Delta Air Lines has moved to spending only as a metric for earning status. And they’re considering no longer awarding full credit for your spending, unless you buy more expensive fares. That’s one lesson of a new product survey they’re sending to frequent flyers that helps them sort through how much extra customers will pay to earn qualifying dollars.
Other ideas being tested include,
- Bringing back change fees unless customers buy up to a more expensive fare
- Return of fees for getting help from reservations, with free assistance via chat features only
In other words, things that are available to customers now become ‘premium services’.
Delta has promised more premium segmentation, like they’ve done for coach with basic economy, regular economy, and Comfort+. Although Delta now markets Comfort+ as somehow being more than just extra legroom, but a different ‘class of service’ (except where that would mean paying higher taxes, such as departing the U.K.).
Comfort+ is ‘premium’. A Comfort+ middle seat isn’t really premium, though. And a Delta Platinum flying internationally in a Comfort+ seat no longer gets access to Sky Clubs. Less premium!
And they’re even testing segmenting the premium (first class) cabin by fare for seat assignments.
Customers taking the survey say “my blood was boiling by the end of it” after reacting to “the absurd offers presented.”
It’s obvious Delta is wanting to bring back change/cancel fees, add in phone fees, remove advanced seat selection, and overall continue their mission to charge more for less.
Delta may not make these changes, and they may not all be under live consideration. The survey is designed to test customer willingness to pay for different things, and to see what changes would cause people to move away from the airline.
There are ‘business’ and ‘leisure’ versions of the survey, and over varying flight lengths. They want to know which services and prices customers might live with. They want to know what the customer demand curve looks like (based on stated responses, rather than revealed preference or actual purchase behavior).
Gene,
Athens has air service on AA to CLT; DL doesn’t fly there.
any additional airports in N. Georgia would be north of Atlanta which would do nothing for Macon.
Macon is too close to ATL. It is closer from Macon to ATL and a much easier drive than from ATL to a number of points in N. Georgia
and if you want to talk about forced inconvenience, let’s talk about Denver’s decision to close Stapleton when DIA opened.
@ Tim Dunn — Please do not reply to my comments, as I will do same
I do not care what you think.
I have been a loyal Delta customer for many years. I am now going to cancel my Delta Platinum Amex card because it is not worth being loyal to Delta. We will now just shop other airlines.
@Tim Dunn
Then Walmart must be super premium. It has 230 million customers a week.
BTW you are wrong about premium prices. Look at places where they have competition. They are often the cheapest of the big 3. That’s why I bought tickets on them SEA to RDU. Lowest prices for a non-stop. Not because they were premium.
Wow
Say something from delta IR and Tim goes nuts.
Calm down, Timmy. You don’t seem to know much about the industry if you’re comparing Miami and dca to the market share of atl, MSP, dtw, or SLC… even your reply betrays the absolute ignorance of why aa and Miami isn’t as profitable. I’d say you’ll find out when delta adds a few flights from Miami (that you claim is the death of aa in Miami after a few drinks despite the actual gate capacity making you sound very stupid…)
You really should look at your beloved’s investor day slides.
They’re quite a bit more transparent than you are.
Why? Because they want investors to believe their profitability is sustainable and “great FAs and better food” are not sustainable from a financial perspective. One bad move and the FAs get mad and better food is matched or surpassed easily
It’s amusing for everyone when you reply a few times with 15 paragraphs but get a grip, buddy.
I’ll reply to whoever I want, Gene,
Max,
you are incapable of understanding that I am saying the same thing that DL’s investor presentation and Bastian is saying.
DL gets more revenue from passengers and other sources.
While you and everyone else argue, DL just keeps growing its presence in other carrier strength markets.
Yet another example. DL pilots have been told that NYC will be an A350 pilot base – something I said would happen as DL adds flights from JFK to Asia, markets that other carriers but not Delta serve.
The A350 can do what the 787 cannot – which is why DL flies from DTW to PVG and makes it work but UA bailed on EWR to China, BOM, and HKG.
DL simply uses its network better and smarter than its competitors.
AA and UA could have hubs in cities that only have one commercial airport but they didn’t do that, didn’t merge w/ carriers that had those advantages, and don’t generate the revenue that DL does even though UA esp. touts how great its network is – but facts show it clearly isn’t that great in reality.
