Long story short:

Mechanical IRROPS resulted in a 2.5 hour delay DTW - JFK and a missed connection JFK - TLV. As a result, we were delayed a total of 8 hours getting into TLV and missed almost all of the first day of the conference that was the purpose of traveling. I initiated a complaint to Delta partly because of the actions of the ground staff and partly because of the delay and the result. I've received an apology.


The longer story:

Upon arrival to DTW, our outgoing flight was showing a 20 minute delay. Not terrible - we had a 2 hour connection to make the JFK-TLV flight that afternoon. After waiting for about 30 minutes, the gate agent announces that the incoming plane has not yet left GRR and the delay is now 50 minutes. Concerning but not yet critical. The GA also announces that the flight is oversold and they are looking for 5 volunteers - $800 in vouchers to take a later flight. We were approached specifically because it would be an easy rebooking to put us on the midnight flight from JFK - TLV instead of the 4 pm flight. We declined since that would mean missing the first day of a 2 day conference that was the purpose of travel. I did offer to give up the seat if they could reroute me from DTW with a decent arrival time, before noon, into TLV. Told that was not an option.

After several more delays, and another round with the GA and Delta reservations we were told to stay on the current flight since we could still make it, and if we did not there are more options from JFK. Fine. Well, we missed the flight - we sat on the tarmac watching the TLV flight load, with 2 empty gates adjacent, but waiting for a delayed flight to vacate a third gate so we could park and deplane. We missed the connection.

Delta's ground staff rebooked us onto the later flight, with a nice 8 hour stay in JFK (and without so much as even an offer of a food voucher) with an apology but absolutely no willingness to make any attempt to find a routing with an earlier arrival. The only option was to refund the ticket and go try and buy one at the gate from another carrier.

When it was closer to boarding time. I approached the gate agent working the flight and asked what seats were available as I needed a seat assignment and given some recent medical problems, the ability to get up and stand/walk without disturbing or climbing over other passengers would be very helpful. I even offered to pay the buy up to Comfort+. No dice. Middle seat in the back, with a side helping of surly attitude and nonsensical rambling about how the weather in NY the day before made me miss the connection.

I've had 4 rounds of e-mail communication with Marsha in customer service including the last message which apologized and stated that no further response from Delta was warranted. My question - would you push it if Delta has thus far been so obstinate?

I'm NOT saying that Delta doesn't have some fault here, but, why do people book such a LONG and important trip without a cushion? Arriving from long haul TATL flights, with a conference THE SAME DAY?!?!? Did you at least consider going a day early, just in case of any problems?!? Not to mention . . . flying in coach, I'd certainly think you'd want to rest for a day.

^

OP - sorry to hear about your recent delays. A few questions to help me and others perhaps better understand the details.

*Was the delay in DTW due to MX or weather? You mentioned that incoming equipment was late (why?), that MX happened in DTW, and that the GA at JFK said something about weather causing the delay. Or perhaps there was delayed incoming equipment AND MX in DTW. Let us know.

*Did you independently verify alternative rebookings when offered the VDB? In these instances, as well as in IRROPS, DL can usually book onto KLM or AF transatlantic. They have nonstops to DTW and AMS that, with one connection there, would have gotten you to TLV. I never trust the GAs, just because they are low on time and are taking what the system gives them...not because they are purposely trying to pull something on you...and with flights as full as they are these days, it is best to check your options independently.

I love VDBs (rare as they are) because you can almost do anything you want with routing and such, and even if it's the last seat left, if it's available for sale at any price, it's yours (I had an op-up internationally on a VDB once because the GA moved me to an oversold in Main flight, unbeknownst to me).

*Regarding your back and forth with customer service - what specifically do you want (besides an apology) that they haven't granted yet? Compensation? If so, what do you think is fair, and have you proposed it to your CS representative yet?

The bottom line first: Drop it. There is nothing to push. You have DL's decision. When Marsha told you, after four rounds that it is all over, it means that DL will back her up unless there is some horrible misunderstanding. There is not.

A better way to put this is: What do you want from DL above and beyond an apology?

DL basically owes OP an apology and a dinner (it was a MX delay which led to the misconnect). You got the apology. I would forget about the dinner. But, the problems here are the nature of creeping delays which are usually unavoidable.

As soon as OP misconnected, he had missed the only flight which would get him to downtown Tel Aviv for a meeting the next afternoon.

The only other option out there which would have got you to TLV any earlier than the later DL service, and it still would have eaten up the bulk of the afternoon, was the LY service at 7:00 PM. You have not advised whether LY had availability. Perhaps it was full?

Given that DL has a later service with space, it is fairly reasonable to refuse to rebook you onto LY.

