‘Vacation from hell’: Delta passengers stranded for fourth straight day

BOSTON — Thousands of Delta passengers were stranded for a fourth straight day as the airline still struggles to recover from the largest IT outage in history.

Delta cancelled more than 20 percent of its trips in or out of Boston’s Logan Airport for much of the day on Monday.

It followed the cancellation of about 1,300 Delta flights on Sunday, roughly the same number as each of the previous two days.

Friday’s tech outage hit Delta especially hard.

The airline’s CEO said it affected not only their rebooking system but also crew tracking tools, which ensures that flights have a full crew in the right place at the right time.

“It has been a nightmare. This is the vacation from hell,” said Roberta Harris of Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

Roberta and Jim Harris departed Florida on Friday morning and then got stranded on what felt like a never-ending layover in Atlanta.

“From there it just went to hell,” she said. “We would wait in line for hours, and they would cancel the flight at the last minute.”

The couple was supposed to arrive in Boston Friday afternoon around 3p for a cruise to Iceland and Greenland.

They finally arrived at Logan around 5 p.m. on Monday after five cancelled flights on Delta.

“Now we have to try to catch up to that ship,” said Jim Harris. “By the time we get there, the cruise will be half over!”

Hundreds of pieces of luggage have been piling up in Terminal A at Logan Airport since Friday.

Passengers told Boston 25 News that they’ve been waiting in lines for days on end with few answers.

Some said they’ve had to shell out hundreds, or even thousands, in total hotel costs and other expenses.

“The first night, they put us in a very nice hotel room. The second night they said, you’re on your own,” said stranded passenger Michael Krarup.

Delta is offering travel waivers to all customers booked on flights between Friday and Tuesday, allowing them to change their flights once without cost.

The airlines said passengers may also submit for reimbursements for hotels, meals and ground transportation expenses.

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