Delta Airlines

We've seen and heard a lot about Delta recently and not in a good way.

Delta of course dealt with a massive power outage that wreaked havoc on operations when backup systems didn't kick in as they should have, resulting in cancellations and disruptions all over the place. 1,700 flights were cancelled and 100,000 people had their lives disrupted-- and that number is conservative, since those are only Monday and Tuesday numbers, and Delta didn't resume a normal schedule until Friday. Business people missed meetings, families were late getting home from vacation, and lives were put on hold.

Not a good look for a company that has been running ads claiming that they've canceled cancellations.

Then when systems got back up and running, planes and crews were out of position, meaning the logjam was slow to clear itself up.

I'm not a frequent flier, so my experience with airline delays is limited. I've spent a morning and part of an afternoon at DFW because of summer weather delays, and I've waited a few hours at Hartsfield-Jackson for my wife's flight to come in after my own flight touched down. But nothing like camping out in an airport for a couple of days with nothing to do and nowhere to go, perhaps with restless kids or frustrated clients to deal with. Airports aren't designed to be a comfortable place, so the situation can be challenging all around.

Delta tried to get out in front of the situation, as CEO Ed Bastian personally apologized for the delay, then appeared in an additional video. The airline issued $200 vouchers early in the process and also waived rebooking fees. So their PR machine knew what to do.

But...

$200 doesn't sound like much when people may have been stuck for a couple of days. Airport food isn't cheap, and it may not be simple to make reservations for a nearby hotel, again to say nothing of the cost. This voucher was later extended to include Tuesday and Wednesday.

Delta initially said there was a power outage at their Atlanta headquarters, but Georgia Power denied it. The airline later owned the misstep.

Also when you're a company like Delta (and you're hanging your hat on 'no cancellations'), you'd better be sure your backup systems pick up if primary power is lost. Old technology, poor training, IT failure, it doesn't matter. Your computer systems need to run in order for planes/people/crews to get places and there had better be functioning secondary systems.

My thought is that the PR response is a bit mixed-- Delta took some positive, proactive steps, but also had some missteps and let a lot of people down. They've said they're sorry. If they mean it, they'll undergo a tech upgrade. They're a worldwide airline so they can't just shut things down while they switch things over. But that's why people get paid money-- to figure these things out and earn back some of the confidence that has been lost.