Canarsie

I think you would quickly change your mind if you had actually toured the Technical Operations Center for Delta Air Lines in Atlanta.

atldlff

I would absolutely agree here. Delta TechOps is one of the very best Aircraft maintenance operations in industry. The one thing I have never questioned is the safety and maintenance of their aircraft. They not only take pride in what they do, they take the safety and the maintenance of their aircraft very seriously. Even Boeing comes to them for advice and implements changes to their aircraft based on some of the retrofits that Delta TechOps has performed on their aircraft. So while we may have some issues with other aspects of Delta, Aircraft maintenance for me is never one of those issues.

DiverDave

Sorry you missed your events. Given the likelihood of disruptive weather this time of year in either ATL or TPA, your scheduling was certainly ambitious.

In 2009, I consider it a good day when I arrive at my destination within 90 minutes of schedule.

In any case, do ask for compensation and let us know what you get.

Take care,
David H.

tonypct

After reading more posts in this thread, seems to me that the flame-fest was right on time!

MarqFlyer

Wait -- you scheduled your travel plans with basically no margin for error even though you anticipated that DL was going to screw up, and now you're demanding miles because they supposedly did?

Sorry, but that's like someone who schedules a January trip to Fargo, and then is pissed off because it's cold....

MisterNice

Ninety minutes late and the OP wants "compensation"? What has FT become with all the whiners demanding "compensation" for any minor inconvenience, inconvenience or travel hiccup. You are lucky you didnt get a middle seat between a pair of unwashed tobacco-chewing 330 pounders loudly asking you to change to their religion every 5 minutes and praying for you every time you refuse.

MisterNice

DBCme

Actually I would think regular FT'ers would know not to ask for compensation for a 90 minute delay; 1-2 hour delays (though not much more than that) are part of flying, regardless who is at fault. But, INfrequent travelers may see a 90 minute delay as absurd and complain to anyone who will listen. OP has <20 posts and joined this year; doesn't mean he/she isn't a frequent traveler, but that was the first thing I thought of when I read the complaint.

leongood

Most of you seem to be missing my point. I had a 90 minute delay on my journey into Atlanta: didn't disrupt my travel plans at all. On this later occasion, it did. Sometimes I have a lot going on, and if my plane is late, I miss something. It happens. I'm not going to slit my wrists. I'm not going to stop trying to get between tightly strung engagements just because I might be late.
More on my point: I had a delay out of EWR earlier in the year (don't recall the exact duration, but sam eorder of magnitude). It was weather. I didn't complain. CO automatically gave me some miles. If Delta has a similar program in place, I would just like to make sure I get the miles or whatever. If they don't, then I'm happy that I will be flying CO more than DL. It implies that CO thinks 90 minutes is a bigger deal than DL.
I would call myself an experienced flyer. Never actually counted up my miles, but for sure it's over 1 million, and six continents.

JimAtl

What happened appears to be a 90-minute delay caused by a mechanical malfunction. People have been compensated for much less. While I would not ask for compensation for missed events in this case, I certainly would expect the airline to be reasonably on time, excluding events beyond the airline's control such as weather, which is apparently not the issue here despite the storm in Atlanta. The OP may be inexperienced compared to seasoned FT'ers, but is it "ludicrous" and "laughable" simply because he thought to ask someone more knowledgeable for help?

Considering a few of my comments were removed from this forum without reasons given, I am rather disappointed by you, "private poster" or not, for lending your support for such disparaging (if not inflammatory by your standard) post. Very helpful indeed. Bravo!

So many issues here... If I get a flat tire, whether it caused me to be late or not, I would expect Goodyear to buy me a new tire, provided that it is still under waranty. Now, this is not the same with the airlines because we pay for each trip, instead of a lump sum. Hypothetically, if I could pay Goodyear to service my tires every 5,000 miles, and I get a flat tire, heck yeah I would expect them to pay.

