They're asking for too much, IMO.

It's hard not to root for the NY lawyer who wants to stick it to Delta. I think a lot of people would love to get in on that action. Sue the bastahds!

Hey this could have all been avoided had the ticket agent let them on, but instead because of that one person's incompetents, it's going to cost Delta. Makes me glad I don't fly a lot and I'd rather drive.

If Delta loses, they could go out of business. I don't think they have a million dollars left.

$21,000 in rental cars, hotels, clothes and tickets? Did they rent a limo, stay in the Presidential Suite, buy designer clothes and travel first class?

$1M sounds a bit high.

Flying is a total f*ing nightmare these days as far as I'm concerned. It's glaringly obvious that executive management the airlines has taken the attitude that customers are basically hostages to treated as poorly as possible, and the trickle down effect is in full force. Unfortunately the airlines are between a rock and a hard place, with the (George F*ing Idiot)Bush administration & the TSA (Terrorist Security Agency)pushing for more & more intrusions into our privacy, and the price of fuel skyrocketing (also thanks, in part, to GFI Bush and his clan), it's a no-win situation. They could improve the whole thing with some badly needed customer service training, but Sr Management obviously has better things to do with their time than worry about 'the little people' who PAY THEIR SALARIES (for now).

@JollyJumjuck: yeah, for real. Maybe they actually bought a car?

@JollyJumjuck: The article says that 5 total people in the family missed the flight. So, take the cost for a last minute international ticket and multiply it by 5 and it's probably closer than you think.

@JollyJumjuck: Try a last minute international flight for a family of four.. that alone could get you close to 20K.

And anything less than a million these days wont get anybodys attention.

If it is too much, the jury can award less, or nothing. If there is merit Delta will settle. If Delta was decent and proactive after causing damage, it would have solved this problem by now.

If he were not a lawyer I might have some sympathy and or actually believe his story.

Prehaps the Gate Agent had already closed out the flight, and couldn't re-do the paperwork, since the pilot had already signed off on the weght/balance sheets?

Just because the plane is sitting there, dosen't mean its freely able to be boarded by late pax.

@smythe: Bingo. A million is enough to get media attention which is the key. Piss poor service all around, but it doesnt surprise me these days.

The gate agent's comment, 'The pilot is not in charge here. I am. All the pilot does is fly the plane' is enough to warrant $1M by itself as far as I'm concerned. This guy should get $100M. Then, the airlines will realize that their job is to do whatever they have to do to transport people from one place to the other. That is, after all, why they claim to be in business. Or, they in business to collect fees? I forget.

So, can we please get to work on Bullet Trains or Mag-Trains already?

@smythe: That was my thoguht. $21,000 doesn't seem at all unreasonable given the circumstances and the itinerary

Did they screw up the dry cleaning on his pants, too?

At least they didn't lose his pants!

anyone catch this?
"After landing, the family found out from a cousin who was on the connecting flight that it had been delayed by a half-hour, giving them just enough time to catch it."

@s25843: Or perhaps she was a power-trippy bitch who picked the wrong person to screw with and is now going to cost her company money all because she was too powertrippy and full of herself to open the door. It wasn't the family's fault!

(except someone here will manage to make it their fault anyway I'm sure)

@m1k3g: "executive management ... has taken the attitude that customers are basically hostages to treated as poorly as possible"

Unfortunately, that's how most businesses operate these days. It's cheaper to advertise for new customers than to spend time making the current ones happy.

@Truvill: No they aren't. You want media attention towards this, that's why you sue for a higher number.

$1 million is a fair number.

Anyone who has traveled with small children in tow knows how stressful a smooth trip can be, let alone one with a few mishaps.

Imagine being in an unfamiliar city, having a nagging wife and a couple screaming kids, being denied access to your confirmed flight then discovering they won't fly you out for another couple weeks. That's enough stress for anyone, and most people would have cracked and book flight back home.

I hope he wins.

I am never one to blame the consumer on here, but this is a little ridiculous. Boo hoo, your flight was delayed two hours and Delta couldn't accommodate you because all of their flights were full during the middle of the holiday travel rush. So now you're suing them for a million bucks? Great, now my airfare goes up again.

Reimburse them for their expenses, sure. But don't go after them because you think you deserve top-notch treatment from an airline. If you've flown in the last 10 years, you should know that nobody gets that kind of service anymore.

It's obvious that all the whiny corporate apologists on here never fly internationally. I do, on a regular basis. And I often have to book tickets at the last possible minute. For a family of four the tickets alone, booked for a next day flight, could run $20K.

And as far as the million dollar suit: it's called punitive damages. As in the kind of suit that's brought to let a corporation know that such behavior is inexcusable and not to be tolerated. In a case like this, it's pretty obvious that the gate agent simply didn't want to do his job. I don't know of any airline that won't hold an international flight for that short of a time so that connecting passengers which they know, according to the flight manifest, are in transit and will be there, can board. This isn't like a L.A. - S.F. commuter flight where there will be another in an hour.

Delta should have fired the gate agent immediately for gross incompetence, and refunded all of their costs. And possibly thrown in something to sweeten the pot. I have no sympathy for Delta whatsoever.

@cybercjh: Along with multi-billion dollar bailouts from the government.

