inconvenienced by airline--Am I entitled to compensation?
 

My Delta flight on Christmas day from DFW to Munich was cancelled. Delta is going to put me on another flight (this time the layover will be in Cinncinati instead of Atlanta)but I have to leave DFW at 10:00 instead of 1:00 and my layover in Cinn. is 4 hours. The bottom line is that I will be leaving earlier and arriving in Munich later. Am I being knitpicky or Am I entitled???

As a serious answer, there is neither government reg nor airline tariff calling for compensation for that. <BR> <BR>More generally ... why the heck do so many people feel that if life provides the least little incovenience somebody outght to pay them. <BR> <BR>Get serious about life! Go take a look at what some folks here and more abroad have to put up with everyday. <BR> <BR>I hope you survive your terrble ordeal. <BR> <BR>Sincerely, <BR> <BR>Aaargh

Life is too short to follow-up on all these perceived evils. It seems as if the entire United States is always blaming whatever happens on someone else and then all the attorneys want to sue them. All the people who give you poor service in their own job responsibilities are the same ones that demand perfection from all companies. Just take the flight, enjoy Europe and leave the airlines alone. All the airlines do when they have to pay off customers is raise the fares to get the money back. <BR> <BR>You will now probably receive 22 posts after this one from people telling you how to gouge an airline for freebies. Good luck. The attorneys are already multiplying too fast. This will just get them breeding faster.

I'm not trying to sue anyone. I just want to see if Delta can do something because they really did screw up my plans. What if it's snowing in Cinn. and we're delayed even longer?(we were scheduled to fly into Atlanta). We have limited time in Europe and I have a Europass that I am planning to use almost immediately after I get to Munich. My itinerary is extremely time sensitive and this could @##%-up everything. What about the train reservation that I have already made? Hotel reservations? Now, maybe you'll see it my way unless you are more tolerant and easy-going than me and possibly others. I really would like to hear from others. Maybe I am an uptight little bastard. You tell me.

Uptight you are. Hard to tell about little and bastard over the internet. <BR> <BR>Suppose it does snow in Cincinnati ... or Columbus or Toledo or Munich? Who you gonna' sue then? <BR> <BR>Train reservations screwed up? Surely you took into account that you would be flying in the winter at holiday time and didn't make arrangements that assumed everything would be perfect? <BR> <BR>If I were European I'd implore you to stay home. As an American, please ... stay in Europe once you get there. <BR> <BR>

Dear JD: Count your blessings! If you've never flown out of Cinncinati you don't know what you have missed: a smaller, clamer airport, gates close together (so in airport hiking is reduced), good duty-free shopping. So stop sniveling and enjoy your trip. Joan

This is so easy for you pitiful people to say when you won't be having any fun here in the States while I am living up in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. (if I make it) oh yeah, How many skymiles should I request for my troubles? Should I request a good rogering from one of the female flight attendants? Maybe I should ask if I can take a bath in the ice cream that the first class passengers will receive. Any ideas, feel free to let me know---I have a feeling you will anyway.

- <BR>JD: <BR> <BR>The best laid plans . . . . etc, etc. <BR> <BR>Weather last week & this has been wacky; since Atlanta keeps on getting slapped with very wintry weather, it may not be such a bad thing that you're leaving out of Cinncinatti. AND I hate to continue on this downer, but Troy Dungan (local weather guy in dallas) is making noises that WE may be the recipient of some kind of cold wet stuff on Christmas Day. <BR> <BR>Believe air carrier ticket is a the 'contract' agreeing to get us to our destination (safely) and as to the nitty, gritty, there's a something called " ???? of carriage"; can't remember its' exact name that itemizes all the whys & wherefores of what this agreement. I'm not an attorney, but believe the changes that Delta has made to your ticket are probably within this realm of agreement and it's unlikely you're entitled to an addl compensation. <BR> <BR>Have you checked if Delta has any other flights out of the US (departing NY, for instance) that would get you into Munich closer to your original time? Since they cancelled your flight of preference, it seems you may be able to "counter" with a better itinerary if such exists.

