The Delta Flight That Caused Me To Arrive A Day Late

Takeoff To Travel
Delta Delayed Late

Over a day late? Do TELL!

I flew from SNA-ATL-ZRH. The SNA-ATL flight was delayed because it was overbooked and John Wayne Airport has payload restrictions due to its short runway. If you’re curious about the SNA-ATL flight’s Boeing 757-200, I’ve previously reviewed this aircraft and the actual flight experience was quite similar. Click here to see that review.

The plane boarded, and then the flight announced that it was still too heavy and needed more volunteers. This caused over a half an hour delay, and someone ended up leaving and the pilot decided to burn fuel for an additional 20 minutes. Why wasn’t this issue addressed before boarding? Or better yet, why was this flight overbooked given the restraints at John Wayne Airport? This delay caused my family to miss our connecting flight to Zurich. Now, I would completely understand if there were weather issues or a mechanical problem, but this was not an acceptable type of delay.

Upon arriving at Atlanta an hour late, as the plane did not make up any time in the air, we went to get rebooked because our connecting flight left right on time. We were put on the flight the following day, as the rebooking team at Atlanta could not find us an alternative flight the same day. Literally they claimed that KLM, Air France, and other Skyteam partners could not get me to Zurich…..Getting to Zurich a whole day late now caused me to miss my train, hotel room for the night, tour activities and shortened my summer family vacation to Europe by a day. Not cool!

Stuck in Atlanta Overnight:

What’s more astonishing was how hard it was to get a room for the night. At first, the agent stated we were not eligible for a place to stay the night as our flight delayed was deemed to have been caused by “air traffic control”. This was a completely untrue and after explaining our situation for a while, thankfully the agent booked us a place to stay. I am quite disappointed Delta tried to “cover up” the actual cause of the delay.

To add on, wait times to talk to call centers to check for alternative flight options were over 2 hours and there was no callback option! From the hotel, I could not talk to any call center because I would wait on hold, and twice it hung me up 1 hour in the call. I finally received a call back option the next day, but it was already too late.

Personally, I have not had such a bad flight. The poor experience is making me question my Delta relationship. I used to be pretty loyal to Delta, but I don’t know anymore.

Additionally, I sent a complaint to Delta, and I haven’t heard back yet (it has been a week). I asked how long it would take for a reply, and the twitter team said: 30 to 45 DAYS.

a screenshot of a phone

 

Astonishing. Hopefully I can update y’all in a month 🙂

Cheers,

theresorttraveler


On a happier note…

Once I got to Europe, I had a blast! And, I will be doing my first full Trip Report and try to post daily!

Hotel Reviews:

 

Delta Flights

 

Trains:

 

Attractions:


 

Total
0
Shares
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

19 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Lea

I live in OC and did not know that there are these types of flight restrictions. I try to avoid LAX when I can. Following your posts and reading your old ones too

Nobody in particular

First hand experience NOT TO FLY US3!!!!

Well, you’re a travell blogger. You know full well all the reasons.

The Resort Traveler

True! They really need to up their game.

Thanks for reading!

Odojoe

Less than an hour between flights, it was your fault not Delta’s. Apologize to Delta and repay the cost of the hotel.

The Resort Traveler

It was not less than an hour, and they put me on this connection.

Eric Westby

I realize you’re just trolling, but for anyone reading this, if the connection is greater than the airport’s minimum connect time, it’s valid. Many travelers would choose longer connect times to avoid a misconnect, but to suggest that the customer is out of line requesting a hotel on an airline-caused delay is nonsense.

The Resort Traveler

Thank you, and thanks for reading! 🙂

Warren Sturgill

You should’ve flown out of LAX for international… SNA is only good for regional travel, the few transcontinental flights are usually difficult during busy times for this exact reason. Also, Delta’s twitter team is always responsive to me, they even had them hold a plane for us one time…

The Resort Traveler

I originally was supposed to leave from LAX…then Delta pulled a schedule change a month before the flight. Wow that’s nice of them to hold a plane, I wish my Twitter experiences were a bit better. While they are responsive, they often are not helpful nor have the power to do much. Thanks for reading! 🙂
– Tyler

Warren Sturgill

Oh that sucks they moved your airport. They held our RDU-LAX fight back in June as we had a tight connection coming from LGA and we’re about 15-20 min late (we would have had to overnight if we missed that flight.) The held flight ended up getting in to LAX early…

DoTheMathAlready

Same issue with Delta in ATL on Tuesday. T-storms caused me to miss my connection to LAX. The Delta app said there were no rebooking options. (There were) I did get a callback option for two hours in the future. By that time it was too late to do anything. No hotel rooms within 30 miles of ATL. Delta was basically no help. Delta can’t control the weather but they certainly can answer the phone. I expect better from every airline but with no competition, Delta has no incentive to do things like answer the phone

Stephen

United may be a shit airline, but their app is fucking amazing, I loved the fact that I can walk out of the airport knowing my flight got cancelled and the app notified me for the next flight option next day and I accepted it… All done without using calling them……

Stephen

United may be a shit airline, but their app is fucking amazing, I loved the fact that I can walk out of the airport knowing my flight got cancelled and the app notified me for the next flight option next day and I accepted it… All done without calling them on the phone……

DoTheMathAlready

Too bad I’ll never use it. I’m on United boycott since 2013. I don’t miss that crap airline one bit.

The Resort Traveler

So true! It’s really a struggle. Thanks for reading! 🙂

-Tyler

Paris Burrell-Reid

I had a horrible experience on Delta getting into Atl due to the storm.Im thinking the pilot try to land in the storm, we were getting tossed from side to side. Passengers were literally crying. Almost missed my connecting because when we finally land the lines were backed up. Im over Delta. Quite a few passengers missed their flights on tuesday.

Alpha

I hate to say this, but this is a typical experience with Delta. I’ve had the same issue- a 3 hours trying to get ahold of their phone line while stuck in Atlanta due to a maintenance delay.

They’re the worst airline.

The Resort Traveler

Such a struggle with the phone issues…. Thanks for reading! 🙂

-Tyler

Previous Post
a statue of a horse with a lamp

Check Out The Bubbles & Food At This First Class Lounge

Next Post
a hallway with pictures on the wall

How Is The New Domestic Club Europe at British Airways?

More Posts by: Takeoff To Travel