It encourages airlines not to IDB PAX and in the case of MX rebook pax and get them out as quick as possible. If also allows passengers to get cash refunds in failure to deliver situations. I don't see the connection to income taxes.

Cancelled International Flight: Compensation?
 

My better half was booked on the cancelled DL 201 tonight from JNB-ATL. Here's a brief rundown of the cancellation, with the disclaimer that most of this was communicated during a harried phone call:

1. The flight boarded and left the gate on time around 9pm in JNB. After a short taxi, the pilot announced that the plane was overweight, and that they would have to sit on the taxiway and burn fuel to get to a safe takeoff weight.

2. After ~2 hours of burning fuel, the pilot announced that the plane was still overweight and that the crew was about to time out. So, the flight was canceled. This was around 11:30pm in JNB.

3. By my better half's account, the situation after the plane deboarded was chaos. DL's ground staff (who I would assume are contractors) gave few instructions about baggage claim, rebooking, and accommodations. She eventually got her bags and DL has put her up at a hotel.

4. She has been rebooked on DL 9865, a special section using tonight's plane that is now scheduled to leave JNB at 7pm tomorrow.

I have now been tasked with drafting my better half's complaint to DL about this cancellation. The simple version of my query is this: what compensation (miles, etc.), if any, would it be reasonable for her to request for this 22-hour delay?

The longer version of my query wonders what series of events could lead to a flight being canceled due to weight restrictions after it has boarded and left the game? I understand that the JNB-ATL flight has its own unique issues due its distance and the heat and elevation at JNB. But the weather at JNB tonight was not overly warm (upper 70s at scheduled departure). And surely DL knows the approximate weight of a flight long before departure.

On a brighter note, the agent I spoke with tonight on the medallion line went above and beyond. Although my better half has no DL status, the agent spent 20 minutes with me and my flustered better half (on the phone from JNB) looking through possible alternative routings for her, including on KLM & AF codeshares, and confirming her rebooked flight for tomorrow.

I can't address everything but as you know, no one can predict weather to a certainty. Unfavorable winds or bad weather in ATL (or along the way) may necessitate more or less fuel (more or less weight). It seems this flight has had one heck of a bad track record these past few days.

Delta's current unadvertised policy (based on experience) is to compensate their most valuable customers with miles. You may get up to 10,000 customer service relations miles for voicing your complaint. I have heard that Silver elites and regular members are not compensated at all when they write in asking for compensation on canceled flights (of course experiences may vary). On NWA, when a flight was delayed by 2 hours or so we could get a travel voucher which included $25 off next NWA ticket, 2,500 bonus miles, and a meal voucher.. anyone remember those days?

And a $10 phone card! :)

YMMV, but as DL FO, I recently got $150 voucher + 5000 miles for a 2 hour delay on an ATL-SJO flight

Your 22 hour delay is much better than my 32 hour flight home from CPT turning into 84+ hours (due to Delta losing insurance on its aircraft so could not fly it, and refusing to fly in replacement aircraft and refusing to rebook anyone to fly out even on KL (ST) via AMS - though it had open seats) and only getting home... long story, but not really through DL's help, despite nearly $1000 in cell phone charges and numerous "rebookings" done that were never really actually properly done by DL's outright incompetent "International Ticket Reissue" (that really is just that: incompetent, yesterday on another matter ended up charging net 10,000 miles more on one award ticket reissue into same mileage level, and net 20,000 extra on one award ticket reissue into 20,000 lower mi level - I don't know about others, but DL's worst-of-the-worst International Ticket Reissue have never been able to get anything done right for me).

Good luck in getting compensation.

I just wanted to let you know that it could have been even worse. DL is very cheap and will save a penny whereever it can (even if it ends up costing it a dollar more in the long run), so don't count on getting much. Some four weeks after I sent in my complaint I got a call back and a promise of some compensation ($xxx vouchers), that were never given and it took me more than a month to "fight" DL just to have them give me what the person on the phone she was "sending out right away" yet never did (and it was not documented, as DL does not use any CRM so there is no way to track its past interactions with customers or what any DL agent said or did).

It is was in the EU they would have needed to pay EU/261 comp. Outside the EU it's pretty meager.

The response that I received from DL on a significant delay and incredibly poor customer service complaint was "we're sorry". I responded with "a simple apology is not sufficient". They then responded with a gift, which turned out to be a computer case. I would have rather had the miles or some $$. I'll probably sell the computer case.

You will have vastly difference responses from DL or NW staff.

DL CS e-mail from address is [email protected], and the headers prove that it is coming from Atlanta.

NW CS E-mail from address is [email protected], and the headers prove that it is coming from Minnesota.

From the former (DL/ATL) you will get either greatly delayed (many, many days if not weeks to respond), slow, quickly written up responses unapplicable to your question copy-and-paste something generic, and whatever is custom written expect to be full of typos (apparently DL CS are not aware of this new thing called a "spell checker"). While recently DL/ATL CS seems to be being trained in the NW way of doing things: personal, emphatetic responses, it's just empty words for now, and don't expect any even token sign of appreciation for the things that went wrong, no matter how serious. They are just brushing you off, that is clear.

From the latter (NW/MSP) you will get much quicker (not <4 hours how used to be with NW, but at least <4 days) responses, expertly crafted (no typos there), re-stating all your concerns, showing emphaty and understanding, and overall making you seem heard and actually valued as a customer (in stark contrast to DL/ATL CS, who now though are trying but still their mindset is firmly set in the anti-customer mode it seems). The latter also is more likely to give you some (not a lot, but may be some) token compensation -- most of it they'll make up for in the well written and directly applicable response, but also if justified you may get a small token of appreciation.

So, how you are treated as a customer will greatly vary depending on which group (DL/ATL or NW/MSP) responds to your query. It's just two very different cultures and approaches (DL/ATL very anti-customer and really not caring at all for what happens and poorly trained, uncaring staff, while NW/MSP showing genuine care and actually listening to the customer - no matter how hard DL tries to drown that out). It seems to be random which group responds to what, so it's matter of luck will you be just outright dismissed or actually listened to and treated well.

Thanks for these emails !

FYI - NWA's CRM system is very much alive and is becoming more and more central to DL's daily operations - DL customer service folks gained access to it months ago (hense the greatly improved responses from them)

Thank you to everyone for the helpful responses.

Might be worth checking this out if you want to speak to a real person vs. using e-mail:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...atl-today.html

David

I am not going to stand for Delta, but I must say that I have been very happy with their online customer service. I have submitted 4 complaints this year and:
* 3 out of 3 were answered by Atlanta
* 3 out of 3 were answered within 48 hours
* All follow-on emails were all answered within 24 hours
* I received compensation each time ($150 + 5000 miles for #1, $50 for #2, 5000 miles for #3) though the issues were fairly minor - a 2 hour delay, inoperative overhead AVOD, lack of a First-class check-in line)

I have had much worse experiences with US and UA - for MAJOR delays (>5 hours), I never got more than $100 from each. And it took them days to respond. Now, I have status with DL (GM for several years, with 50K BIS in the last 3.5 months) and nada with US/UA, so that may explain why YMMV....