JD, <BR>I'm guessing DL rerouted you to arrive MUC at 9:55 on DL76, instead of 8:40? <BR>So you're complaining about arriving MUC 1:15 later and the leaving DFW 3 hours earlier? <BR> <BR>If you've travelled before (internationally), your complaint would qualify you as a nitpicker - you should know better than to make "time sensitive" travel plans and also know that s&^t happens. If this is your first trip to Europe, consider this a learning experience. <BR> <BR>My advice: <BR>1. Take it in stride. <BR>2. Change your train reservation. <BR>3. Be prepared for more s*&t happening. <BR>4. Enjoy your trip...if you can. <BR>

To answer your original question. You are not "entitled." And whining or demanding will get you nowhere. However, you might try politely asking for some compensation, such an an upgraded seat on the flights to which you are currently assigned, or an upgrade coupon for some future flight.

Entitled? I believe you are. Like to be compensated? When you can straddle a pig and fly circles around the Eiffel Tour. <BR> <BR>Air travel has become the most miserable, punishing, humiliating, and unpredicatably disorienting experience of modern life, and that's saying a lot. All of the contempt of the business community toward customers and employees, all of the ignorance and referred hostility of employees, and all of the public's capacity for selfish and combative behavior -- you see it all at its worst in airline travel. <BR> <BR>There isn't one reader of this forum who hasn't been messed up and screwed over by an airline at one time or another -- count on it. We are all entitled to compensation -- but it's never going to happen until one of the largest airlines breaks ranks and starts treating employees and passengers with humanity and courtesy.

Look at it this way, at least you know about the change a few days in advance, you still have time to tweak your plans (instead of complaining) and you can still make lemonaide out of lemons! <BR> <BR>The other side is that you didn't know ahead of time, you found out when you got to the airport & then you were really screwed!! <BR> <BR>Life is short, enjoy where you are, when you are there & who you are with. <BR> <BR>Merry Christmas

(...sorry, make that: "Eiffel Tower" -- one of those dumb wrong-language mistakes.)

JD, I'm on your side, although you don't have a legal leg to stand on and not much have chance for compensation. Nonetheless, I would ask Delta nicely for an upgrade. Moving you into a vacant seat in the next class up costs them nothing and is a nice way of acknoledging their snafu. But don't lose your temper or be snippy, since it won't get you anywhere and will make you unhappy.

JD and Gulliver, stop whining already and start enjoyin life for a change!

Seems to me, JD, the airline has treated you well. <BR> <BR>Being treated badly is when you show up for your flight and are told, "You're too late ... we changed you to an earlier flight." Or at the least, find out when you're on the plane that the schedule has changed and you're going to arrive 90 minutes later. <BR> <BR>You've gotten advanced notice and have the opportunity to: <BR>1) Change to another flight schedule/airline, and/or <BR>2) Alter ground arrangements to fit the new schedule. <BR> <BR>Lemons? Screwed? Compensation? Entitled? <BR> <BR>You've gotta be kidding. This is a troll, right? This couldn't be a real person asking these questions ... could it? <BR> <BR>I'd hate to be around when life throws you some really serious curves.

Get a grip, JD. Yes, you're being nitpicky. In fall '99, a friend and I flew from DC to Paris via JFK on American. Our flight from DC-JFK was so delayed that we missed the JFK-Orly flight and had to fly the next day. We missed an entire day in Paris and a whole day of our two-week trip. Were we upset and inconvenienced? Yep. Were we entitled to compensation? Nope. Things happen. The airline got us on the next possible flight and got us to our destination, which, if you'll read the conditions of carriage, is pretty much what they're obligated to do. Had we been stuck in a non-home city for the night, we could probably have requested hotel accommodations; but since we weren't, it was just a bad break. "Leaving earlier and getting there later" on the same day hardly constitutes a compensatable problem.

