Delta DOJ probe overview:
- Who: The U.S. Department of Transportation has launched an investigation into Deltaโs handling of flight cancellations after the global IT outage July 19.
- Why: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Delta was slower than other airlines to get its flights back up and running, leading to thousands of customer complaints.ย
- Where: The Delta DOJ probe is active in the United States.
The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) has launched an investigation into Deltaโs handling of flight cancellations following the global IT outage on July 19.
The outage, which has been described as the largest IT outage in history, left Delta passengers stranded at airports, on hold for hours to speak with customer service representatives and has resulted in thousands of complaints.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the probe on X on July 23.ย
โWe require all airlines to meet their responsibilities to take care of passengers,โ he said. โBased on the disruptions weโve seen and the complaints weโve received about customer service,ย we have launched an investigation into Delta.โ
He said the investigation will look into Deltaโs handling of over 6,000 canceled flights since the day of the outage. It aims to ensure Delta complies with federal laws and DOT regulations while addressing the numerous complaints received from customers, Buttigieg said.
He directed affected passengers to try to resolve their issues directly with the airline, but also to visit the flightrights.gov website for information on passenger protections and to file complaints if necessary.
Deltaโs response slower than other airlines
The disruption began when CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. issued a faulty software update affecting Microsoft Windows operating systems worldwide. This caused major disruptions across various sectors, including airlines, airports, financial institutions, and hospitals, as systems had to be manually rebooted.
In a DOT press conference posted to X on July 24, Buttigieg compared Deltaโs slow response to that of other airlines.
โEvery other airline got back on its feet within a day or two,โ he said. โDelta actually seemed to move in the opposite direction.โ
Buttigieg said the investigation would look at why โDelta got worse when other airlines got betterโ as well as the mass cancellations and the dire lack of customer service.ย
The transportation secretary said some Delta customers had reported waiting on hold to speak with a customer service representative for eight hours, and that heโd spoken to people who had waited in lines of over 100 people waiting to speak with a single Delta agent at an airport.
โWhat is going on with your customer service?โ he asked, vowing to investigate the issues with a view to accountability.ย
He said the DOT had received about 3,000 complaints from passengers, with more than 400 flights impacted and 100 flights canceled.
Delta offers customers refunds and reimbursement for costs
On July 25, Delta responded to customers on social media, saying: โTeams across our network have worked to return our reliability to normal. Weโre committed to caring for our customers during this time & have taken a number of steps to make things right for those affected.โย
The airline said it would offer credits or refunds to customers whose flights had been severely delayed or canceled, a refund or cancelation for people who no longer wanted to fly before July 28, and reimbursal for โreasonable costsโ for expenses incurred due to unplanned travel expenses from the outage, โincluding purchasing tickets on other airlines, rental cars, train tickets & more.โ
DOT has previously stepped in to advocate for customers affected by flight delays. In 2023, Southwest Airlines received a $140 million civil penalty related to 2022 holiday flight cancellations from the DOT. The cancellations came because the airline canceled 16,900 flights and stranded over two million passengers over the holiday and is in addition to $600 million in refunds and reimbursements for passengers.
Were your Delta flights affected by the global IT outage? Let us know in the comments.ย
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2 thoughts onMore than 5,000 Delta flight cancellations under federal investigation
Myself, my husband, and our two daughters ages 2.5years old and 10 WEEKS old were stuck in a rock and a hard place, but were incredibly understanding when our flight was cancelled from Minneapolis to Sydney to go home to Australia on the 21st of Julyโฆ. after waiting on hold for hours on what was supposed to be my last night with my family that I hadnโt seen since before covid instead of spending time with them I finally got on to a customer service agent and she had told me to save all my receipts since she couldnโt get me another flight for a whole week. It has been such a fight to try and get our accommodation and food covered for those extra 6 nights we had to stay in the U.S. with our children.
I spent over $2k getting home from SLC to RDU for a family of 4 and all Delta offers is a partial reimbursement of $900 with the attached stipulation that itโs a release of liability and exclusion of claims. Itโs bullcrap. We need to get some law firm to file a class action against Delta.