Delta still struggling to recover at Logan Airport 3 days after tech meltdown

After four days widespread program outage, One of Boston Logan Airport’s major airlines is still struggling to resume full service.

FlightAware shows Delta canceled 50 flights — or 27% of its flights — to and from Logan on Monday. Another 80 flights were delayed. Delta had to cancel 63 flights — 35% of its flights — to and from Boston on Sunday.

Both are much better than any other airline.

“I’ve been here for about 13 hours,” said Chris Forsyth, a passenger trying to get to Los Angeles.

Some passengers had to wait in long lines at customer service trying to get new reservations. Hundreds of pieces of luggage from cancelled flights were piling up in the baggage claim area of ​​Terminal A on Monday.

Passenger Sarah Martinez tried to contact the airline for assistance in several ways on Monday.

“I’m on hold, on another line, and also in line to try to cover my bases,” she said.

The airline was forced to cancel nearly 1,400 flights across the country on Sunday and hundreds more on Monday.

Marissa Gomez, of San Francisco, said she and her daughters were forced off the plane Sunday evening and were now waiting for a new departure date on Wednesday.

“We’re trying to find a hotel, but the prices are crazy. They’ve doubled since last night,” she said.

Delta’s CEO said the CrowdStrike outage affected the airline’s crew tracking tools — which he called “one of Delta’s most critical systems” — and its rebooking system. The airline is offering waivers to affected customers.

“No one should be stuck at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to speak to a customer service agent,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “I will ensure that our administration supports Delta passengers by enforcing all applicable passenger protection measures.”

Delta issued this statement on the issue at 2:30 p.m. Monday:

Delta employees worked Monday to get the airline’s complex global operations back on track after a flawed Windows update from cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike rendered IT systems at companies around the world inoperable.

“We have everyone at the company working around the clock to get this process where it needs to be,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a video message to employees Monday. “Continue to take care of our customers and each other in the days ahead.”

More than half of Delta’s IT systems worldwide run on Windows. The CrowdStrike bug required Delta’s IT teams to manually patch and reboot each affected system, taking additional time to sync applications and start communicating with each other.

Delta’s crews are fully equipped and ready to serve our customers, but one of Delta’s most critical systems – ensuring that all flights have a full crew in the right place at the right time – is extremely complex and requires the most time and manual support to synchronize.

Delta teams across operations are working tirelessly to care for customers affected by delays and cancellations, while the airline works to return flight crews and aircraft to their locations following the disruption.

We’re also working to make things right for our customers, starting with these steps:

Travel Waiver Extension. Delta has extended its travel waiver for all customers who booked flights between July 19 and July 23. The waiver gives customers the ability to make a one-time change to their itinerary. The fare difference will be waived for customers who rebook travel on or before July 28, in the same cabin of service originally booked. Customers are encouraged to manage their travel changes via delta.com or the Fly Delta app.

Right to Refund Upon Request. Customers whose flights are disrupted by a significant flight cancellation or delay may choose to cancel their travel and receive an electronic credit for the unflying portion of the trip, or alternatively, they may request a refund at delta.com/refund.

Issuing SkyMiles or a travel voucher for an amount depending on the customer’s flights concerned.

Covering eligible expenses resulting from the disruption of this trip, including providing meal vouchers, hotel accommodations where available, and ground transportation.

Reimbursement of Eligible Expenses. Customers who incurred hotel accommodations, meals, or ground transportation expenses during this operational interruption may submit eligible expenses for reimbursement.*

Communicate with customers about cancellation and rebooking options. Delta notifies customers about delays and cancellations on their flight itinerary via the Fly Delta app and text messages, and offers rebooking options that can be managed online.

While customers can monitor and manage their flight itineraries on Delta.com or the Fly Delta app, these online tools have been overwhelmed with traffic, causing intermittent performance challenges. Delta teams are working to install these tools. Also note that our ability to respond to service messages on social media platforms such as X is limited.

*Delta does not reimburse prepaid expenses, including but not limited to hotel reservations at a customer’s destination, vacation experiences, lost wages, concerts, or other tickets.