Flight Notifications on delays cannot be trusted
 

My family had a 8pm flight on June 22 from Detroit to San Francisco. At 6:15 pm we received both a phone call and email from Delta that our flight times had changed to 11:45 pm (no caveats or any other warnings in either message). Plus the website indicated the change as well. So instead of sitting at the airport for an extra four hours, we turned the car around and went back home.

At 7:30 pm we received a phone call saying our flight was now leaving at 8:15 pm. We got to the airport as fast as possible and arrived at the ticket counter at 8:15 pm. The ticket agent acted as if it was our fault for being late and we were told that even though Delta notified us that the flight was delayed by almost four hours, we should have still been at the airport at the original flight time just in case (would have been nice if the delay notifications from Delta had said the same).

After pleading with the gate agent, and fortunatley there were a few others in the same situation, they held the flight and we made the boarding. But during the whole episode, dealing with both ticketing and the gate agents, no one acknowledged that Delta had made a mistake and it was always our fault for not being at the airport on time.

Moral of the story - don't believe the flight notifications and show up at the airport no matter what - even if you spend hours sitting there doing nothing.

Auto notifications are more hindrance than help. I'm sure there have been plenty of people who have missed a flight because the autonotification sent a message saying the flight was going to be late. Sometimes airlines swap aircraft so the original departure time is reinstated even after a hundred passengers being notified that their flight would be late. I don't think messages are sent out saying "oops, your flight will be leaving on time, after all."

i ALWAYS go to the airport at least 2 hours before, whether the notifications say its delayed or not. ATC delays can change in a heartbeat as well as weather delays. mechanicals may not take as long to fix as thought.