Thank you for telling me what I wasn't thinking. (sardonic sarcasm)

It's comments like yours that make me value the witty banter that we see on FT. (jocular irony)

To be pedantic, my comment was in response to a coment by spgaston that I found objectionable: "I think mandatory compensation (along with not wanting an accident) should be motivation for keeping the aircraft in top mechanical condition." This post appears to place the provision of compensation above, or on a par with, the provision of safety and I find that suggestion distasteful.

I chose to express my distaste by restating a rhetorical question from another post that, IMO, clearly highlighted this issue. Thus the sentiment behind my comment clearly evoked the lowest form of wit. Sorry it that didn't come across clearly. (sarcasm)

While I don't feel the poster was "entitled" to anything, I don't understand why the airlines are so reluctant to provide some goodwill vouchers toward discounts off future travel or offer some compensatory frequent flyer miles in a situation like this. The flight was delayed 4.5 hours due to an airline-related issue, so why not show the customers you still care about their business? The cost to the airline is minimal, as chances are a fair number of the discount vouchers will never be redeemed, and furthermore, they potentially retain future business from passengers who might otherwise choose not to fly with that airline again. Why are the airlines so reluctant to try to make amends when they mess up? It really seems like the US airline industry mentality (at least at the legacies) is to take care of the loyal frequent flyers, but to screw over everyone else. The mentality seems to be that there are "plenty of fish in the sea," meaning that they will be able to keep augmenting their passenger base at a rate that compensates for the loss of business due to poor service. The problem is that they potentially alientate future frequent flyers through this practice of providing poor service to non-elite passengers.

I'm curious to know how many airlines (both domestic and International) can offer you compensation at your first point of contact over the phone? Many of them will tell you to write in if you want something. By the way good tying to get compensation from AF AZ.

That's ridiculous, but at least thesaurus.com and wikipedia got some hits.

Taunting someone for not answering a rhetorical question to which only a fool would respond is the lowest form alright, but no wit (either meaning) is involved.

In no other industry can a service provider sell a service and then fail to deliver without consequences. I realize that the contract is written to protect the carrier, and they are within their legal rights to refuse compensation for delays, but that doesnt make it right. The fact that mechanical delays are inevitable is exactly the point, carriers should anticipate this and allocate sufficient backups so as to minimize delays. An excessive delay due to mechanical failure is indicative of a larger mistake for which the customer should be compensated.

Given the similairity between the various airline's terms of carriage and fine print I think there is a reasonable claim of industry collusion, otherwise we would see carriers competing on this point! The lack of prosecution is simply
indicative of the industries lobbying power. Ultimatly attempts to gain compensation for airline incompetence is nothing more then a very feeble attempt to reclaim some of what we are owed.

If I order a pizza from Domino's and it takes 2 hours to arrive, Domino's risks the consequence that I will order from Papa John's or Pizza Hut next time. If DL screws up, it risks the consequence that I will choose another carrier next time. @:-)

So do people ask Amtrak for compensation when the trains experience a mechanical delay? When your limo/car driver shows up late due to a flat tire on the way to pick you up, do you expect compensation?

I think this quote neatly summarises something about 'entitlement culture' that I don't understand.

Planes take off with all sorts of minor glitches every day. Indeed the ADD (Acceptable Deferred Defect) list on a widebody can reach run to over 100 items. None of these faults will stop the flight from operating safely and most passengers will accept the inconvenience of a non-functional reading light for the opportunity to get from A to B.

If a mechanical problem is sufficiently serious to warrant immediate repair then it's probably safe to assume that continuing with the defect could potentially have catastrophic consequences. At this point the airlines attempt to rectify the problem. The post blithely talks about 'allocating sufficient backups' as though this were a simple matter. But at what cost? Common causes of mechanical delays include burst tyres and foreign object damage which can occur at any airport. While DL may have backup at its hubs, what about at other stations? Even where backup is available, a spare plane will usually be at a remote location on a maintenance base and crews will either be at home or waiting away from the airport.

We happily take for granted the ability to travel by air but the operational reality is that this is a hard business. Planes face the punishing ordeal of taking off and landing on each journey and, as yet, we don't have the ability to guarantee that these processes will not damage some key system on the plane. When that happens, and it inevitably will, then I wouldn't want to get on that plane until it's fixed. I also wouldn't want to put pressure on the airline to cut corners to avoid making mandatory compensation payments for the delay. We all take safety for granted (how many people watch the onboard safety briefings?) and moan when things go wrong. Yet we expect to be able to fly where we want, when we want for next to nothing. I just don't get it.

