Star Tribune
By land or air, how one reporter returned to MSP — and won compensation — amid Delta debacle
Delta Air Lines’ customers are now five days into travel disruptions in the wake of the widespread CrowdStrike technology outage, and many travel horror stories have hit close to home with Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport being one of the Atlanta-based carrier’s busiest hubs.
Business reporter Nick Williams has been covering the airline industry for the Star Tribune, and on Monday, editors turned to him for an update on the drama. But there was just one problem:
He and his family — his wife and children, ages 14 and 10 — were stranded at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport after Delta canceled their flight home Sunday night.
Williams’ story illustrates the complexities many travelers have experienced in recent days, and he also showcased the art of decisionmaking and how to seek compensation when facing such disruptions.
When he logged on Tuesday, bleary-eyed and road-worn after arriving back to the Twin Cities at 2:30 a.m. via rental car, Williams faced a litany of questions from the business news desk.
When did you hear the news the outage might affect your return home?
I woke up Friday morning to a text from a friend who was in town. He actually lives in Dallas-Fort Worth. He was going to fly out at like 7:30 a.m. on American, and I told him, “Oh, we’re flying out a few hours later.” And he texted me earlier that morning, like, “Hey Nick, check your flight status. There’s an outage; all flights have been canceled.”
First thing I did was check the news, and I see what’s happening. And then our flight is still on time to leave, so we think we’re OK. But once we got to the airport Friday, we saw what was happening and realized how big of an issue it might be coming back home.
So departing, our plane was only delayed like 10 minutes, although they changed the gate four times.
I’m curious what the scene was like and if you were seeing other people whose flights were getting canceled?
As soon as we crossed the skyway bridge into the terminal, and we went down to the security checkpoint, we saw a person standing with a flag to mark where the line began, and it was almost immediately at the bottom of the escalator. … So we saw that, and then once we walked past the security checkpoint and walked into the terminal, every once in a while, you’d see somebody just lying on the floor with their sweater over their face or somebody asleep in the chair. And then there are a couple of help desks and that line would be at least 50 people deep.
By 12 p.m. or 1 p.m. [on Sunday], they already told us our flight was delayed a half-hour. And by the time we got into the airport, it had been pushed back from originally 6:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., so we went and sat down and just waited. … You could see the Delta board, and I would say 90% were either canceled or delayed, including ours.
How did you realize the outage also affected Delta’s crew management system?
We get to the gate maybe around 7:10, 7:15, and we’re standing there, and it’s not boarding, and that’s when the gate agent says, “There’s only one flight attendant here. There’s nothing we can do.” And at that point, I see the one flight attendant who was there, she walks through the crowd and starts talking to somebody by the vending machines. And he’s holding a tablet, and they’re looking through the tablet, and they’re talking, and I’m like, “What’s going on?” So I start googling “Delta, flight attendant, crew, software,” those words, and I see some stories about how Delta’s crew scheduling system was also impacted. So I’m just starting to piece it together myself, “OK, there’s a crew shortage issue because maybe the system’s impacting where crew people are supposed to be.” If only one person is here, where are the other two?
The plane was at the gate, the plane was sitting right there, and I guess the pilot was there, but it was just the crew that was missing.
After Delta ultimately canceled your flight, how did you make that call to drive instead of find another flight?
When they told us the best they could do was Tuesday for Delta, at the same time as they were telling us that, my wife was looking at other airlines, and the earliest was several days away. And we were thinking, “Our kids have sports Tuesday. They really want to do that. Our dog is in boarding, and we’re paying for that by the day … and then we can’t miss work.” So we were like, “If we leave as soon as possible, we’ll get home sooner.” So that’s why we made the decision to drive home. It was just about getting home.
After a few hours of sleep, you embarked the next morning on your 15-hour road trip. A lot of time to ponder reimbursement, right?
I was doing most of the driving while [my wife] was on the phone with [Delta]. As far as right now, refunds and any compensation is still processing. Nothing is officially posted yet. They said up to 48 hours, and all of this started Monday about [early afternoon], the process of asking for the refund and compensation.
