Ranjan Goswami, Delta Air Lines Chief Marketing and Product Officer, laid out how the airline plans to monetize the travel day in an investor talk at the TD Cowen 10th Annual Future of the Consumer Conference on Wednesday.
Delta is no longer describing loyalty as the SkyMiles frequent flyer program. It is pitching itself as a ‘logged-in consumer platform’ that ties together their app, website, wifi, and seatback screens with Amex for payments, Uber for mobility, Starbucks coffee, Airbnb stays, and Paramount, YouTube, New York Times, Fox, and Amazon for content, news and shopping. And their AI ‘Delta Concierge’ will help tie it together. They want to turn every onboard and travel day touch point into a logged-in marketing channel.
That’s what free wifi is actually about, and why they a Starlink deal didn’t work for them. They want to control the journey. 50% of passengers log in, and 30% engage in Delta content rather than going off on their own online journey, according to Goswani.
Here’s some of what he shared:
- Delta has more than 168,000 seatback screens.
- Only 50% of Delta’s widebody fleet has business class suites, despite introducing them ten years ago
- There are 9 million Delta American Express cardmembers
- 4 million people have linked their SkyMiles and Starbucks accounts, and 2 million have linked Delta and Uber.
- This year they’ve ” had 65 days of over $100 million in cash sales in our direct channels of the app and [website]. Last year, that was only 19.”
Amazon LEO is not just about connectivity. It is about shopping, gaming, content, cloud, and commerce. They did 500 planes because that’s the number that are coming into the fleet plus legacy aircraft ‘coming off contract.’
Goswami said two new Delta Sync initiatives are coming in July – one with an existing long-time partner and one with a brand-new partner, and then added: “you’re going to see us do more in lodging.” That could mean more Airbnb integration, hotel partnerships, or vacation packages.
They’re also fully rolling out their AI assistant next month.
Delta Concierge is really exciting because it can take what are more complex transactions that take a lot of back and forth and turn them into natural language ways for you to kind of transact with us.
So right now, 5% of our app users are included in the beta on Delta Concierge. And we just launched rebooking and cancel as opportunities, and it’s working really well, getting really good feedback on that. Next month, that 5% will go to 100% — and so you’re going to see us really leaning in here where that tool.
Because this is Delta, there’s a lot of overclaiming. Goswami says “No one had done free Wi-Fi” before Delta, but JetBlue had it long before Delta did. He suggests Delta was first with business class suites with doors, but both Qatar and JetBlue had them before Delta. This is Delta’s Chief Marketing Officer, after all. I assume he believes everything that he says at the time he’s saying it.
Well, they bet on the wrong horse, when Jeff can’t keep his rockets from going boom-boom…
He also said that Delta would have LEO and HEO antennas on the 717and 321NEOs, the first US commercial aircraft with that feature
So much for the hot air coming out of Austin about Delta‘s supposed disadvantage
Will be very interesting to watch this play out. I think it will either work very well, or it will fall flat on its face and fail to deliver. No middle ground. We’ve had (in other industries) glowing promises about how tech integrations will be a Game Changer, only to have the final product be a letdown.
If Delta is able to integrate all these “travel products” seamlessly and in a user-friendly, intuitive way that makes it easier for the passenger, they could do quite well financially for pulling it off.
On the other hand, if all it does is allow me to pre-order my Starbucks on a layover via the seatback screen instead of just pulling out my phone and using the app while we taxi to the gate like now – not so big a deal.
There is no free. You can avoid the “pitch” by simply ignoring the “pitch”.
My god, stop flying these. Bastards and stop giving these theives your money. Just STOP! How gullible and ignorant are the AmeriKan sherple? Well, maybe very, VERY gullible due to their mental and physical addiction to their insipid screens. Unbelievable. STOP USING THEIR SERVICES and bury the greedy sob’s. Do it TODAY.
Delta Premium Greed on display.
@Brent — That was crude… Brent crude.
