ATLANTA — Delta passengers have filed a class action lawsuit against the Atlanta-based airline over refunds from its multi-day issues in July.
The lawsuit was filed on Aug. 6 in the Atlanta division of the United States District Court. Four individual plaintiffs are named "individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated."
The goal of the suit is "to secure refunds for each and every similarly situated consumer Delta has wronged by refusing to issue full refunds for flights canceled or significantly affected as a direct and proximate result of the CrowdStrike outage."
Delta's issues began with the worldwide CrowdStrike outage caused by a system update on July 19. Many other airlines also initially experienced issues, causing delays and cancellations. However, the other airlines bounced back within a day or two, while Delta continued to have high numbers of delays and cancellations, as well as passengers separated from their luggage, for most of the week after.
The lawsuit notes that, even after other airlines recovered, "Delta continued to cancel a staggering number of flights." On the Monday following the CrowdStrike outage, July 22, Delta canceled more than 1,250 flights, accounting for nearly 70% of all flights within, to or from the U.S. that day.
Delta reported that operational reliability returned to normal on July 25, but the lawsuit claims passengers reported disruptions and cancellations through July 31.
The lawsuit calls the impact on customers "disastrous." It claims that Delta refused or ignored requests for prompt refunds, refused to provide all affected passengers with meal, hotel and ground transport vouchers and continues to refuse reimbursements.
"As a result of Delta’s failures, affected passengers were forced to spend thousands of dollars in unexpected expenses, including flights from other airlines, hotels, rental cars, ground transportation and food," the lawsuit says. "Further, Delta separated thousands of passengers from their luggage, leaving many without necessary medication, clothes, and other belongings. These unfair, unlawful, and unconscionable practices resulted in Delta unjustly enriching itself at the expense of its customers."
Delta declined to comment on pending litigation. The airline did share a link to a webpage posted on July 26 detailing their efforts for customers impacted by the CrowdStrike outage, which include refunds for cancelled or delayed trips, out-of-pocket expense reimbursement and an extended travel waiver, and directions on how to submit expenses for reimbursement.
The page says that Delta "will continue to cover reasonable costs for additional categories of expenses." Further down the page, another statement says that "Delta does not reimburse prepaid expenses, including but not limited to hotel reservations at the customer’s destination, vacation experiences, lost wages, concerts or other tickets. "