Exactly my point for two reasons.

1. If an airline cut corners to avoid compensation payments (and hopefully they wouldn't) the consequences would be severe.

2. The airlines (such as KLM) may already be doing so with regards to over-scheduling their fleet and not allowing for enough routine maintanance time which would avert at least some of the mechanical delays.

cancelled flight due to mechanical, compensation? can I get mileage credit for orig?
 

Delta flight was cancelled due to irregular ops (mechanical), rerouted on a different airline, can I still get mileage credit for original itinerary and what kind of compensation can I expect?

You should be able to call reservations and get SkyMiles credit for your original itinerary. Be sure to have your locator number and it might be good to have your actual ticket number as well.

Yes, but if you are going to try and handle it by phone as RobertS975 suggested, call ASAP!

Sometimes due to irrops you might actually get more mileage than normal. One time my LGA-PBI in L class was canceled and I was rerouted to MCO in Y class and ended up getting about 400 miles more than I would've with the original itinerary, even though my new one was shorter! (due to the mileage bonus) Check to make sure you weren't rebooked into Full fare coach.

Actually Dominoes is a strong argument to my point. If Dominoes is unreasonably late then they waive the cost of the pizza! This is because as you have noted there is real competition in pizza delivery and I can always choose another provider.

Quite often airlines dont have real competition on their routes, so there is no alternative provider. The airlines also clearly collude to have similar policies and practices and avoid real competition on important aspects of service. The quasi monopoly the airlines enjoy makes the decision to switch carriers a false choice.

Again, this merely proves my point. Amtrak is a government protected monopoly (much like the airline industry is a government protected industry), so there is no pressure for them deliver good service or offer compensation for delays resulting from bad management and its consequence, mechanical difficulty.

If my limo gets a flat tire and is late, the car service would immediately dispatch another car/driver. Again this likely due to the fact that it is a competitive industry. There is also always the option to decline to tip the driver if he is generally incompetent.

The comparison of Amtrak versus my limo driver clearly illuminates the problem with the airline industry. The airline industry, like Amtrak, enjoys significant government protection and is therefore able to avoid true competition. The result is poor service, failure to adequately compensate customer for failure to deliver services paid for and a general disregard for customers.

Huh? Me thinks you need a new dealer because your current dealer evidently sold you some bad crack. :rolleyes:

What finally happened
 

Wow, I got alot more out of this than I expected.
I e-mailed Delta and got this response a week later.


Thank you for your e-mail describing the problem you experienced.

Your time is valuable, and operating on schedule is equally important
to
us. However, when a mechanical problem is found, we must restore the
aircraft to company and federal airworthiness standards. Safety is the
number one consideration in the operation of our flights. We regret the
inconvenience you experienced.

As a goodwill gesture, we will mail our $75.00 Transportation Credits
for each passenger which may be used toward future Delta travel and
some
travel-related services. Vouchers are valid for one year from the date
of issue and may not be combined. They may be redeemed at any Delta
ticketing facility or authorized travel agency; however, they are not
currently redeemable online. Please refer to the terms and conditions
for additional information.

We value the relationship you have with Delta Air Lines and would be
delighted to have another chance to restore your trust and confidence
in
our service.

Sincerely,

Hazel M. Burns

I think allowing the airlines to get away with everything is Depressing. If the EU was able to set up guidelines by which the Passengers MUST be Compensated so should be it be so in the US as well.

A 4 1/2 delay is Not a little Inconvience !! 15 mins would be.

Again what is good for the goose should be good for the gander. The Airlines want Us to live by a set of rules they set up thats stacked in their favor then they too should have to live by them.

Compensation for Mechanical Delays
 

Hi,

My itinerary was SAN-ATL-EWR and the first flight was delayed 7.5 hours due to a mechanical problem. This caused me to miss my connection and forced an 'overnight' stay in ATL. I put that in quotations because we got into ATL around 4:15.

After waiting on the plane for 3 hours, I waited in a line to talk to one of 2 GAs for an hour. There the GA rebooked my connection to a 7:09am departure, gave me a $7 meal voucher, and told me that I would receive a hotel voucher upon arrival in ATL.

