What I love is that I'm never surprised any more at the diminution of benefits for elites. I've come to expect the things that attracted me to Delta to be taken away. So, DL has set my expectations well, and never surprises me when they disappoint me.
Okay, there's another one. Once, last May, I was flying MEM-DCA with a connection in ATL, and after we boarded they announced a delay. I got nervous about missing my connection, so I called the diamond desk from my seat and the woman who answered was a gem. She re-booked me onto a flight MEM-MSP, and then MSP-DCA, first class on both legs. At first they wouldn't let me off the plane, even though the jetway was re-attached. Then they were going to let me off the plane, but they wouldn't let me off without a gate agent.(???) Then, I got to the new gate, but the agents wouldn't process me because they were still processing passengers who'd been bumped from a previous flight. All the while, the lady on the phone insisted that we not hang up, as she wasn't going to leave me until she knew I GOT ON THAT PLANE. Then I got to the front of the line, and I told the lady (by this time they had actually finished boarding the flight; they boarded the flight as they processed the previous pax) that I had a reservation in first, but by that point, since the gate hadn't checked me in (they were processing people from another delay), I lost the upgrade. Oh well. But now the lady at the gate was saying that the plane was full. I asked how that could be, when the lady at the diamond desk, who was still on the line, had confirmed me for the flight, and that I wouldn't get back to DC until the next day because she didn't know how to do her job. (Btw - she didn't know how to do her job; I'd had her as a gate agent many times at MEM, and to call her incompetent wouldn't be fair to the incompetents of the world) So she tells me to come with her, and we get to the bottom of the jetway, and she tells me to wait. One of the flight attendants asked me if I was flying non-rev. I told him no, I was VERY very rev. And perturbed. At that point, Judy (the lady on the phone) asked me what happened, and I told her. She was mad, too. So the gate agent found a pilot who was deadheading and had him sit in the cockpit, so I got his seat. So everyone on the ground handled everything poorly, but Judy from the diamond desk was awesome. If DL could hire a few thousand Judys they'd have the perfect airline.
I suppose this isn't about DL, though, it's more about Judy.
But DL has been masterful at setting my expectations, so when I'm disappointed I'm not surprised. Also, with the disappointments this year, events in August led me to drop from diamond this year to platinum next year, and my goal is to drop from platinum to nothing on DL for 2013. I'm good at achieving my goals, so there's that.
