Delta passengers stranded in CrowdStrike outage seek refunds

ATLANTA (CN) — Delta Airlines passengers want reimbursement from the airline after thousands of flights worldwide were disrupted during a massive computer outage that crippled the global airline industry in July.

“While nearly every other airline recovered quickly from the July 19th ‘Tech Outage,’ Delta’s passengers remained stranded, waiting in lines for days trying to get to their destinations," said attorney Joe Sauder of Sauder Schelkopf, who is representing a class of passengers who say their flights were abruptly canceled or delayed and that they were denied refunds for the canceled flights and additional expenses passengers incurred during delays.

The passengers bring contract, fraud, deceptive practices and other claims against Delta, which has attempted to shift blame to the tech companies behind the automatic update to a cybersecurity software developed by CrowdStrike that resulted in millions of computers running Microsoft Windows to crash the morning of July 19.

"The impact on Delta passengers was disastrous. Delta’s failure to recover from the CrowdStrike outage left passengers stranded in airports across the country and the world and, in many cases, thousands of miles from home," the passengers wrote in their class action.

According to the passengers, Delta refused or ignored requests for refunds from passengers who had their flights canceled or delayed. They say the airline offered e-credits as compensation, but made no mention to passengers of their rights under federal law to receive cash refunds.

The passengers also contend that Delta refused to provide all those affected with meal, hotel, and ground transportation vouchers, despite its previous commitments, and continues to refuse or ignore requests for reimbursements of these costly, unexpected expenses.

They also look to hold Delta liable for additional costs incurred due to the airline separating 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," the passengers say in the complaint filed Northern District Court of Georgia late Tuesday.

The passengers also claim that Delta's response to the CrowdStrike crash violates not only its own policies but U.S. Department of Transportation regulations as well. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said July 23 that the department would be investigating the over 3,000 complaints it had received about Delta in the wake of the crash.

Most airlines such as Delta rely on Microsoft systems for scheduling and getting flight crews, passengers, and bags where they need to be.

When the CrowdStrike outage crashed these online systems, it resulted in massive delays throughout the global airline industry. According to flight tracking firm FlightAware, there were more than 4,000 flight cancellations and 35,500 flight delays worldwide by that afternoon.

Delta reportedly canceled more than 4,500 flights between Friday, July 19 and Sunday, July 21, leading to reports of stranded fliers waiting for days for new flights.

On Monday, July 22, Delta reportedly canceled more than 1,250 flights. These cancellations accounted for nearly 70% of all flights within, to or from the United States that had been canceled on Monday. No other U.S. airline had canceled as many flights, the passengers say in their complaint.

Despite Delta purporting that its “operational reliability” returned to normal on Thursday, July 25, some passengers reported flight disruptions and cancelations through July 31, nearly two weeks after the CrowdStrike outage.

As other airlines were able to restore operations faster, Delta has faced widespread criticism over its handling of the situation and has sought to shift the blame to CrowdStrike and Microsoft by threatening litigation against them.

The cybersecurity company has refuted Delta's claims and said in a letter to the airlines' legal counsel that it offered to provide personal onsite assistance but received no response, according to the plaintiffs.

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