Delta agrees to reimburse alternative travel as cancellations drop and recovery ramps up

For the first time since Friday’s CrowdStrike outage , Delta Air Lines’ operations seem to be more or less normal.

By noon ET on Wednesday, the airline posted just 47 cancellations and 399 delays, according to Flight Aware . That’s compared to 511 total cancellations on Tuesday and 1,160 on Monday. On Wednesday, American Airlines had more canceled flights than Delta. The airline also clarified and expanded its reimbursement guidelines for customers who were affected by the meltdown.

But that doesn’t mean the crisis is over in Atlanta. Now, the possibly harder work of reaccommodating passengers whose flights were previously canceled, reuniting travelers with their bags and restoring the airline’s rosy reputation must begin.

“When you have 75% of your daily schedule either delayed or canceled, that’s pretty much a crisis, and I don’t think they’ve owned it, quite frankly,” William J. McGee, senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, told USA TODAY.

Delta has come under scrutiny online since Friday’s outage for its limited public statements, for continuing to point the finger at CrowdStrike even after other airlines’ operations had recovered, and for the fact that CEO Ed Bastian has yet to give an update on video or in person.

“Since the CrowdStrike outage late last week, Delta’s team of the best professionals in the business has been working around the clock to restore the reliable, on-time operation you’ve come to know and expect when you fly with us,” Bastian said in a statement on Wednesday morning. “While our initial efforts to stabilize the operations were difficult and frustratingly slow and complex, we have made good progress this week and the worst impacts of the CrowdStrike-caused outage are clearly behind us.”

The Department of Transportation announced on Tuesday that it would be investigating Delta’s customer service shortfalls, saying it had received hundreds of complaints from travelers who claimed Delta was not honoring its customer service commitments or handling their inquiries in a timely manner.

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Delta is allowing travelers with tickets to fly through Sunday to rebook for no fee or fare difference. New itineraries must begin by Aug. 4.

In addition, Delta announced Wednesday that it would cover the costs of alternative travel that affected customers may have purchased.

"Delta has continued to offer meal vouchers, ground transportation and hotel accommodations, where available, to customers whose travel has been disrupted with canceled or significantly delayed flights. We know many customers have incurred unplanned travel expenses, including purchasing tickets on other airlines, rental cars, train tickets and more," a statement from the airline said. "Delta will cover reasonable costs for additional categories of expenses incurred during the duration of the travel waiver (which currently applies for flights between July 19 and July 28). As before, customers who have incurred hotel, meal or ground transportation expenses while in transit during this operational disruption may also submit eligible expenses for reimbursem e nt ."

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DOT rules also require Delta to refund flights for those who choose not to travel on alternate flights if their original itinerary was canceled for any reason, even if the original tickets were nonrefundable.

What’s next for Delta

The coming days will likely still be a struggle for Delta. It needs to maintain its now seemingly-stable operation while working to get potentially thousands of stranded travelers and cargo-sized loads of luggage to where they’re supposed to be.

“I think if anybody looks at the reduction in delays and cancellations and says, ‘well, ok, that’s over, I think we’re moving into a different phase now,’ and that’s the phase of: how do you accommodate all of these people who still want to fly?” McGee said, noting that airlines typically run at peak capacity during the summer, so extra seats may be hard to come by. “These situations, they do not get fixed in 24 hours, they just don’t.”

Beyond the next few days, it’s likely that Delta’s executives will have to do some deep reflecting – and serious investing – to prevent this kind of meltdown from happening again.

On top of the DOT investigation, members of both chambers of Congress wrote letters to Bastian this week, which suggests that he may soon find himself answering for Delta’s meltdown on Capitol Hill.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Delta agrees to reimburse alternative travel as cancellations drop and recovery ramps up