Delta offered family $24,000 in travel vouchers, then reneged and canceled flight
The family of three was traveling on an overbooked Delta flight from Oakland to Salt Lake City. The gate agent offered them $8,000 each ($24,000 total) to take another flight. They felt they had won the lottery. But then Delta dropped the offer. The family didn’t get the vouchers, they couldn’t fly.
Instead, Delta canceled the flight due to a missing crew member. As a result, they no longer “needed family seats” to accommodate other passengers because no one was going to be accommodated. By canceling the flight, Delta did not have to pay compensation for denied boarding 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 But he says the airline has withdrawn the offer, which was made after an alleged staffing mishap.
“I understand that flights are canceled and things happen,” said David Reeves, a Nashville native who visits San Francisco for the holidays. “But don’t dangle the carrot and pull it back.”
The flight was on Christmas Eve and the family was connecting to Nashville. The man’s family said he was ruining Christmas by taking the voucher. But, he said, “that’s $24,000 … we can expect $8,000 a day for a seat.”
In the end, they didn’t get the voucher and make it on Christmas Eve, but they did make it for Christmas. Delta offered the flight two days later, the day after Christmas. However, they took matters into their own hands and went to the Monterey airport where they caught a flight. Delta covered one night’s hotel and rental car expenses.
Imagine being so close to $24,000 in travel vouchers, not getting the money, but also not getting the flight. You are being contacted by the airline in any case and still don’t get their proposed future travel.
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