Airline industry is overspending and overconfident post covid. The cycle will hit along with huge layoff as history will show. Buying a lot of planes.and eventually will lose customer base. This cannot continue.
Past….Little Timmy,
You’re an imbecile and a Delta lapdog.
Everyone else,
Little Timmy will now spend 30 minutes thinking of insolent and clever responses which will turn out to be insipid and inane..
In those 30 minutes, the world will be a little calmer.
You’re welcome.
Oh tim
You look at the markets you want and have no idea what’s happening to delta’s core markets
It’s actually cute how ignorant you are to what delta is dealing with
Your ignorance coupled with 8 paragraph nonsense is fun
Thanks
Your stupidity never ceases to amuse everyone
Meanwhile, Delta continues to make billions more than American or United and all you are capable of doing is insulting me and still can’t explain how AA and UA screwed up so royally for the past 45 years and can’t make as much money as DL.
And they can’t deliver the on-time, lowest cancellation rate, baggage handling, oversale or customer complaint ratios that DL does either.
So you resort to childish name calling.
You are a loser. A loser on full display for all the world to see.
The network merger chess player wasn’t Delta, it was Northwest (and Anderson is really NW)
DL’s vision was to pair up with CO in the 90s and got rebuffed (should be thankful given the overlap) – NW got the golden share in CO
NW/CO was blocked by the Feds in the 90s and set the stage for DL/NW
DL and NW filed all but coordinated bankruptcy and NW mgmt shortly ran DL
AA pre US, UA pre CO wouldn’t have had the same advantage combining with NW – no single airport city southern hub
UA / Delta could have been something in the middle adding ATL, getting to rationalize out one of SLC or DEN, coasts already built out, but lacking the fortress midwest hubs and the UA union too large relative to Delta threatening the Delta FA non union status.
UA / US another middle ground one getting CLT and rationalizing one of PHX/DEN but stuck with competitive ORD for the midwest. Tilton didn’t get that done.
US / NW would have been a domestic powerhouse lacking Europe/Latam but lost in all this is not even Anderson in 2008 saw that domestic connectivity would be the profit center of the 2010s – moves were about feeding global networks based on the experience of the 2000s
We all know loser isn’t a childish name.
Greg is the only one that has proven he is capable of an intelligent conversation.
DL was the first to emerge from bankruptcy and became the controlling company. There were significant members of DL’s exec team that were not from NW at the time of the merger and even less now.
DL did look at UA during UA’s bankruptcy and was interested in the SFO hub but, you are right, did not want to run the risk of having an all unionized workforce.
They didn’t gamble on UA, UA merged with CO, and the whole reason we are having this discussion about hubs is because UA’s network people were all ex-CO people. CO had no market share outside of its hubs, still doesn’t and that is what Kirby is trying to fix.
DL was the first megamerger and UA/CO were smart enough to go next and AA and US were the two remaining ugly girls.
none of which changes that even the DL/NW and UA/CO mergers were over a decade ago; AA/US was right out a decade ago.
DL has managed to not only grow its combined network into more competitive markets than any of the big 3 AND ALSO defended its core markets better than AA or UA.
DL has offset what it did not gain through mergers and asset acquisitions through foreign equity. DL overcame UA’s larger size at LHR w/ the VS acquisition.
DL’s equity in Korean offsets its hub loss at NRT given that ICN is a larger local market than NRT and also a larger connecting airport.
DL’s equity and JV with Latam will provide DL with the first ability to challenge AA to Latin America. DL with LA is already the largest airline from NYC and LAX to Latin America.
UA’s greatest win was against AA at ORD but it screwed up NYC and DL is much larger – 15% – than UA, something that was not true of either UA or CO before until just a couple years ago.
UA is fighting and has regained the largest LOCAL carrier status at DEN from WN.
Neither AA or UA have added any new hubs as DL has done with BOS or SEA and DL, which was the smallest at LAX at deregulation is now the largest.
and size in the airline industry – as with all network businesses – translates into pricing power. DL also delivers quality – including industry-leading reliability – which is why it has managed to win over corporate contracts even in competitive markets.