I had a flight cancle on me while in line at the airport to check in 2 years ago. When I finally got to the counter they told me that they couldn't put me on another flight for 2 days. I was very polite and explained how much that that would cut into my vacation as I had to be back for my sons collage graduation. They then put me on other airliens the following mornign and upgraded me to business class. I also received enough vouchers to pay for my trip the following year. I also had a flight changed more recently but received notice by phone and mail. There was no compensation for this as I received notice early enough to make changes. Stuff happens when you travel both here and abroad. Get used to it and be flexable. <BR>

OK, enuf, let's see what your mood is like after having spent 36 hrs. in Logan airport trying to get home for Christmas -- of which only about 6 hrs. was due to weather, another 10-12 to recover from the chaos wrought by the weather, and the remaining 18 hrs. due to misinformation and misbooking.

Ed, <BR> <BR>I don't think this is a troll. We have a call-in travel show here on our local public radio, and I actually heard a guy call in with a 10 minute discussion on the following: <BR> <BR>"Our flight from Paris was delayed, and as a result we were put on a non-stop Boston-Columbus, rather than the scheduled routing, which was Boston-Pittsburgh-Columbus - - since we never actually landed in Pittsburgh, where can we write to get a refund of the $5.50 - - PFC and landing tax for the Pittsburgh connection that we never made" <BR> <BR>I was flabbergasted. <BR> <BR>The answer was: nowhere. No such refunds are ever made (unless a ticket itself is refunded for reasons of total non-use).

Sometimes I PLAN those little incoveniences - I try to book a flight where the connecting flight is the LAST flight out of that airport that night. <BR> <BR>On weekdays when there's allot of business travel, the airlines (or at least Continental) overbooks the flights and takes volunteers to get booted from the flight. <BR> <BR>And I try to be first to race up to the counter. <BR> <BR>I get a free nights stay at a decent hotel in a nice city and I get travel vouchers to boot. <BR> <BR>So I'm not complaining...but then I don't have a rigid schedule to adhere to either.

Yesterday I got done a bit early at work so I had an hour to kill before going to Mass. I decided I'd have something to eat at McDonald's. Since I needed cash I headed over to the ATM. It would only be 5 minutes. I waited behind some old fart who couldn't seem to operate the machine. It took them almost 10 minutes to do whatever they were doing. Finally it was my turn. After punching in all my answers to all the different questions...Omigod!!! It was out of money. I then had to drive another couple miles to the next closest bank. Another 5 minutes. This must've been the only cash machine in town that was still working. Everyone in town seemed to be waiting in line to get money out. It took me 15 minutes to get my money. Then I discovered I needed gas to get back into town to Micky D's and then to church. This cost me another 10 minutes. When I got to McDonald's the lines were really long. After 10 minutes it was finally my turn to order. They told me that they were out of Chicken Nuggets so I had to wait 10 more minutes for them to be ready. When I eventually sat down to eat, I discovered I was too late for Mass. <BR> <BR>My question is, now that I'm going to Hell for missing Mass, can I seek compensation from the old fart who held me up at the bank; from the company that built and installed the clumsy interface on my bank's ATM; from my bank that didn't provide sufficient funds in the machine; from the bank I eventually went to (not my bank so I will have to pay $1.50 service charge which I would like to be reimbursed for) because they only had one machine despite the obvious demands of the public; from the gas station owner and his parent company because they required me to walk from my car to their kiosk to show them my credit card, walk back to fill my car, then go back to the kiosk to sign the receipt when instead they could've installed one of those pay at the pump thingys, from McDonald's for not having adequate pimple-faced high school kids on hand to <BR>take our orders and not enough steaming vats of grease to fry my nuggets; from my church and the Vatican for having these crazy holiday schedules and finally, my city council and the zoning commission for not putting all these places in the same section of town. I think I at least entitled to an upgrade to a Supersize Big Meal.

If you go to Hell, it won't be for missing Mass. What a pointless, over-done little troll. Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, you lonely little bigot.

