What Delta is doing to make things right for customers impacted by CrowdStrike disruption

Following the CrowdStrike outage and resulting operational disruption, Delta is continuing to offer several customer-focused options to ease the travel experience and make things right.  

Flight Cancellation/Extended Delay Refunds & Trip Cancellation Option   

Customers whose travel was disrupted due to a canceled or significantly delayed flight may choose to cancel their travel via Delta.com or the Fly Delta app and receive an automatic refund for the unflown portion of the trip. Since July 19, of the refunds processed, 70% were completed via Delta.com or the app.  

No Questions Asked Trip Cancellation

Delta is also permitting customers with travel booked from July 19-28 who chose not to travel to cancel and request a refund of the unflown portion of their trip – regardless of whether their flight was canceled or significantly delayed. Enhanced refund flexibility applies to tickets with Delta-operated flights, purchased on or before July 23. 

Out-of-Pocket Expense Reimbursement 

We know many customers who experienced a significant delay or flight cancellation incurred unplanned, out-of-pocket expenses during the disruption period, between July 19 and July 28. Delta has expanded the list of eligible expenses that may be covered for this disruption, including flight tickets purchased on other airlines in the same cabin of service or lower, train and bus tickets, rental cars and ride shares.  

As part of our Delta Customer Commitment, we will continue to cover reasonable costs for additional categories of expenses.* 

How to submit your expenses  

Delta’s reimbursement platform on Delta.com provides customers with a seamless way to submit expenses for fast processing.  

• Visit Delta’s dedicated Temporary Reimbursement Waiver page on Delta.com and click on the Reimbursement Form link to begin the submission process. 

• Provide your contact and flight information and upload images of your applicable receipts. 

• Once the form has been submitted, check the status of your submission via the Check Reimbursement Case Status page. Delta has brought in additional Customer Care employees and implemented automated processes to provide customer reimbursements quickly.  

Delta’s Customer Care team has implemented several automated processing methods to speed up the reimbursement process and is committed to processing expense reimbursement requests within 30 days, likely sooner. 

Automatic Refunds for Bag and Seat Fees  

As an added gesture, Delta is automatically refunding all paid checked bag fees for customers who were charged for checking a bag since July 19 (when the disruption started). Delta is continuing to waive bag fees for up to three checked bags for customers traveling through 11:59 p.m. local time July 28. 

Additionally, Delta is automatically refunding seat purchases including paid upgrade and preferred seats for customers who were not able to take advantage of those purchases. For example, if a customer paid for a Delta Comfort+ upgrade post purchase and did not travel in that upgraded seat, Delta is automatically refunding the fee.   

No action is needed to receive either the baggage or upgrade fee refund; they are being processed automatically over the coming days.   

For all ticket or fee refunds, customers will receive the refund back to their original form of payment. Customers may see multiple refund transactions in their credit card or bank statement as fee refunds are processed separately from flight refunds. Customers eligible for out-of-pocket expense reimbursement will receive an email with instructions on how to receive the reimbursement.  

Customer Apology Gesture  

Customers impacted by a cancellation or significant delay during the disruption period also received an email offering SkyMiles or an electronic Transportation Credit Voucher (ETCV). 

Extending a travel waiver  

Delta extended a  travel waiver  for all customers with travel booked from July 19-28. The 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 Aug. 4, in the same cabin of service as originally booked. Customers are encouraged to manage changes to their travel via  delta.com  or the Fly Delta app.