[yoorbuddy]

The issue: If your connecting tickets are arbitrarily cancelled, is this considered "being bumped"?

I have travelled over 250,000 miles with Delta and was a Platinum flyer for many years, so this incident is particularly painful to post.

It seems that now that I have retired, am flying on FF tickets and am accompanied by my children, Delta has forgotten me. 6 months of communication w/Delta has not resolved this issue.

Here are the facts which Delta does not dispute:

1. I was flying with on July 12, 2011 my wife and 2 children from Gainesville FL. to Philadelphia
2. Our flight was delayed by weather in Gainesville, FL. Our flight arrived late into Atlanta, but our connecting flight to Philadelphia did not board until 2 hours after we arrived in Atlanta.
3. When we arrived in Atlanta, we were told that our reservation had been cancelled, even though we had boarding passes!
4. We were booked on the next earliest flight with availability, which departed 24 hours later.

Delta claims that since we were not at the gate 20 minutes before our flight was originally scheduled to leave (which is true), they had a right to cancel our reservation, regardless of when the plane would eventually board.

As the weather in Atlanta was bad that afternoon, does that mean that they cancelled everyone else's reservation? No, of course not!

Our reservation was either cancelled by computer error, or by Delta to service full paying/Medallion passengers. I would like to hope it was the former.

No assistance was offered by Delta to help us with lodging and food for the next 24 hours.

Our family was arbitrarily "denied boarding" and FAA rules are very specific about the airline's responsibility.

It is difficult to have to post this about an airline I favored while working. I guess that retirees with families should not expect fair treatment.

Bennett Beer
Lafayette Hill, PA