Delta Wants to Know the Most Stressful Part of Your Journey

Delta Air Lines celebrates profit sharing with their 80,000 employess at the Delta Air Lines campus in Atlanta, Ga. on Thursday, February 14, 2019. (Photo by Chris Rank/Rank Studios 2019)

Delta Air Lines is collecting more data on its customers than ever before and airline officials say they have learned some surprising lessons as a result. For one, the carrier says that the industry-wide belief that passengers only consider price when choosing an airline may have been grossly overstated.

Delta Air Lines knows a lot of information about its customers – more than just knowledge gleaned from passenger surveys. The company has data about everything from meal preferences to when a particular passenger is willing to pay for extra amenities or simply choose the very cheapest, most basic fare available. Airline officials say this unprecedented access to data has taught them that the conventional wisdom indicating passengers tend to book the lowest priced airfare regardless of the product offered may be wildly misunderstood. Delta says a full 60% of its passengers considered a number of factors other than price when booking flights.

“We have all the data points from every step in your journey and we use that data,” Delta CFO Paul Jacobson told attendees of the CNBC @Work Human Capital + Finance Summit in Chicago on Tuesday. “We’re looking at a level of precision in the business that we’ve never looked at before, and a lot of that comes down to the psychology of the customer and understanding what each leg in the journey makes the customer feel like.”

The legacy carrier has managed to turn this newfound understanding of its passengers to its advantage. The airline has carved out a profitable niche that its closest competitors have yet to successfully match.

“I think when you look back and say what was wrong with this industry 5 or 10 years ago is we all thought that it was a race to the bottom and that the only thing that mattered to consumers was having the lowest fare,” Delta President Glen Hauenstein told CNBC News.

Earlier this month, Delta announced it would begin reintroducing some once traditional cabin amenities, such as multi-course dining service, complimentary welcome drinks, wine and cocktails for international economy class passengers. The airline said it will even once again offer hot towels in the main cabin.

“This is about investing in every single customer who chooses Delta, no matter where they sit on the plane,” Delta VP Allison Ausband said in a release announcing the new service standards. “The thoughtful touches we’re investing in throughout the new Main Cabin experience were designed by flight attendants with one goal in mind — delivering an exceptional experience that our customers will rave about and one that our team, the best in the business, is proud to deliver.”

[Featured Image: Delta]