New flight cancellation excuse...

[sam_gordon]

I'm on a business trip. My flight from JFK to my destination was canceled while I was flying to JFK.
I'm texting with Delta to get rebooked and asked for the reason for the cancellation (expecting the answer to be "weather" since there's storms in the NE.) Nope...

it appears the flight was canceled due to the flight being overbooked

I asked about involuntarily being denied boarding and was offered ecredit or miles. I took the miles.

Note: pretty sure I could have insisted on cash, but it was in a text and I didn't feel like fighting (all the Delta counters at JFK and LGA (moved here for another flight to destination) were/are CRAZY long.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Sorry to hear about the travel mess.

 

[EACarlson]

@sam_gordon Two questions, how many miles and have you googled the flight number to find out the real reason? If they bumped you without your consent you're entitled to 4x the cost of the flight up to $1500. Delta in particular has not had an involuntarily denied boarding in something like two years, they've paid people up to $10,000 in DL credits to not have one on their records.

 

[sam_gordon]

@sam_gordon Two questions, how many miles and have you googled the flight number to find out the real reason? If they bumped you without your consent you're entitled to 4x the cost of the flight up to $1500. Delta in particular has not had an involuntarily denied boarding in something like two years, they've paid people up to $10,000 in DL credits to not have one on their records.

I did not. I saw on radar a line of storms up the NE, plus a LOT of flights were canceled. I didn't want to push it. I ended up on another flight out of LGA, ended up getting to my destination 2 hours later than originally scheduled.

The only bad thing was I had to pay for that LGA flight, and need to contact Delta for the credit for the canceled flight. Not calling tonight because they had a mess on their hands. I really think the reason was weather and the CSR misspoke. But I got some miles out of it.

ETA: The entire FLIGHT was canceled, not just my ticket.

 

[Evita_W]

I'm on a business trip. My flight from JFK to my destination was canceled while I was flying to JFK.
I'm texting with Delta to get rebooked and asked for the reason for the cancellation (expecting the answer to be "weather" since there's storms in the NE.) Nope...



I asked about involuntarily being denied boarding and was offered ecredit or miles. I took the miles.

Note: pretty sure I could have insisted on cash, but it was in a text and I didn't feel like fighting (all the Delta counters at JFK and LGA (moved here for another flight to destination) were/are CRAZY long.

You are entitled to cash in the form of 400% of the one way fare.

 

[Mle8308]

You are entitled to cash in the form of 400% of the one way fare.

Not for a storm, the weather has been crazy here on the east coast. You are not entitled to extra compensation if a flight is cancelled. If bumped, that’s a different story.

 

[mom2rtk]

Sorry for the PITA hassle.

You still going to defend the airlines' hard line on skiplagging?

 

[sam_gordon]

Sorry for the PITA hassle.

You still going to defend the airlines' hard line on skiplagging?

Um, yea. What does that have to do with weather cancelations?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/trav...nceled-as-storms-pound-northeast/70418663007/

I wasn't really entitled to compensation, but if I'm offered it, I'll take it.

 

[SirDuff]

You are entitled to cash in the form of 400% of the one way fare.

No he isn't. It wasn't an IDB.

 

[msmayor]

Probably better off with the miles. If your Company paid for the ticket and you received cash (especially 4x the price of your ticket) - your company may either be the one who is entitled to that cash or, if they let you keep it, would have to include it as taxable compensation.

 

[sam_gordon]

Probably better off with the miles. If your Company paid for the ticket and you received cash (especially 4x the price of your ticket) - your company may either be the one who is entitled to that cash or, if they let you keep it, would have to include it as taxable compensation.

True. But what the company doesn't know...

 

[msmayor]

True. But what the company doesn't know...

No chance would I keep this information from an employer - this is tantamount to converting company funds to personal use and could be grounds for termination.

Far better to tell them about it and let them decide whether to let you keep or not. Heck, I'd even tell them about the points, just to be safe.