DL simply is running a better business, its customers pay more, DL pays its people more, and DL is able to keep growing its network.
And no one has yet to be able to explain how AA or UA are going to be able to stop DL given that DL makes more money, is healthier financially, and is spending less of its revenues to grow than AA or UA.
thank you, greg, for the intelligent discussion.
the value of CO/DL would have been a Texas hub which still would have been smaller than DFW, greater access to Latin America from Texas which could have combined very well with ATL – but most importantly NYC.
DL only had about 20% of LGA slots pre-NW merger so there might not have been antitrust issues.
DL plus the ex-US LGA slots plus NW’s twin Midwest hubs are stronger than what CO offered.
The only part that DL didn’t get was a Texas hub.
Neither CO or UA had a Florida hub and neither were large in Florida and UA still isn’t now.
While everyone loves to tout the superiority of their hub, the big 3 are fairly equal in strengths and weaknesses.
DL just happens to generate more revenue from its network. DL has the best blend of a strong domestic system w/ a strong international system which, though not as large as UA’s, generates more profits and is better connected to more of the US.
if UA succeeds at its growth plan, it will be a very strong competitor to DL – as DL exists today.
Few people realize what DL will do to grow both domestically and internationally.
AA will still be a large domestic airline w/ a few international routes other than to Latin America which DL will match.
tAim, how did delta acquire the 3 hubs it didn’t have 45 years ago?
seriously?
pop quiz: name the DL pilot bases 45 years ago
After several bad experiences last year personally, for those I recommended & booked on Delta, plus reports from friends & family about their flights or those of their friends, at least as far as Main Cabin/long haul Comfort+ is concerned, Delta is NOT nearly as “premium” as it used to be.
So, for all of the international segments to/from Asia booked for others so far this year, NONE of the long haul flights are aboard Delta (3 are Korean Airlines, 2 Japan Airlines).
For a recent RDU-LAX-RDU booking made for others, that, too, was NOT on Delta despite it offering nonstops in the market.
Finally, for our own travel, our upcoming 6th & 7th flights of the year (NYC-CLT-NYC) next/following week are aboard United, NOT Delta, as there isn’t much of a difference inflight anymore that makes the misery of JFK Terminal 4 worthwhile anymore, especially when Newark is the easiest & closest airport for us to use.
Delta is NOT nearly as good as it used to be for most flyers, and its long haul flight last November from Seoul to Atlanta in Comfort+ was flat out awful, especially the inedible food.
That the airline is even considering reimplementing change fees & reverting back to the bad old days of intentional product degradation & “hate selling” is hardly surprising as although the airline (and a certain fanboy) may still view itself as being “better” than others, our own experiences (note: plural) and those of people we know & trust last year speaks to a degree of ordinariness & mediocrity whether the airline (and its main cheerleader) admits it or not.
Anyone who’s still being duped by airline “loyalty” programs is just a willing victim at this point.
Timmy D. here is the real life equivalent of South Park’s Timmy. One always knows ahead of time what he’s going to say…
at least you have the self-decency to make it clear you are not rather than posting under someone’s user name.
and howard,
the beauty of the free enterprise system is that everyone gets to choose what they want. The only mistake you make is in assuming that your choices are anything more than your choices.
Delta still carries far more revenue and passengers and makes far more money than United.
Hagbard,
I can’t tell you w/ certainty but Chicago, MEM, DFW, MSY and BOS were all pilot bases in the past 45 years; I have no idea which were 45 years ago.
And the point is that DL decided to not try to compete with AA at DFW and ORD and UA at ORD – but instead merged with NW which gave it two of these “monopoly” hubs which others are quick to say is how DL makes so much of its profits.
Again, why couldn’t AA and UA figure out what DL saw decades ago? Having hubs in markets which you can dominate results in better earnings. DL has spent 45 years building its core hubs around that principle and has used the extra earnings to grow in competitive markets – and have a larger presence in NYC, BOS and LAX than any other airline. NYC and LAX are larger markets than every other hub for AA and UA.
And Delta figured out that investing those extra profits in more amenities and higher paid employees leads to a cycle of more profits and more growth.
