Compensation? (Question)
 

I'm currently on a super delayed flight from PEK-DTW, and we're estimated to depart 4:10 after the scheduled departure time of 4:50 PM. There are multiple mechanical problems, beginning with low oil to, now, the aircraft needing new brake pads. I recognize that getting me from point A to B as safely as possible is DL's #1 priority. At the same time, this will cause me to miss an important meeting at my destination.

What would you say is adequate compensation for something like this? I'm not one to usually complain, but this seems ridiculous. Sadly, I'm going to misconnect in DTW and will need to spend the night in DTW, which DL will cover.

For what it's worth, I'm a DM flying in paid J.

I'd appreciate whatever input you all have.

Doesn't look super delayed to me.;) I was on a flight which was delayed by more than eight hours in May (MX). I supposed I could have called it super duper delayed. :p

Write to DL and they will throw you Skymiles. My guess is 25K for DM in DeltaOne.

Now *that* is definitely super-duper delayed. Apparently when the low oil indicator illuminated during take off, the computer automatically activated the brakes and reverse thrusters. As a result, we need a new brake pad. According to the FA, this also created a problem in the crew rest area, so that part is unusable. There are, however, plenty of J seats open, and I suspect that the crew will sleep in these seats. There's also a guy who wants to get off the plane, which, unfortunately isn't easy, especially in China.

We're still on the ground and ten minutes from the updated departure time. (Sadly, I don't think we're going to be leaving st 9:00 PM.)

There is no computer that throws on the brakes. If a low oil caution came on during the takeoff toll the Captain made a choice to abort the takeoff. A high speed abort almost always requires a change of all wheels and tires and at international weights will usually result in a brake fire. At lower speeds you might need to change some components and a brake cooling period will need to be observed. I suspect this was a lower speed abort because the criteria for aborting gets progressively more stringent at higher speeds. Basically below 80 knots you abort for almost anything abnormal. At higher speeds you abort only for engine failure, fire, wind shear or a certainty the aircraft will not fly. The crew rest area would have to be a different issue. It would not be related to the abort.

There's almost always something each passenger is missing when a flight misconnects - a meeting, a court appearance, the birth of a child, a last chance to see a dying loved one, the winning lottery ticket you were going to buy just before the drawing that would have undoubtedly won....

Delta will usually reimburse the legitimate expenses attributable to the delay - the extra night in a hotel and meals etc. They will not reimburse you for the missed opportunity costs. However, they will often award skymiles as additional compensation.

These things happen.

OP: use the existing thread next time: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...on-thread.html

Yeah, I totally understand. Sadly, a fellow passenger is supposed to make it to a funeral, which is really unfortunate.

I think most people here would say that, if a meeting was so important that a 4 hour delay on in international itinerary from half way around the world with a connecting flight will cause you to miss an "important meeting", you probably should have left earlier, or scheduled the meeting later.

I would probably have scheduled it differently but OP might be in a situation that does not make a different scheduling possible.

If I had to guess, OP has one of the higher new-thread-to-existing-thread ratios in the DL forum :p

Perhaps, but, does that mean that Delta should hafto pay out compensation for poor planning that didn't allow any margin of error?

maybe they ran out of blinker fluid AND or muffler bearings?