Trying to summarize, my 20 yr old d/s flew from Jersey to LAX for an event at CalTech lasting a few days. He works two jobs while going to school, and paid for this himself. He was scheduled to fly from LAX to Jersey in the wee hours Sunday morning. Got to LAX, got his boarding pass, was told flight was delayed. FIVE hours later, they cancelled the flight. He was now stranded.
Got in line at Delta, clerk told him he could get a flight the next day. When he asked what he was supposed to do, where he could go till then, was told they couldn't help with that.
D/h and I got on the phone with Delta Customer Service. They said the flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems, and after much pushing gave him a hotel room near the airport. We were very relieved.
Monday a.m. he takes shuttle back to LAX, gets his pass, flight is delayed. A couple of hours late, the flight heads to Atlanta for the connection to Jersey. I am checking flight status online constantly. He lands in Atlanta, and 10 minutes later the flight to Jersey is cancelled! No explanation. Goes to desk, is told he can fly home the following afternoon.
Now we're beyond furious. Told them to get him on a flight to Philadelphia, Atlantic City or Baltimore. Just get him back up here!! Finally get him on a flight to Baltimore, which is also delayed. They are making announcements that there is a mechanical problem AGAIN and they "hope they can get the part". He gets to Baltimore at 1 in the morning.

Obviously, we will never fly Delta again. I have absolutely no confidence in their ability to manage their airline. I am planning to write to Delta Customer Service asking for some reimbursement for the disaster, especially since he lost a full day of work due to their incompetence. My gf meanwhile scheduled flights months ago back & forth to FL this month for her family via Delta. She just received notice that one flight had been cancelled, so she and her hubby were put on one flight, and her kids on another! She has spent hours on the phone trying to get her money back and trying to help them understand that they need to all travel together.

Do not fly Delta if you can help it. They are a disaster!

Add American Airlines to that list too. My college age DD just flew home for 2 weeks from Washington state, she had to catch a shuttle flight to SEATAC airport, then was told their flight to from Dallas to OKC (the second plane was going to be cancelled this was flying the next morning) she was traveling all night and they wanted to know if she could hang out at the airport (5:00pm until the next morning when her flight was supposed to leave at 8:00pm) she told them NO absolutley not, so they ended up putting her in first class. So she made it to Dallas in the middle of the night and already knew the flight leaving at 7:00am something was cancelled, so she was supposed to get on a flight at 10:00am, then that was delayed for an hour, but she got here almost 24 hours later. She could have almost DRIVEN here in the time it took to fly. I could have driven to Dallas and back in the time it took for her to wait for a flight from Dallas to OKC.

Return trip: out of OKC to Dallas fine, she made it to Dallas ok. Then the plane is dealyed an hour, then another hour, causing her to miss her shuttle flight from SEATAC back to Oak Harbor. Of course the only other shuttle flight was full, so she ended up having to take a BUS or she could have spent the night in the airport and caught a shuttle the next day. What's worse is American Airlines has NO customer service number you can call, you can't talk to anyone, you can only make a compalint in writing.

The only plus to this was the International Softball World Cup tournaments were being played here in OKC that weekend and DD flew in on the same plane at pitchers, Cat Osterman and Monica Abbott (2 of the worlds best pictchers) , so my 11 year old DD (who plays softball and is a pitcher) was able to meet, get pictures and autographs and was absolutely thrilled when she saw them get off the same plane as her sister.

I was watching the TV on my treadmill last night and on-time performance (or lack thereof) was discussed on one of the news networks. It has apparently been very, very poor systemwide this summer. I'm not sure what you as the traveler can do about it, other than to know which airports, carriers, and routes have poor performance and schedule around them. Newark and Chicago-O'hare were cited as amongst the worst for on-time performance. One particular flight had late departure 100% of the time!

For mechanical failures, the airline usually will offer some sort of food or lodging voucher/compensation. For "acts of God"...i.e. weather or ait traffic issues...they have no responsibility.
cj/