Quite a debacle today in CUN. Last 3 flights to ATL cancelled and no other options but an overnight. Obviously because of the thunderstorms in ATL but one very odd thing happened. After the door had closed, they decided to let another passenger one, likely the person that they had been paging repeatedly onboard asking them to ring the bell. The FA seemed quite confused and said the only explanation was that this was the persons bag was on board and it was easier to let them on by reopening the door vs searching for their bag. Regardless, we timed out while we were on the taxi literally next to take off. The pilots on the PA blamed the gate agent who let a late passenger onboard. Given the other 2 flights that cancelled, I feel bad for the ground crew. It was quite an interesting experience full of screaming passengers, etc. We had to wait on the ground for the Mexican immigration to clear us back into the country. They did have busses ready within about 1 hour to take to a nearby all inclusive.

well, is someone who lives in Atlanta, I don’t know how it looks for you live, but where I live we had storms all weekend. I’m actually sitting through another one right now.


But I know a conspiracy theory is much more fun than Weather, so let’s proceed on that logic it’ll give us something to do while we watch it rain

Just looking at flightradar24, everything in the airspace around ATL down to Florida looks delayed 3 hours+ across all airlines. Lot of people landing after 2am Monday.

Heavy rain, lightning and thunderstorms in ATL this am, the 3rd morning in a row with a flood watch until 12 noon. Expect delays.

I am not sure whether I can keep flying Delta. My last 4 (!) business trips have had cancellations or required rebooking (2 where I have been stuck overnight) and once again today I'm going to miss an important business event thanks to a flight cancellation and Delta automatically rebooking me to get in 12 hours later than I was originally scheduled.

I paid a very big premium to get the early flight, now money that's been flushed down the toilet.

I'm platinum on Delta but with this kind of reliability I might as well be flying Spirit and save a few bucks. Very frustrated.

It is a good lesson that thunderstorms and tornados do not care how much you paid for a flight. Sometimes you get unlucky- it's possible for a single individual to have more problems on a flight on an airline with 95% reliability than one with 50% reliability. Of the three airlines with early morning flights on ATL-DCA this morning, only the Delta one left on time.

I've had 20 Delta segments this year, and only 3 have had any delays of any kind: once I got rebooked to arrive the same time via a different routing, once I arrived 45 minutes late, and this time I rebooked a full 24 hours later. Shrug.

Scheduling options are the #1 reason I fly Delta. At this point I have to build in at least 12-24 hours of buffer time on both sides of any trip. A massive issue for business travel.

Yes, I've been unlucky, but Delta's problems are having a material impact on my business and my career.

Every US airline is struggling mightily right now, but it’s fair to ask if Delta is still worth the hefty premium.

Not to pile on, but (I will anyway), morning weather in Atlanta has been horrific. Flew up to DCA on the 2nd flight Saturday AM and nearly every flight into and out of ATL was delayed or cancelled, and there was a ground stop for planes departing for Atlanta for about 1.5 hours. Actually the earlier flight (8:30am and mine was 10:12), only got out 10 minutes before mine in the end and both were late (I left at about 11:30) due to either inbound aircraft and/or crew delays. My plane was waiting in Gulfport, MS for the ground stop to be lifted to come to ATL and get my flight to DCA. No need for conspiracy theories. At least not yet. ;-)

I fully understand thunderstorms and any weather is out of Delta’s control.

However, thunderstorms and severe weather is nothing new in the South. Where I take DL to task is their continued ignoring of this and the never ending build out of ATL to the point where delays at ATL because of said weather create issues across the whole system for days. That is 100% on DL for putting too many eggs in one basket when many (not all) domestic flights ex-ATL could be shifted to CVG, DTW or MSP to absorb and alleviate this.

But DL doesn’t care and knows no matter how much of an inconvenience they cause you they have the “weather” excuse to fall back on. Not compensation, no hotel for you because of our greed for dominance at ATL.

I’m good… and “proof” that anecdote doesn’t equal absolute truth.

22 segments this year. 4 AA, 4 AS, 14 DL.

AA was “fine,” but I paid a fair amount for Wi-Fi.
AS was <1 hr late on two segments but was otherwise fine.

DL has been on time or early for every segment this year but one… yesterday ORD-ATL. However I switched from the 3:25 flight to the noon flight… which left at 3:45 and got me home 20 minutes later than my original flight. So even the “fail” was a success.

You really need to get a new weather source!

They care enough that they have consistently over the last 10 years and the last year run the airline that is operationally the best in the US.

Yes but when this quarter comes out they are going to be 2nd or 3rd. UA and AA are improving and Delta is getting worse.

For a group of sophisticated flyers, I am a bit surprised at some of the reactions. Yes, there are not only storms in and around Atlanta, but at points there was a wall of red convective activity on the radar BETWEEN ATL and northern Florida. Most flights to /from Florida were impacted. Couple that with reduced staff at the Jacksonville ARTCC and that further limited flow to or from every station in Florida and several Caribbean destinations as well.