Just got my renewal notice for Delta American Express card. Cancelling account since there appears to be no value added to AMEX card from DL airlines. Surpass cancellation next. Chase Hyatt card seems to offer more actual rewards and benefits.
I think it doesn’t speak well of Delta that first class on their branded-partner regionals tends to be better than on their mainline planes.
But I also think this was inevitable. It’s capitalism at work. They’re going to wring as much money out of us as they can while delivering as cheap of a product as they possibly can just like any other business.
It’s always going to be a race to the bottom. If those idiotic “standing” seats ever get approval, guaranteed first class will drop to what is economy today while economy is a standing cattle car.
Meanwhile the planes keep getting more janky because Boeing has decided it’s no longer in the airplane building business but is instead in the moving-money-around business.
I long ago determined customer loyalty is a farce. If you sell me a good product, I’ll buy from you again. If you sell me a bad product that time, I’ll go elsewhere, and I don’t care that you’re waving a $5 discount for a basic economy seat in front of my face. Loyalty programs are designed for only two things: Tracking you, and trapping you. The first one doesn’t so much apply to the airlines because they already have your info – moreso for all the other loyalty programs out there like coffee shops, fast food restaurants, etc. That 25 cents off of your Starbucks latte made the company a lot of money selling your information and purchasing activity to data aggregators.
But the trapping you side is absolutely what’s going on with airline loyalty programs. “Gee, this sucks but I can’t fly the other airline because I have all these points here!” So they can ensnare you into the sunk-cost fallacy and then continually degrade your experience with a much higher threshold of irritation before you get sick of it and fly a different carrier.
Re the “CO execs dont know how to compete” trope…
It built our EWR in the 90s and 00s when NYC metro was well developed and competitive.
Their growth included market share gains from pm Deltas weak ex Pan Am JFK operation, US at LGA on domestic, UA intl at JFK
Hauenstein the #2 at DL and commercial architect came from CO under NW’s Anderson. Both intimate with each position. because of NW/CO
What did DL do post merger?
Run the CO playbook in NY
Be #1 on time
Consistent paint jobs and interiors with cleanliness
Large destination menu
Punchy one liner ads
Build out the intl gateway facilities over 5-10 years
Poach corporates with direct status matches locally
NYC is a blip on DLs profit they could have done none of that save for being on time and still be a revenue / margin leader in the US. But the notion that CO execs can’t compete is bunk. They wrote that playbook.
Tim,
While Delta has dominated Atlanta over the past 45 years, it has also benefited from:
1) Eastern Airlines (OG) labor strife, especially after airline deregulation began (late 1970s into 1980s) in the pre-Lorenzo era (aka Frank Borman), followed by the chaos, catastrophe & bitter labor relations (aka union busting) after the disastrous Frank Lorenzo gained control of an already badly wounded Eastern in 1986 & then destroyed it before the bankruptcy court appointed Martin Shugrue, Jr. Trustee in April, 1990 – eight months before Eastern’s demise in January, 1991.
2) After Eastern failed in 1981, Delta’s reign was briefly challenged by ValuJet, until its rapid expansion & mismanagement resulted in the catastrophic crash of flight 592 shortly after take-off from Miami on May 11, 1996 when everyone aboard perished.
3) Although ValuJet purchased AirTran in November, 1997 to rebrand after the above mentioned crash & began challenging Delta again in Atlanta, all of that seemed to fall by the wayside after Southwest took over AirTran in May, 2011 & instead of using its deep pockets & good credit ratings to aggressively expand in Atlanta, has instead been more than content to play a distant “2nd fiddle” & also ran in Delta’s fortress hub in Atlanta – all while conveniently keeping other airlines, especially discounters like Spirit, Frontier or perhaps hybrid airline, JetBlue, from building a more vigorous hub in Atlanta than Southwest has to date, with its decidedly underwhelming, seemingly oligopolistic friendly, token “competition.”
Sure, Delta has been smart to make the most of its prior competitors’ mistakes & mismanagement in Atlanta, but having a junior “partner” (wink, wink!) at its fortress hub since 2011 sure hasn’t hurt!
Separately, agree current & past data shows Delta enjoying a significant revenue premium over its legacy/network peers, United & American.
