I'm sure between everyone here on FT this list could easily expand to the "Top 10" or "Top 30" or "Top 100" things DL could address. But nonetheless, this list is the consensus of a group of 9 NW/DL fliers as we sit here in NRT after a business meeting, waiting for our flights.

The point here is not to whine about all of the stuff that is wrong with the SM program, specifically. I'd love more upgrades -- who wouldn't? The point here is to point out some fairly business-critical stuff that DL is being awfully silent (or evasive) about, and that is affecting what has to be a sizable portion of their customer base. Not having effective SWUs is a problem for maybe 10% of all customers. Not being able to sell your customer a ticket that they can search for at your website, or interline a bag with your own alliance partners, is another issue altogether. Or, cultivating new markets that Delta then dodges out of their promises on, by creating sneaky exemptions in their policies, is basically a recipe for eventual large-scale mutiny... which may be what is occurring here lately.

I think that the whining and moaning on this forum over the last 6+ months is indicative that SOMETHING needs to be done. What DL's brass may have forgotten is that perception _is_ reality... Whether the problems are fixed or not, or whether they're being worked on or not, is entirely irrelevant towards whether customers BELIEVE they're being addressed.

I don't think anybody believes these are being addressed right now. I'm not sure they're even being heard by the right people. Or that some of those "right people" don't need to be replaced... quickly.

So, without further ado:

1) If you're really an International Airline, behave like it.
DL does fly to more places on the globe than any other US airline. Unfortunately for frequent DL fliers, that fact seems to be irrelevant to their experience. Domestic-flying Medallion customers get a fair number of nice perks for their loyalty, but as the airline's global reach expands, the number of both domestic and Int'l customers flying the airline on Int'l routes increases. International fliers get nothing of real value, and actually LESS than some customers based in non-US markets. (Asian Gold/Plat get club access, for instance.)

As an experiment (since we're already way over-mile'd for '09) a few of us bought UA tickets to NRT this time out. I have no status with UA, no perks nor special considerations -- I'm just a good 'ole unwashed traveler to them. What differences did we experience in either service, benefits or upgrade opportunities being a UA-nobody versus being a DL Platinum who flies this route 5-7 times per year?

Nothing.

And that was shocking to us, given how attuned we'd all become to expecting perks as non-stop travelers. So DL, if you're a striving to become a premiere International airline, then behave like it, and either apply (or design) your perks uniformly to entice and retain your customers who want those routes, or stop pretending. Because we're all starting to notice that buying tickets solely on price looks pretty attractive when there there is no discernible difference in the product by being Medallion -- and DL, hate to tell you, but you're not the cheapest horse in the barn anymore for Int'l fares from many of your key US markets.

2) Fix your IT problems. Now!
This is 2009, right? Not 1985? I think we all understand and acknowledge the complexities of Enterprise IT systems, but this is starting to go beyond the pale. For one, you _inherited_ a pretty darned good system from a company that you acquired (NWA) -- and then decided to slowly break that system in preparation for dismantling it, in what is starting to look like nothing more than a classic case of "Not Invented Here" syndrome on the part of your IT managers. At the same time, you somehow managed to break bits of your own website, which was fairly sub-par to start.

What's worse, when all of these problems are "fixed", you yourselves already admit that the end product won't be as good as _either_ of the two systems you started with -- at least for awhile. You've lost core-business capabilities, like the ability to successful and rationally price complex itineraries through the web. Or the ability to sell revenue-add items like upgrades on many popular flights (even M,B,Y upgrades) because you can't properly display inventory or seats for flights that you've self-created excessively complex scenarios for... (One prime example would be NW799 (JFK-NRT) that is NW-numbered, DL-operated on DL metal but managed through the NW res system. That one is such a mess, we can't even get an accurate seat map for it! DL sells the ticket, but needs NW agents to assign us a seat over the phone, and the the NW website will show it, while DL will show "Not assigned" on that segment right up to departure day.)

We could go on and on about the SM problems, or the issues of managing loyalty perks and opportunities all day, but others have already done so. Your award search options are a joke -- only slightly more of one than your award availability to begin with.

Just fix it. Eat crow, re-hire the NWA developers, or fire all of your developers and buy someone else's engine, whatever... The revenue you lost from my ticket alone would pay for a full day of an AMADEUS technical consultant. We're willing to be patient if things are improving, but they continue to get visibly worse, and you're removing features people used and liked without any ability, plan, or (possibly) intention of replacing them. IT is hard, but it's not _this_ hard unless it's being incompetently managed.

