Dear Tripped Up,
I was a passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight that lost use of its left engine on July 6 en route from Madrid to New York City and had to make an emergency landing in the Azores. Though we landed safely, I was deeply unsettled by Delta’s total communication breakdown in the aftermath. There were no live updates, no ground support or personnel, and no personal acknowledgment of the situation until we were already on our way back to New York. Contrary to Delta’s media statements, accommodations, transportation and meals were not provided. Passengers scrambled to make our own arrangements and were left completely in the dark, receiving only automated text alerts about our repeatedly delayed new flight. What troubled me most, however, was Delta’s shady and evasive approach to resolution. Midflight on our eventual return home, I received an automated email offering a random flight credit of $640 on a $2,042 round-trip fare — far short of any meaningful resolution. Under European law, we were entitled to 600 euros for the overall delay, but Delta paid me only after I explicitly requested it and tried to take credit for this as a “gesture of care,” not a legal requirement. I find Delta’s failure in customer care not only unacceptable but shocking and think they should reimburse us for my entire flight. Can you help? Marc, New York
Dear Marc,
From your letter and the TV news coverage I saw, it sounds as if a distressing experience in the air turned into a frustrating one on the ground after you landed on Terceira Island, a 150-square-mile speck of Portugal where trans-Atlantic flights in trouble have landed for decades (including another Delta plane less than two years ago).
I tracked down six other passengers and asked them to recount their experiences, so I could compare them with yours before approaching the airline for answers. And while accounts varied, most notably about how compensation was handled, it was pretty clear that Delta’s crisis communications strategy failed badly.
In fairness, a few elements of your letter need clarification.
As part of a lengthy emailed response to my questions, Morgan Durrant, a Delta spokesman, wrote that the company did secure 160 hotel rooms on the island.
But it took a while. You landed at around 4 p.m. local time, and it was hours before passengers learned that rooms would be available. By that time, worried that they would be stuck sleeping in a cordoned-off section of the already tiny Lajes Airport, many (like you) had made their own reservations.
It is also not exactly true that Delta had no “ground support or personnel.” When Delta makes an emergency landing at an airport it does not regularly fly to, it contracts with airport personnel, wrote Mr. Durrant. Every passenger I spoke to praised the yellow-vested Lajes staff for their near-saintly patience and near-perfect English; they were, essentially, deputized Delta representatives.
How much they knew and how empowered they were are other issues, and several passengers felt as “completely in the dark” as you did.
“Basically, we were left at this remote airport with minimal support, and almost no clear updates about what was happening,” said Juan Díaz, who was on his way to Miami after a European vacation with his husband.
And I realize you would have liked to see more presence from Delta itself. Other passengers noted that the original flight crew disappeared once everyone had deplaned. This dismayed many, who imagined (correctly) that those employees had been whisked off to a hotel while everyone else spent hours in limbo. Mr. Durrant noted this was protocol, since those crew members needed mandated rest periods in case they were required to operate your next flight.
Amanda Maciel, who was traveling back to Brooklyn after a vacation in Spain with her husband, son and mother, had a problem with the crew’s quick departure. “You clearly train everybody to deal with a disaster in the air, but you need to have customer service on the other end of it,” she said. “I understand that flight attendants aren’t paid when they’re not on the plane, but that’s not my fault. They should be.”
That is an eminently reasonable, if extremely unlikely, suggestion. May I suggest a middle ground? How about Delta sends apologetic messages to everyone announcing that the new flight will leave the next day, that hotel arrangements are coming soon and that incidental expenses within reason will be reimbursed — PS: Sorry, sorry, sorry?
Delta did aim in that direction, but misfired.
Ms. Maciel’s party was among the lucky ones, receiving relatively prompt emails from Delta, one about 75 minutes after arrival and another some 25 minutes later. The first apologized “for the disruption” and noted it was “working to make things right.” The second announced that the flight to New York would leave at 4:45 p.m. the next day.
But only two of the passengers I communicated with told me they got these messages. Did they have Wi-Fi or cell service? Pam Bogdanoff of Havertown, Pa., said that though her phone was working perfectly, the first communication she received directly from Delta did not arrive until the next morning. Mr. Durrant declined to comment on the apparent communications breakdown.
But even if she had gotten the messages that evening, they did not mention accommodations or reimbursements. She and her husband made hotel reservations only after overhearing someone else doing the same, without any assurances that Delta would reimburse them. (Good news: Passengers told me they have been receiving reimbursements promptly.)
I also got plenty of complaints about something you didn’t mention: the crew’s onboard announcements a few minutes after loud, scary noises from the left side of the plane. The first announcement came, passengers estimate, something like 10 minutes later, and went something like this: “The pilot just woke up from his nap and is going to look into what is happening.” If true, wrote Mr. Durrant, the nap reference was “likely referring to planned rest periods for flight crew.”
Even if the pilot was napping for legitimate reasons, why share it with passengers? If it was a joke, passengers did not seem to find it funny.
The pilot did eventually come on to explain what was happening, say they were 90 minutes out from the Azores and reassure everyone that the plane, an Airbus A330, was designed to run with one engine.
But his announcement a bit later that a replacement plane was already on its way from Atlanta and would arrive at Lajes in six hours was, while technically true, misleading. Passengers I spoke to were all left with the impression they would not have to spend the night on the island.
That was never the case — the crew of the incoming flight would also need to rest. And the misconception lasted longer than it should have, since so many passengers waited hours before they received the message that their replacement flight was scheduled for the next day.
Now, on to compensation. Marc, you called Delta’s approach “shady and evasive.” I would go with “incomplete and maladroit.”
On your own, you figured out that Delta owed you €600 (about $704 at the time) under a European law known as EU261. The same law requires the airline to inform you in writing when you are eligible, something Delta appears to have flubbed in your case — but not in everyone’s. Five of the other passengers I spoke to got either a call or an email from Delta within a day or two of returning home, explaining the payment and instructing them how to receive it. They were all paid almost immediately, something of a miracle considering how airline foot-dragging about EU261 is a staple of the Tripped Up inbox.
So why did neither you nor Mr. Díaz hear about it? Did a message go to spam? It does not appear so. You asked Delta about it about a day and a half after your return to New York, so it’s possible they would have written you about it later. But Mr. Díaz’s case remains a mystery. He received an email from a Delta customer service representative at about the same time everyone else did, but it did not mention EU261. Even worse, he and his husband received $250, not $640, vouchers. (After we spoke, he escalated the matter and has now received both the $640 credit and the €600 compensation, and he kept the $250 credit as well.)
I imagine most readers would agree that even a $640 voucher (plus the required EU261 compensation) is not enough, especially considering that such vouchers expire after a year. But a couple of aviation experts I consulted found the amount quite generous.
Some passengers got more on their own. Ms. Maciel wrote a critical but measured letter to Delta, saying she believed that the family should be reimbursed half the cost of their round-trip fares. Delta did just that, sending each member an additional $256 voucher.
I do have some sympathy for Delta; they’re in a tough spot here. Taking care of 282 distressed passengers on a Portuguese-speaking island where the airline has no direct presence, feeding and housing them for the night, sending a plane to take them home, and then compensating them is a complex logistical problem. But isn’t solving complex logistical problems what airlines do every day?
If you need advice about a best-laid travel plan that went awry, send an email to [email protected].
Alain Delaquérière contributed research.
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Seth Kugel is the columnist for “Tripped Up,” an advice column that helps readers navigate the often confusing world of travel.
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