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Delta is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day weekend, as fallout from the CrowdStrike outage continues. It's an especially poor look for Delta, which prides itself on running a smooth operation compared to peers. And yet American Airlines has cancelled only 1% and United cancelled 9% of flights so far today, Sunday, compared to Delta's 25%, and yesterday AA cancelled 1%, United cancelled 15%, and Delta cancelled 36% of flights.
Meanwhile, so far 45% of Delta's flights are delayed today (Sunday), which is similar to Saturday, when 46% of flights were delayed. The numbers weren't great for American Airlines either, at 35% and 37%, respectively, but United had brought its numbers down from Saturday's 39% of flights experiencing delays to today's 16%, about a third of Delta's.
Frustrated Delta passengers have reported customer service wait times as long as 20+ hours, and the Delta app or Web site crashing when trying to rebook a flight.
Meanwhile, flight crew also report waiting for hours trying to let the airline know where they are; one flight attendant reported being on hold for more than ten hours.
The difference between Delta and its peers speaks to Delta's challenges with its systems' ability to cope with crew tracking/rescheduling, as well as customer service.
Given the chaos, Delta has extended its travel waiver to allow rebooked travel to begin as late as July 27, 2024, two days later than its prior waiver date of July 25.
On Delta's travel advisory page, it states “If travel is not able to be rescheduled within these guidelines, customers may cancel their reservation and apply any unused value of the ticket toward the purchase of a new ticket for a period of one year from the original ticket issuance.”
But here's the thing: the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) had confirmed that passengers have the right to a full refund if their flight was cancelled or significantly delayed. While Department of Transportation rules that will require airlines to automatically refund passengers for cancelled flights only go into effect by the end of October, 2024, passengers can still request a full refund from the airline now, it's just that the refund isn't automatic.
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