buckeyefanflyer

Thursday night Delta cancelled both night flights ATL-CLE no weather issue at CLE when flights were scheduled to land. Winter storm hit Friday morning all flights on this route were cancelled Friday and most Saturday.
Have relatives stranded in ATL since Thursday why did Delta cancel the Thursday flights if they were afraid of the aircraft being stranded Friday they could have ferried them out.

jrl767

there are lots of other factors in play … availability of flight crew and cabin crew being among the most significant, plus of course CLE not being the only destination impacted by the severe weather

Orange County Commuter

Because they have to do what they have to do to make the impact the fewest number of passengers and keep their crews safe.

In spite of what you probably think right now they didn’t do it because they don’t like you or your relatives.

CO-PLAT

They definitely don't like me and my relatives. My flight tomorrow IAH-LAX was cancelled.

GagaPilot

There’s so many factors at play here. Even as crew members we can’t always figure it out (airline pilot here). But ultimately the powers that be make a decision on what will impact the least amount of people and keep crew/planes in a rotation that will have the least amount of inconvenience.

yupenn

my TPA-LGA cancelled due to "operational issue". the other option is transfer via ATL or Monday afternoon. TPA-JFK fully booked

dave456

We were likely on the same flight. I ended up calling (waited about an hour on hold as a diamond) and having them move me to a United flight into Newark as I have a flight to SE Asia Monday and couldn't simply leave a day later. Looks like Delta has been cancelling a ton of flights the last day or two whereas United has been flying them all (albeit some with delays). Seems like there has been a big switch in operational efficiency between carriers over the last few years. I remember when Delta used to never officially cancel non-regional flights.

SEAFlyer23

Any idea how much notice is generally given for cancellations? We're supposed to fly SEA-OGG tomorrow, but its been cancelled 2 of the last 3 days. Would love to know its being cancelled before we go to the airport versus when we've already parked, checked our bags and are at the gate.

dave456

I received less than 24 hours notice - maybe 18 hours total? I was already checked in for my flight. Seems like a repeat of the operational issues Delta has had in the past (at least for the stations not directly affected by weather).

kpbadger

Both of my legs of MSN-MSP-LAS canceled on 12/24 and the earliest rebooking opportunity was 12/26. This is likely a story that thousands of customers of all airlines can say about their travel experience. I'm not particularly upset with DL about that because the storm was nasty and all airlines run reduced schedules on holidays.

We're rebooked on MSN-MSP-LAS on the 26th on DL. What really surprises me is what I found when looking into contingency plans in case either of my DL flights on the 26th get canceled or I miss the connection? As of the time of this writing (12/24), the next availability on DL to get to LAS from any of MSP, DTW, or ATL is the 28th!!! Probably not surprising given the large number of LAS flights they canceled in the past couple days -- they just don't have enough capacity to absorb all those people.


Availability from {ATL,DTW,MSP}-LAS on DL

Out of curiosity I checked UA and AA, and the difference compared to DL was shocking. Both AA and UA have multiple options on the 26th and 27th and are running significantly more planes at least into MSN. (I ended up booking a refundable ticket on AA for the 27th in case things go sour on the 26th with DL.)

As a nearly exclusive DL flyer for about 8 years now, this is the first time I've had serious doubts about DL's ability to get me from point A to point B on the day of scheduled travel or worst case, the day after. I feel like DL went into the pandemic as a clear #1 in terms of reliability -- remember "the on time machine" -- and emerged around #3. Reducing capacity while booking planes to 100% leaves no room to recover when something goes wrong.

flyerCO

Look where DL hubs are compared to AA/UA. They're just going to be more effected.

DLHubber

Delta is short-staffed, and yet they’ve got one absurd requirement for new employees that the other two of the big three don’t have.

I don’t know how things are going over at AA and UA because I never fly with them, but at least they’re not excluding a large chunk of the potential employee pool for no reason.

flyerCO

What is the requirement?

DLHubber

Two Covid shots.

flyerCO

Not unreasonable considering some countries require.