Delta Offered Family $24,000 In Travel Vouchers, Then Reneged And Cancelled The Flight
A family of three was traveling Delta from Oakland to Salt Lake City on an overbooked flight. The gate agent offered them $8,000 apiece – $24,000 in total – to take another flight. They felt like they’d won the lottery. But then Delta reneged on the offer. The family didn’t get the vouchers, and they didn’t get to take the flight.
Instead, Delta wound up cancelling the flight because of a missing crewmember. As a result, they no longer ‘needed the family’s seats’ in order to accommodate other passengers, since nobody was going to be accommodated. By cancelling the flight, Delta didn’t have to pay denied boarding compensation at all.
A Bay Area tourist was offered $24,000 worth of vouchers from Delta Airlines to give up his family’s seats on an overbooked flight. But he says the airline took back the offer made after an alleged staffing mishap.
“I understand that flights cancel and things happen,” said David Reeves, a Nashville native visiting San Francisco for the holidays. “But don’t dangle the carrot and pull it back.”
The flight was on Christmas Eve day, and the family was connecting to Nashville. The man’s family said he was ruining Christmas by taking the bump vouchers. But, in his words, “its $24,000… we can wait a day for $8,000 a seat.”
In the end they didn’t get the voucher and didn’t make it on Christmas Eve, but they did make it for Christmas. Delta offered a flight two days laterthe day after Christmas. However they took matters into their own hands and drove to Monterey airport where they picked up a flight. Delta covered a night’s hotel and rental car expense.
Imagine being so close to $24,000 in travel vouchers, not getting the money but not getting the flight either. You get hosed by the airline anyway and still don’t get the future travel they offered.
