bloodyeyeballs

Yesterday Mrs. Eyeballs and I were scheduled to fly in first on LAX-BNA at 5 PM. When we arrived at LAX at 3 PM we were texted that the flight was cancelled. Since Mrs. Eyeballs and I were on separate PNR's we were each rerouted differently. Instead we asked to fly to IAH at 620 pm and we planned to overnight at IAH at our expense. We then asked for them to interline us on UA from IAH-BNA at 737 am. At that time, the flight appeared to be empty, but it was full this am. Despite availability for us on saver points (21K each in Economy) Delta said United was sold out for interlining on that flight. As it was getting close to departure time to IAH I just used miles and grabbed the IAH to BNA. Of note is we were first class award tickets. Of additional note is that there were only 2 agents at the Skypriority counter at LAX and as we all know, rebooking and interlining requires time and patience as the agents sit on hold powerless.

Today I saw on another thread that LAX-BNA was again cancelled.

Needless to say I am disappointed in Delta as this clearly was not a one-off cancellation. I am also annoyed that they were unable to interline me on UA as I was able to purchase tickets for a reasonable price with ease. I know it was an award ticket, but I have had no trouble in the past having irrops changed to other carriers with award tickets. At this point would any additional actions be appropriate or should I just lick my wounds and enjoy my vacation?

DLASflyer

Delta has the 6th most cancellations in the world today behind five Chinese carriers.

xliioper

From Flightaware stats, it looks like they might be having staffing issues with the 737 fleet -- https://flightaware.com/live/fleet/DAL/cancelled
Both DL and AS cancelled around 60 flights today. But that represents 8% of AS flights vs. %2 of DL flights. While certainly not normal for DL, it's not quite meltdown territory either.

DLASflyer

Typically on holidays not enough pilots are willing to pick up shifts. We’ve seen it with Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and now Mother’s Day.

Cory6188

I'm not sure how much this is attributable to Mother's Day. Could be, but my brother and his fiance were flying ATL-EWR last Sunday (5/1), and two consecutive mid-day ATL-EWR segments were canceled due to a lack of crew. No major holiday I can think of last weekend. Obviously, every industry is having labor shortage issues, but it's super frustrating given how operationally bulletproof DL used to be.

MSPeconomist

Outside of the USA, May 1st is an international labor day holiday. However, this shouldn't lead to crew members in the USA deciding not to report to work.

xliioper

Flightaware still has cancellation stats online going back to weekend of May 1st for a number of DL hubs. Looking at ATL, DTW, MSP departures, I count about a dozen departures cancelled last weekend (mostly out of ATL) which does not really indicate a widespread issue when you think about the number of daily DL departures out of ATL. This past weekend saw about 30 departure cancellations spread fairly evenly among the 3 hubs (mostly 739 flights) and looks to have been a more significant event. There were very few weekday DL cancellations last week out of these hubs.

Adam1222

This or similar statistics gets thrown out repeatedly, but is fairly meaningless absent a denominator.

By percentage, Delta was tied for 37th most cancellations in the world yesterday, and had substantially lower delay rates than every other major US carrier. Delta had 2% of flights cancelled and 15% of flights delayed yesterday. United, for example, had 1% cancelled and 21% delayed. Alaska had 8% cancelled and 20% delayed. I don't think one could look at yesterday's data and in good faith suggest Delta is more operationally challenged than its peers.

sweetsleep

I am supposed to fly DL on LAX to BNA on August 10 after arriving on LH at 13:05. Hope that nonstop doesn't get cancelled.

DLASflyer

Regardless, 66 cancellations is a bad day for Delta.

hotshot265

Yes with the lack of available capacity 66 cancellations is a bad day for most airlines these days with most flights being at 100% capacity.

xliioper

The fact that the vast majority of flights cancelled over the weekend, along with 7 out of 8 flights cancelled today, were 737 flights seems to point to a 737 pilot type staffing shortage. If it was due to the holiday or general/FA staffing issues (as speculated by some), one would expect a more random distribution of cancellations among DL plane types. I suppose it could be a combination of both holiday and being thin on 737 pilots presently.

KDCAflyer

It's pretty crazy that Delta Connection is often more reliable than mainline these days. I've found the same thing to be true with American Eagle.

flyerCO

Easier to hire crew. Mainline can't hire them till they meet certain hours.

DLASflyer

I don’t think that is true. Delta has a training backlog. The regionals have a pilot shortage.