In the wake of a worldwide technology outage, my Sunday afternoon flight with Delta Air Lines from Boston Logan (BOS) to San Francisco (SFO) was canceled, and the next option to fly on Delta was nearly 48 hours later. I rebooked myself on United Airlines, which got me to my destination just over 12 hours later than originally scheduled—at a cost that exceeded $2,000. Thankfully, I was traveling for work and the new flight was covered as a business expense. If I was paying out of my own pocket, however, I would have submitted the new flight for reimbursement via the travel insurance coverage offered through my credit card.
You could argue that I was one of the lucky ones. Days after a CrowdStrike software update for Microsoft resulted in global computer crashes, Delta has canceled more than 1,000 flights again on Tuesday, marking the fifth consecutive day that Delta has struck at least 1,000 flights from its schedule, stranding thousands of passengers and bringing a formal investigation from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), in part because Delta has temporarily paused travel for unaccompanied minors.
While operations at other U.S. carriers have returned to near normalcy as of Tuesday morning, Delta continues to flounder. More than 25 percent of the airline’s flights were delayed or canceled, as of 3 p.m. ET Tuesday, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.
On Monday, Delta and its regional affiliates accounted for about two-thirds of all cancellations worldwide. Nearly 6,000 Delta flights have been axed from the schedule since Friday. Ed Bastian, the airline’s CEO, addressed passengers in an email on Sunday, blaming the knock-on effects of last week’s global tech disruption.
“I want to apologize to every one of you who have been impacted by these events,” Bastian wrote in a statement Sunday. “Please know that Delta’s entire team of the best professionals in the business have been working around the clock to safely get you where you need to go, and restore the reliable, on-time experience you’ve come to expect.”
Why have so many Delta flights been canceled or delayed due to the Microsoft outage?
The airline confirmed that Friday’s brief outage hampered one of Delta’s critical crew scheduling platforms, rendering it “unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes.” As other airlines recovered, Delta has been unable to position pilots and flight attendants, many of whom remain stranded. The carrier’s website and mobile app have also floundered in recent days, with many passengers unable to perform self-service functions to rebook flights on their own.
When will Delta operations return to normal?
“It is going to take another couple of days before we are in a position to say that the worst is clearly behind us,” Bastian told employees in an internal memo on Monday. “Today will be a better day than yesterday, and hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday will be that much better again.”
Delta’s operational collapse in recent days eerily echoes Southwest Airlines’ meltdown during the 2022 winter holiday season, when the Dallas-based carrier canceled over 17,000 flights over a 15-day period. The airline similarly faced crew scheduling tech issues. Southwest’s crisis stymied travel for about 2 million people and resulted in a $140 million fine from the DOT.
Is Delta offering refunds and compensation?
In the meantime, Delta continues to offer a travel waiver, with the ability to reschedule an upcoming flight as far out as Sunday, July 28, without paying fees or fare differences. However, with few seats available and no public indication of when customers can expect flights to resume operating reliably, it may not be enough for passengers, many of whom have already been stranded for days.
Delta has said it will cover some costs resulting from flight disruptions, including “reimbursement of eligible expenses related to travel.” However, this is a mandatory requirement from the DOT. The carrier noted it won’t cover expenses like “hotel reservations at the customer’s destination, vacation experiences, lost wages, concerts or other tickets.”
On Tuesday, the DOT opened a formal investigation into Delta’s service woes. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a post on X that the probe is “to ensure the airline is following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions.” As pressure from regulators on Delta increases, the airline may be forced to be more generous with its reimbursements.