And while some Delta domestic flights taken last year were “old school” Delta at its very best (side note: most of which, interestingly enough, were aboard its regional affiliates, NOT mainline) & there were also several excellent customer service experiences at the airport (LGA, EWR, CLT & RDU come to mind) or using the app’s chat, the truly disappointing experiences were far too numerous & egregious to overlook (bald faced lies with customer contact reps online, on the phone, at the airport; repeated incidents of exceptionally bad treatment of reduced mobility passengers [family members I booked on Delta in the belief they’d be treated better than on other airlines] at JFK, BOS, DTW & Seoul/ICN airports; not just bad, but utterly inedible food on the Seoul-Atlanta Delta operated flight; forcing reduced mobility pax to walk up a very long, steeply inclined jetbridge in Atlanta before being seated in a wheelchair in a vestibule that links the terminal building with the jetbridge) are very serious deficiencies that not only suggest the airline’s revenue premium is more a reflection of what the airline used to be instead of how it actually is in the here & now, but is also noted in the hope that the airline & its senior managers are made aware of recently experienced paxex, and also as a “caveat emptor” (buyer beware) for others so they don’t make the same mistake I did believing the airline offered better paxex (on the ground & inflight) than others when they choose where to spend their hard earned money (for themselves & their loved ones).
I take no pleasure in being so critical about any airline, but especially one that in years’ past truly was consistently better than most of its domestic rivals as Delta was.
But, that’s the point, “WAS.”
Because while there are still occasional flashes of the “exceptional Delta” most of us fondly recall, the inconvenient truth is that the Delta of now is not nearly as consistently “good” as it used to be, and more and more brings to mind the bad old days of its long gone rival, Eastern during its years of decline, than the fondly recalled Delta of yore.
Especially when using the abomination otherwise known as JFK Terminal 4, which is every bit as horrible as Eastern’s long gone terminal at JFK used to be – except, perhaps, for privileged few who use the Delta One section for departures & then hide away in a fancy lounge until it’s time to board their flight. For them, Terminal 4 is probably less odious (as long as they overlook the filthy windows, dirty/sooty ceilings, walls & structural beams/columns, leaky ceilings & discolored ceiling tiles [especially in the headhouse], that is) than it is for most of us.
FWIW, I spent 2+ years (including much time on site at JFK) analyzing terminal facilities, operations, expenses & contractors’ work for British Airways [when it operated at Terminal 7] & Terminal One Group Association, LP [Air France, Japan Airlines, Korean Air & Lufthansa], among others – so I do have professional experience & a trained eye regarding the repair & maintenance/upkeep & how costly that is for the passenger terminals & cargo facilities at JFK!
thanks again for the discussion, greg.
First, Hauenstein has probably had more to do with defining Delta’s network than any person. and he didn’t come from NW which is counter to your argument about NW taking over DL.
DL didn’t invent along of things that are part of their strategy including building a hub in NYC (CO arguably built a hub at EWR before DL did) and CO also developed a pretty high quality product.
DL didn’t invent seat back AVOD but has it on more aircraft than any other airline in the world and is pushing to expand that to include free WiFi.
Execution is as important as coming up w/ ideas.
And DL has bested UA in NYC by managing to accumulate the most slots – not just in NYC but in the US – which also includes more flights to/from NYC including all 3 airports.
CO’s failure in NYC and UA only made it worse was by thinking too highly of EWR; it is a smaller airport w/ less runway capacity and can only do so much. Many people mocked DL’s 2 NYC airport hub strategy and yet DL hasn’t cut flights and runs a 15% larger operation than UA.
And the US-DL slot swap was entirely DL’s doing. No other predecessor airline had anything to do with it.
and UA’s vulnerability to DL in NYC is a product of both’s partnerships and aircraft. DL has overtaken UA as the largest airline from NYC to Latin America because of the Latam partnership which far surpasses what UA has in the region.
The A350 has greater range and will open routes including to Asia that UA cannot fly on its current 787s. They might pull more seats off and/or wait for Boeing to increase the MTOW of the 787 but for now the A350 in either version will do more for DL than what the 787 can do for AA or UA.
