Originally Posted by
robbert
Delta's network will attract many customers because of their network and good hard product. Not to mention a more generous domestic upgrade scheme than most of the competition.
They really dropped the ball on their loyalty program, but my guess is that a minority of fliers is motivated enough by that to switch. The FT crowd is almost by definition focused on rewards and I believe that causes a lot of the bias seen here (mine included). If you value a rich FF program, use awards ex-US, value EQM through BIS effort then the new DL is not for you.
Apart from that, the LCCs are still growing and will one day (AirAsia, RyanAir/AirLingus anyone?) start to compete on the last legacy hold-out of international travel. That will be the time for more downsizing.
I concur with this timely and insightful post and give it a huge +1. It echoes my feelings as well. This is DL's strategy for better or worse. Time will tell of its success.
Safe Travels.