Delta passengers are angry, but will be back. They have little choice

Delta Air Lines stranded an estimated half million passengers in its service meltdown last week, leaving many sleeping on floors of airports, frustrated and angry at their inability to complete their trips, unable to find their bags or get answers from the airline.

But the fact is no matter how mad they are, most of them will return to the airline in the future. To paraphrase the old song, for most travelers, breaking up with an airline is hard to do.

The reality of the American air travel system is that powerful forces keep passengers flying the same carriers, even after service meltdowns like Delta just suffered. America’s four largest airlines — American, United, Southwest and Delta — control more than 70% of US air travel. For passengers who live near one of the hubs where Delta controls most of the flights, such as Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis or Salt Lake City, choices are even more limited.

And many customers have frequent flyer accounts and branded credit cards that feed into those accounts, binding them to one airline or another.

That’s the case with Don Hooper, who has a million miles in his Delta frequent flyer account, built up over years of flying the airline once or twice a week while working as a banker near Atlanta.

Now semi-retired, he and his wife Dorothy take eight to ten trips a year on Delta. They were on vacation this month visiting Glacier National Park and a wedding in Bozeman, Montana, and were on their way home when they were stranded for three days in Salt Lake City. Eventually they had to buy their own tickets on Spirit to get home by early Wednesday morning.

“I wouldn’t say I’m angry. I’m disappointed,” Don Hooper told CNN in an interview. “We were never communicated with, were never were contacted. We were left on our own. They left people to fend for themselves with no assistance.”

The meltdown occurred as Delta struggled to recover from computer problems that disabled its program that it normally uses to track where its pilots and flight attendants are, making it impossible to get staff all their flights. The problems were caused by cyber security firm CrowdStrike and resulted in widespread computer issues around the world on July 19, including more than 5,000 canceled flights on Friday by a wide range of airlines.

But by Monday, the problems were mostly limited to Delta as other businesses were back to normal, adding to the frustration of its passengers. Delta canceled more than 4,400 flights from July 19 to 21, according to tracking service FlightAware. It had an additional 1,800 flights canceled on Monday and Tuesday.

“Other airlines seemed to figure it out, banks seemed to figure it out, other businesses figured it out. Delta didn’t,” said Dorothy Hooper.

The Hoopers say their experience wasn’t as bad as other travelers’. Because the Hoopers had money to book a hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, even when they were still hoping to get out of town that night, they had a place to sleep. That wasn’t the case for others.

“There are people sleeping in lines at the (ticketing) kiosks. People were running out of diapers, out of formula. Some vendors were running out of food,” said Dorothy Hooper.

“We came out of this fine,” said Don Hooper.

And by Friday their luggage had been returned and Delta compensated them for their out-of-pocket spending, and given them an extra $100 each as well. Even before that happened, the Hoopers said they were looking forward to their next trip on Delta, set for August to Greece and Italy, despite their disappointment with Delta’s actions during the meltdown. Past experience, plus the dominance of Delta in Atlanta and Don Hooper’s frequent flyer miles, would keep them using the airline.

Who will, and won’t, return

Other travelers weren’t quite as quick to commit to flying Delta again.

Jeremy and Kaylee Jones were married on July 20 and left Spokane, Washington, Monday for their honeymoon, they told CNN. Five guests weren’t able to attend the wedding due to flight issues.

They arrived in Atlanta early Tuesday morning for a connecting flight from Atlanta to the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. But they couldn’t get one.

They eventually had to make their way to Orlando to fly another airline to St. Lucia so they wouldn’t lose the money they spent on the room there. Despite promising to compensate affected passengers, Delta’s policy would not have paid for their room in St. Lucia had they canceled the trip.

“Maybe in the future but once they’ve figured it out, I would say, not in the near future,” said Kaylee Jones when asked if they would fly Delta again.

“As of right now, I would roll with that sentiment,” said Jeremy Jones. “No Delta for me, for sure.”

But other airlines have seen demand for travel bounce back after similar or even worse meltdowns. Southwest suffered a 10-day problem with its crew scheduling software that resulted in about 17,000 cancellations over the year-end holiday travel period in 2022. It suffered two months of reduced bookings, but soon saw even many of those affected travelers returning to the airline. It just reported record revenue and traffic in the most recent quarter.

The hub system gives so-called “network carriers” like Delta protections from competition for flights in and out of their hubs. It has 83% of the available seats flown in and out of Atlanta, when adjusted for miles traveled, according to data to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

“They have a stranglehold on Atlanta,” said Zach Griff, senior aviation reporter for The Points Guy, a travel site. “Even if you want to fly a competitor, you won’t be able to go to as many locations nonstop. It’s always worth remembering, people’s memories are very short. They book on schedule and price. It’s not to say that some customers will not harbor resentment towards Delta for this. But it could be a short-term blip.”

On some major routes, there are multiple choices, although often not with the same frequency on other airlines.

“At the end of the day people are going to act in their personal interest,” said Scott Keyes, founder of travel alert service Going.com. ”Most passengers aren’t going to inconvenience themselves, to take a longer or a non-direct flight, simply to punish Delta.”

Many business travelers will fly the airline that has a contract with their employer, with little choice but to pick their own carrier. That was the case with Dylan Steele, a government employee who as stuck at Atlanta for several days unable to complete a trip to Washington for work. Except for emergencies, he has to fly Delta for work. By Tuesday he was giving up his plans for this trip after three days unsuccessfully trying to get out of Atlanta to Washington, DC.

But Steele was understanding of the problems Delta was having and feeling sorry for the employees who were at the airport trying to help and other passengers find their luggage.

“It’s definitely been an experience. I’ve never encountered anything like this,” he said. “Delta typically on a normal day is pretty good. These folks are doing their best, trying to help us … It’s not their fault.”

And that is another thing that likely will bring passengers back to Delta – a reputation for good service. Stats bear that out — Delta pointed out in its second quarter results that in the first half of this year it led the industry in lowest percentage of canceled flights and on-time performance, and operated 39 cancellation-free days. It also has a relatively low complaint rate.

Don Hooper said he’s always gotten great service from Delta employees in the million miles he’s flown on the airline before this, and that’s another reason he’s not about to change, beyond the fact that he lives close to the Atlanta hub and has all the miles in his account.

“When you’re a million plus mile flyer, you’ve had bad experiences over the years. How Delta has responded to that in the past has been good,” Don Hooper said. “We’ve been flying Delta for 34 years. And still will.”