flyerCO

Guess what? 1)They had no way of knowing when exactly your plane would finally touch down. Just because they made up time doesn't mean they could again lose such time in holding, being diverted, etc
2)You acted like a jerk to someone that had no control over the issue, and in fact did their best to help try and make up for the delay
3)75K - All this does is help give the impression your expectations are way out of line with reality
4)UA - Head on over, once less person to fight for a BE seat. BTW UA doesn't fly to BKK anymore. You're dreaming, if you think ANA is going to hold a flight because of another carriers flight that was delayed 2.5 hours in hopes that passengers make it.

Bottom line DL did the best they could in the situation. They re-booked you, go you to the plane, and got you in a total of 6 hours late. 6 hours especially on an international trip is not that much. Does it suck? Yes. Is it the worst or any were close to worst thing that can happen flying? No. Sorry but in this case there was no reason for DL to inconvenience a full plane of passengers, on the hope that some others would make it. More so given that there was an option that got you in only 6 hours late.

Powers106

And really, I don't want to escalate the grief here on FT, I love this forum, but really, I've been 35 years Worldperks, Delta Skymiles, this was the most poorly handled issue from them I've been part of, they really did not care in the least about us (me and the other 11 passengers). It was like, yes, your plane is right there but we won't hold it, even if you could make it, because we rebooked you (7-day averages shows consistent 25 minute delays from flight aware, not to mention their 2.5 hour delay in Portland). And snarky pilots to boot. I guess we all have choices.

sbrower

Sorry, but this sounds to me (yes, to me, maybe not to you) like someone who expects too much, in several ways.

First, by assuming that they will be receiving an explanation of the exact mechanical. (Yes, I would also like to know. Yes, I think it would be classy. But, having flown a few million miles, it isn't something I expect. Nor would it have any effect on the outcome.)

Second, by assuming that the airline would hold the connection which YOU estimate will take 10 minutes. (Yes, I would like them to hold for me. Yes, I would be willing to incur a 10 minute hold on a NRT-BKK flight even if I wasn't one of the affected passengers. BUT, I don't assume that a hold will happen after a 2.5 delay, and I don't agree that it was reasonably clear that it would only be 10 minutes. OP - ask yourself an honest question. Say that the FA had come back to your seat, during the flight, and asked the following: "Sir, we estimate that we will be landing at xxxx. We can't be sure if customs will be really quick, and some of the other passengers on the flight, who are also connection, might have a lot of luggage. However, we are willing to make a deal. If you are sure that you (AND ALL THE OTHER PASSENGERS) can make the flight if we hold it for 10 minutes, we will do that - but we need to you to sign this form saying that if it takes MORE THAN 10 minutes, then the plane can leave, and you and the other passengers will not be rebooked until the Delta flight tomorrow and you will pay for your own hotel.)

Third, by implying that the choice to rebook you on a flight which they estimated you could get to, even though it was 6 hours later, could be worth 75k of compensation. (Again, I am not objecting if DL agrees with you - I am just saying that the expectations are wrong.)

NOW, having said all that, let me tell you what I DID WHEN IT HAPPENED TO ME. Flying Northwest Orient from TPE-Korea-LAX (really trying to get home to SNA). We landed in Korea and they said that our flight to LA had already departed and we would be accommodated a few hours later on Korea-SEA-LAX. They said to wait by the gate. I didn't believe them, because we had not been delayed getting to Korea. So I made my father run with me from our gate to the gate for the LA departure. Our plane was still there and the door was still open and we still had our boarding passes. But the gate agent said they could not accept us. (I never got the real reason, but I think it was a catering problem and they were unable to get meals in time.) So I told them that we were owed compensation for Bump. They said that we could talk to Seattle. I told them that the rules required that we be paid, in cash, in Korea. A short negotiation following. The result was simple - my father than I were upgraded from Coach (award) tickets to Business class to SEA. Then booked from SEA-SNA (which is where we really wanted to be). FINAL RESULT - With the reroute to SNA, we got home about the same time originally scheduled. Our original flight, from Korea-LAX took a major mechanical and had to abort the flight in Japan.

SO, am I against negotiation? No. Am I against trying to improve your situation? No. But don't come here on FT and pretend like you are offended by stuff that happens every day.

phenobarbital

1. Thanks for telling us who you are.

2. People have been repeatedly trying to point out to you that you may want to re-examine the appropriateness of your own behavior. Since multiple posters have made similar comments, perhaps you should sit down in a dark room and do so.

3. What did you expect the pilots to say? They only have limited control over what happens when you are in the air flying and zero control over what happens on the ground.

Powers106

A 10-minute delay (like the 1 hour delay on the outbound) would have solved everyones problems. Don't be an apologist, Delta screwed up, the red coat even admitted as much as we were standing with bags outside the terminal at 19:05 (flight departure 18:45).

The flight from Bangkok (that I was forced to miss) landed 10 minutes early in Bangkok -- not like it was a headwind or weather issue, they just deemed us unimportant enough to hold for 10 minutes because the Japanese ground staff already made arrangements. That is the unprofessionalism of Delta that I am talking about. Smug pilots or not. (but yes they were smug)

jacobac00

If you have been flying 35 years and this is the most poorly handled issue then you are probably the luckiest flyer in existence. Your flight arrived late, they didn't want to hold the flight, they re-booked you on a reasonable alternative without you having to work for it. You will probably even get some SkyMiles out of it. Where I'm sitting, you had a very good experience.

