If you're eligible for special rate plans like AAA, the difference is price can be minimal.....plus most of us would prefer to stay with chains with which we have status.

Luckily staying with family, which is why I'm fine asking for miles only. Thanks all for the guidance!

It looks like it was a mechanical on a 763. That in principle increases the miles thrown at you. However, there were other options (at this point there is still a night flight via ATL available, getting into LGA at 10:30 am), so if need be there would be options to not lose a whole day of work, so the length of the delay in principle did not need to be an entire day, which will decrease the number of miles thrown at you. I would predict somewhere around 7-12K miles.

No that is way too little. I got 10,000 miles for a three hour delay because of a flap disagreement indicator.

You have status though unlike OP. At most I see 15k.

Were there no other rebooking options to get you in on-time or close it? Did you choose to remain on the original flight? Even with reduced schedules I find it hard that there was no options to get between DL hubs. It may have involved a connection through another DL hub or even just another city that's just normally an outstation. Did you open the rebooking toolto see what it offered? I've been given things like MSP-BOI-SLC-SAT as options in rebooking tool.

I point this out because claiming I had to miss a day of work because my 825am flight was delayed is hard to understand. If you needed to be at work next day there was plenty of options to get you there in time.

It wasn't cancelled until after being rescheduled many times, the final one being for 11:30pm.

By the time the 11:30pm flight was cancelled, there was unlikely to be any further options until Monday.

I think the point is that action could or should have been taken when the original flight was delayed by eight hours. But I agree that some compensation is due, not, however, for the consequential loss of a day's work.

You don't have to wait for it to be canceled. As soon as it was delayed OP could rebook. The point as LondonElite says is that action could have been taken at 830am if work was really that important.

I agree something is due. However I dont think the whole "I missed a day of work" thing matters as that could've been easily avoided.

"Could" is the operative word here.

If it was you or me, that is probably what we have sought.

However, in my fairly limited dealings with mechanical issues with US carriers, it's not as simple and straightforward as immediately asking for a rebooking, and immediately getting rebooked.

In any case, there is no doubt that it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that at least one passenger on this flight either didn't think/know to ask for a rebooking, or else was fobbed off with "the flight will be leaving in X hours, you'll still get to your destination faster, please take a seat and wait for the flight".

At least with DL it is that easy. The self rebooking tool would've been activated as soon as 1st delay posted.

Regardless of airline, if work was that important, as soon as 1st delay happened would've asked to rebook.

In fairness to US airlines, this is one area where they are actually very good (hub-and-spoke), and generally better than European one. Whenever there is any significant delay to a UA flight (say 2hrs +) I find that there is usually an option in the app for a rerouting.If not, a call or visit to the gate or service center brings up alternatives.

Unfortunately, the original flight needed to be on time to make it to work even to start a late swing shift, since it would have landed at JFK at just before 3PM. As soon as it was delayed, the OP had no reason to sit at the airport for 15 hours, when Delta shows over a dozen alternate routings from 9 AM onward on typical days.

Delta works hard to encourage rebooking in these kinds of situations.

DL looks at it as a customer service gesture, not compensation. It won't matter whether OP missed a day of work or was minimally inconvenienced. That latter issue is resolved by rebooking. Even when the app is not displaying great options, either calling DL or finding an agent at the airport will get one rebooked.

I think OP means they'll miss work today. (Monday) They didn't arrive yesterday and wont be in till today.