenger (meanwhile, the FAs had helped themselves to the snacks in plain view of all F passengers--one of them ate 2 bags of Fritos like the plane was about to go down). To get drinks throughout the 3 hour flight, had to ring the call button.

Sent in complaint while airborne and got 7500 pesos. Really fast response from DL with more than expected compensation.

I want to file a complaint and request for compensation for a delayed flight that caused a miss-connect and a malfunctioning IFE system... Flights were international J award.

The delay (DUS-ATL) was caused by a late arriving aircraft. I think it was MX as there was no bad weather in ATL that day.

I just finished these flights but there are two more segments on the itinerary two weeks from now... Should I complain now or wait for the entire itinerary to be completed?

What was the cause of the delay for the misconnect? This may impact any compensation.

As far as the IFE, they'll probably throw some miles your way.

No reason to wait on sending in a complaint; if there are issues with the later flights, you could submit again if needed.

Hi,

I'm trying to do a claim for flight delay compensation.

Does anyone have a name and address of who I can send my letter to at Delta?

Thanks in advance

Delta Customer Care - provides the info for various countries.

I've sent a letter in before and had a response within a few days of their receiving the letter.

You can also submit online via "Comment/Complaint."

Thanks.

I did send a letter to their address in France but didn't get a reply (I'm in UK so it says to send one there).

(this one)
Delta Europe Customer Care Centre
TSA 21235
75564 Paris Cedex 12
France

I also submitted online and that took 2 months to get a reply.

I need an address if it goes as far as taking them to court.

In the UK, customer service issues are handled by AF/KL. This past winter, it took them over two months to respond. You may be better off sending a letter to the Atlanta address if you want a faster response; in the end, I did this, and it was within a week.

Old Sky Mags
 

On a flight this week from DXB to Atl [Aug 5], all the Sky mags were from July: FA told me to complain. On my next flight, the entertainment system did not work. Not that big of a deal but I sent an e-mail and got 15k skypesos. It was more than I was expecting.

This year, it seems like when I write in a compliment, they acknowledge the compliment and then find some tiny little thing in my email to latch on to and give me 2-3x the miles they ever give when I write in with an actual complaint. I'm going to have to stop sending in compliments or I'll end up on the list with Rabbi Ginsberg.