ClipperDelta

Nope. In fact, TPE closed up earlyat 6:25pm (Sched dep 6:30pm), before your plane even got to the gate (you blocked in at 6:32pm). In fact, none of the onward NRT-Asia connections were held. People probably made the PVG and SIN connections because those had scheduled departure times after 7pm.
Oct 08 2014:
DL121 HKG STD 1830; left 1817
DL275 TPE STD 1830; left 1825
DL283 BKK STD 1845; left 1845
DL295 PVG STD 1910; left 1906
DL167 SIN STD 1925; left 1921

Again you blocked in at 6:32pm - what was your original estimated arrival time? If it was later, of course Delta thought there was no way you could make a 6:45pm departure to BKK.

CJKatl

What difference does it make who paid for the ticket?

If anything, DL should be more interested in making the big company passengers happy. If MegaCorp's employees are delayed, MegaCorp might decide not to allow its many, many employees to fly DL biz to Asia. It's doubtful DL is as concerned about an individual passenger who purchases a ticket here and there. Who would want to be a shareholder in a company focused on small potatoes? Something tells me if an important customer's passenger was on the delayed flight, it would have been held.

flyerCO

The mechanical on DL's part was bad. The deciding not to delay every other passenger on the HOPES that you may or may not make it? This was DL doing what it's supposed to. You think you can make it off the plane, clear security, and make it to the next flight in 10 minutes? Guess what it probably won't happen. Even if you do your best you have to many issues outside your control that could delay you. Plus by delaying 10 minutes they may lose their clearance to depart NRT and end up taking a much longer delay.

Your expectation on DL's part is out of line. Both in terms of what they did, and what you expect from them. If you had been on UA, I can bet they wouldn't have even had you rebooked when you landed. I gave up on UA because of their handling of IRROPS.

Powers106

First, I love Delta! Liked more Northwest but what can you do.

I don't care who I am as in the DYKIA or whatever thread, don't be a Delta apologist, I just try to explain I'm not a first time poster.

Is it possible Delta can make a mistake? I think it is. The pilots were smug jerks, whether I sit in a dark room or not. They could have gotten us on that flight. Happy to fly biz on ANA 787, was kind of nice, but the kettles don't care and if as FT'ers who's gonna stand up when they screw up. ??? If not us??? What good is this forum if we don't stand up to their mistakes?

FlyingUnderTheRadar

I am going to agree with OP here the pilots blew it regardless of how the OP talked to them. The pilots should have simply acknowledged the OP's statement and gone on about their business.

Pilots: "have a good flight"

PAX: "your 2 and a half hour delay cost us a 6 hour flight delay"

Pilots: "We are sorry about the inconvenience the MX caused - hopefully your future flights will be better."

At that point there would be nothing more for the OP to say. As it is the pilots left the OP with ammunition to further complain.

As for the delay … the staff was probably thinking they were being proactive. How often they get it right vs wrong would be interesting. For savvy travelers, especially those sans checked baggage would probably wish they would not be so proactive (as the story above points out).

Powers106

+1

CJKatl

Having flown thousands of DL flights and interacted with many DL pilots, it's hard to imagine DL pilots laughing at a passenger. The OP's interpretation and reporting of what happened is out of line with everything I've ever experienced from the professional pilots flying DL planes. Perhaps they were laughing at something else, or perhaps they were not even laughing, but it's hard to imagine they were laughing at a passenger who had been delayed.

tkey75

Not being an apologist. Just a realist who knows that holding a plane for a highly estimated 10 minutes is just not how it works. Can you guarantee with 100% certainty that it would have been exactly 10 minutes and the plane to BKK would not have lost its slot and taken a delay of an hour or more? No need to answer that, but it would not have been fair to the other 200+ pax on your connecting flight if that's what happened. DL did give your flight some thought. They decided to proactively rebook you after an unfortunate mechanical - at significant cost, as those ANA flights are certainly not free - and send your original flight out on time.

steex

I think you're taking operational decisions way, way too personally. I have no idea why things happened exactly the way they did, but I have a strong suspicion that the thought process wasn't "those twelve people are particularly unimportant, we won't hold their flight."

While your BKK flight wasn't held, neither were the HKG or TPE flights - does that mean even more people were considered unimportant, or that they didn't consider the PDX-BKK pax specifically as unimportant as you assume? Given your arrival time, the PVG and SIN flights wouldn't have needed to be held to maintain connections, so it's possible those people might also have been "unimportant" and just got lucky.

It sucks that you missed your connection due to an inbound delay that was beyond your control. Plenty people both here and at Delta would be sympathetic to your delay and the inconvenience caused by the remediation when presented with only the facts of the situation. However, all of the emotional additions are painting a much less sympathetic picture, from the "DYKWIA" approach (yeah, that's what it sounds like when you feel the airline isn't treating you like you're important enough) to the accusation of "smug" crew when you openly admit having been rude/snarky to them.

You're likely due some compensation, and you'll likely get some. Why make it more than that?