What was his connection time AS BOOKED? That's the key, IMO. If you are booking an international connection with less than a 2-hour layover (being conservative), then I feel you're partly to blame for your planning, assuming there were decent options available. Cutting it close is cutting it close, I don't care what aspect of life.

But maybe the airlines themselves should do all the thinking for us...I trust them to make good decisions.

Some stories have too much detail, some have too little.

He'll show up in court wearing a neck brace.

@y2julio: The story doesn't say it, but I suspect their first flight was delayed. Around here the airlines can't run on time come hell or high water (and this being a river town, the high water has already come).

Hmmm...I can see it both ways. Don't airlines disclaim that you assume the risk when scheduling connecting flights because there is a possibility that you could miss it due to delays, so proceed at your own peril?

I think anyone who has flown has missed a connecting flight a time or two. Your flight is delayed for one reason or another. When you reach the airport, you depart the plane and make a dash for your connecting flight. Sometimes you make it, sometimes not. When you don't make it, usually they can get you on the next flight. Unfortunately in this case, there wasn't another flight.

However, since the plane was still there, the agent should have called the Captain and asked permission to let the family board. Otherwise, I find it hard to believe that Delta couldn't find seats on other flights for them, even if it meant splitting up the family.

I've had very nice ticket agent call ahead to hold a flight for me once. I explained I was flying oversees on a group tour and I had to be on that connecting plane otherwise I wouldn't make it to Europe in time before the tour left, leaving me stranded in Europe by myself with no way of meeting up with the group.

@dualityshift: Agreed. Nevermind the fact that a ticket to Argentina on really short notice like that isn't going to be cheap. Let's think here, people.

Frigging Lawyers.

@eastvillageidiot: RTA, because at first, all he wanted was to be reimbursed. They blew him off so now he's taken it up a notch. Personally, I hope he gets that million.

considering what a "reliable" news source the new york post is (for those who don't know, the nyp is a rag not above making shit up), i would suspect this story has either been sensationalized or falsified in one way or another.

@Sndtrkman: "Makes me glad I don't fly a lot and I'd rather drive."

True, but that's a difficult strategy to implement when you're going to Argentina.

@Ash78 if you read the linked article, it says that their first flight was delayed 2 hours. He would have had a 2 hour layover had his first flight been on time.

@Szin: To Argentina?

I know the airlines are losing money but as far as i'm concerned, if they cannot provide what was paid for then they should be responsible for all other costs. for example, if i book a flight to be somewhere on Thursday at 11am but they cannot get me there until Saturday 6pm then they should be required to pay for the hotel i had booked or the cruise i had or anything else. barring weather related delays, everything else is their fault

"I tried so hard not to sue them,"...he says. What kind of retarded statement is that?! This dude just needs to get over it. Or better yet, take a long walk on a short plank.

Man "Talkes" Delta to court? I'm assuming whoever proofreads for Consumerist is on vacation because the spelling/grammar recently has been pretty crazy.

Once the door to the ramp is closed, the gate agents are not allowed to open it to board straggling passengers - period. It doesn't matter who's fault it is that the passengers are late.

I've had it happen to me and it's frustrating. But then I didn't go all bolshie on the gate agent. So he checked and got me on the next flight to my destination.

Not particularly blaming the consumer, but - could his attitude have had anything to do with the problems?

Though ten bucks says that this lawyer was an arrogant el dousche from the moment he hit the concourse, I'm hoping he wins this.

What would be more interesting if this was a class action lawsuit and the settlement wasn't just a paltry million.. something like a few hundred million to be divided among the people (including myself) who delta screwed over.

They'd be out of business. I don't even think delta has the 1m.

@firesign: that's nice, what else do you suspect?

That's crap about weights, etc. Before 9/11, I had Delta open the gate and plane door for me if it was still at the gate. Screwing your high paying customers is why they are on a losing path. I like Delta, but anyone that defends them here clearly does not fly much. I had an American flight shut the gate 10 minutes early because they wanted to leave early due to strong head winds. The idiot at the gate told me that this has always been their policy and you can see it on their website. As if I booked on their website versus through corporate travel. Evidently if you fly on an airline, they expect you to now go to their website and familiarize yourself with all of their rules which also means what is latest you can check in which varies per airport. Guess putting that information on the e-ticket is just too difficult.

@WhirlyBird: It is never cheaper to get new customers than retain the current ones. That is why the major airlines are on a downward spiral for now.

@y2julio: doesn't that mean that they would have missed the flight anyway? I mean was the connecting flight delayed? they would know if the flight they were on was delayed.

Now I have to go back and RTFA

"caused he and his family to rack up $21,000 in rental cars"

Him, not he.

How about suing for $21,000 plus court costs and maybe some reasonable time and such. 21K becomes 1 million. It's hard to be sympathetic to greed. Fix it, reimburse, offer something for the awful time, but seriously...

@eastvillageidiot: "you should know that nobody gets that kind of service anymore."

Which is exactly why they should be suing for $1M, to show the airlines that they NEED to be providing decent and polite service.

Yes, the amount is far higher than what the consumer may be owed here, but it is much, much lower than what it will take to teach the airlines to start treating their passengers like human beings again.

Her name was Britney, I ask you...