Narrow Seat

My friend was one of the thousands of Delta Airlines passengers stranded in Atlanta due to the Christmas weekend storms. After his flight was canceled he waited in line for NINE HOURS to attempt to rebook for a later flight. Eventually, he got up to the front of the line and got a confirmed reservation for later in the week. No vouchers for food or hotels were offered. (He had no status and was flying economy class.)

Here is my question to him: Why didn't he just use the Delta App and attempt to rebook using this marvelous technology? (My friend insisted in an airline crisis this severe the Delta App would be worthless.)

Would the Delta App be helpful in this situation? I don't see why not. I suspect it may have saved him the nine-hour wait in line.

Tell us your stories of using the Delta App instead of waiting in line for a face-to-face visit with an airport customer service rep during a SERVERE weather event with massive delays and cancellations.

EDITED FOR UPDATE: I showed my friend this thread and he told me that he does not have the Delta App and believed that even if he did, he is convinced it would not work in this crisis. He had a simple question to all the Flyertalk posters: If the Delta App was really that great why didn't Delta have someone go up and down the Customer Service line that snaked through the airport and announce that everyone should use the Delta App instead of wait in the endless line? (FYI: He tried calling Delta from his phone but got a fast busy signal showing lines were jammed.)

Orange County Commuter

App would not have been useless. When the world started shutting down in March 2020 I was in Cancun with six friends. Using the app or website on my phone I rebooked everyone of them while I was on hold with Delta.


When I was traveling weekly for business, I routinely rebooked myself on the app in the event of winter storms or hurricanes. It can be done and if the app doesn’t work just pull up the website on your phone and do it there Those would’ve been my first two choices.. Did he get on the phone also or did he just stand in line for nine hours? I ask because I had a relative rebook yesterday and he was on hold for an hour so I think he probably could’ve gotten through on the phone line in less than nine hours.

HDQDD

The app has almost always worked well for me in IROPS. But in the OP's friend's case, I would have called, and while on hold try to work a better solution on the app. There's not much I'd wait 9 hrs in line for, definitely not to be rebooked.

jrl767

standing in line, on hold for a phone agent, and simultaneously working on the app or the mobile website — it’s called “multi-tasking”

shoodawg

+1 on the app in most situations. Happy holidays to all.

beachmouse

I’ve rebooked myself from the app a number of times while my plane was on ‘hold at origin’ orders due to thunderstorms in ATL.

I actually feel like the app a necessary part of modern travel planning- once you have the sense that everything’s about to go pear-shaped because of a major weather event, there are only going to be a limited number of vaguely okay rebooking options to get you where you want to go and you absolutely have to grab what’s acceptable as soon as possible. The app lets me effectively ‘jump the line’ and get ahead of several thousand other people trying to rebook similar with a live human.

emma dog

Re app, exactly as described. Essential.

re hotel, etc. No airline would do anything for pretty much anyone due to this being a widespread weather event with waivers in place.

flyerCO

EU/UK airlines will. Plus any airline flying from EU/UK. There's other countries, just the easiest example.

Ghoulish

No they don't.

flyerCO

They're required by LAW. Sorry to disappoint.
Duty of care always applies. EU airline had to pay for hotels for weeks for passengers when canceled flights due to Iceland volcano.

Ghoulish

No EC261 doesn't cover mass weather events. They're considered "extraordinary circumstances" outside of the airline's control.

flyerCO

You're confused. Compensation does not apply. Duty of care ALWAYS applies.

aww3583

I’ve always been a big proponent of the app.

Today, I reached out via the app regarding a lost bag. I was unable to submit the lost bag report via the app, so I used the chat iMessage function.

Been waiting 3+ hours for a response when initially was told of an 80-minute wait.

emma dog

Thats cool and all, but the friend is flying Delta from Atlanta. My answer relates to this situation. 🙄

flyerCO

If that what you wanted to say, that's not what you said.

You simply stated no airline provides hotel for weather. Nothing limiting to a domestic flight, or alluding to that being what you are specifically referring to.

Also a domestic flight may indeed be covered by EC261 depending how it was sold.