 

[Evita_W]

Not for a storm, the weather has been crazy here on the east coast. You are not entitled to extra compensation if a flight is cancelled. If bumped, that’s a different story.

But this wasn't cancelled because of a storm, read the original post, weather was not a factor here.

 

[Evita_W]

Um, yea. What does that have to do with weather cancelations?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/trav...nceled-as-storms-pound-northeast/70418663007/

I wasn't really entitled to compensation, but if I'm offered it, I'll take it.

You were entitled to compensation because as you indicated in your original post, it wasn't weather related.

 

[sam_gordon]

You were entitled to compensation because as you indicated in your original post, it wasn't weather related.

A) The CSR I spoke with said it (the flight, not my ticket) was canceled "because it was overbooked". That makes ZERO sense. The weather DOES, especially since a lot of flights were canceled. I really wasn't going to belabor the point, because I wasn't really entitled to anything.
B) Still has nothing to do with skiplagging policies or my defense of them, which is what PP brought up.

 

[Mle8308]

But this wasn't cancelled because of a storm, read the original post, weather was not a factor here.

I know, I was responding to your post - #5, where you stated they were entitled to 400% of their fare in cash. That is not correct in the OP’s situation.

 

[kdonnel]

I don’t think your flight was canceled because it was overbooked.

Just an agent telling you the wrong thing. The flight was probably overbooked though, just not the reason for the cancellation.

Delta will hand out a token amount of Skymiles for almost any complaint.

If your flight had not been cancelled you could have volunteered to be bumped and been compensated. My wife and I most recently got $800 each to take a flight 3 hours later.

The heat in the southwest is causing Delta to offer lots of cash to lots of people.

The Airbus a321 is stretching its range when flying transcontinental or nearly transcontinental. Add in hot weather and it just can’t do it full from California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, etc to the east coast.

Delta has been asking as many as 30 people to fly later flights for as much as $2500 a person. They need to get that many people to skip the flight to prevent involuntary denied boarding situations.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Best excuse ever lol

I'm surprised your company doesn't have a policy for this already in place saying employees must request a full refund to the original form of payment in the even their flight is cancelled and they rebook on another carrier.

 

[sam_gordon]

Best excuse ever lol

I'm surprised your company doesn't have a policy for this already in place saying employees must request a full refund to the original form of payment in the even their flight is cancelled and they rebook on another carrier.

It's not about the refund. That I am working on. I actually booked back on Delta. Not sure the CSR I was texting with knew what they were doing. Aside from the "overbooked" excuse, he said all the flights for that night were sold out, but I had no problem booking a flight on the app (which was actually cancelled later), but I had to pay for that additional flight. It was very confusing.

 

[sam_gordon]

Just to continue the fun for the trip... I was able to fly back yesterday. 40 minute delay leaving LGA for ATL. Apparently there had been a ground stop in ATL before we left LGA. Atlanta was a MESS! My flight was originally scheduled to leave Atlanta at 10:50p. Got notification it was delayed, which was good because my flight got in about 10:30p. Add 10 minutes to deplane (I was the next to last row) and I would have missed my connection.

Now, keep up with this... my flight was supposed to board at B05 and depart at midnight (following the delay). I get to B05 around 11, and there's a plane and passengers waiting to go to Little Rock, scheduled to leave at 11:30p. But there's no crew. So that flight gets cancelled. The plane I'm supposed to board has finally landed, but they're waiting on a gate. The flight crew for my flight is there, so we have a crew, passengers and A plane (but not ours).

Delta finally makes the decision to use the plane that was supposed to go to Little Rock for our flight. Talking to the crew, it has about 20 more seats (but fewer C+). So they start trying to board and everyone is assigned a different seat (because of the equipment change). I finally board (C+) and it's an hour later before we push back (I was watching a movie and looked at elapsed time). Landed at home airport at 3:15a, and I got home a little after 4 this morning.

What a trip.