Nothing in life is static. What UA acquired from CO matters now as much as what DL acquired from NW. What AA, DL and UA and everyone else does w/ what they have and opportunities they see are what matters.
and, I think we agree that size translates into revenue premiums. The reason why each of AA, DL and UA have the revenue premiums in their hubs is because of their size; DL has simply looked at its entire business and is increasing its dominance in markets at a faster rate including by growing into markets where other carriers are strong.
*CORRECTION in above:
Eastern failed in January, 1991 NOT “1981” as mistaken written above.
Apologies for the “fat finger”/proofreading before posting error! 😉
Howard,
I would concur w/ most of what you wrote.
Delta has indeed gained because of other airlines’ weaknesses and has grown in spite of them. AA and B6 is the most recent example. being profitable enough and having the resources to grow when opportunities arise is key.
DL and WN have long been very well-run airlines. They, like AS, know how to do what each needs and to the extent possible, stay out of each other’s way.
It isn’t lost on DL, I am sure, that WN seems much more interested in BNA where DL is also growing but WN is certain to drop more routes from ATL as it seeks out better opportunities.
As for JFK T4, of course DL could wish they could take its CVG terminal or even the one in BOS but that isn’t possible. DL did what it could and continues to build. Unlike the Middle East airlines, US airlines have to work w/ the land airports have and the cost it takes to build terminals.
ATL and JFK WORK for DL; they aren’t cathedrals. I would argue few US airline terminals are anywhere close to great – DL at DTW would be the closest.
and I have never denied that DL’s customer service is not what it was pre-covid; neither are any other airlines and neither is most of the US. Some industries have come back but I enjoy fine dining more than ever because good restaurants and good service do exist.
My point in always talking about revenue whenever service is mentioned is because no product or service is any better than what people will pay for it.
DL, for all of the reasons discussed here and more, manages to get more for what it sells.
175 million customers aren’t wrong.
DL has a formula that is not an Asian airlines and it is not AA or UA or WN but DL does get better revenue across its entire network than its competitor.
The definition of premium includes a monetary valuation.
Thanks, Tim, for the kind words & your excellent rebuttal.
Fully agree with everything you said.
Following up RE JFK T4:
The terminal, especially the headhouse, is a disaster, be it the horrifically long lines to clear security (even with pre-check); the overworked, often surly staff; the abysmal treatment reduced mobility pax experience (exceptionally long, often ACA violating long [>30 mins], waits in a cordoned off pen for wheelchair attendants to arrive; whiney attendants who complain about the long distances between the headhouse & distant gates [as if the person in the wheelchair has any control over that!]); the shabby condition of the terminal with its dirty/sooty ceilings, structural beams/columns; dirty windows; leaky ceilings & stained ceiling tiles; stained floors & more that as the predominant tenant, Delta should demand better from the terminal manager/operator, JFK IAT, which is linked to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport via Schiphol USA, because the place is now >20 years old & sure is showing its age.
Agree, as the tenant Delta has less control than it did with its now demolished Terminal 2, which it managed (note: the City of New York owns JFK & LGA Airports; the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey [PANYNJ] leases the airports from
NYC & operates/manages them; the airlines or other entities sub-lease their facilities from PANYNJ) & considering its early 1960s vintage was in remarkably good condition until it closed 1-year ago after more than 60 years of use.
So, yes, Delta does not have a more direct control of JFK T4 like it does at LGA or did at Terminal 2, but surely it can & must demand a better state of repair & upkeep from its “landlord” (aka JFK IAT) because it’s dirty & terribly run down.
When Terminal 2 was still around, we actually preferred it over T4.
But, with all DL flights now operating at T4, we avoid it as much as possible.
We don’t expect JFK T4 to be as wonderful as Tokyo Haneda Terminal 3, Seoul Incheon Terminal 2 or Singapore Changi Airport are (although that would be nice, even welcome and appropriate at the USA’s “premier gateway” in a city that sees itself as the “Capital of the World”…), but the place is a dump & is desperate need of vastly improved security clearance areas, a top to bottom scrubbing & cosmetic refresh, plus far better ongoing repair, maintenance & upkeep thereafter for all passengers, NOT just the fortunate few who are quickly whisked from curbside to fancy lounges.
Hopefully once New Terminal One & Terminal 6 open later this decade, JFK T4 will feel obligated to update & modernize its rapidly aging facilities (especially the horrible headhouse).
