jmastron

Yes, I agree that it’s safer for the UMs not to be transported right now, BUT:

• They should make it clear any UM is entitled to a full cash refund, including the UM fee itself. I saw at least one account of a parent who thought they had to take the credit, AND had an agent claim that the UM fee wasn’t even creditable. Obviously wrong info by the DL agent, but the traveler’s parent didn’t know that.
  
• Extend the ability to refund any UM traveling a few days beyond the current embargo (basically an additional layer of waiver), because it may get extended. Refusing to refund now (when it may be possible to make alternate arrangements), then refusing to honor the ticket later when alternatives are slim is really crappy.
  
• Assist in rebooking on other airlines (or make clear they will consider reimbursement for self-rebooking, yes, including reimbursing for Southwest etc). Denying a passenger on a flight that’s otherwise going is a step above, and the logistics of duty of care are significantly more complex since they can’t just go chill at a hotel for days.

DLASflyer

Latest statement:

Delta teams make progress to restore operation

Jul 23, 2024 6:30pm EDTEditor's note: The following update was shared internally with all Delta employees on Tuesday, July 23:

The past few days have been extraordinarily difficult across Delta following the CrowdStrike outage on Friday morning. The efforts of Delta people have been nothing short of heroic and we’re moving firmly in the right direction.

“Teams are working around the clock to reposition planes and people to where they need to be so we can return to normal operations by the end of the week,” said John Laughter, Chief of Operations and President, Delta TechOps. “We’re seeing solid day-over-day progress across operating metrics that the entire team should be proud of.”

Some highlights of the team’s efforts to return the Delta operation to normal include:

• Mainline cancellations are trending downward with 50% fewer cancels day over day.
• Atlanta flight volumes continue to return to scale; we’re operating 43% more throughput than yesterday.
• Open trips for pilots started today down nearly 50% day over day; both pilot and flight attendant open time levels are starting to return to normal.
• Our crew tracking system queue that builds trip rotations contained a backlog of issues that is down 75% in the last 36 hours, and well on its way to normal.
• We’re making progress working through misplaced bags and leveraging our delivery partners to reunite customers with their belongings.

“With our collective focus, we will continue this momentum to be in good shape ahead of the busy weekend,” Laughter said.

Across the operation, Delta people on the ground, in the air and behind the scenes are working tirelessly to care for customers and each other. Through it all, we’re encouraged by the countless compliments we’re receiving from customers who are grateful for the level of care Delta people continue to deliver, even during this challenging time. Thanks to the 1,500 volunteers who’ve stepped up to support our teams through Behind the Wings shifts across the system.

“We know this hasn’t been easy. We have every confidence that Delta will quickly reclaim its position as the industry-leading, on-time machine that our customers have come to expect from us,” said Allison Ausband, Chief Customer Experience Officer. “In the meantime, keep supporting each other and our customers, and we’ll continue to keep you informed every step of the way.”

sc001

I just read this on Delta News too. I understand how hard this has been for everyone, but I'm glad to see progress. I'd love to hear from Ed Bastian soon. Personally, I don't see any reason at this point to cancel any of my Delta flights that start on Sunday.

MCO Flyer

I don’t blame him for the outage, but Ed needs to go. DL corporate leadership's response to this debacle has been terrible. There have been few updates from the News Hub or communication on DL plan to try and recover. Ed still hasn't even shown his face for an interview or video appearance once since this debacle started. Bob Jordan at WN was at least able to show his face on camera multiple times during their Christmas 2022 meltdown. This is a stark difference from DL own 2016 meltdown when Ed and DL leadership were extremely proactive and communicating what the response plan was.

matchbox20_is

You can't make this stuff up. The president of Delta TechOps is named Laughter.

shoodawg

Still 13% cx. 41 delayed.
Green shoots.

DrMilano

Come on Allison, what a hubris statement, “Delta will quickly reclaim its position as the industry-leading, on-time machine” as your responsible for IFE and catering—not fleet operations. I laughed reading this.

rylan

Ed must be busy getting out to the Olympics in Paris for his meets and greets and fancy cocktail parties and dinners with other big wigs out there.

HWGeeks

Did anyone hear that Microsoft is blaming the EU for forcing them to allow access to security companies to the Kernel of the OS.

ClipperDelta

Allison is in charge of all of ACS and IFS, so just a little bit more than just “IFE and catering”!

And this was an internal memo to the employees, which of course is meant to encourage and motivate people who have been put through tremendous stress and pressure in the past few days. I have met Allison a few times and she is nothing like what you are painting her out to be.

DLASflyer

If it's true, as rumored, Ed is en route to Paris with his fiancée, he should be terminated. That would be an insanely poor choice. Even if he can't do much to put the operation back together, optics matter.

32LatT10

I have met Allison as well and completely agree with you.

unitedbusiness

that Delta News hub item is “laughable” as it is so far out of touch with reality, and does not recognize the challenging struggles passengers and employees have encountered over the past few days. It is simply just PR fluff

dcstudent

except, remember this isn’t just affecting minors who are at home already and trying to get somewhere else. There are plenty of minors traveling back home from, say sleep away camp, who are now stranded.

the Washington Post has a good article about the embargo tonight (as well as a separate article on the general Delta collapse)

dcstudent

Weird though that given it’s a written memo that they couldn’t/didn’t have a quote from Bastian given he’s in charge. I’m sure he’s traveling with a Comms rep given everything going on.