What are you asking for?
What we paid for the tickets and then additional compensation just because of the inconvenience. We told them we missed work, both of our kids missed sports on Monday. My son had a soccer game he couldn’t play in, and my daughter missed her volleyball camp day.
There’s a Delta reimbursement link they’re sending out to people. We haven’t started the process yet because we just caught up on what we had to pay for: that would include the extra day of dog lodging, the rental car, food and gas, an extra day of parking at MSP, another overnight stay for that. And we don’t know what they’ll cover.
What else? Are there other things that are sticking with you about this whole experience?
Mostly the stories that we were hearing and seeing other people react to what happened. … I heard one guy, I don’t know if he was going to Atlanta or trying to go somewhere else, but he was saying, “You know what? At this point, I’ll fly anywhere just to get out of here.”
How’d your family manage the stress?
We were in a Delta Lounge, and I think that kind of guarded us from what was happening at the gates, that type of stress. There were comfortable chairs, it was spacious, there was food and drinks. We let our son have, like, three sugar cookies.
We were there for a surprise birthday, so we just kept looking at all the photos of all the family we saw. … We just kept focusing on the good stuff that we just experienced. That’s the best we could do. We were like, “You know what? We saw family. We’re going to get out of here.
“At some point.”
State Attorney General Keith Ellison encouraged Minnesotans to take advantage of a free legal clinic on Saturday that can advise them of their protections from consumer and medical debts, including new protections that became law this week.
Under the law that took effect Tuesday, Minnesotans can no longer have their overdue medical debts reported to credit rating agencies, and unpaid medical bills do not automatically transfer to a spouse, even after a death. Providers also can’t deny care to patients based on the fact that they owe overdue debts.
While those protections will spare Minnesotans from “unfair and undignified” collection practices, Ellison said, people still ultimately need to confront their debts. Saturday’s legal clinic from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center in Minneapolis is one way they can learn their best options for negotiating settlements or even shielding their assets by filing bankruptcy.
People might feel shame over medical debts, even if they were caused by diseases beyond their control, but ignoring them can increase financial and emotional burdens, Ellison said. “It’s not going to get better if you just let them bills accumulate and you just get more stressed out about it.”
Hospitals and clinics took different approaches when it came to denial of care for patients with overdue bills. Media coverage of this practice by Allina Health prompted the legislation by DFL lawmakers, along with a report showing how many lawsuits in state district court involved consumer or medical debt.
Sen. Liz Boldon, DFL-Rochester, said she coauthored the legislation based on hardship stories she heard from Minnesotans, including a parent whose child was at risk of losing access to care for a degenerative and potentially blinding eye disorder because of medical debts.
“Nobody is asking for a free ride,” she said. “They’re asking for a fair shot.”
While creditors can no longer sue spouses over partners’ overdue medical debts, Ellison said it is unclear what the law will do to existing lawsuits. Judges may have to decide in those cases whether to remove spouses as defendants, he said.
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump ”resorted to crimes” in a failed bid to cling to power after losing the 2020 election, federal prosecutors said in a newly unsealed court filing that argues that the former president is not entitled to immunity from prosecution.
The filing was unsealed Wednesday. It was submitted by special counsel Jack Smith’s team following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents and narrowed the scope of the prosecution.
From March 4, 2016, through June 25, 2020, Hu routinely directed CAH employees to bill for one hour of acupuncture services, even though sessions lasted no longer than 30 to 45 minutes, with many ending after 15 minutes.
The former employees said that when they challenged Hu about this, she rebuffed them and said to continue documenting services as one hour. Some former employees said they quit over the billing practices.
Investigators also found that the clinics billed for months — and on one occasion years — after clients stopped receiving services at the clinics.
CAH also billed for acupuncture services provided in a client’s home without the required prior authorization for a home visit, used acupuncture billing codes to bill for services that were not covered acupuncture services, and used the credentials of another acupuncturist to bill for services provided to clients with a particular insurance company after the company excluded CAH from its network.
Hu also regularly signed, and directed others to sign, verifications for language interpreter services that did not happen, the investigation found.
