desbat

Hello, I am wondering if a $250 first offer from Delta for a trip cancellation\delay in Europe is reasonable or a low ball.

I was traveling for work\personal with my wife to Prague. (vacation day before and then work for a few days and several vacation days afterwards).
We were traveling from GRB to PRG (connection in DTW and AMS) on July 1st\2nd.
3 hours prior to take off we receive an email stating the third leg of our flight (AMS to PRG) was cancelled with no reason.
They re-booked us on separate flights. Not sure why, but that wouldn't be acceptable.
We went straight to the airport early to see what the check in agent could do. We were there 2.5 hours before our scheduled first flight. She had no idea why the flight was cancelled. I asked if it was due to weather and she said no.
The agent had to call the EU partner airline and was on the phone for over 2.5 hours. We asked several times if we could at least board our first flight as we are right there ready to go. They denied stating they guarantee our checked bags would go all the way through (which I thought was odd)
I even asked if we could at least get on the plane and have them figure something out in flight and let me know when I land, but they said no.
Eventually she said well you just missed your flight.
Their resolution was to have me leave the airport (GRB) and drive to APL (30 minutes away) to board another flight 4 hours later.
They re-booked APL to DTW to CDG to PRG.
Once arriving at PRG we discovered my bag was lost, but my wifes bag made it. (not being able to guarantee our bags would make it was the reason why they re-booked the way they did, so it didn't do any good).
By the time we got to the hotel we had lost about 6 hours of personal vacation and my bag didn't arrive till 2:00 AM.
I had a work dinner event planned for arrival night which I ended up having to wear shorts and a t-shirt to (glad I packed a spare change a clothes in my carry on).
I called into Delta when I landed and submitted a claim for something to be done for lost time and luggage.
27 days later (this past Friday) I received a call from a Delta rep who's first comment was we have to close out this claim and we are going to send you each $250. I asked for them to call me next week as I wasn't available to discuss the matter at that time. With extreme reluctance he agreed to call back. They called me again today insisting I must take this check now and he will close out the case. I told him I would not accept a close out at this time as I wanted to do some research as to what I am entitled to. I informed them that my work travel agency was getting involved which is something he stated had nothing to do with my compensation. Again with extreme reluctance he agreed to call me back tomorrow at 2:00 PM share to close out the case.

A friend of mine suggested airhelp and I went through their online estimator and it said I was entitled to $291. But after a 25% fee I would end up with less than the direct Delta offer.

I am not looking to get rich, I just want to be fairly compensated for the lost vacation time and I have a suspicion with the aggressiveness of the delta agent this is just a low ball over

I would be interested in any suggestions or recommendations i.e. take the check as that is as good as you would expect, hold out and see if I can get more. take a chance with airhelp to see if they can get me more money, etc

thank you

exwannabe

Keep this simple and clear with your 3 issues

Due to a canceeled flight (for whatever reason):

. Because of the airport change you drove GRP-APL and incurred whatever expenses (both ways).
. You suffered a 6 hour delay
. Bags delayed causing an issue a problem at a business dinner.

I do not know what is reasonable for this. I would guess you might get a bit more (particularly if you include the APL parking).

But keep it clear and direct else the legiit issues get lost in the fog of war.

EDIT: Do NOT try to claim the "lost vacation time". Regardless of what you think about this one, no airline will accept such claims on them and that might cloud your legit issues.

EDIT2: No reason to go to airhelp, whatever taht is. just reply to DL. that you think they should do more for you.

jetsfan92588

No one can really tell you what the "right" number is. That seems like a fair number to me, you may consider asking for more though. Has anyone been in a position where they've asked for more and Delta rescinded the original offer? (Real question)

As for the agent being weird about forcing you to accept the number, my guess is strange/unpolished negotiating tactics as opposed to anything truly nefarious.

TTT

Since the cancelled flight was AMS-PRG wouldn't EC261 come into play?

btonkid12345

That's what DL is paying. AMS-PRG is the only affected flighthe as the other flights were US-EU on DL.

AMS-PRG is a Type 1 flight and they were delayed by more than 2 hours, so 250 Euros is due.

Anything additional would have to be either documented expenses or goodwill on behalf of DL - the latter of which wouldn't come as cash.

desbat

xooz

Deleted: Others just posted what I was trying to cover in this post.

exwannabe

I thought about that, but does it really help? I think that would be 250EU which is only a few bucks more and if OP goes thta way I doubt DL would do any more.

So unless I have this wrong, OP would be fighting an EU 261 claim for something like $30 (over the DL offer) vs just asking DL for more and seeing what happens.


EDIT: I missed that DL already played the EU-261 card.

desbat

desbat

flyerCO

Yes. However phrase it that you're requesting the miles due to how badly it was handled, not as comp for the cancelled flight.

TTT

That makes sense. I thought they looked at the distance of the entire journey though?

Often1

There are two entirely different issues in play here. What OP has written is confusing and may be the cause of part of the problem.

1. EC 261/2004 only applies to non-EU carriers for flights departing from the EU and it only applies to the operating carrier. Thus, whatever happened up until AMS is simply a customer service matter and not a compensation matter. DL's offer of $250 is not a "first offer" but a fairly standard offer presuming tickets in Y and perhaps not high-level status. DL is not responsible for lost time and will only pay for the local departure change if negotiated at the time OP accepted the reroute.

2. AMS-PRG was cancelled and is, of course not operated by DL and is a flight between two points in the EU. OP may make a claim for EUR 250, the compensation for a Type 1 flight (<1,500 km) to the operating carrier of that flight (why not provide its name rather than calling it a "partner")? That is entirely separate from whatever customer service gesture DL has offered. This claim should be no more than 2-3 sentences long and deals only with the cancellation and not the remaining issues about what was and was not handled properly. Your carrier may have a webform.

3. Similarly, claims for luggage are handled by the last delivering carrier, in this case the mysterious partner and OP may make a claim for whatever reasonable expenses he had to replace the missing clothes for the dinner. If he chose to go in whatever he brought with him, then he does not have a claim. European carriers tend to be generous about paying these costs, but strict about paying costs not gestures. Note that most carriers have time limits for claims and you should make sure to stick with the limit for your carrier.

In the end, OP will wind up with $250 in DL funny money and EUR 250 in cold hard cash (check). Not a bad haul.

TheHorta

btonkid12345

Only for EU carriers or if the flight originated in the EU.

DL was the overseas carrier and the flight originated in the US.

They do, but a customer can accept miles or vouchers instead. They might entertain the vouchers but no way they're giving out 50K SMs for two no-status passengers in coach - you requesting in the past, as a DM, is very different.