Monsieur Dershowitz, <BR> <BR>Clearly, you should sue. <BR> <BR>And I trust that you will use the proceeds to reimburse your learned employer for that hour you ditched work. <BR>

oh JD and everybody else, easy. <BR> <BR>OK, here's how the airline industry works; XYZ airlines advertises 4 daily flights out of one city to another city...say, Dallas to Atlanta. The first flight leaves at 7 a.m., second at 12 noon, third at 5 p.m. and fourth at 8 p.m. They will ALWAYS have the 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. flights (save weather or mechanical difficulties). Period. If the 12 noon and 8 p.m. are not full or at least at a capacity to make a profit, they will cancel those flights and bump 12 noon-ers to the 5 p.m. flight and the 8 p.m.ers to the following morning in order to fill seats and turn a profit. Therefore, I always try to make my flight times the first of the day or late afternoon. Except for a 2 hour delay for fog once, this has seemed to work out very well. Just FYI. <BR> <BR>

If the cancellation was not weather related but due to poor airline/pilot union relations, and if my the choice seats I'd booked months before were not available you're darn right I'd be a "squeaky wheel". A year ago, on a flight from DFW to FRA we developed an engine problem and had to circle Long Island Sound, dumping fuel to get us down to a safe landing weight, and change planes at JFK. On my next AAdvantage statement I was given 5000 miles for the inconvenience. (My wife, not a "Gold", received nothing).

Hello everyone. I started this board and my first post was a bit trivial but...once I got to JFK (from DFW and Cinn) we were ready to board the 8:10 flight 76 to Munich. Well, that flight was cancelled. There were only two pilots and they needed three (one was off because of the whole overtime thing) Delta put us up in the Airport hotel for the night and gave us food vouchers. They told us that they were going to add a flight on December 26th at 4pm (flight 9610). We were furious because we lost a whole day on our 10 day excursion). There was another problem, however. Flight 9610 was supposed to leave at 4:00 but it didn't leave until 7:30 because of some bogus water problem. I did get an upgrade but Delta cost me a day and a half. I had to rearrange hotel and train reservations and you can't put a price on the fact that my 18 year old brother was alone for Christmas. We finally arrived on December 27th. Now I know when to complain...I don't think I am being a brat this time!

Flew in from Europe the other day via Newark. After landing a little late, we taxied for 1 1/2 hours before getting to the gate because of flight delays. This caused us to miss our connection home. It was the last flight to LA. <BR> <BR>They put us up in a hotel, and gave us meal vouchers. It wasn't so bad but three (my brother was with us also) of us did miss an extra day of work and my wife, child and I were all separated on the plane. My daughter looks around five and the person who rescheduled our flight saw her with us. <BR> <BR>Also, my daughter and I must order special meals which obviously were not available for the changed flight so we had to bring food on board. <BR> <BR>The biggest problem is that my 8 year old daughter is diabetic and was not seated with my wife or myself. She must be monitored, she does have insulin problems every 2.5 to 3 hours, and this was a 2hr 45 minute flight. No one would move to allow her to sit with one of us. She stood in the aisle crying. Finally, the stewardess had one person move across the aisle, (same row, same aisle seat) so that my daughter could sit with my wife. <BR> <BR>Any comments on the airlines actions, were they reasonable? Is it fair to ask for some sort of voucher for a discount on our next flight? How would this be handled? <BR>

JD you can complain all you want but your not going to get anything. Call me cynical but i had a terrible experience two years ago coming back to the US. I had purchased a hosted vacation package (basically includes air, hotel, some meals, and an orientation tour) which was on a chartered plane and was scheduled to come back on a Sunday. Of course <BR>there was a problem with the airline and they didn't get me home until Tuesday night. Get this, the airline wouldn't even put me up at a hotel! i was on my own to find a hotel in the middle of the high season and was charged outrageous rates for 2 nights! Also I had a very important court date on Tuesday which I missed. I complained and got nothing! Now i have had some flight problems over the years, but htis one took the cake. Now I just expect there will be a problem and if there's not, then there's something good for my day and I take it in stride. <BR> <BR>I don't really think you have anything to complain about, I mean the airline did put you up for the night and stuff. Just don't let these things get to you!

