[Stefania]

My husband and I were booked on a flight from Halifax to NYC in late December to arrive the day before our cruise was to depart NYC. The afternoon before our flight we were aware that the incoming flight had been cancelled, so we went to the airport to speak with a Delta rep about our options, knowing that our flight the next morning would also be cancelled. There was no one from Delta to speak to. Other airline's reps were there with flights departing, but no Delta. The next morning our flight was officially cancelled and we once again went to the airport. Again, no one from Delta. We even had the airport staff check the schedule to see if anyone from Delta was scheduled to work. No one was even scheduled. We were then forced to use the phone service that put us on a WestJet flight the next day to Toronto where we would catch a flight to NYC. At 2 a.m. the next morning the WestJet flight was the only one at the Halifax airport that had been cancelled leaving us without a flight to meet our cruise connection. Because there were no Delta staff at the airport at this time, we went the phone route again and were told that there was nothing Delta could do to get us to NYC that day despite the fact that my husband was on another line with another airline that had seat availability. The Delta phone people are not authorized to make arrangements on other non-partner airlines, only Delta representative at the airport have that option. So, we were forced to spend almost $2900.00 for tickets to get us to NY to make our cruise. At the Halifax airport before our flight there still were no Delta staff even though they did have a flight leaving that morning that would have gotten us to our destination on time. So, for three consecutive days there were no Delta representatives to deal with customers at the Halifax airport. When Delta was contacted about this issue with a request for a refund of our new ticket expense, they acknowledged, in writing, that they were in the wrong, but "in fairness" they offered $50 in compensation. We tried for three days to make arrangements and were flexible to fly at any earlier time, but we were not given the opportunity because Delta is too cheap to provide customer service on site at the airport. This isn't sketchy customer service, this is no service. Because of Delta, our costs to fly round-trip from Halifax to NYC (and it's not first class) were almost $4000. How is $50 compensation fair in this case?