A New York City lawyer has sued Delta Air Lines Inc. for nearly $1 million, claiming the company’s incompetent and rude employees made his 80-year-old mother’s birthday trip to South America a stressful, costly horror.

Attorney Richard Roth says not only did he and his family arrive in Buenos Aires, Argentina, almost three days late, he had to spend unplanned thousands of dollars on food, hotels and transportation, and buy tickets for another airline.