You’ve likely heard excuses aplenty from airlines as to why passengers’ flights are delayed or canceled. But have you heard of a trip being canceled because of “ice?” Well, one unlucky Delta passenger got stuck in Orlando and couldn’t get her flight rebooked or reimbursed for a hotel stay. Why? Delta claimed the issue was “weather-related.” According to a chat log screenshot uploaded to r/mildlyinfuriating, “it was due to the deicing situation” and the runway being too “slippery” for the plane to take off.
Now, if you told me this story back in late winter or early spring of this year, I might have believed. But Delta blamed ice for the cancellation of a flight from Orlando to New York City. On the summer day this happened, it was allegedly 95°F in Florida and 84°F in New York. Is this excuse even possible? No one on Reddit thinks so.
“This needs to go viral to show how blatantly airlines abuse the few protections travelers have in place,” remarks a top commenter, and over five thousand people agree. “Ice? At this time of year, at this time of day, in that part of the country, localized entirely on your runway?” a second person questioned in a sarcastic tone.
One user shared their story of how they experienced a flight delay due to their plane having low fuel. Eventually, they had to reroute to a small airport elsewhere and were forced to consider staying at a hotel due to no more available flights. The passenger asked the airline for a hotel and meal voucher. “It was [the] weather that caused me to miss my connecting flight, so they wouldn’t help me,” the passenger groaned. An absolutely outrageous excuse after a lengthy delay that was entirely the airline’s fault.
“Maybe they forgot to hit shift and meant ICE, not ice,” jokes another Reddit user. “De-ICEing 🤩 – The entire country needs to undergo this process as soon as possible,” laughs a response. That said, the so-called Delta representative in the chat was likely an AI bot that was very confused. Still, that still doesn’t let the airline off the hook for poor customer service and ridiculous dishonesty, AI or not.
