Virgin Australia has 5 business seats open on flight #2 LAX-SYD tonight. I'd push to get on that flight. Middle coach seat is not an acceptable alternative, IMO.

Offering you a middle coach seat is unacceptable. You have a paid business seat... doesn't matter if its with cash or miles, its still paid for. Call up the medallion line again and see what they can do. I have a hard time believing that J is totally sold out for the flight.

The DL flight is zeroed out. I'd really try pushing for the VA flight- they have a partnership, so a good agent should be able to make it happen.

Tpg and rylan - thanks for your help! There should now be 4 seats lefts on that flight! What amazes me is that an experienced sky club agent (have spoke to him several times in lax) and at least 2 plat line agents wouldn't do anything about this without specific prompting.

I know they're probably not going to do anything about my SYD-MEL costs (although I think they should), but I'll take that up in an email when I get to MEL. My return was already booked on VA, so I guess I'll get to see what they're like a bit sooner than I'd thought.

Thanks again.

Middle coach seat is totally unacceptable if you've paid for business class (and you have, even if it's an award ticket). Other's have pointed out the Virgin Australia flight. You should be politely insisting on accommodation in Business Class, either on a Delta flight, or on another carrier (VS, KE, heck, even AF through CDG or something).

Not sure what to say about your Virgin Blue ticket. I thought Delta and Virgin Blue were partners? You may be sort of stuck on that one.

No way in hell would I accept this. Demand the VA flight.

I think you are just out of luck on the V-Blue ticket though. Flying on split paper is a bit of a gamble. You lost.

They're sort of partners. They have a code share flight into Mel and BNE I think, but no award redemption agreement. I know I'm probably out of luck, but seeing as it's impossible to get to MEL on an award ticket with DL and that's the only reason I have a split ticket I'm hoping they'll help.

At least the cargo got to LAX on time!

Why wouldn't you have them just re-book you all the way to MEL? Had you told the SC agent that you need to be in MEL and a 1 day delay and getting you to Sydney only is not acceptable, they probably could have flown you all the way to MEL on Virgin connecting in SYD. I have done this is in the past where I am ticketed somewhere and then by DLs fault I misconnect due to mechanical or whatever and tell them I need to be somewhere else and they do their best to get me there. I would probably go and talk to another SC agent and let them know the situation.

1+

And feeling dumb about my own lame reply on the MEL leg.

The good side of FF, sometimes we do learn stuff.

I did try and get to mel while I was at the sky club. He wasn't going to put me on another carrier let alone a re route. My virgin blue flight is actually part of a multi city up to bne next week so a reroute to mel would've been a problem anyway. Can't win em all I guess!

Sorry to hear that. I was just trying to help out because quite frequently DL will help out elites and Business class passengers when there are situations like this. But if it is a multi-city itinerary that adds a whole other element. Hopefully Virgin Blue will be understanding of your situation and help you out, best of luck!

Compensation for Mech. Delay?
 

Had a 5 hour delay on a MD-90 (SMF-MSP), causing me to miss my connection in MSP to DCA, and was put up in a motel by DL. Was given $6 meal vouchers and a $50 voucher. Is this sufficient compensation? DL said that they had compensation guidelines, but $50 seems awfully low for a 5 hour mechanical delay. Correct me if I'm wrong, however!

You may also get some miles --- and it's a good thing you were at MSP not DTW because the auto show has filled up a lot of the motels !

Bob H

It will be tough to get a second round of compensation since you've already been awarded $50. I've experienced three separate mechanical delays in the last year and each time was offered small dollar compensation by the gate agent. When I called the Platinum line to ask for additional compensation, I was denied.

I suggest skipping the gate agent and calling Delta, explaining your situation, and ask what they can do. I've been awarded either a $200 voucher, 10k miles, or on one occassion 20k miles.

Again, you only get one shot at compensation so make it count.

A 5-hour mechanical delay is a guarantee of a misconnect.

I'm just curious, did you attempt to call DL while still in SMF to see if they could move you to a different flight, route you through a different hub or move you to another carrier? In this situation it sounds like the mechanical occurred on the originating segment of your flight. When this happens DL is not usually very generous with compensation since you could have chosen not to board the aircraft and rebook your travel to avoid the misconnection.