To become a Premier Carrier you need to offer flights at convenient times, frequently, and provide premium cabin service as well as a superior hard product. Just as an example the NRT flights to BKK and SIN arrive at midnight at their destinations and leave early, early a.m. forcing pax to leave their homes or hotels at 4-5 a.m. I would call that inconvenient and I leave a comment about premium cabin service and the hard product open, because all of us already know the answer. Asian carriers, Premium or not, offer 5-12 daily services, sometimes more. Some on A380 or 747s.
Also, who wants to go through the painfully annoying security procedures when one takes a U.S. airline, combined to the easy walk through for Asian or for that matter, European carriers, when they provide Intra-Asian service.
Sure, I am stuck with a similar pattern with UA now, but at least they don't pretend and don't claim to be a Premium carrier in and/or for Asia. Know the role that you are assigned to play!!!
May I also point out that they are primarily talking about service out of NRT.
Premium Asian service goes many, many ways. Not just out of NRT. DL by nature of it's business fills probably most of their ongoing traffic out of NRT with transit/connecting pax originating in the U.S. A good portion of the remaining seats to be filled comes from contracts they have taken over from the PMNW days. The rest originates from contracts that have been signed at the corresponding destinations also during PMNW days. Where does the added passenger supply originate? From China, of course. No recession there, au contraire. But how long will that last? Trust me, DL still has no name recognition in Asia.
DL fired all the knowledgeable and experienced NW management in Japan and Asia. Vinay Dube, DL's senior VP Asia/Pacific has pretty big shoes to fill. Researching his previous CV, he surely has no experience in that market.