Delta backsout of $24000 seat vouchers.

Oxman

Well-Known Member

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying
David Reeves and his family experienced the scenario described above at Oakland International Airport on Sunday. Reeves' family was flying to Nashville for Christmas on a flight to Salt Lake City, and at the gate, passengers were offered $8,000 to give up a seat and fly on a later flight. The family agreed to give up three seats on the aircraft, meaning they would receive $24,000 in vouchers. The family never received their money because the first officer for the flight did not show up, leading the flight to be canceled.

According to ABC7, Reeves asked the gate agent if the airline would honor the voucher offer.

So I did ask her, you're not honoring the vouchers that you agreed to pay and now you're canceling the flight?"
Reeves added that he thought the decision not to honor the offer was bad business.

"That's not right, if we're not getting the flight and you offered the vouceher... why don't we get the voucher?"

It gets worse...
To make matters worse, the flight was canceled, and Reeves' family was offered another flight only two days later. Because the cancelation was considered 'controllable' by the Department of Transportation's standards, the airline's compensation policies went into effect instead.

After creating the 'Airline Customer Service Dashboard' in September, the DOT aims to ensure all passengers know explicitly what ten major United States carriers will and will not cover in the event of controllable disruptions.
Delta's policy is to do the following in the event of a controllable cancellation:

  • Rebook passengers on same airline at no additional cost
  • Rebook on a partner airline or another airline with which it has an agreement at no additional cost
  • Meal or meal cash/voucher when cancellation results in passenger waiting for 3 hours or more for a new flight
  • Complimentary hotel accommodations for any passenger affected by an overnight cancellation
  • Complimentary ground transportation to and from hotel for any passenger affected by an overnight cancellation
According to the Reeves family, Delta did not honor everything it promised to pay for. The family rented a car, drove to Monterey Regional Airport, and booked a flight on another airline. According to the family, Delta did pay for a hotel and the rental car but has yet to refund the flights back to Nashville.
 
The audacity of expecting something for giving up nothing is quite crazy.

I could see that if this man made a request/demand to the airline to pay him $8000 for his seat. But does this concept change if the airline approaches him (and everyone else on the flight) with an unsolicited offer of same? An offer which (apparently) gets agreed upon and accepted prior to the event of the FO not making the flight? That seems to be how it’s being presented, unless there’s more detail that I’m just not aware of. Anything in the contract of carriage on this subject?
 
I could see that if this man made a request/demand to the airline to pay him $8000 for his seat. But does this concept change if the airline approaches him (and everyone else on the flight) with an unsolicited offer of same? An offer which (apparently) gets agreed upon and accepted prior to the event of the FO not making the flight? That seems to be how it’s being presented, unless there’s more detail that I’m just not aware of. Anything in the contract of carriage on this subject?

He made a deal: give up his seats and get paid. His seats no longer existed, he had nothing to give up, so the deal is moot. It’s absurd to think he should get paid for giving up precisely nothing.
 
He made a deal: give up his seats and get paid. His seats no longer existed, he had nothing to give up, so the deal is moot. It’s absurd to think he should get paid for giving up precisely nothing.
THEY made a deal, he and the airline. They were buying something back from him that they owned, the airline was willing to pay a hefty price to get it back, the fact that they lost it afterwards is their fault, not his. You can't be this dense, I refuse to believe it. If you built a home and sold it and then finalized a deal to buy it back at a premium because it was for some reason precious to you and it burned down would you just walk away and leave the original purchaser hanging?
 
A couple days ago they were buying folks off my jet, a flight misconnected and they no longer needed to bump passengers.

A few people that were offered vouchers got pissed because they were able to board the flight after all.

Besides, if the flight cancelled, I can't figure out the logic behind paying them for a flight that got cancelled.
 
A couple days ago they were buying folks off my jet, a flight misconnected and they no longer needed to bump passengers.

A few people that were offered vouchers got pissed because they were able to board the flight after all.

Besides, if the flight cancelled, I can't figure out the logic behind paying them for a flight that got cancelled.
When the deal was made the seats were valuable, they bought their seats at a certain price and sold them back to the airline for a hefty profit. The fact that the flight was canceled doesn't matter. If you buy a stock cheap and it skyrockets and you get out at the peak when it falls back to earth you still expect to be paid right?
 
Believe it or not the secret game amongst airline pilots looking at load boards on other peoples airlines on busy travel days and buying seats then hanging out at the airport and selling them back to the airline isn't much of a secret anymore. It seems like dirty pool but I guess some of you have nothing better to do with your off or ready reserve time during the holidays.
 
When the deal was made the seats were valuable, they bought their seats at a certain price and sold them back to the airline for a hefty profit. The fact that the flight was canceled doesn't matter. If you buy a stock cheap and it skyrockets and you get out at the peak when it falls back to earth you still expect to be paid right?

That's a strange melange of two mutually exclusive concepts.

You're not selling your seats back. You're basically taking an incentive to go on a later flight.

That incentive becomes unnecessary if the flight cancels or they don't need the seat after all. This happens every day with no social media fanfare or populist ire.
 
Believe it or not the secret game amongst airline pilots looking at load boards on other peoples airlines on busy travel days and buying seats then hanging out at the airport and selling them back to the airline isn't much of a secret anymore. It seems like dirty pool but I guess some of you have nothing better to do with your off or ready reserve time during the holidays.
What are you smoking?
 
What are you smoking?
If a guy was of the gambling persuasion and had access to load boards and a lounge they could probably treat a day during the holiday crush like a trip to the horse track. They'll know which flights might sell out, buy a ticket, wait at the gate until the airline starts asking people to sell their seat, accept the offer of a refund of the ticket price and additional vouchers or money and walk away with a tidy profit and then rinse and repeat for an entire day. The vouchers have value, the airline has to keep them on their books for tax reasons and they'd rather payout than have someone holding onto them for years, for the same reason the company you work for will want their employees to use their PTO and not roll it it over every year, it becomes a liability to have all of that money/debt sitting out there not being used.
 
THEY made a deal, he and the airline. They were buying something back from him that they owned, the airline was willing to pay a hefty price to get it back, the fact that they lost it afterwards is their fault, not his. You can't be this dense, I refuse to believe it. If you built a home and sold it and then finalized a deal to buy it back at a premium because it was for some reason precious to you and it burned down would you just walk away and leave the original purchaser hanging?

I’m glad you brought up a real estate example, because that’s a perfect comparison! If you contract to buy, sell, manage, rent, etc. property, and the property is destroyed before the deal closes, then the contract is void. Because, you know, that’s the only thing that makes any f’n sense. Just like in this case.
 
I’m glad you brought up a real estate example, because that’s a perfect comparison! If you contract to buy, sell, manage, rent, etc. property, and the property is destroyed before the deal closes, then the contract is void. Because, you know, that’s the only thing that makes any f’n sense. Just like in this case.
If the family took the deal and went to find another means to get home do you think at that point they care whether or not the flight was canceled? The airline offered to buy them out, they took the deal and walked away, those seats are the airlines problem, I doubt they were asking to buy them back if they hadn't already sold them to someone else so if your position is those seats would've been empty you need a nap or something. I'd hire an attorney and let him take all of the profits just out of spite for how I'd been treated if I was them.
 
I'd hire an attorney and let him take all of the profits just out of spite for how I'd been treated if I was them.

I mean, that would probably be worth a lot of entertainment value to the Delta attorneys. I know the frivolous lawsuits I get always make me and my attorneys giggle. And then we laugh out loud when they end up having to pay our attorneys‘ fees.
 
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