@Brent – I agree with Gary this is likely an oversell and also frankly not that revoluntionary as many companies work to control their consumer (Amazon is great at this with their website, web services and streaming TV/music channels). However, your take is ridiculous. No one is a “Sheple” (assume you meant this instead of sherple) if they work with an integrated company. Frankly all businesses should be trying to tied together all aspects of their customer’s lives to the extent possible. DL isn’t the only one – AA with Life Miles promotes cross selling better, IMHO, than any current legacy carrier.
If you want to ignore any company making promises of future services and trying to tie together your business then either you (a) stop doing business with the majority of leading companies or (b) only focus on outdated companies with their head in the sand who likely won’t be around much longer. Your choice. An informed consumer understands all aspects of these offers and only uses those that benefit them but having the choice is never a bad thing.
This makes a lot of sense given the new Delta Gold perks. A rare credit card buff but perhaps they’ll find another way to nerf it.
@L737 — As long as you expect the nerf, you’ll never be disappointed. Bah!
@1990 — Indeed, pessimism is the key!
“…he believes everything that he says at the time he’s saying it” – or, as they say, he’s getting high on his own fumes 🙂
This is what happens when a company forgets what business it is in. Delta you are an airline! Don’t you remember how well united did when it owned weston and hertz? I was delta diamond medallion once upon a time but their ff program was so poor i now fly United.
Spectrum Boy, Georgia Klan Air just came out with the worst percentage for cancelled flights will you be adding that to your baggage stats?
V/R,
Your humble teacher
@L737 — Homer to Bart: “…the worst day of your life, so far.”
United lost 40% more bags than Delta even though Delta carried 20% more bags
United’s baggage handling remains the industry’s worst
@Tim Dunn — This time, you’re actually correct, but why did you hold back?
United actually lost/mishandled roughly 55% more bags per capita than Delta did.
US DOT measures baggage performance by the number of mishandled bags per 100,000 enplaned bags. In 2025, Delta mishandled 450 bags per 100,000; United mishandled 700 bags per 100,000. Yet, Delta (mainline and regionals) still mishandled approximately 320,000 to 340,000 bags out of the roughly 70 million total bags. Even if Delta isn’t as bad as United on bags, they still lose bags, so… ‘not great, not terrible.’
Personally, I won’t check bags unless I really have to. And, if I do, I’d recommend physical tracking devices (like AirTags), because airlines (even the best-est, most Keep Climbing-ist ones) lose our stuff and lie about it aftewards all the time.
So no, Spectrum Boy, you will not note UA was better on time and 6eith cancelations than Georgia Klan Air as those facts give you a sad for your dad’s employer. Got it kid.
V/R,
Your humble teacher
@1990: You might actually take this seriously, instead of gaslighting data like some. But, 2025 data is obsolete. Are you booking any flights in 2025, or now? What matters is the latest (2026) handling rates.
Latest DOT stats, for Jan-Mar, 2026:
Delta:
24,084,179 bags enplaned, 108,929 bags mishandled, 0.45% bags mishandled YTD.
United:
19,003,174 bags enplaned, 152,527 mishandled, 0.80% bags mishandled YDT.
The difference between United and Delta is 0.35%. You can also express that difference by saying “United had a 78% higher mishandled bags rate than Delta” to make it sound better (for Delta). Also of note – United had a better improvement (by 0.05%) than Delta (0.02%) YOY for the 1st Q.
Either way, that’s too many bags not making their flights. And never trust TD with data.
The desire to monetize everything with ads/upsells has the hidden cost of annoying your customer constantly through his travel day, but customer annoyance does not show on a spreadsheet.
1990
DL handles far more bags than UA and it also boards far more passengers.
UA is dead last – was in 2025 and was in March 2026.
UA bagagge handling is just plain aweful.
The UA fan nut jobs love to hypocritically nitpick over a 1% difference in on-time and cancellation rates but go in full defense mode when anyone reminds them that UA’s baggage handling is dead last in the industry
@ Jim: So far this year, Delta cancelled 22% more flights than American, 45% more flights than United, 95% more flights than JetBlue, 130% more flights than Alaska, and 144% more flights than Southwest.
