Delta Disputes Length Of On-Ground Delay

Airline Grants Refunds After Long Wait On Runway, But Says Passengers Were Grounded 5 Hours, Not 7

(CBS/AP)  Passengers of a Las Vegas-bound Delta Air Lines flight have been offered refunds or other travel arrangements after they reported being stuck on a grounded airplane in New York for up to seven hours.

But Delta spokeswoman Betsy Talton said Monday: "Our information is it was a five-hour delay."

She said passengers may have been including the time it took them to board and then disembark at the gate.

Talton says thunderstorms on Sunday forced the FAA to ground flights at John F. Kennedy International Airport for six hours.

She says the Flight 621 crew decided to return to the gate after waiting in a take-off line for 3½ hours.

Because of congestion at the airport, the return to the terminal took another 90 minutes.

Delta spokesman Kent Landers told the Daily News that passengers are usually returned to the gate, but was unable to explain why passengers aboard the Las Vegas-bound flight were made to wait on the plane.

Landers says the airline will refund passengers and make new arrangements for them to continue their travels.

[hughm5]

We were stuck for 5 hours also. Delta''s response from Debra in customer service "That''s awful".

The ironic thing is that while I was on hold for customer service, they were requesting that we support congress'' efforts to reduce oil prices by regulation against speculators..... as we sat for 5 hours with the jets engine''s running..... At one point the pilot said there were 50 planes waiting like us. 50 x five hours X ?? gallons of jet fuel. Maybe Delta should focus on their business practices and not congress'' business.

[lauramick]

We were on Delta flight 5281 from JFK to Reagan - what should have been an easy 40 minute flight. We sat on the runway for 4 hours and 50 minutes. That does not include boarding time. No one is complaining that we didn''t take off. None of us had death wishes and of course safety comes first. We''re not complaining about the weather!! Our complaint is that we sat on the runway for 4 hours and 50 minutes. Why not go back to the gate where you could use a restroom and get something to eat? It''s unbelievable in this day and age that Delta can hold their passengers hostage. I guess we don''t count as hostages as long as we get thrown a pack of peanuts every two hours. I''ll never fly Delta again and I''m a Delta gold medallion frequent flyer. There is no loyalty to me - why should I be loyal to them?

What happened to the Passenger Bill of Rights all the airline execs were spouting off about to the media a year or so ago? I called from the airplane to complain and was told no such Bill of Rights exists.

Congress is going to have to pass an airline Bill of Rights and make the FAA enforce it. It is obvious Delta won''t step up to the plate to make sure this doesn''t happen again. They don''t have the commitment, interest or dedication to customer service to make sure passengers are treated appropriately.

If Delta wants to make this right, some refund should be offered to the passengers to make up for Delta''s incompetence and "could care less" attitude.

[navyvet77]

Lets stick these exec''s in one of their planes 2 times. One time for 7 hours and the second time for 5 hours, then let them tell us that those 2 hours less made any difference.

[jpo1962-2009]

Five hours, seven hours, who cares? Forcing people to spend more than an additional hour on a plane is criminal. This was tantamount to a hostage taking or hijacking. I will not set foot on a plane until a federal Passenger Bill of Rights is enacted. These passengers not only deserve a refund of their airfare, they should also be reimbursed for all the expenses they incurred when booking their trip to Vegas. What if they had tickets for a show or a tour of Hoover Dam? What about the deposit on a hotel room? Considerable amounts are racked up before even taking off. There should be fines in place for holding passengers for more than an hour on a plane; how about $100 per hour detained per passenger? Would that wake the airlines up? I doubt it. Something needs to be done to make the airlines stop treating us like ***.

[stewnod1]

next time drive to vegas!

[donnnieb1]

I was on the flight mentioned in the article above and let me be the first to say that I would never fly delta again. We were 4 planes from taking off and we got the announcement that some bad weather was moving in. 5.5 excruciating hours later we were told that our flight had been canceled. That sounded ok until every 15 minutes for an additional 2 hours that we spent on the tarmac, the pilot told us we would be off the plane in 15 minutes. He also informed us numerous times that we were "a low priority" as we watched the 20 planes behind us take off to their destinations. Add an additional 5 hours waiting on lines TRYING to get a straight answer from the rude, uncaring and mostly ignorant delta staff and just about 13 hours after arriving at the airport we were on our way in a cab back home.... OH -- and did i tell you they lost all our luggage as well!!! Flip flops are OK to wear to work right????? I am glad to see people are getting refund because the basically told us to go "F" ourselves. We will be going to Florida instead and certainly NOT flying delta. If any of you reading this still own stock in the company, and I feel bad if you do, now is the time to sell it. Delta Airlines really just sux.