Delta Air Lines passengers suffer CrowdStrike outage – NBC 6 South Florida

The airline chaos continues into Monday, following the CrowdStrike outage last week.

Delta Air Lines continues to experience significant delays across the country.

As of 3:30 p.m., Miami International Airport had experienced 45 cancellations in 24 hours, and Fort Lauderdale International Airport had experienced 37 cancellations in 24 hours, according to FlightAware. Most of the cancellations are at Delta Airlines.

“It’s the worst experience he’s ever had,” said Jaclyn Johnson, a Palm City resident.

Johnson said her husband was scheduled to depart on a Delta flight from Palm Beach to Atlanta at 11 a.m. Sunday. After a cancellation and multiple delays, he finally left at 10:40 p.m.

“He said he felt like when he got on the plane he should have just turned around,” Johnson said.

When he arrived in Atlanta, his flight had already been cancelled.

“He said it was complete chaos. People were getting off the plane, a woman saw the line to talk to an officer and collapsed, people were sobbing on the ground,” she said.

To make matters worse, his checked bag remains inactive as he drives to New Orleans.

“The hotels, the rental cars and the fact that we’re not at work is a significant financial loss for us,” Johnson said.

Delta Air Lines said in a statement Monday that it is “working around the clock to get this operation to the desired level.”

According to the airline, the CrowdStrike outage affected its key system, which ensures all flights have a full crew at the right place and time.

While they continue to try to restart and repair the aircraft, Delta is extending a travel waiver through July 23, offering refunds, reimbursements, points and rebooking options.

Johnson’s husband was offered 6,000 points, but Thomas Patch gets his money back.

Patch said he waited all day for a flight that never happened.

“There’s a really long line, there’s only a few people helping to solve the problems, and it’s just annoying,” he said.

Mandee Adler, speaking to NBC6 from the car, described the airport as a “zoo.”

Adler was with her family and drove more than nine hours back to South Florida after their flight to Atlanta, booked with Delta, was delayed and then canceled.

“It’s just sad,” she said. “We saw people crying at the airport, we heard people saying they missed funerals.”

The Adlers reserved a rental car that same evening, but arrived to find a pile of cars. The agents at the counter told the Adlers that they could not honor their reservation.

The family had to stay overnight in a hotel. Fortunately, they were able to leave on Monday.

“We knew about the delays when we left and we thought they would be resolved fairly quickly, but even the people at the airport at the car rental company said they were shocked at how long this had been going on,” said Jason Adler.

Because of the chaos, even their daughter Sara-Pearl missed her internship,

“I don’t think there’s much you can do in these kinds of situations,” she said, adding that thankfully her boss was understanding.

The Adlers have not received any form of compensation or refund, but the airline has told them they can apply for one. The family said they tried calling but did not want to wait on the line.

Instead, the family learns to expect the unexpected and tries to use this experience as a lesson in patience and gratitude.

Mandee Adler said she hopes the airline will be a little more human in the travel experience.

“I understand that these companies want to make as much money as possible, but it really sucks that they can mess up your schedule so much that you can’t reach anyone,” she said.

She wished there were more people who could help customers in person or by phone.

Delta has not provided a timeline for when they expect things to return to normal.

For now, they are asking passengers to continue checking their bookings and visiting delta.com for updates.