3) Don't weasel out of Customer Care issues.
Complaints from customers are a way of life. Every company that deals with the public understands that you have to draw the line in the sand somewhere -- some customers just need to be put into the endless phone queue until they go away. But, more importantly, some customers do NOT. Knowing which is which is more important still.

So first, decide if you're one carrier or two carriers for Customer Care. Because, conveniently, it seems that you tell customers that you're separate when it comes to pointing fingers at problems on NW+DL itineraries, but then tell us that you're one company and that your staff can help us with ANY request when we ask for resolutions. You currently have a combined workforce that doesn't know how to do their jobs anymore. Probably every PM on here has called into the Medallion phone pool for a simple problem, only to be put on hold to find someone from the other airline's system that can help, only to then screw up something else. This is merging operations before you're ready to do so. NW staff used to be very helpful. DL staff used to be very helpful. Now it takes 3 phone calls and an Act of God to get anything done. Fix it!

Oh, and by the way... that Best Fare Guarantee you advertise? You do realize that your IT problems are making your own systems run afoul of that guarantee almost every day, depending on whether tickets are purchased at nwa.com or delta.com? And that your Care departments weasel out of that by saying that DL isn't liable for NW flights, and NW isn't liable for DL flights just by picking and choosing which flight number they want to apply when pricing out the itinerary? 10,000 SkyMiles in "compensation" for getting screwed over on that one doesn't quite cut it, especially after your own agents are the ones who advised us to file the claims.

4) Work with your partners.
It's been something like 5 years since the last Interlining agreement was signed between the major world carriers. But (probably also related to Issue #2 above) suddenly many of your "partners" -- even those in your own ST alliance -- can't effectively work with you anymore. For instance, try connecting from KLM, through Amsterdam and JFK, to any US destination. Chances are better than 25% that you'll have to grab your bags at customs in New York, wander through the warren of a basement to find the DL desk, wait in line for the 1 agent on duty, and re-check your bag to your final US destination. Does this happen consistently? No. But that hardly matters... if even 1 out of 4 KLM agents can't figure out how to Interline a bag tag with you, that's far, far too many. And when those agents are uniformly blaming DL for the problem, it's very hard to accept your assurances that "there is no problem we are aware of." Baggage issues are merely the tip of the iceberg. Your partners know what the problems are -- talk to them!

... because, guess what? Those agents are talking to US customers. And when you start getting enough negative banter about an airline from the staff of a PARTNER airline, it's pretty darned hard not to wonder what the heck is up!

5) Fix your hubs.
JFK, I'm looking at you especially, though ATL and MSP can line up right behind. I know that the New York market is expensive, that good staff are hard to come by, and that the JFK terminal is impossible to really renovate while it's in-use. But, as if flying into a gateway that looks worse than some Third-World countries isn't bad enough, you CERTAINLY don't have to then staff it with people who perpetuate that impression. Your JFK agents are, on the whole, woefully under-trained, incredibly ineffective, and put forth an image of Delta as a shoddily-run and massively customer-unfriendly operation. ATL isn't much better. I would rather jam needles under my fingernails than have to deal with the agents at your tiny re-check area outside of Customs, or connect to a flight on the commuter RJ piers in New York ever again.

... and, in my case, I will tell you that I have already taken steps on that one. We're just flying CO trans-Atlantic now, and (maybe from now on) UA trans-Pacific. Somebody at Delta please go talk to Continental, because while Newark is only a few short miles away, the effectiveness of their PEOPLE both on-the-ground and in the Clubs is somehow light-years apart. (Given how bad service is at all NYC airports, the fact that we're able to make this distinction should be telling in itself!) Whatever staffing agency they're using -- hire it! Flying into NYC is bad no matter where you go, but somehow DL has managed to turn their hub there into the Anti-Disneyland... it's the Unhappiest Place on Earth.


FT'ers, you may now commence your regularly scheduled complaining about all of the SM-related problems and Medallion-unfriendly policies that DL has implemented. And no doubt they deserve to be here. Perhaps some more than these 5, given that Medallions keep DL's coffers full.

But as one who is now mid-itinerary on a UA ticket, with no status, I have to say: Delta, you're losing us. I _shouldn't_ be equally as happy sitting here in a major International gateway with my no-status ticket, waiting for a no-status seat, as I am when I fly your airline with 100k+ miles logged annually. I shouldn't have had an easier time buying a cheaper UA ticket from my home airport that (used to be) a major SkyTeam hub. And I shouldn't have had to buy my first-ever ticket on Orbitz.com for a flight on your airline in December, because neither your websites nor your agents could manage to issue it.

And you really have NOBODY to blame but yourselves.