Forbes magazine recently featured the story of Mitchell Berns, a flyer who was left stranded by Delta due to “weather-related issues”. As the story states:
“On that night he was flying home from a romantic getaway with his wife, who was pregnant with twins. Seeing that other airlines' planes were still departing as scheduled, Berns asked Delta to refund his ticket so that he could book one of those flights. They told him (politely, as he recalls) that weather-related cancellations or delays are not the airline's fault and do not come with a refund. Berns checked the National Weather Service report. It said snow that day was expected at five the next morning - hours after his flight was scheduled to land. He and several other passengers from his Delta flight easily booked a JetBlue flight departing at the same time. His tab: $938. He landed at J.F.K. on schedule.”
Since it seemed clear to him that the delay was not caused by weather, he turned around and filed a suit in small-claims court against Delta, and won. Delta did not show up to defend itself, so Mr. Berns won a default judgement against Delta. It cost $15 to file the suit and took about 4 hours of his time. Delta ended up negotiating a settlement of $838, or just over $200 per hour for Mitchell’s time.
So, if you feel comfortable that you’re right, do not be afraid of taking on large companies. Where small-claims are concerned, it’s often less expensive for them to try and settle than to defend against them.
Source: A flier strikes back
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