The OP didn't appear to be in a wheelchair, nor was he traveling with 5 kids, nor did he try a 20-minute connection, so your anger/frustration towards these travelers(for whatever reason) is misdirected. Inexperience travelers will make mistakes due to inexperience, if you don't want to help, I am sure there are others who will.

I don't think anyone could have predicted the weather for 9/26 or 27 a couple of months ago, when most people make their travel plans. While seasoned travelers know there is an increased chance of storms this time of the year, an inexperienced traveler probably would not take weather into consideration. I don't want to sidetrack the topic, but what the OP described is a delay caused by a mechical problem, not weather, anyway.

So the OP doesn't appear to be very knowledgeable about Delta TechOps.. Should he be flamed by others (mods included) for asking the "wrong" question or lack of knowledge about Delta maintainance? While he may have been mis-informed, he did not become defensive until after the disparaging remarks started.

Too bad I also missed the old days. But last I checked, Flyertalk still "brings everyone together -- from leisure travelers to mileage junkies". "Whiners" apparently are still welcome, too.

tjisnumbaone

Doubtful.

+1 for all of those. I would have moved up to the earlier flight, maybe even 2 earlier. There are always delays. Mom has missed (IIRC) 2 connections in ATL that were 45 min. long.

Honestly, you need to add more time when planning your flights. I am a 1.5-hr connector in ATL, no less. 1 hr for most other airports.

If I was the deciding person for compensation, you'd get 1,000 miles and a tip to plan better next time.
You never know at ANY airport.

eddie1973

90 mins delay & you missed 2 events? You should've leave the day before. Get over it. This is not Japan where trains and planes run 90% on-time. Another example of excessive greed.

iTanNicNic

The analogy I was trying to make is that if a mechanical difficulty causes you to miss something, it's not the end of the world. Your rebuttal completely left out the part about compensation for the event (or in my example, work time) missed, which was the entire point I was trying to get across.

These were general statements, not directed towards the OP per se. I fault myself for not including a line break to make that more clear.

I want to help, and have probably have helped more than anybody on this thread, purely for the fact that I deal with these passengers on a daily basis, at a job that pays me virtually nothing. While I may think that these passengers are totally at fault, it's still my job to help them the best I can, and the ability to not take things personally and not to assess by the situation but by the ultimate goal (to get from point A to point B) with a smile that comes from my passion for what I do. Not too many people at Delta (or the regional partners) have that, as you can find quite easily from many of the threads here.

zsmith2

^^

PMMMDL

I in no way mean to be harsh, but this is how I see it.


1. No, the OP is not entitled to conpensation for a 90 minute delayed flight.

2. To my knowledge, DL does not have a policy to compensate passengers who are delayed for 90 minutes due to mechanical failures.

3. The OP should never schedule things so tightly that a 90 minute delay in a flight will have a serious domino effect in his schedule, especially if he is an experienced flyer with more than 1 million miles in the air. Missing the meetings is his own fault, and it was just stupid to have scheduled them so tightly together if the meetings were at all important. It sounds like the meetings were not very important and so missing them should never have even been brought up, except the OP was trying to give impetus to his claim for compensation.

Crazyhotelguy

Here we go with the CO vs. DL battle.... Haven't seen this one in at least a day on FT. Waiting for one of my former NW peers to pipe in with a blast DL for not doing what NW would have done....

TPA must have been the problematic destination this week. After arriving int ATL from Key West 2 hours late on Thursday evening, it appeared that the TPA flight was on time. RIght before boarding, the pilots were pulled to work a prior TPA flight that had been delayed three hours due to a mechanical issue. New pilots were called in from home to work our 10:35 PM flight. The pilot and FO arrived around 11:45PM and the plane departed around 12:25AM.

I was delayed two times in the same day for two hours each, should I get double compensation for my troubles?

For the record, I did not complain, but may actually put a nice note in due to the fact that I was pretty impressed by how the gate agent handled things. Yes, friendly and helpful in ATL.... What a concept..