I’m absolutely disappointed in Delta and Atlanta’s handling of this power airport situation today . Below is an update from Delta on how they are planning to handle this situation (see Ground Stop For Flights Going To Atlanta.)
Update From Delta Re: Atlanta
To backup, I went to the airport at 3 pm to catch a flight today. A full two hours after power to the world’s busiest airport went out. At no time was I notified of this issue by Delta Airlines who should have seen this as an issue. See More Breaking Fire Confirmed Atlanta Airport & Earliest Power Restored..
Now compound that with an undisclosed fire in the airport, and we have a significant safety issue on our hands. I was dropped off at the airport to utter chaos. Not one Delta person I spoke with knew what was going on, or what was causing the delays. In fact, contrary to regular occurrence, I was met by a lackadaisical attitude towards the whole delay / fire / power issue by every Delta employee I encountered who didn’t “know anything” about the issues.
See Breaking: Smoke In Terminal Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson
On top of that, cell phone service and WiFi was very disrupted. It was nearly impossible to make a call, gain access to the internet, etc. The information wasn’t flowing from the airline, internet or cell phones. To get coverage, one had to walk out to the parking lot.
Enough background, Delta is formulating their response. After spending hours trying to connect with Delta tonight about my since cancelled flight, the agent told me to expect a corporate response.
Update From Delta
So, Delta is formulating a corporate response. Before I share what I heard, I think a little context may be helpful. The airport shut down today due to lack of power. Flights were diverted. We now know a significant fire occurred underneath the airport which caused all of this.
When speaking with Delta tonight, they informed me that Delta is planning to provide consideration to customers who were impacted by this event at the corporate level. A few years ago, they did the same and rewarded a few hundred bucks to customers who were stranded, see similar compensation for those who experienced delays.
Bottom Line
This situation is much worse. Today the information was not flowing which allowed people to walk into this situation and they are possibly are now stranded at the airport. I for one will be interested to see the reports outlining what happened, who knew what/when, and how Delta and the city of Atlanta plan to prevent this from happening again.
I am still a big fan of Delta, but today felt like they dropped the ball in a big way on communication.
About The Weekly Flyer
The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
Sign up for Email || Twitter || Facebook |
Hotel Offers || Airline Offers || Bank Offers || Cash Back Offers
So where in this article is the promised “Update from Delta?”
I was sitting in the Sky Club in JAX when the first delay came through. About that time my coworker, who was already in ATL, Told me about the power outage. I Googled it and sure enough it had already made the news. I told the agent in the SC what was going on and she told me it was a mechanical issue. I told her to call operations and she did. She found out that it was anything but mechanical. It’s a shame when the customer knows more than the company employees.
@Berk – Agree. Information should have been provided to client facing employees in near real time.
@Delta Flyer – Update is that Delta is formulating a corporate response. But we don’t know what that is yet.
How could anyone be a big fan of Delta? One of the worst companies in America. not competitive at all.
1. They always have meltdowns
2. They ALWAYS have meltdowns
3. Skymiles
4. THEY ALWAYS HAVE MELTDOWNS
5. SKYMILES!!!
6. 717’s, 737-900s and 757-300s , OLD crappers flying around everywhere
7. Skymiles!!
8. Dishonest communications regarding Skymiles
9. Dishonest videos about the ME3
10. Hypocrites
Other than .. well they have IFE. Why would anyone like this company?
Did Delta cause the power outage or the fire? Did they know what was going on at the beginning to inform their customers? Since the power was out, was Delta getting information out of the airport? Was the information accurate? How long was the outage expected to last? Wasn’t the initial info released made it appear as if the power would be back on in a reasonable amount of time? How do you define reasonable; how does Delta; the airport; the FAA?
I could go on and on with the questions but I think…well, I hope you get the point. We all want information to make informed decisions but we also expect the information received to be accurate. Even Delta needs to be responsible in these situations and ensure that they pass accurate information out…IMHO…
Wife and I are in the back of a Lyft vehicle driving on I-20 ATL to BHM. We we able to de-plane after 6 hours on the tarmac, then had to walk across three terminals, down and up non-functioning escalators and probably walked about 3 miles. My fitbit said I was “good for the rest of the week”. Re-booking lines were 100 yards long, another was 200 yards long, counters were undermanned/overwhelmed. Police were present and maintained order as an older man went ballistic that he could not get into the SkyClub to re-book. Police had to get an older lady calm as she took offense to those getting preferential treatment in the Priority Medallion lane. We waited almost 2 hours, moved about 12 feet and finally got WiFi. I saw Delta re-booked us tomorrow night but also heard rumors and comments about no hotel rooms being available. A Lyft ride was slightly more expensive than a one way rental car. As we departed terminal F, the only one with power, we saw about 5000 people in the main terminal … some in re-booking lines others looking like refugees that were settling in for 2 to 3 days. We overhead many people state they’d be stuck there until Wednesday.
Home at last … Can you say $200 Lyft fare? Luggage is … who knows where.
The great Atlanta Airport Experience draws to an end.