At least the outcome was better than I had on Friday out of LAS. The 12:45 pm flight (1086) had to abort the takeoff due to warning light indicating horizontal stabilizer malfunction. Going back to the gate there was a 1:30 flight to ATL that had 9 seats, one of which I already booked with PM desk while taxi in. Needless to say because of red tape I didn't make that flight. The bottom line is that I had to spend 14 hours in LAS before I could catch a red-eye thru CVG and back home at 10 am the next day. Everyone got a $150 voucher that I feel was not enough compensation for all the stress we were put through. I did write a nice note to Delta today outlining all of the hassles. Will wait to see the outcome.

Mechanical IRROP delay? When to ask for another carrier for the reroute
 

So i had a situation today where i show up at LAS at 5:30 to find that the 7 AM departure from LAS-MSP had now a 3 hour mechanical delay. I called the plat line to have a backup seat on the 12:20 flight since i saw only 5 seats left the 9:27 was sold out. They did do this.

They would not reroute me to another carrier. They have in the past done this very quickly but said no. So i obviously did not like that answer so i called back this time they put me on hold and came back 5 minutes later and said NO again. The flight i wanted was LAS-MSP on US a direct flight as well departing at 9 AM.

Proceeded to the Delta gates, and received the sorry we can not help you because it is a NW flight, so i trek back to gates 32/34/36 and no one around at 6 AM. AT 6:15 someone shows up to work the LAS-LAX flight, i asked nicely if i could get rerouted and she made a call to US and they said 10 seats left, she made the change within 2 minutes i had my new ticket over on US. I heard others did not get on the US flight until 8 AM.

So why the sudden lack of accommodating by the plat line? This has never been the case before. The 7 AM flight did get canceled sometime after i took off and landed back in MSP. They were waiting for a part to fly in and so on. So i knew it would never be done by 10 AM.

Just curious what others have experienced here and what is the official policy

The C of C does not call for re-route on another carrier, even in the event of a mechanical delay.

I did find that out when i searched through the C of C at LAS this morning.

NW international flight from MSP to NRT. Delayed several hours for a mechanical, which then turned into a weather issue (was too cold to refuel the plane, they said), then cancelled because the staff was no longer legal. Spent 6 hours on tarmac just sitting there. No food or drink, didn't let us off the plane despite saying they would. Told my sister when she called the airline that the flight had taken off! Rebooked us for about 20 hours after the original flight. Lost time with friends and family overseas and incurred extra expenses.

Got a voucher good for $200 or 25,000 Skymiles. Is that below avg, avg, or above avg?

DL5648 MSP-EWR diverted back to MSP due to mechanical problems
 

Can someone please tell me what was the actual problem? I know there was something amiss on takeoff (loud jolt) and it circled back to MSP after about 45 minutes. Landed safely but curious as to the details.... Are there any sites that give such details?

I would love to know any information that you end up finding out. I e-mailed delta but haven't heard anything back. From my research on landings such as ours, it seems the situation was substantially more dangerous than I was letting myself imagine while on the plane. I've been checking the FAA incident reports as well, but ours hasn't been filed yet. I've also researched the Embraer 175 (which we were on) and it doesn't seem like this plane has had any sort of substantial mechanical problems like we experienced.

My girlfriend and I were flying JAX-LGA on the 6:10 AM flight on 5/29. We were then planning to take an 11:15 Amtrak train from Penn Station to Albany (we booked this way to avoid the high fares at ALB). Around 6 AM, the gate agent announced there was a mechanical delay. We finally boarded around 8, taxiied out, and a different mech problem popped up. Taxiied back, deboarded, and called DL to rebook (gate agent had said it was time to rebook at that point, given the givens...).

ATL was also backed up that day bc of WX, and several JAX-ATL flights were delayed. The earliest we could get into NYC on another flight would have been 5pm, which would have meant waiting for the 8pm train. I asked about rebooking right into ALB. There was only 1 seat left on the evening connection, so I asked about other airlines. We were booked onto a noon US flight via DCA. Got in to ALB around 4:30, not a bad deal.

Our original flight finally took off at 12:30, got in around 3, which meant we would have made the 5pm train... getting in close to 8. We were also able to get a refund on our train fare. So we definitely came out ahead.

My question is whether I should email DL about any other kind of compensation, and how I should phrase it. Given that we got rebooked right into ALB, and saved on our train fare, I'm definitely happy with the way things worked out, and I don't necessarily feel that we *need* to get anything else. But if they're willing to hand something out, I'll take it ;) Any advice?

I don't know if I would ask for anything other than original routing credit so that you can get the miles/mqms for your purchased flight. Other than that I think you got a good deal!

Yeah, I don't dispute that it was a good deal! Especially when there were some people on our flight trying to make a noon wedding on Long Island... yikes. My grandmother just had to wait an extra few hours to see us..

I did manage to get UA miles for the new flights. I don't fly enough for MQMs to really matter. I'll see about getting original routing credit. We wound up taking a bump on the way home last night, and got put on US as well...

mechanical complication causing delay of dca to dtw last night
 

delta flt 2045 fromdca to dtw was delayed due to mechanical complication. I missed my connection last night to Pellston mich. delta gave me ameal and hotel voucher, but I am eligible fo additional mqms. If so, who do I contact?

Additonal mqm? Why in the world would you think you might get those? If you are lucky, you might get rdm, but I have never heard of anyone getting mqm.

The only way you would get additional MQM's is if they re-routed you and the new route was longer than your original itin. Maybe you are confusing that with additional SkyMiles(?).

A couple times I have seen additional miles show up in my account but I am pretty understanding of Mx delays unless it means missed meetings, etc. You can contact DL right from their website.

Not sure DL will give you much more, but if you send in a complaint they might. as for those who think you're owed nothing and wont get anything, head over to the UA thread about compensation and you'll see mech delays do get you some extra miles (i got 30k on a recent flight).

I was scheduled to be on the DCA-DTW flight with you, small world! I realized after they had us deplane that i wouldn't make my connection to DTW-PDX and would be stuck overnight there with no good morning options to PDX. So i went to the lounge and firmly asked them to put me on UA's IAD-PDX nonstop and they pulled my bag from the plane and sent me Dulles for that flight. I wound up trading my F seat for eplus, but i got home. My approach to misconnects (especially where they deplane me and give me time to plot alternatives) is to be very proactive about getting rerouted in advance, although this doesnt work for all airports.

Proper Compensation for a Mechanical Overnight Delay on Delta?
 

Hello Everyone,

I'm trying to find out if a friend of mine is entitled to additional compensation for his PDX-SLC-AUS delay fiasco.

He was just supposed to fly PDX-SLC-AUS tonight. Upon arrival in SLC the AUS flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems and they put everyone up in a hotel and gave them $6 vouchers for dinner/breakfast.

$6?? ...?? Anyways, instead of arriving around 11pm tonight in Austin, he's arriving around 10-11am tomorrow morning.

I'm pretty sure Delta has a rule 240 don't they? What's the compensation structure for a mechanical delay on Delta? Is it gauged by the number of hours past your original arrival time? so much $$ for every hour?

I'd appreciate any feedback and what you think would be the best for him to do to get the compensation.

thanks!

SFnFlaGuy