The only airline that had a higher cancellation rate than Delta was Spirit. Well, duh.
Delta rising!
And don’t forget that Delta is now flying LAX-JFK with 737-900ERs.
You can find those flights on flightaware.
*awful
“The UA fan nut jobs love to hypocritically nitpick over a 1% difference in on-time and cancellation rates but go in full defense mode when anyone reminds them that UA’s baggage handling is dead last in the industry”
To be accurate, there is:
– MORE than a 1% difference in both on-time and cancellation rates
– LESS than 1/2% difference in baggage handling
People who understand math make a bigger deal out of the bigger numbers.
The problem is that nobody wants this. Sure, they want relevant information about their flight, but they don’t want Delta constantly marketing shit to them. People just want an internet connection to do what they want, they don’t want AOL 2.0. They can built some stupid portal and people will just ignore it at their first opportunity. Their excuse about Starlink was bullshit, it was all about branding and price.
Mantis
Do you really think any internet you access doesn’t involve sharing your data and marketing to you?
Math challenged pilot
United was dead last out of 9 airlines in baggage handling. Only B6 comes close to that consistent record for any category and for B6 it is on time
UA is a bottom feeder in a class of its own
The first step to recovery is to admit your problem
United’s on-time has been better every month than Delta in Q1 2026 and Delta has trouble getting the whole plane to the destination lately.
Q1 2026 Cancellations/cancellation %
Delta: 14,328/3.7
United: 9,204/2.57
14,328 – 9,204 =5,124, 5,124/9,204 = 56% more raw cancellations
3.7%-2.57% = 1.13, 1.13/2.57 = 44% higher cancellation rate by Delta
https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2026-05/May%202026%20ATCR.pdf
Reading challenged pilot:
Never denied that United is ranked last in baggage handling. I’ll say it again, for about the 7th time. United is last in baggage handling. Their rate is lower than the rest of the U.S. airline industry.
You are the one who is factually and mathematically challenged, as you are repeatedly presented with data that refutes your other claims. But for some reason, you can’t seem to do the 5th grade math needed to understand the relationship between the numbers.
By the way, it’s the opposite for JetBlue than what you said (typical – you got to be wrong both ways!) JetBlue is beating Delta in baggage mishandling rates, but they are not “getting them there on time”. Their on-time rate is actually worse than Delta – and Delta is really bad, so that says quite a lot.
Here is some more data to show you are wrong, that you will ignore, YTD 2026:
JetBlue: 0.35% mishandled bags, 35% of flights late
Delta: 0.45% mishandled bags, 23.26% of flights late
Maybe you were thinking of flight cancellations? Lots of airlines are beating Delta in flight cancellation rates this year (Allegiant, Southwest, Alaska, United, and Frontier to be specific).
But everyone on here knows you won’t address these. You never back up your wild claims. By the way, how’s that evidence from flightaware coming along, showing United operating even a single flight between LAX and EWR in 737-900ERs within the last 10 years?
“The first step to recovery is to admit your problem”
The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks.
for someone that can’t understand either math or reading, let’s summarize one more time.
in the RANGE of baggage handling and on-time vs. cancellation, there is a far bigger difference between DL and UA in baggage than there is in on-time or cancellation rates -and over a much longer period of time.
You hypocritically want to argue about a 1% difference in on-time and cancellation rates over a couple of months while ignoring a 70% difference in baggage mishandling.
and nowhere did I talk about B6′ baggage handling. I did talk about B6’s on time performance and compared it to UA’s baggage handling; both have been bottom of the barrel for a long time and are not getting better.
again, I can only hope that you haven’t been issued a pilot certificate by the US (or any other country) given your persistently poor cognitive abilities.
and regarding this topic, UA is doing everything it can to copy DL; as usual, DL has figured out a better way to accomplish what UA is trying to do.
The fact that you can’t see that the internet is a means to monetization is even scarier.
Wow, @Mantis, with a rare decent ‘take’ on something (“they don’t want Delta constantly marketing shit to them” 100%)… bah!