Delta Air Lines is struggling to restore normal operations following the global cyber outage of July 19. The airline has subsequently extended a travel waiver for all customers with travel booked from July 19-21.
The US carrier cancelled 1 250 flights on Sunday (July 21) beyond the 3 500 it had already scrapped when the outage struck on July 19, reports Reuters.
Delta has offered no timetable for the resumption of normal operations and had by Sunday, already cancelled another 305 flights for Monday, July 22, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
The US carrier’s total cancelled flights since Friday now stands at more than 5 000.
The airline’s extended travel waiver offers customers the ability to make a one-time change to their itinerary. The fare difference for customers will be waived when rebooked travel occurs on or before July 26, in the same cabin of service as that originally booked.
Alternatively, Delta will issue SkyMiles Program miles or a travel voucher in an amount based on the customer’s affected travels.
The airline will also cover eligible expenses resulting from this flight disruption such as meal vouchers and hotel accommodation where available and ground transportation are being provided to impacted customers.
Customers who have incurred hotel, meal or ground transportation expenses while in transit during this operational disruption may submit eligible expenses for reimbursement. However, Delta does not reimburse prepaid expenses, including but not limited to hotel reservations at the customer’s destination, vacation experiences, lost wages, concerts or other tickets.
Furthermore, customers whose travel has been disrupted due to a cancelled or significantly delayed flight may choose to cancel their travel and receive an eCredit for the unflown portion of the trip or may instead request a refund at delta.com/refund.
The airline added that it is notifying customers about delays and cancellations in their itinerary via the Fly Delta app and text message. It says it is offering re-booking options that can be managed online.
“While customers can monitor and manage their itineraries on Delta.com or on the Fly Delta app, these online tools have been inundated with traffic, causing intermittent performance challenges. Delta teams are working to stabilise those tools. Also note that our ability to respond to service messages on social media platforms such as X is limited,” the airline cautioned in a press release.