I have no idea of the fare you paid or what LY was selling for that night. But, for a random day next week, it would cost an extra $30 to fly LY over DL. DL did offer, as it is required to, to refund its ticket. So you could simply have headed over to LY and purchased a ticket.

As to C+, I presume that there were no seats. DL, of course sells those and you offered to pay.

I get that this was a bad experience, but the only aspects which could have been handled better had to do with customer handling. The broken aircraft took the time it took to get itself fixed and so forth.

As davetravels notes, if the purpose of this trip was time-sensitive, you pushed the envelope too far here. This trip required arrival a day earlier just because planes break, weather intervenes, and things happen as they did here.

Certainly not an ideal scenario, but I had business locally the morning of departure.

Have to agree with this. If the meeting in a foreign country is that important then an arrival that pretty much guarantees attendance is in order. YMMV.

If the initial delay was mechanical and that resulted in an 8-hour delay in your destination arrival then yes, I would contact Delta another way to ask for compensation. If that doesn't work, try Twitter. In my experience, Delta is hit-and-miss with mechanical compensations. Although irrelevant now, Northwest was much more customer friendly in this regard.

The delay was mechanical - there was NOTHING about weather that caused the delay. The GA at JFK was just, imho, shirking any responsibility to be helpful let alone civil.

Yes, I did. We turned down the VDB because there were no suitable options on DL or a partner that would arrive early enough. There were, if memory serves, AC and UA flights.

I asked them for compensation proportional to the amount of the conference that was missed, or ~$300. I didn't think that was particularly out of line given the ticket cost was over $2200

See above. Part of what bothers me about this is that in this scenario, changing my plans is worth $800 to DL if it suits them, $450 if it suits me, and $0 when it's DLs fault.


While I see your point - there is a definite distinction between weather related delays (in which case I wouldn't be irritated with DL) and MX. At this point, I am angry about the flippant disregard from customer service and maybe that is what's ultimately driving me. Or maybe my expectations were/are just too high. My days of frequent travel are, for now, behind me. Hence, why I was asking to see what people who are much more in tune with things currently had to say. Thanks!

I say - THIS is the problem:

Too much to do with not enough time.

If you arrived 8 hours late, and missed half of your conference, you literally had ZERO margin for error! Surely you must've realized this when you booked it?!?

Here is the starting point. There is no compensation due. Of any kind. Check the COC. All you can ask for is a customer service gesture which is solely in DL's discretion. DL has determined that you are not getting anything beyond an apology and that is the end of it.

People on FT tend to obsess about MX delays. But, those only matter when there is an overnight and it means that DL would have owed you a hotel. But, that is not the case here. True, DL ought to have covered your dinner at JFK, but I don't think that this is what your dispute is about.

There is zero chance that DL will cover any part of your conference cost. That is a consequential damage and you expressly agreed not to claim those when you purchased the ticket. Now you are trying to make a claim. If DL starts down that road, the next person will claim for the loss of a commission on a $2 Million sale and the person after that for the loss of a job offer. So, air carriers put their foot down (not that they have feet).

If you want, you can try writing a short letter to DL. Make it no more than 3-4 short declarative sentences. If you can't make your point in that time, it won't get made. Maybe you will strike some sympathy. But, you are up against some agent's written notes as to why she denied a customer service gesture and DL is pretty good about backing its people up.

You may find it easier to drop this one and move on.

I have no idea if compensation is due, will leave that up to the experts, and maybe the amount if any would be based on length of delay and not personal cost to the OP. But all of that seems like a separate question from whether OP's schedule was prudent, and in any case it sounds like there wasn't much choice, so I feel like people are being unduly harsh in focusing on that detail in this particular case.

NO airline is ever going to consider consequential damages of arriving late as something they owe you.

There was a humorous thread here years ago from a lady who claimed she lost out on a multi-million dollar business deal due to a 12 hour delay. If airlines ever accepted this, it would destroy them.
The lack of symmetry exists, and does so in many cases. If I buy a ticket to a baseball game and can not make it, I lose. But if they can not play the game there is no penalty on them.

Anyway, back to your question. Delta owes you zip, but may well back their "sorry" with some sky miles or such. But keep on point with nothing more than MX delay cause 8 hour arrival delay.

BTW: In post 1 you mentioned you were delayed waiting on a gate when there were empty gates. Alas, unlike us Americans, not all gates are created equal.

EDIT: To Zorak, I somewhat agree with your point. But want to make clear that several replies (mine included) are not meant to be "harsh", but just to address reality and suggest a path forward.

Which I'm totally fine with; just that, it was starting to feel like people were piling on about the lack of buffer in the schedule and maybe distracting from constructive replies to the question.

The only factor is that the OP has a fiduciary duty to himself to not risk the $2200 trip. If truly no one else could have handled the "morning business", then the risk potential opened, and unfortunately came to fruition. Good people sometimes make poor choices.