Just had to respond to someone who said air travel is the "most miserable, punishing, humiliating, and unpredicatably disorienting experience of modern life". I think being a woman in Afghanistan is worse. Maybe being an AIDS orphan in Africa. Let's have a little perspective - we're getting on AIRPLANES and travelling to A DIFFERENT CONTINENT. We're very lucky people, compared to much of the world...

Is it possible to get some sort of "compensation" for some of the above-cited experiences? From my experience, I say yes. But, you don't do it by being irrational and/or irate. Instead, you do it by writing a letter that is strongly worded in a positive, civil, rational tone. not in an irate manner. I've done it and received vouchers after complaining about being mishandled by airline personnel.

I know these things are so upsetting when they happen but later thay make great stories (you can tell I come from Irish stock!). Last summer I missed a flight while waiting in line to check in-go figure! The airline then gave me vouchers for a free meal and for a hotel room for the night (I live 3 hours from LAX). This is after the airline had originally cancelled my first flight from another airport! So, we go to get something to eat and all the airport restaurants (fast food and all) were closed-no dinner. Then, when we got to the hotel there were no rooms! <BR>I have not heard of that happening to anyone (with a voucher from the airline!) We begged, we pleaded, we begged again! No rooms. We were 2 couples together. So, we said even ONE room would be OK-after a little more checking the man at the desk came up with ONE room! (2 min. earlier there were no rooms!) Then, after the first couple went up to OUR room I asked the man again-very sweetly, begging actually for our own room. He DID find one! I think the airline should have confirmed the rooms ahead of times or something. I should not have had to beg for a room-do you think? But, as I said-it makes a great "trip from Hell" story! <BR>Patti

I don't blame JD for being miserable about losing 1.5 days of his 10 day trip, I would be too. It's even worse if you are to join a tour and miss your connection (say he was to leave Munich the day after arrival for another place by tour) - that would stuff up the whole trip and you'd have to try to catch up with the tour somehow. I agree that you are probably not due any compensation due to the small print on airtickets, however, a nicely worded letter to Delta might be worthwhile - cc'd to a major newspaper travel letters section or some such. <BR> <BR>I find it hard to relax when going for flights and would certainly hate to have your experience. Usually I have at least the first night's accommodation paid for so would expect to be compensated for same by the airline, failing that, from my travel insurance.

Back to the original post...Delta canceled our flight home on Dec 31 (Dallas Atlanta Munich). Period. No alternatives were given. They gave us ample notice so we rebooked on the 1st. It never crossed my mind to ask them to pay for the extra day of vacation we had to take. As it turns out, they probably would've had to cancel it anyway because of bad weather in DFW on the 31st.

When you have time to spare, <BR>Go by air.

I suppose it's all down to how you were brought up. If you brought up pampered, spoilt, and demanding, then you will want compensation. If you were told to behave respectfully, and politely, then you will probably accept that these things happen, and there are far worse things that can happen in life.

hansman <BR>your quip is cute, but going by air sure beats walking from US to Germany.

...and to think much of the U.S. was settled by people who travelled in horse-drawn wagons...... <BR> <BR>I'm sorry about your disappointment. Years ago an air traffic controller's rotating strike at Heathrow caused my flight to be delayed by 36 hours. Because the circumstances were beyond the airline's control, I had no recourse but to lose my first night's hotel reservation in London, not to mention vacation time. My insurance also did not cover such events. <BR> <BR>I did learn from my experience, though, and hopefully you will too. I was most fortunate in that I had scheduled 2 nights in London before my tour began; as a result, I didn't miss the beginning of my tour. I realized that to plan travel arrangements too tightly is asking for trouble. I now travel independently, but I always consider the possibility of flight delays in making both my outward and return plans. I also consider alternatives in the event of missed train connections, etc. <BR> <BR>Suitably prepared, I now consider the possibility of airline compensation as 'icing on the cake.'