AA_EXP09

No problem.
The US is even worse than that-you're not supposed to bring in any agricultural products from outside the US.

mtkeller

US is a walk in the park compared to Australia. You are supposed to pull over when crossing from Victoria into South Australia and dispose of many ag products, and that's without leaving the country!

TTT

I didn't say that just that the portion of DL's customer service commitment you referenced wasn't really relevant. It wouldn't surprise me if the conditions and access to food/beverage would have been better on the plane. But of course they couldn't hold them there for that lenght of time.

TTT

Thank you. I had not thought about the fire/smoke use. Are all cockpit O2 systems designed that way?

AeroWesty

You've not driven into California then. There are permanent agricultural stations on the highways, which look like toll booths, which you have to stop at and make a declaration regarding any ag goods you may be carrying.

http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/pe/Exte...n/borders.html

TPAKyle

The replacement plane did not depart JFK until 2:30am ET (almost 4 hours late) and arrived at 4:46 Halifax time which is an hour ahead (Atlantic Time).

Once the ground agent started to make announcements about the delay, after passengers complained that there had been no verbal update for over three hours, we were advised the delay was due to making sure the plane was properly catered for the remaining 7.5 hours of the flight.

At about 3:30am coffee and doughnuts, courtesy of Tim Horton's, arrived to a resounding cheer. Once all the passenger were satiated, we were advised that no catering was provided at JFK and despite several GateGourmet trucks servicing planes on the tarmac in Halifax, no catering would be provided locally. So eat up, but don't plan on real food or cocktails for the remainder of the flight.

I will say that once called, the flight boarded rather quickly and though the seat map on the new plane was slightly different, the gate-implemented free-for-all process that went relatively smoothly. Fortunately seat numbers did not change for any of the BE passengers.

As a side note, my seat in BE would recline fully but the foot rest would not raise at all so a sleeping position was not possible. This was pointed out to an FA who shrugged her shoulders and said that hopefully someone would fix it soon. A drink at this point would have had great calming effects, but alas...

The new crew was JFK on-call which was obvious by the service in BE which included the passing of Tim Horton's donut boxes, but made crystal clear when the lead announced over the PA that they were as excited to be in Zurich as we were since they had never done an international flight.

So we finally land in Zurich and the passengers were too exausted to cheer or too stunned by the crew's admission of lack of experience on international flights. The crew did indicate, rather quietly, that an agent would be outside the jetway and have "compensation" for passengers.

Sure enough, there was a small counter staffed by agents with personalized "Our Apologies" documents. Red for BE, Blue for Economy. They indicated that a credit to our account had been issued , but could not specify the amount. After catching airport wi-fi, it was clear why. This BE passenger was credited only $100 for my inconvenience.

Wrong answer.

mAAine_flyer

Wow! DL.

glbetrotter

Still think that now?

N830MH

Wow! What is an interesting story, huh? I wasn't wonder why they had no catered to be provided. I wasn't sure why they didn't delivered the foods & beverage. I thought they want to eat breakfast, snacks & lunch as well. I thought the flight wasn't too disappointed at all. They arrived in ZRH around 7:30pm, but they wait the agent at jetway and they are too extremely happy to see the passengers & the crew as well. Is that same flight crew who flew from ATL-YHZ, but there is no crew change. They behaved very well and appreciate for the cooperation. Try to be more patiently. They will try to best everything they can. They are very respectful with the flight crew instructions.

cfischer

I'd say a TCV for 75% of the o/w fare is the way to go. $100 is an insult. I'd take this up with corporate resolutions in ATL once you are back. Can't believe Delta made such a poor call. Big

DaDaDan

If they'd gone to BGR or another US point, CBP would have been irrelevant since they never left the US, no?

Regarding the measly $100 compensation, I would suggest contacting Delta with a minimally emotional and no more than 3 sentence account of what occured, plus what you think is reasonable. I would focus on:

Lack of updates regarding delays
No food/water provisions on the ground
Lack of service and catering once the replacement aircraft arrived
Non-functional BE seat

In determining what you think is fair, don't forget:
1. You did get transported to ZRH, which is a good part of the fare
2. Only the outbound was impacted (hopefully!) if this was a round trip

So don't go overboard...but $100 is ridiculous.

Also, if they do give you a voucher, make sure it is one big one since (most) DL vouchers aren't stackable.

itsaboutthejourney

(Based on what I read here, no. Although I was on the ground for 26 hours in YYT, ghetto UA gave me more compensation than $100 for being a J pax. Funny it was DL people who kept me in the loop about my flight as UA was dead silent. It appears from TPAKyle that they at least had updates from DL.)

Back to the topic...

us2

After reading this, I'd say flight 66 was missing a 6 in the flight number.

Sounds like this one was really botched on many levels, with the compensation offered being so low as to be insulting. I have to wonder -- what were the Y pax given if BE got $100?

Builderman

I'm sure the DL staff at ZRH were nice enough to go to the store, buy enough bananas for the entire economy cabin, and deep freeze them so that the Y pax could experience the best-in-class service to which they are accustomed.

N639DL

$100 is certainly not enough for 8.5 hours in Halifax.