If DL really wants to make a run at being LAX's biggest airline, they have a lot of firing, retraining, and very selective hiring to do. My sentiments exactly on the employees. In a market that competitive, DL can't afford to have low-quality staff. High value customers will notice, and will seek out other options after a few bad experiences.

Maybe they should pay some MSP front-line staff to move out there. Bring some of their niceness to LAX. ;)

Mahalo

Stay on DL Connection. Seems that only mainline is affected.

Stuck at LAX, waiting for a LAX-AUS flight. Communication has been terrible! Twice now I left the SC thinking that dept was imminent...first time there was even a plane coming into the gate (ground crew did not know what plane it was, turned out to be bound for Portland). I understand the delays as a residual of the outage, but the confusion seems to be getting worse instead of better as the evening progresses...

Outside the SC it's positively apocalyptic. People are crashed every which way because of course there aren't enough seats. Kids are screaming. The "need help" line rivals anything I've ever seen at Disneyland. Delta folks are pushing carts with water and snacks through all of this. It's a disaster and I truly hope SOME lesson will be learned from all of this...!

Glad I flew to Denver from MSP last night instead of today (was supposed to fly somewhere else today originally) and am taking a different airline home on Wednesday so I dodged this bullet both ways.

Am sorry for all the impacted pax though.

LAX seems to be particularly messed up today. For example, if I check flight status on the eight MSP-LAX nonstops, four of them were cancelled while the last one is supposed to arrive around 3-4 am, assuming that it eventually gets going yet tonight. For tomorrow there's no space in any inventory class on any of the nonstops, and only a seat of two (all with at least one segment in coach) on about three or four connections.

ADDED: That last MSP-LAX flight cancelled too, for a record of five cancelled and three rather badly delayed of the eight nonstops that were on today's schedule. Wow!

I wonder if inside of the SC has turned into disneyland? I am assuming there must be an overcrowding issue there as well. Wonder if the are running out of food and drink? I best LAX is a hotbed for the disgusting acts thread right now. :( :)

Oh, I think that most disgusting acts can be forgiven at this point.

Perhaps somewhat off-topic, but I and several friends have noticed a similar attitude with AS's staff at LAX (and it's been mentioned in the AS forum on FT, too). I don't know what it is--as a native Southern Californian, it doesn't strike me as being a cultural thing (versus, say, some certain attitudes you might expect to encounter in the Northeast). But maybe it is.

Lax SC has had some less than customer centric delta employees over the past few yrs and the LAX GAs are the worst.

I wonder if the flight is even full getting in that late.

With four earlier flights cancelled today and essentially no space at all tomorrow, I would expect a lot of people to stick it out and wait around, hoping that the flight goes with them on board. Otherwise, you would be hoping and fighting for space on Wednesday. At this time of year, there just isn't much excess capacity to absorb the stranded.

BTW, when I checked in the afternoon, MSP airport hotels still seemed to have lots of rooms at pretty decent rates. LAX airport hotels seem more problematic. YMMV.

If I didnt absolutely have to be there it would be a hotel or a refund for me. :cool:

One thing I LOVE about UA, and helps keep me there is ability to OAL. DL has always been much harder. In days like this, I'd rather be on UA where I know if i find availability on any airline they have an agreement with, I can get them to rebook. Sad that AA planes will probably fly out with empty seats today, and DL can't get a few more passengers out because they don't have an interline agreement with AA.

ATL is a complete sh*t show. 300+ in line in E so I didn't even bother. Found a hotel room in Buckhead, for pete's sake. NOTHING near airport. Can't apply alternate flight online, can't get an agent on phone. I've been awake 24 hours now. I honestly have to say $200 is not enough. I've been pleasant and flexible, but $200 is just not going to cut it. And I do hope they reimburse for the hotel room. If I'd waited around for help from DL at ATL, I'd be standing there still tomorrow lunch. Not sure when I'll get home. May drive if I'm awake enough. Sigh.