Detroit Metro travelers frustrated as Delta cancellations continue

Romulus — Delta Air Lines passengers at Detroit Metro Airport were dealing Monday with a fourth straight day of mass flight cancellations caused by a technology outage, while the carrier’s top executive warned that it could be days before operations return to normal.

While most other airlines have mostly resolved issues caused by Friday’s CrowdStrike outage that affected Windows computer systems around the world, Delta canceled more than 800 flights nationwide Monday, leaving customers at the Detroit airport frustrated and angry.

“I missed my stepdad’s funeral, we’ve lost over a thousand dollars on hotel and food, it’s just been awful… we’re never flying Delta again,” said Jill Kennedy, 55, of St. Augustine, Florida, who was finally able Monday to book a flight to San Francisco after arriving at Detroit Metro on Saturday with her son, Brandon Walker, his fiancée Keira Podratz and Kennedy’s 2-year old grandson.

“We felt invisible for the first 24 hours,” Kennedy said. “They didn’t give us vouchers for food or hotel.”

Delta has given all customers traveling July 19-23 a waiver that allows them to make a free one-time change to their itinerary. Delta has also promised vouchers and reimbursement of eligible hotel, food and transportation expenses. But some passengers say that’s been difficult to obtain.

Kennedy said she and her family received vouchers on Monday but they don’t make up for the Airbnb and rental because they had to cancel in San Francisco. “We missed the whole reason we were flying,” she said. “On Sunday, we had a rebooked flight, which kept getting rebooked hour by hour until it finally got canceled at midnight.”

Delta’s cancellations Monday brought its total of scrapped flights since Friday’s meltdown to more than 4,600. Delta said it was working “around the clock” to restore operations, with more than half of its worldwide IT systems relying on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system affected by the software error.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said it could be days before Delta moves past the incident, according to a video message sent to employees Monday.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg talked to Bastian on Sunday about the high number of Delta cancellations. After receiving “hundreds of complaints,” Buttigieg called out Delta on delays and cancellations, as well as adequate customer service assistance.”

Derek Zachary, 44, of Fort Cavasos, Texas, spent Sunday night at Detroit Metro after trying for four hours to rebook. He slept in the airport while on hold with Delta customer service and finally was able to obtain a flight home for Tuesday.

“It was just the fear of not doing it,” said Zachary, a US Army officer who worried that the delay could affect his unit’s operations. They’re about to go into the field in the coming week.

As a US Army officer, Zachary worried that the delay could affect his unit operations since they’re about to go into the field in the coming week.

Other customers are having to wait until Wednesday to get on a flight, while others opted to eat the cost and go with a different carrier.

After arriving in Detroit from Amsterdam and being told Monday that the earliest rebooked flight she could get on was Wednesday, Linda Rudroff, 77, of Columbia, Missouri, decided to try to find another airline.

“Hopefully someone can help us,” she said.

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Bloomberg contributed to this report.