<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Carfield:
Verdict!
I can’t believe that Uncle Leo allowed such a superior product, DL Shuttle, to continue to run in this era of Song and Delta Express. To be honest, both airlines feature similar service, but Delta scores better because of snacks all day long (not just some meal periods) and the better seats and legroom featured on its Boeing 737-800s. The open seat policy also makes much sense and it is very consistent in terms of its offerings at both LGA and BOS stations. Newspapers selection is definitely better with more local papers at corresponding stations, and magazines are not big of a deal. The crews were also nicer to deal with and I like the blue uniforms. So DL Shuttle wins my vote.
So what is your comment, regular Shuttle user?
Also a few questions –
Does Delta serves a proper snack (not the pretzels or mix) all day long and also weekend?
What kinds of snacks were served during the 1pm to 4pm non-traditional meal periods?
Any additional snack information will be appreciated.
Thanks for reading the report! My next one will be on America West and Frontier!
Carfield
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Hi, Carfield--
While I'm still with you that DL Shuttle has some distinct advantages over US (namely the Marine Air Terminal being a bit closer to Manhattan and the open seating policy), lately, the direction of the product's taken has not been a favorable one. Their great snacks aren't present on the weekends and on the last few shuttles of the evening. I'm afraid those awful Snyder's pretzels are present on DL when snacks aren't served. Incidentally, my itinerary nearly always shows a snack being served but given my usual flight times, I very rarely get one anymore. For those of us who do the weekend commute to DC/No. VA, it's a bit of a disapointment.
The 733s are plainly awful. The seats seem less supportive and the decrease in capacity has meant that finding capacity-controlled non full-Y seats more difficult (even if the savings aren't that great). And I don't think the mechanics of the beverage service have been quite worked out on the 733. The last couple of weekends, the back half of the plane has been served Southwest-style sans cart. No big deal except it seems rather inefficient when the cart often holds most of the beverages onboard.
Also, DL's non-matching of the triple miles bonuses of US/AA makes it more and more difficult to justify sticking w/ DL, especially when US/AA walk-up fares are often cheaper. I do, however, enjoy the rapport that the DL staff have w/ customers and appreciate that they remember their regulars (usually by name)-something I can say for neither US nor definitely AA.
As an aside, it would be interesting to know the costs of providing the shuttle product vs. mainline and/or Song. I'd venture to say that the difference isn't that great (especially if they get rid of some of the more, ahem, obscure complimentary magazines) and that the mainline product could be changed to reflect some of the benefits of the Shuttle product (Greater pitch and fewer F seats in the short term--since soon, few will be upgrading to them anyway, and perhaps a decent snack service on sufficiently long flights). It's always a shock to go from a few weeks on the Shuttle to being herded into the mainline product.
[This message has been edited by NYNOVA (edited 03-12-2003).]