But, why wait? The place is a dump already & is best avoided – which we’ll continue to avoid as long as it remains overcrowded & rundown.
Howard,
Delta is spending money at JFK T4 and would love to have the entire place to itself so it could at least make the final decisions but there are multiple non-DL partner airlines in T4 which also have leases.
Again, DL could not have built anything at JFK that could give it the size it needed to operate a 250 flight/day hub without spending tens of billions of dollars.
Let’s not forget that EWR is not exactly a shining star either. Neither is AA in PHL or UA at IAD. AA at JFK is a nice facility but as AA has welcomed a bunch of airlines to try to make the economics work for a facility that AA never used to its potential, T8 is not great.
DL’s Terminal A at BOS is probably the nicest NE terminal – and it isn’t even large enough to operate all of DL’s international flights – which is why DL is still talking w/ Massport about expanding terminal A or creating some behind -security connector between A and E.
US airports are woefully inadequate esp. when compared to Asian airports. I’m not sure why anyone bothers to try to compare them.
and again, DL is growing the scope of its network at JFK including w/ new flights to S. America that UA has not matched.
As DL adds flights from JFK to Asia and takes advantage of the A350’s range, it is certain that DL will gain even more advantages.
and I would agree w/ you that human service to passengers w/ disabilities is inferior to much of the world even though US buildings are generally as good as the rest of the world in accommodating disabilities.
Well, maybe I’m in the minority but I think they should charge for premium services. Because people have gotten used to try to get everything for free from not checking bags and not wanting to pay for it. So they’re gonna get free bagcheck at the gate. introducing basic economy tickets. Then complaining about no good seat. And not being upgraded, etc? If you want each of your 5 kids to bring on your own luggage. And not be smart and packing 1 bag for the family. Then you should pay that $500 to fly across country, stay home or drive.
I don’t really care what fees they charge, but my hard limit is not being allowed to choose my seat. For that, I’ll take even a more expensive flight with another airline.
I guess that’s the game- Delta makes its choices, I make mine.
Regulate the industry, nationalize the big national carriers
Remember…the best way to show you appreciate your customers is to treat them like crap!!!
Who said that? Delta AIr Lines said it.
OMG, the BS on here requires hip boots! Delta can claim they are a premium airline and charge accordingly. But that is their claim, and lately in my experiences, there is nothing about Delta that is a premium experience. The actual experience before, during, and after a flight, is no where close to a real premium 5 star carrier. Heck, my Delta experiences are not what they were prior to 2023 and I usually only fly Delta domestically.
But more to the point, Etihad, Emirates, Qatar, ANA, EVA and Singapore are premium airlines and fit that definition. Delta is not even close to those carriers,
@JohnB,
Absolutely agree – Delta has declined significantly compared to pre-2023.
It’s about the same as United (we stopped flying American 10 years ago) domestically, and after an especially bad long haul flight this past November (discussed in one of my prior reader comments above), will be avoided in favor of foreign carriers whenever possible going forward.
Well, I at least can try to make an on-topic comment……………….
I have no idea why anyone would sign up for a DL Sky Miles account when they can sign up to Flying Blue and be treated at least half-way decently.
It depends on how often you fly SkyTeam.
If you fly regularly, Flying Blue is good. I sometimes fly multiple times a year, but other times I’m flying other alliances and then their expiration policy is a pain. My choice is Virgin Atlantic because it’s miles don’t expire and it’s much more generous in earning than Delta. Virgin can be easier to earn status on than either Flying Blue or Delta depending on your flying pattern, or whether you have a Virgin Atlantic or Air France credit card.
@Jim Lovejoy
Flying Blue and Virgin are great programs, compared to Delta! Example: an economy award to AMS or CDG can reserved most times with Virgin or Flying Blue for 12k to 20k. With Delta, one is lucky to get an award to Europe, for 40k. That’s not including bonus point transfers. SkyMiles is NOT a premium FF program at all. SkyMiles is a money pit. That only has become worse each year.
This is why I have learned to travel with carry-on only – the cheapest way possible. Because the entire experience is being nickeled and dimed….so not worth it to fly anything other than basic. I can use the money saved at my destination.