I got into ATL with less than 3 hours before my connection, and we came out in Concourse A. I was interested still, at this point, in receiving a hotel voucher. It would have been nice to catch an hour or two of sleep. However, I saw the line at the gate where we came out - longer than the line in SAN, and moving slower because there was only 1 GA there.

I didn't want to wait in line for an hour to go to a hotel for a half hour nap, so I tried to find a second GA. I called SMS to ask where I could find a GA, after telling them I was at the empty help desk in Concourse A. SMS put me on hold and I walked to Concourse T, finding its help desk also empty. Then SMS told me there were help desks in Concourses A and T. :D

I found an off-duty GA in ATL who kindly checked me in and printed my boarding pass for me (I'm not sure why this wasn't done in SAN), but I didn't want to press him about my options since he wasn't on the job. If I had been able to talk to an on-duty GA, I would have liked to have been put on a later flight out of ATL. That would have let me go to my free hotel and get a few hours of sleep rather than a few minutes.


Anyway, wah wah wah, how much should I ask for from Delta for this, and how much are they obligated to give me?

As a side note, seeing Zone 2 board on the ATL-EWR flight, which was >80% medallions made me laugh pretty hard.

There is a thread on this, try a search! "compensation mechanical"

In the mean time I will see if I can find it for you.

You really should just try google. I punched in those two words and received numerous information about your particular situation. Here is the official answer:

http://www.delta.com/care/faq/travel..._faq/index.jsp

Thanks for the advice - I did find a helpful thread from 2007. I had limited my searches to within the past year before posting this thread, since Delta changes its policies frequently and information from 2002 is no longer relevant.

Here are the top 10 search results from Google for a seach on compensation mechanical:

1)POWERMILL 9 2D Cutter Compensation Mechanical Engineering Tv ...
2)2005 executive compensation-mechanical contracting*.(Around THE ...
3)2005 executive compensation-mechanical contracting*. (01-MAR-06 ...
4)2005 Executive Compensation — Mechanical Contracting* - Industry ...
5)Thomas J. Marusak Profile - Forbes.com
6)Mechanical Engineering Salaries: Vault Salary & Compensation Surveys
7)Neural compensation for mechanical loading of the hand during ...
8)Compensation for Mechanical Delays - FlyerTalk Forums(*)
9)Automatic Tube Compensation During Weaning From Mechanical ...
10)Hydraulic Lash Compensation Device With Mechanical Lift Loss ...

(*) Links to this thread


Your link does not work. Maybe we're on different internets.

This link indicates that they will provide a voucher for future travel, but does not specify an amount.

Appropriate Compensation for a Mechanical?
 

I can't seem to find any explicit rules on this. Here are the salient facts. Wife and I were returning from our trip June 20. Last leg was DL 5202, scheduled to depart ATL for SDF at 2:40 pm. When preparing to pull from gate, pilots discovered a mechanical problem. Short story was we deplaned and waited in gate area for about an hour at GA's request, but after a bit more than an hour, the flight was canceled.

When the mechanical problem was first announced, I immediately called the Medallion desk from the plane. The CSR said the best she coud do was to protect us on DL 5196 departing at 8:15 pm, which she did. Soon as 5202 was canceled, we went directly to a CSR station where we checked in and printed boarding passes for 5196. I then asked the CSR for dinner vouchers ($7 each promptly printed) and additional compensation. After she confirmed that the delay was indeed a mechanical, she began to make various offers beginning with 1000 FF miles each. Eventually we agreed to $100 electronic vouchers for each of us.

My question centers on what is appropriate for the circumstances I have described. Are there written Contract of Carriage regulations that specify compensation under various circumstances? Or are we expected to negotiate individually for the best deal we can get? Should I have asked for $200? Maybe $300 and a Lexus?

A final point never mentioned. We purchased A fares for this trip and were originally in First on this final trip leg. Alas, that was lost twixt ticket purchase and flight thanks to an equipment change as part of DL's ongoing effort to downsize itself out of existence. Should I have .....ed about that too? Your advice please!

lex

The only DOT rules regarding compensation have to do with overbooking, so in the case of delays for whatever reason, you are pretty much on your own. I haven't read the COC to see what it says, but since DL writes it, I wouldn't count on it giving away the farm.

I think that is about the going rate, maybe a Chevy depending on your fare code.

