Delta Air Lines is suffering from a systemwide IT outage this Sunday evening which according to customers on social media is causing hour long delays as the airline deals with a complete ground stop.
Delta says they are working on the issue, but it seems many passengers will get home well past midnight today.
Just one week after United battled an identical issue this time it has hit Delta in the exact same way and their customers also have to sit it out with reports of the airline trying to improvise wherever they can including issuing boarding passes by hand and manually boarding flights.
Delta has also issued a statement in their News Center (access here).
9:15 p.m.: Delta teams are expeditiously working to fix a systems outage that has resulted in departure delays and cancellations for flights on the ground. Flights in the air remain unaffected. Some customers are experiencing delays upon landing, particularly at Delta’s hub airports. Delta apologizes to customers for the inconvenience.
10:15 p.m.: Delta teams are expeditiously working to fix a systems outage that has resulted in departure delays and cancellations. Not all of these delays and cancellations are being reflected on Delta systems, including delta.com, the Fly Delta App, airport information screens or through Reservations agents.
Delta apologizes to customers for the inconvenience.
Since the airline says that certain impacted flights are not shown as delayed or cancelled in the system yet customers have no choice other then seeing at the airport if there are any last minute disruptions and then try to make due however possible at the local station.
Expect the rebooking counters and SkyClub desks to be packed with people who have exactly the same problems as yourself so if you need an urgent re-booking and are in danger of missing that flight you might want to consider booking it yourself online (if still possible and affordable). In some cases your travel insurance such as American Express can also help your out or at least cover your expenses in some way. You can always ask for a refund from Delta later.
Conclusion
I suggest to check if your flight is impacted by this problem and depending on the severity of it decide what the best course of action is. If it’s a minor delay then maybe just sit it out. Should the flight be cancelled check if there are other flights of different carriers available. Unfortunately due to this issue taking place on Sunday evening the options are often limited but flights departing from the West Coast or Hawaii could still be in range in case you are on one of those.
You can expect receiving some sort of compensation from Delta Customer Relations but probably have to write in for that. Sometimes Delta compensate passengers automatically during system wide outages so watch out in your emails for a compensation mail. If it doesn’t arrive within a few days I suggest to contact customer relations.
