us2

The utter cheapness of this is really amazing as is the complete lack of consideration toward people who can't eat pizza or, given that it's an international flight, don't have a taste for it for cultural reasons. Just a year ago, food vouchers were given out for a 2 hour mechanical out of DTW headed to STL that I was on. I appreciated the gesture, but declined the voucher as I had dinner plans when I arrived.

I will reiterate the point made in my post above -- this kind of cheapness and poor treatment from a very profitable company is going to lead to EU-style regulations for mechanical delays. Delta is being penny-wise and pound foolish here: EU comp for a delay of this length is 600 Euros cash plus food.

mikepa

As a point of reference, I flew Vietnam Airlines to Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) from Seoul this morning, and while the seats were recliners and so not to the same standard as the lie-flats on the DL 747, the food service for lunch on a 5 hour flight was delightful and the food quality was superb. I'm sorry, DL, your Business Elite just doesn't measure up.

clr4t8koff

Understood, and I think that's what a lot of people would have hoped for.

However, that isn't what you stated or asked in your initial post, which is why I replied the way I did. Maybe a little more clarification on your part next time?

clr4t8koff

Touché. Get it together DL or this will eventually come back to bite you in the a*#.

clr4t8koff

Let's hope that it does. In fact I hope that it does. Only then will things change. Perhaps a $10 voucher won't look so bad vs. $600 cash to each passenger.

fly747first

Nevertheless, still many, many miles ahead of DL and DL will never beat them, nor will any US carrier.

dd1612

Let's say "Someone" in Customer Service (either at the airport or at HQ) did consider and execute a plan to order food or to give $30 meal vouchers to each passenger, that is only $9000 at the most.

It would have given DL so much more credibility than having pizzas ordered and from the OP's report that was insufficient for all.

mikepa

I just received a form letter offering 10K SM for the 8 hour delay.

us2

Outrageous. Here's an idea: reply to Delta voicing your disgust at their lowball offer and enclose a copy of the letter you intend to write to your Congresscritter asking for legislation enacting EU levels of compensation for maintenance delays.

clr4t8koff

Completely unacceptable. I just got 10k miles for a broken PTV on a DTW-LAS flight. You deserve much more - just ask for what you want. Might not get it, but should up the ante.

readywhenyouare

I warned everyone about Delta's current management team a long time ago. Now look what we've been reduced to. Cheap takeout pizza. It speaks volumes that Delta provided a much better customer service experience while they were in bankruptcy than they do when they are making record profits.

mikesaidyes

Ok, I saw this on Flight Aware the other day. What were with the MAJOR delays both exDTW and exICN lately?!

us2

The $ad thing is that they aren't an exception. UA and AA are both also headed down the same path. You'll hear similar complaints over on the UA board now and once Parker takes the reins at AA, you'll hear the same thing over there as well (trust ne on this one). While I understand that this is a business and a business needs to make a profit to be viable, one can make a profit without having a complete disregard for the dignity of one's customers. Southwest -- yes, I know their product isn't for everyone -- has been doing it for years and making money.

And really, that's what this issue encapsulates for me -- a disregard for the dignity of the people who pay the fares and thus the bills. This was a complete CF -- an 8 hour maintenance/crew delay that seriously disrupted people's travel plans and the best that can be done here is pizza at the gate, followed by another delay the following day of the same flight which led to complaints that SC agents weren't empowered to issue hotel vouchers. This is not how one chases high value customers, it's exactly how one chases them away. Penny-wise and pound foolish is the appropriate term here; incidents like this are an open invitation for government to step in and regulate as it seems to be the only viable way to stop these kinds of egregious practices in an industry that has become, for all intents and purposes, a cartel.

MSPeconomist

I had a six plus hour delay in January on ICN-DTW. At least KE has decent lounges, especially the one in ICN that is not in the satellite terminal that DL uses.

MrAndy1369

It's really sad to see this happening. Just a year ago, I flew DL DCA-ATL-SAN. Due to delays, we were offered meal vouchers (I got a $12 meal voucher, IIRC), as well as miles. This was for maybe a ~90 minute delay.

I saw signs of this coming in December when I was originally DCA-SLC-SMF, but due to SLC being closed, was rerouted DCA-LAS-LAX-SMF. I was told at LAS to collect meal vouchers at LAX, but everyone at LAX had a flat-out "no" waiting for me, and I was told all employees had lost authorization to issue meal vouchers, except for redcoats. The redcoat that I talked to was incredibly rude and refused to issue a meal voucher. All this was after I had to hightail it down the T5/T6 tunnel, which was long and very ugly, and was out of breath once I arrived to the departing terminal (forgot which one; T5 or T6), and was starving after all the delays.

I thought this was an one-off, but now it's starting to fall in place. Major to DL.