lauren0309

I am scheduled on a flight for April 17th. I read we will hear by April 15th whether or not they will strike. That will be too late for me to rebook on another airline. Do they stop flying immediately or is there a cooling off period. I keep hearing different things. I dont know if I should cancel my flight now and get vouchers to use at a later date or wait and see.

i_am_kane

I understand your position perfectly because we have 10 Delta tickets for June to Italy.

It has become stressful trying to second guess what the Delta pilots are going to do next. I get the sense this weekend that they are starting to seriously threaten a strike.

I hope someone comes up with a reasonable plan for you considering time is short. Sorry, I'm no help here.

live2traveltoo

Sometimes the judge orders a 30 day "cooling off" period in that the pilots will not be able to strike during those 30 days. I don't know if they have passed this point where April 15th will be the end of this 30 day period. If they do strike, then the reservation agents will off line you on another airline (most all of the big majors such as USAir, Northwest and Continental) will accept your ticket but you must have Delta make the reservation for you. The lower price airlines such as Southwest and Jetblue will probably not take your ticket.

My best guess is that the pilots will not go on strike in that it would probably put Delta out of business.

lauren0309

They are not in the cooling off period yet because as of yet they have no officially called a strike. If they have to put me on anothe airline, do I just call them up and tell them to do so? How does this work.

julies

We went through this exact same thing with NWA the 1st of the month when we were flying to Paris the day a strike might have begun. It was the pits!

Delta may be different, but it was my understanding with that one that since they were in bankruptcy already and dealing with a judge, the 30 day waiting period might not apply as it usually would.

lauren0309

Does anyone have any ideas what they were to do if they were in my situation?

live2traveltoo

I would just wait it out. I really don't think that they will strike. If a strike does happen, the reservation agents and gate agents will be responsible for rebooking your flight on another airline. It will be a crazy just like when NWA went on strke a few years back.

With that said, if you have to be at your destination such as your sister's wedding or a major event that you can not miss then I would purchase a ticket on another airline to give you peace of mind.

Just my opinion

lauren0309

I guess I will just have to wait. I hope if there is a strike and we can't fly my son won't be so disappointed (I'm sure he will) because we had a trip planned to disneyworld. We would have to reschedule for another time.

NoFlyZone

For the law in the case of ceased operations see http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/rules...ce2005June.doc

I do not know how this would apply during a strike, however.

Liquidsunshine

I'm flying with Delta in September. I sure hope it goes smoothly.

BeachBoi

CNN has reported that 6,000 Dleta pilots are staging a "practice" strike today, as we speak,live, and breathe..hmmmm...wonder what they are practicing......what they'll do when the company goes belly up??

nancy161

Sounds scary!! I had not heard about this "practice" strike, will keep an eye.

I am flying on Delta in May. Let's all hope the pilots will not strike, that all travels will be smooth!

clevelandbrown

In matters of labor relations, each side always seriously threatens to do many things, even if they have no real intention of doing them. Has anyone ever heard of a non-serious threat of a strike? Making anything less than a serious threat would defeat the very purpose of the threat.

Management is probably seriously threatening to bring in replacement pilots in case of a strike, even if all they have lined up are some people who stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

I'm not confident that things will go as smoothly as they have in the past if a strike occurs. Occupancy on competing airlines is quite high lately, so it may be difficult to find open seats.

If this situation is really bothering you, perhaps cancelling the tickets now will ease your mind, but you would want to consider the cost of such a cancellation. Unless you have fully refundable tickets, all you will probably receive on cancellation will be a voucher good on only this airline, for a limited period, less the change fees, and what would that be worth if the airline folds, as it very well might if the pilots do strike?

NoFlyZone

Another good thing to do if you have enough SkyMiles would be to cash them in on flights on any SkyTeam partner other than Delta, before any possible strike.

There's little downside to doing that as if Delta fails the miles are worthless. At least there is a good possibility that the other airlines may still honor the tickets and if not you've lost nothing.

On the other hand, if Delta manages to stay alive you can still use the tickets or redeposit them into your account for $50.

Liquidsunshine

I don't fly until September with Delta. (San Francisco - New York - Casablanca) I'm wondering if I should wait until April 15 (which apparently is the date a strike decision is made?) to cancel and re-book with a different airline. (British Airways) That's two more weeks. Or should I re-book now? I'm leaning towards waiting, since I doubt that BA flights from SFO to CMN would sell out in two weeks. Or would they? Gah! So confusing!

lauren0309

I just called Delta as I am scheduled to fly on April 17. She told me the threat of a strike is all blown out of proportion and she doenst even have any information sent to her on how to handle customers tickets in case of a strike because they don't anticipate one coming.

julies

This was exactly what I heard from NWA a month ago when I called them a few days before we were supposed to depart, which was also the day all the news reports said a strike might happen.

Now it will be strike worries round 2 as I just booked Delta to Europe for June.

DawnCt

We are booked for Hawaii in August. I hope the union doesn't kill the "goose".

lauren0309

I don't think I would feel safe with replacement pilots. What are their credentials?

rkkwan

There is no such thing as "replacement pilots". Will take too much time to have pilots retrained and recertified. If pilot walks, that's the end of it. Like what happened to Eastern.