Originally Posted by
saintd
oh, i have an experience with DL. sunday, we were 'weather delayed' for 5 hours TPA/ATL. because there was no cancelation we couldn't re-accommodate so, of course we missed our Seattle connection... stranded in ATL. their new plan to get us home was on NW... the next day. i tried to get NW/DL to switch the FF program to onepass so we had a better chance to upgrade. we are both CO plat and only DL gold but we were told (airport/phone) that it couldn't be done. needless to say, we lost upgrades by a couple of positions and had middle seats to boot.
frustrating that DL can throw you on NW metal on a whim but pax are not offered the same option.
my partner promises to never fly DL on purpose again and i don't think i'm gonna miss the ridiculous snack basket in f.
Not to defend DL, but first, NW is DL now in terms of what Delta wants people to perceive. Yes, still separate airlines from an FAA perspective, unions, and the fact that NW still gives upgrades to CO elites based on the existing NW/CO contracts (until October 24 or when SkyMiles and WorldPerks merge, whichever comes first). So it's not like "DL throw you on NW metal on a whim" - DL did a good thing to get you home.
Second, it's a known limitation of Delta's systems (legacy Delta) that once you fly the first flight on an itinerary, it's impossible to change the FF# to a different one. However, NW can do so. The problem is, the DL agents don't realize that the legacy-NW system does allow this. If you had gone to nwa.com and been able to pull up the NW version of the reservation, you probably could have changed it yourself for the NW-operated flights.
BTW, "known limitation" means known to Delta agents and to many DL-flying FTers. It isn't a "known" as in Delta proactively tells people about this.
One other thing. The "ridiculous" Delta snack basket on my 214-mile F (ATL-RDU) flight last night at around 11pm was a lot healthier, more filling, and tastier, than the bag of CO pretzels on my CO 876-mile (IAH-DEN) 11pm-ish F flight a few days earlier. CO has better "meals at mealtime" than DL/NW does in F on under-3hrs-flights. But DL provides better non-mealtime F "snack flight" fare by far. On an "apples to apples" comparison, there sure weren't any apples on CO.
(nor bananas, nor Twix bars, nor Biscoffs)