Okay, maybe it’s a biiit of a stretch to say that my business class flights “keep” getting canceled, but emotions are running high here as I spend an extra day in Paris due to my Delta One business class flight from CDG-CVG getting canceled. This is my 2nd business class flight since I’ve been flying business class to get canceled.

(SEE ALSO: Aer Lingus Business class review to… FLIGHT CANCELED?!?!?!)

And on one hand, while 2 business class flights getting cancelled in 9 years is obviously not a ton, I was trying to think of how many business class flights I’ve taken over those years and it’s maybe 20? So with an average of 1% of any specific flight being cancelled, having 10% of my business class flights be cancelled is a bit much, though not out of statistical possibility given the small sample size

Delta Flight 229 CDG-CVG – Cancelled

I was super excited to be able to book the direct return flight from Paris to our home in Cincinnati. Our airport (CVG) is a midsize airport and so we only have 2 flights to Europe (a Delta flight to Paris and a British Airways flight to London which is fairly new).

Our trip went well and we headed to the airport on the morning of our flight for a 12:00pm departure. While hanging out in the lounge, we got a notification that our flight had been delayed until 1pm. I wasn’t surprised by that because I had been tracking our inbound flight and noticed that it was an hour late arriving

(SEE ALSO: The #1 trick to tell if your flight is going to be delayed)

But then when we went to the gate around noon (to board for the 1pm departure), we got a notification that it had been delayed to 3:30. The gate agents there said that there was a mechanical issue and they had found the part and they were just waiting for it to fix. I later saw that this aircraft had declared an emergency on its descent into Paris, so I imagine that was related.

Then as we got closer to 2:30, there was an announcement in the lounge for all passengers on Flight 229 to go to the gate. Unfortunately, this was right in the middle of my son throwing up all over the lounge (#dadlife). But when we got there, we learned that our flight was changed to divert to Boston – the reason for this was that the crew was going to time out if we went all the way to Cincinnati, the crew would time out, so we would land in Boston, stay on the aircraft and get a new crew. We were told that the crew timed out at 5pm, so we would need to be boarded by then.

We stayed at the gate now and as time ticked on, it became clear that this was not going to happen. And indeed, our flight was eventually canceled.

Delta’s Rebooking Response

First I want to say that the Delta gate staff was amazing. In particular, there was a gate agent named Jessy who was great. He spoke native English and was also fluent in French (as far as I could tell). And most importantly, instead of most airline staff who seem to go out of their way to do the bare minimum and avoid helping people, he was proactive with giving updates and actively wanting to help people.

As we got closer to 5pm, he was letting people know that it was looking like the flight was going to be canceled and that meal and hotel vouchers had been printed, but he couldn’t officially do anything until the flight was officially canceled in the system. When people asked about booking their own hotel room, he said that Delta would cover up to USD$275 / night.

Originally the plan was that if the flight was cancelled that it would fly the next day, direct to Cincinnati. But then Jessy let us know that “Atlanta” (Delta HQ I assume) had directed that our plane would not fly to Cincinnati and instead fly to Atlanta. I looked into alternate flights, but there was nothing that would get us in before tomorrow, so I just waited.

(It shows as coming from Boston instead of Paris due to the diversion plan)

Sure enough, when the flight was officially cancelled, I logged into my Delta account and found that I had automatically been rebooked. The flights were the next day and connecting through Newark. But most importantly, unlike when my Aer Lingus business class flight was cancelled back in 2015, they kept us in business class (on an Air France flight). Our connection from Newark was downgraded to Comfort+ but on a 2 hour flight, that’s not the end of the world.

And a likely 600 Euros (times 4!) due to EU261 on top of whatever compensation Delta might give is probably worth it…

(SEE ALSO: Submitting an EU261 claim that could net me $1,500)

(SEE ALSO: Why Aer Lingus is paying me $1306)

The Bottom Line

Out of around 20 business class flights that I have flown over the past several years, I have now had 2 business class flights cancelled on me, which is an annoyingly high percentage! In this case, Delta handled it pretty well though of course I’d have preferred the flight not be cancelled at all.

Have any good business class cancellation stories? Leave them in the comments below

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