Delta is still messed up

[kohlby]

So, if you're travelling on Delta in the next day or so, plan for delays. Hubby is stuck in Atlanta until his flight leaves - after midnight. He'll get to Orlando at 2am hopefully. He was supposed to get there at 8pm. He has an interview tomorrow late morning. (And it's his birthday today). ATL is a mess right now with all the people stuck there trying to get out. There are no rental cars at ATL. He said he's hearing people say there are no hotels either. All those people still need to get where they're going. And that's just one airport. So, plan accordingly.

 

[sydneysmom]

I cannot even believe that Delta isn't trying to get people on different airlines. what a mess. I hope he gets out of Atlanta okay!

 

[StlJoe]

My wife was in ATL last night delayed on a Delta flight. She said it was AWFUL with families camping out wherever they could. She got lucky and got a 2AM flight out of there but lots of people were still scrambling to find flights.

 

[kohlby]

His delayed 12:30am flight turned into a cancelled flight. Luckily, he had stood 90 minutes in line earlier hoping to get an earlier flight and was put on stand-by. Then magically, a flight showed up and he was called to get on it. It wasn't a flight I saw anywhere online and he didn't know about it until they called him. There were lots of empty planes sitting around with no flight crew as they had reached their max hours so I guess they were able to get a flight crew at the last moment.

So, he made it in time for his interview at Universal - though I'm guessing he made it to his hotel after 3am. He's supposed to fly back today though. His 4:30 flight is already showing delayed. I'm actually happy flights are showing delayed so early - that was a big part of the issue. Had we known the chances of getting to MCO were almost zero, he would have driven instead. If he can get to ATL, there's a shuttle that makes the 2.5 hour trip to close to us. Though - it might make sense just to drive home from Orlando.

He was saying the line was 6 people wide and went down more than half the length of the terminal and getting worse - at one point, there was only one person behind the counter. I am so glad that's not my job!

Another thing to keep in mind is if you rented a car. Though my husband said not to worry about calling them, I was worried so I called them after reading that the policy was to cancel your reservation if you showed up more than an hour late. (And though they have your flight number listed, they'll release the reservation if your flight is cancelled and you show up late). The car rental company charged a little more for a changed reservation - even though I he was now getting it for less hours as demand had gone up. I'm glad I called though as I have no idea what the car rental situation was like at MCO - just that the cars were completely all rented out at ATL.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I cannot even believe that Delta isn't trying to get people on different airlines.

Airlines have to have agreements between each other in order to accommodate passengers on another airline. Otherwise it would be up to the passenger to make accommodations on another airline.

 

[bumbershoot]

People are free to make their own arrangements with other airlines and then get a refund. Airlines will make those arrangements in small circumstances. This was too big.

Op's hubby was proactive! He got on a flight. Can't let the airline do it for you. If you rely on them they'll have you out a week later.

Our crew last night said that they had lifted the over-time
thing for this issue. So the crews weren't going to time out. Pilots, I hope so, but not the FAs according to our FA.

 

[kohlby]

Part proactive and a huge part lucky He didn't know of another flight until he heard his name called. (I couldn't find it online at any point and he said the boards were hard to read since they changed so fast. It was a Pittsburg flight, then an Orlando flight, but the plane had mechanical errors and then a gate change for the Orlando flight - so a mess that worked out). His first flight home is delayed 3 hours so far but unlike yesterday, there appears to be seats open on earlier flights. So - I'm much more hopeful that he'll be able to get home tonight.

And since the flight from ATL to AGS gets cancelled often, we know how to circumvent that at least if he gets to ATL. (There's a shuttle. I had to use it once when my flight home left a little early and my flight in came in a tiny bit late - making me miss the connecting flight, which was the very last flight home that night. The airline counter people didn't have a clue about the shuttle. It ended up costing the airline $100 but it got me back - though at 4am. Knowledge is power).

 

[RAPstar]

First Southwest, then Delta. Do you think there could be something else causing all these problems? Or just coincidence?

 

[georgina]

First Southwest, then Delta. Do you think there could be something else causing all these problems? Or just coincidence?

I heard it was probably due to their antiquated technology. Upgrading computer systems costs money.

 

[kohlby]

He's now stuck in ATL again - this is his return trip. His second flight was cancelled. He tried to get a rental car but ATL is completely out of rental cars still. His flight from MCO to ATL was very behind schedule, as were all the MCO to ATL flights I looked up. He's number 19 on stand-by but is optimistic he can get on the very last flight out in a couple hours. (BUT - the last flight of the night in that direction is notorious for being cancelled as the airport closes so delays don't work very well - so he might have to see if he can take the shuttle if that's not full).

On the plus side, he felt his interview went well.

 

[sydneysmom]

Airlines have to have agreements between each other in order to accommodate passengers on another airline. Otherwise it would be up to the passenger to make accommodations on another airline.

No, I totally understand that..... It was really just saying that more out of a kindness thing, that's all. It would have been a nice thing for Delta to do.

 

[macraven]

Kohlby.....is he home now ?

 

[kohlby]

Kohlby.....is he home now ?

Yes he is! He got home later that night. Now we're waiting to hear if he got the job and what the benefits are if he did.

 

[bumbershoot]

No, I totally understand that..... It was really just saying that more out of a kindness thing, that's all. It would have been a nice thing for Delta to do.

They just can't have the people it would take to do that on this scale. It's impossible.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

No, I totally understand that..... It was really just saying that more out of a kindness thing, that's all. It would have been a nice thing for Delta to do.

I think so too but really I'm not sure they can, it's kinda like a contract when they have agreements with other airlines. Maybe in a random instance or a smaller scale, kinda like bumbershoot is saying with it being on such a large scale, they could but if they don't have a contract the other airline is under no obligation to take that passenger (meaning if a Delta gate employee were to call another gate employee at another airline) and on a scale such as this is just isn't feasible. I do get what you are saying though.