DOT investigates Delta Air Lines as thousands of travelers remain in limbo
The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced an investigation into Delta Air Lines because the airline has canceled thousands of flights.
Straight Arrow News
- Delta Air Lines is still processing refund requests from passengers affected by last month’s CrowdStrike outage.
- The airline was vague about what is and is not covered by its expanded refund policy.
- Some passengers report that they have been denied reimbursement for costs that they believe should be covered.
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Delta Air Lines’ flight operations may be back to normal after the prolonged crisis caused by last month’s CrowdStrike outage, but for many passengers caught up in the chaos, getting the compensation they are entitled to is still a nightmare.
When Delta announced expanded refund policies for affected travelers, Mia Williams said she expected all additional costs to be processed smoothly.
“I assumed that reimbursement for expenses incurred would include things like your pet sitter or your long-term parking for extra days in the lot,” she told USA TODAY. Instead, Williams said, most of the expenses she claimed for reimbursement were denied by the airline, and the appeals process was not clear.
Williams and her husband, who live in Layton, Utah, were visiting their timeshare condo in Key West, Florida, when the outage occurred. She said their July 20 flight home (via Atlanta) kept being canceled, and they weren’t able to return until July 26.
“I’m starting to feel like we’re stuck on the island because of ‘Survivor’ or something, just waiting for Jeff Probst to put out the torch so we can leave,” she said. “Our vacation has almost doubled. If you plan a week-long vacation and you’re gone for two weeks, it increases the expense tremendously.”
So far, Williams said, she has received $300 in meal reimbursement from Delta, with a cap of $30 per day.
Delta, for its part, remained vague about what is and isn’t covered in its extended policy.
In response to questions from USA TODAY, a spokesperson said there is no $30 cap on meal reimbursement, but otherwise pointed to statements on the airline’s website that only refer to broad categories of reimbursable expenses but do not go into detail about everything that is and is not covered by the policy.
Under normal circumstances, Delta reimburses passengers for hotel, ground transportation and meals for flights that are canceled or delayed more than three hours, according to the airline’s policy. With the expanded reimbursement amounts for passengers affected by the consequences of the CrowdStrike outage, the airline says it will also cover “the price of purchasing another airline ticket in the same class of service, less the value of the unused Delta ticket,” as well as “alternate transportation methods such as rental cars, rideshares, trains or buses that a customer used to reach their destination, less the value of the unused Delta ticket.”
When asked by USA TODAY, Delta would not say whether expenses that do not fall into those categories, such as additional parking fees, would be handled on a case-by-case basis. While the airline said it would cover “reasonable costs for additional expense categories,” it did not specify which categories those were.
Kat Zimmerman was planning to fly back to Los Angeles from Traverse City, Michigan, with her partner on July 20 and, like Williams, was stranded by Delta’s IT problems.
Zimmerman said she submitted charges for extending her car rental through July 23, additional parking fees in Los Angeles and new plane tickets to return home. She said her claim was denied entirely and she has yet to receive any compensation.
“I’m just speechless,” Zimmerman told USA TODAY. “I got that email, but there was no email to appeal, no clarification, no one had contacted me. I don’t understand how you can investigate a claim without talking to people.”
She said a Delta customer service representative told her that her case was ultimately transferred to another department for “special handling,” but that she has not yet received any indication of whether or when she would receive a refund.
Are you entitled to a refund? Here’s what you need to know about the consequences of CrowdStrike.
When Southwest Airlines experienced a massive operational collapse in December 2022, it ultimately paid out about $1 billion in refunds and compensation to affected passengers. It even refunded a customer who had bought a cheap car to get to his destination.
Delta said it has already refunded hundreds of thousands of customers who chose not to continue their travel after July 19 and that refund requests are still being processed.
A Delta spokesperson told USA TODAY that customers can appeal the airline’s refund decisions by responding directly to the email they receive with the notification.
Consumer protection
The airline is likely to remain under scrutiny from Washington as a result of the fallout, as the Department of Transportation is already investigating and members of Congress have sent pointed letters to the airline’s CEO about the incident.
Delta has since repeatedly stressed that the blame ultimately lies with CrowdStrike, and the airline announced it would sue the technology companies involved. In exchanges between the companies’ lawyers, there was a lot of finger-pointing, but one thing is clear: Delta took much longer to recover from the CrowdStrike outage than any other U.S. airline.
Williams and Zimmerman, who both said they have been loyal Delta flyers for years, wonder if that loyalty is mutual given the difficulties in getting refunds.
“I was just so disappointed in them as a company that they didn’t take responsibility for leaving people stranded,” Zimmerman said. “I’m sure they’ll apologize, but what I want to hear from them is that we’re going to compensate them for these very reasonable costs and we’re going to do better.”
Williams added that it appears Delta is trying to avoid paying refunds altogether by making the process so opaque and complicated.
“It’s almost like they want you to quit. It’s almost like they don’t want to give you your money back,” she said. “If you treat people who are loyal to you like that, you can’t expect loyalty in the future.”
Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. Reach him at [email protected].
