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View Full Version : Lets go to court


411A
29th May 2008, 02:35
US airlines will get a wake-up call, and this might be one of 'em...

A New York lawyer is suing Delta Air Lines for USD$1 million, saying his family vacation turned into a nightmare after they were stranded in an airport for days and treated disdainfully by airline employees.

Richard Roth, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and his mother, said he planned the Christmas 2007 trip to Buenos Aires to celebrate his mother's 80th birthday. She had grown up in the city, but had not returned in years, he said.

Instead, Roth said he, his wife, two teenage children and mother spent three days in airports, went days without their luggage, were treated rudely by airline employees and were forced to spend USD$21,000 on unused hotel rooms in Argentina, replacement clothes, and other costs.

"Through its gross negligence, malfeasance and absolute incompetence, Mr. Roth holds Delta responsible for ruining his vacation," said the lawsuit, filed in New York state court.

Delta Air Lines had no immediate comment.

Roth said that he has been in touch with Delta about getting reimbursed, but was repeatedly rebuffed. He said on Wednesday filing the suit was a last resort.

After the initial flight from New York was delayed by more than two hours, the family was not allowed to board their connecting flight in Atlanta, Roth said.

A Delta employee "literally walked away chuckling that he had left them stranded," he said.

After waiting in the airport for hours, Roth was told the next available flight would depart more than two weeks later.

He then booked a flight through a different airline and arrived in Argentina three days later than planned. The family was not reunited with their luggage for more than five days.

"Suffice it to say, Mr. Roth's elderly mother was a mess. And she has been suffering ever since. The kids are all upset. And it was Christmas Eve. Mr. Roth had spent one-half of his vacation in Buenos Aires chasing Delta and its incompetent representatives," the lawsuit said.

(Reuters)

DAL is one of the worst offenders, in my experience, now they will have to tell it to d' judge.

PAXboy
29th May 2008, 10:58
It is true that large corporates are only stopped/changed by two things.

Money being redirected from shareholders and the main board to customers
Death of customers (but only because that costs money too)It will be interesting to see how close to court day they allow it to get before settling 'without prejudice'.

Skintman
29th May 2008, 11:50
About time someone gave an airline a "fat lip". Unfortunately poor old SLF are often treated with distain when sh*t happens.:{

Problems happen in the airline industry like any other, but unfortunately the industry does not help itself by keeping customers informed. Flights are at the mercy of the weather and numerous other influences, we understand that, just keep us informed.:ugh:

twb3
2nd Jun 2008, 21:05
Not sure the inital post had all the information. From what I've seen in other souces, the family in question was traveling on frequent flier miles (and thus, in a non-revenue status). The passenger took no action even though his inbound flight was delayed until reaching Atlanta, and then demanded to be boarded after the outbound flight had closed (door still open, but flight closed out).

It wasn't hard to read between the lines an arrogant jerk verbally abusing a gate agent, who properly refused to reopen the flight. I don't know if that's what happened, but it dosen't seem to be in doubt that the party arrived late for boarding the outbound flight at ATL. If this had been me traveling, I would have blamed myself for booking too tight a connection at ATL to catch an international departure, and for not taking action when it became apparent that I wasn't going to make boarding time for my outbound connection.

My guess is that the delay in offering seats for travel to destination had a lot to do with the party's non-revenue status as well, a point not explored in any of the coverage of this matter.

I've see too many passengers lose control of themselves and abuse the help for problems that they created for themselves in the first place. I would actually prefer that the Mr. Roths of the world just stop flying, it might make things a bit more tolerable for the rest of us.

Big Tudor
3rd Jun 2008, 08:14
were forced to spend USD$21,000 on unused hotel rooms in Argentina, replacement clothes, and other costs
:eek:
Really? So 5 people managed to spend $4,200 each in 3 days. Where the hell werethey staying?
As in all good drama stories there is always 2 sides. Unfortunately I suspect that in this case Delta will have enough ammo on their side to see Mr Roth off. Flying non-rev on air miles does not put you at the top of many lists, except of course the off-load one!

Then again I have been wrong before.

TheGorrilla
4th Jun 2008, 01:55
It sounds like a very bad holiday and sympathy to Mr Roth and his family. What I want to know is how he intends to present meaningful evidence of this poor service in court.

If it's his word and sobbing family vs the airline with a recorded booking system i really cant see he's going to get anywhere. As far as staff laughing at leaving them stranded, I can only assume he was either so obnoxious towards the staff to start with that they were laughing at him for being rude, or the staff were laughing at something else that Mr Roth missunderstood as a dig at him.

smacks of exaggeration somewhat.