MSPeconomist

The rumors around here suggest that MSP was able to rebook passengers in generally satisfactory ways.

flyerCO

300 flights? However how many passengers were effected? How long were they delayed? When was the flight canceled? (Some has early as two days ago)

No the sky isn't falling, especially as Christmas day is one of the slowest days of year.

Intl359Widget

Delta would not rebook my colleague over to AA as they tried to blame weather for their ATLPHX cancellation so he booked a separate ticket to get home. I suggested my colleague send the receipt to DL for reimbursement as AA had plenty of space but the agents in ATL wouldn’t do anything. Had he not tried, he would have missed Christmas with his family yesterday.

As for me, I had to fly into a different airport and rent a car to drive home which isn’t the end of the world but it was disappointing to see how they handled this in ATL.

MSPeconomist

Yesterday was Christmas Eve, today is Christmas.

Orange County Commuter

I used to fly a lot on Christmas day. And the plane loads were fairly light back then. If it’s still that way and I was delta, what I would do is cancel flights today to use those crews where I need them the rest of the weekend.


It’s possible today’s cancellations are not a meltdown but a planned decision to re-organize and get through the next few days

sydneyracquelle

Passengers were notified before they left for the airport and no one connects on DL via FLL.

HDQDD

If it's COVID, or even if employees falsely claimed it's COVID (not sure they're allowed to ask for proof) they're out for 10 days after positive test, even if vaxed, per FAA (which is following CDC guidelines (below)). So they won't be back next week...or if they are, we'll know DL et al were using the Covid excuse to over up inflated Holiday sick outs.

https://www.faa.gov/other_visit/avia.../SAFO20009.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...isolation.html

TrojanTraveler

Now in ATL. Normal situation, doesn’t feel like how chaotic it can get during a weather issue. The “can I help you areas” do not have long lines. That said, FRA, MUC, UIO and LHR have been cancelled, among others, which is likely to be more disruptive to those pax.

TrojanTraveler

I understand that. My comments were an observation.

MSPeconomist

In recent years, DL has been trimming its schedule for Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, etc. Flights that operate on these holidays aren't as empty as they were in the past.

I always liked to do an international nonstop on these days, and hub lounges were open. Even on very busy holiday travel days, international nonstops were great as soon as one got through TSA airport security.

TrojanTraveler

Yes though it depends on the flight. My flight to ATL was not full (until the cancellations started). My connecting flight has been quite full, especially in F and C+, since I booked it about a month ago.

MSPeconomist

I don't know about DL (and it would be part of the pilot union contract, so their terms are likely to be different) but many big companies have policies saying that if an employee claims more than several paid sick days in a row, the supervisor has a right to ask for documentation that the person was ill, although the documentation isn't supposed to discuss the diagnosis or symptoms, and similarly the supervisor can ask for documentation for even one paid sick day around holidays. There can also be consequences for taking too many periods of sick leave within a certain time, so that coming back to work too early and then needing to take another sick day (two separate periods fo sick leave for one episode of being ill) is risky.

DenverBrian

Some families focus their festivities, present opening, etc. on Christmas Eve in the evening.

Saab_Redondo_1987

OK: I was trying to fly LAX-ATL-PBI and the flight to ATL got delayed because it's been downpouring rain around LAX. Rebooked into FLL on the app, then called DL and changed it to PBI because extended family turns out they'll be around after all for a Christmas dinner. The flight was supposed to leave today at 9:30am and get into PBI at 7:26pm and then it randomly got moved to a redeye leaving on the 26th.

I called DL, had them call me back after a nearly 4 hour wait time picking up at 3:35am today (after my bags were packed) and agent said someone called in to make the adjustment to a redeye (wasn't me, no way in hell I would do this). Then I get an apology email from DL about missing the holidays and call back into the Platinum Line this AM. Agent says that redeye flight was asked for, and told them it wasn't me, nearly got switch over to the DL security line to make sure someone wasn't tampering with my account. Finally after another 45+ minute wait got to an agent who said it was (what I suspected) an automated routing computer bug to the redeye flight for no apparent reason, using COVID as an excuse. They rebooked me for tomorrow at 10:35am (Thank God as I have some major work calls on Monday) arriving into PBI at 8:30pm.

The interesting thing is if I kept my initial flight, I probably wouldn't have made the connection regardless to PBI anyway as it got even more delayed out of LAX and would've been stuck in ATL. It's just a sheer mess and I'm not certain ... is going on with them.

BTW: Pre-COVID in 2018 I flew on Christmas Day on LAX-SLC-EWR and it was calm and pleasant. Super early AM flight out of LAX but whatever, got upgraded to F into EWR on a 738 or 739. Nothing like this episode.

DLmedalliongold

Shocking that at least so far AA has kept it together much better than Delta. Tomorrow and Monday will show just how bad this really is for Delta. I wonder if AA’s 300% pay bonus has had anything to do with their superior performance, which saying that is so strange to me! Lol.