As unfair is it really is, they probably won't do too much for you here, at least in regard to refunding any fare difference. You might be able to get some more vouchers if you raise enough heck. I would probably give it a try in your shoes.

Compensation for mechanical delay
 

So today my wife was scheduled to leave Vegas at 0630...they have boarded and deplaned twice and now have a scheduled departure of 1030. This causes her to mis her connection obviously and no other flights to any of the three close airports (within 100 nm) of where we live today. The SMS agent i spoke to said that DL is obligated to provide either a rental car or hotel stay for mechanical delays. My question is, should she ask for a delta dollars voucher as well since this was 100% mechanical and she has to drive 4 hours now just to get home so she doesn't miss work tomorrow?

I don't know the rules about this as well as others here, but it wouldn't hurt to ask, and if the answer is no, you can always contact DL via email to see if anything else is forthcoming. Out of curiosity, what is your wife's final destination?

we live near GTR but her ticket is to BHM where she flew out of... so a one way rental from ATL-BHM to pick up her car then drive home

I'm not sure I understand the routing, but I think it was LAS-BHM with a stop in ATL. Is she going to arrive in ATL too late to get a flight to BHM, and is therefore going to have to rent a car to drive to BHM to get her car? If that is the problem, there is a 1230 flight on DL from LAS-BHM, with a connection in MEM. That would at least save her going through ATL where it is my understanding that the weather has been messy, and she would avoid the car rental and drive from ATL to BHM.

They wouldn't let her change her departure flight even though it kept getting bumped back. She was scheduled LAS-ATL-BHM with a 2 hour layover...she wouldn't make her connection and the flights are booked the rest of the day....i tried the MEM route but DL said no when i called SMS

Send them an email complaining via their website and you will likely get a credit voucher....it has worked every time for me when there has been a significant delay.

Unless there are rules that I am unaware of, that is absurd on DL's part. If there are seats on the MEM route, they should put her on that route to BHM and save the hassle and expense of the car rental from ATL. If she is not already aloft, I would call SMS again and try another operator who might be able to help you get her the MEM route. Finally, even if the flights from ATL-BHM are booked, if the missed connection is due to mechanical problems, couldn't they book her anyway and VDB/IDB someone else? If there are still BHM flights when she arrives in ATL, even on another airline, if she winds up being unable to take the MEM route, you might have her go to DL and see if they can put here on one of them instead of going straight to the rental car company.

yeah, i spoke with two SMS agents and both were unwilling to send her through MEM. They won't VDB someone else for her since she has no status with DL, its only me. They wouldnt even note it in her record to provide a rental car...they said "it's up to the airport personnel"

It sounds like you've already tried all of my suggestions. I would still have her go to DL in ATL and see if there is any way they can get her on any remaining BHM flights. Perhaps someone else here can help, but I simply cannot understand why, if there are seats available, DL would not get her to BHM via MEM in this situation. Mechanical stuff does happen, but none of this is the customer's fault, and going through MEM basically solves the problem. If anyone here with ExpertFlyer is reading, perhaps they can check and see if there are in fact seats on the LAS-MEM flight and then the MEM-BHM flight today.

thanks for all the suggestions...she is in the air to ATL as we speak...i did get her on the ATL-GTR flight where we could go pick up her car tomorrow in BHM but she's only got about 15 min to make the connection....hopefully the GTR flight keeps getting delayed like it has been all day

Good luck to her. By the way, is her DL flight landing in the same terminal in ATL that the GTR flight leaves from? Also, is there any online checkin for the ATL-GTR flight and if so, can you go ahead and check her in? Finally, does she have checked baggage?

ASA flies it...three flights daily...she had her ticket reissued so she has to get her BP in ATL which sucks...no checked bags so we are lucky there

Going to be tough. Her ASA flight leaves from Terminal C and her LAS flight arrives in Terminal A. Looks like there are 1830 and 1930 BHM flights which might be full, but if she doesn't make her GTR flight, I would still have her try for the BHM flights before the rental car.

luckily the GTR flight was delayed long enough for her to get on it in ATL...now i just have to drive her to BHM to get her car

I know the two of you had a long stressful day, but it sounds like it worked out as well as could be expected. One final question, were there no other LAS-ATL flights between 0630 and say, 0930 DL could have put your wife on?

there was a 745, 958, 1058...all were sold out