[danpreston]

My daughter's flight (Delta 9) from London Heathrow to Atlanta arrived on time (4 minutes early in perfect weather), but Delta managed to lose her bag along the way. So that delayed her considerably before she could get through immigration/customs. Meanwhile, Delta had changed her connecting flight schedule without notice, so there was only about an hour layover instead of 2 1/2 hours. As a result, by the time she got through immigration, back through security and to the gate for the connecting flight, boarding had ended (even though the plane remained on the ground for another hour and a half).

But now Delta is claiming that my daughter's missed connection was due to weather problems, and therefore was not responsible for any of the inconvenience or costs (including hotel and meals) during the resulting 24 hours stuck in Atlanta. This is a flat-out lie, but of course lets them off the hook. Is there any way to challenge false claims of this sort?

BTW, I spoke with Delta customer service during this ordeal, and asked (very nicely) for some kind of courtesy to be extended ... such as a free upgrade, meal vouchers or even a simple 1-day pass to the Delta Sky Club. The original agent declined to help, as did the supervisor that I spoke to next. They kept citing the weather to justify refusing even the tiniest courtesy, even though they could provide no reasons or evidence that weather was involved in any way.

[mars6423]

I am not sure what else to do but to keep calling than and sending them a complaint, telling them that her flight landed on time and there was no delay over here (even show the flightstats.com or another flight tracker arriving time sheet) and see if there is any way to compensate for any money out of pocket for the time spent in the airport to get the connection

Not sure that she would get a upgrade tho, there is a good chance that you will recieve some sort of vouchar (has to be used on delta and prob $50) but you had a good idea about the sky club, not too many people even think about that when they ask about compensation (from what i can tell on here) And the meal vouchars they give at the airport are like $5 which means you can get a bottle of water and maybe a small piece of candy, you get nothin!

but good luck and hopefully you will get something out of it

[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

The Air Consumer Division of DOT should have access to the FAA historical weather data bases on a regular basis. The status quo of allowing airlines to call "bad weather" when they want to avoid their obligations is a case of the fox watching the chicken coop. Accordingly, if the DOT says "clear weather," the airline pays--end of conversation!

[PHXFlyer]

Unfortunately it's going to be an uphill battle in this case since on the day in question ATL was a wreck because of the weather. Anyone at DL will simply look at the date, see that the connection was in ATL, and jump to the conclusion that any delay that particular day could be attributed to the weather. It will take reaching someone at DL who will really scrutinize the situation to realize that had the bags been delivered to customs in a timely manner the whole thing might have been avoided. Finding such a person at DL will be difficult indeed.

[pthompson]

Delta also blamed the weather for a cancelled flight I was scheduled to get on, but it was clearly announced to everyone over the PA that it was mechanical failure. Delta is trying to screw me out of money and Sky Miles. They suck. I won't let this rest.

[GlobalFlyer]

Perhaps contact the airport for more information, I have done that before in regards to weather and got a favourable response. If you explain the situation in regards to the baggage they may assist.

[jimworcs]

If PHXflyer has looked into this and determined this was a chaotic day for weather delays in ATL then it is likely to be an uphill battle to prove Delta are exploiting this to deny a passenger their rights. I think the only option is going to be a complaint to the DOT and perhaps a small claims court. You will need to gather as much evidence as you can.. in particular, the exact time of landing (try Flightstats.com) and the time the flight she was meant to connect to actually took off. If you can establish that these flights were not weather affected, you may have a reasonable case.

Delta may claim that the chaos generated by all the other delayed flights which were weather related meant that there was no gate for your flight and this is why your flight could not disembark. In other words, the delay was weather related but that the delay was on the ground. You would have to have some basis for refuting this and might want to talk to someone at the DOT regarding their rules in this situation as I am not sure if this would be considered a weather delay or not.

[William_Tenney]

Thanks for the information. Delta did claim the landing in Atlanta was delayed because of weather (the air was clear in and approaching Atlanta from Houston). But, despite that, daughter and son-in-law made it to the connection gate 5 minutes before scheduled departure and the St. Lucia flight had already pulled away from the gate. They met several other couples who were at the gate 45 minutes before the schedule departure time...with pre-paide airfare...who were bumped because of overbooking.