Delta cancelled our flight, rerouted us to the wrong airport, then denied most of the reimbursement
Flying Tampa → LAX on 8/1. Flight gets cancelled. Delta’s chat rebooks us — but not to LAX, to SAN, over 100 miles away. Go to the TPA counter like instructed, and the first agent (Justin) is rude and dismissive, makes us wait even though we’d already been standing in line, kind of embarrassing with my kid standing right there. Eventually agent confirms hotel/transport will be covered and gives us vouchers.
We land in SAN at 8pm. No hotels near the airport — turns out Comic-Con is happening. The Uber Delta arranged is airport-to-airport only and no driver will take it that late. So we book our own Uber ($150) to the nearest hotel we could find, in Irvine, and pay $302 out of pocket for the room, since our actual destination (Monarch Beach) wasn’t reachable until the next day. Then get hit with a bag fee since we got rebooked onto Alaska and our Delta status didn’t carry over.
Submit everything for reimbursement citing Delta’s own Customer Service Plan (Section 12, which explicitly covers hotel/meal/transport costs for controllable disruptions — this wasn’t weather, it was Delta’s cancellation). They approve the hotel minus taxes and flat-out deny the Uber and bag fee.
Currently escalating and about to file a DOT complaint. Anyone dealt with something similar and gotten anywhere past the first reimbursement denial? Curious if the supervisor escalation route or a DOT complaint actually moved the needle for anyone else.