I wanted to share a recent experience I had on a Delta T-Pac flight (HND-LAX). The route-specific issues have been addressed in a dedicated thread, so here I would only like to mention my observations that are, in my opinion, reflective of the changes in the service and culture that are happening at Delta. Several aspects of the service were very disappointing. Perhaps those things are becoming a norm nowadays. However, to me, they are alarming indicators of declining quality of Delta’s in-flight experience despite its claims of the $MM improvements and the emphasis on the customer care. To put this experience in context, I am a seasoned flyer who has been with Delta for 18+ years, 1MM+, so it takes a lot to surprise me or make me complain.
Reader, beware – this is a long post. Sorry. Stop now if you do not want to spend the time. I just re-read it, and it seems like a diabolically improbable plot for a mediocre sitcom. I hesitated to post it, it is kind of painful to describe and feels surreal and ridiculous.
This time, I was traveling with my wife and 2 children, 2 award seats in BE and 2 paid EC seats. The load on this flight in BE was very light: only 3 paying pax in the second cabin, and ca. half-full front one. Relatively full Y. The original plan was to have the 2 yo son and me in the EC seats, while my wife and daughter would be in BE (in 5 AB, they would be separated by only 3 rows from us in the EC). It was a night flight (a 12:30 am departure), so everyone could sleep anyway, or so we thought.
After boarding, I sat my daughter in the EC, and as I was helping my wife to settle in 5AB, I overheard the person in 5C introducing himself to the purser as an NRSA, giving her a small Japanese present, talking about his aunt who is an LAX-based FA, ex-NWA, and it turned out that our purser worked for NWA for many years. The purser was touched, said that she knew from the manifest that both 5C and 5G were NRSAs, and that “we value our NRSA passengers as premium customers and are glad to have you on board,” a verbatim quote. The non-rev in 5G was a DL FA. Both were very pleasant people. The fact that they were valued more than the remaining 3 paying passengers in that cabin became pretty evident right away: the non-revs were immediately given the menus, were served pre-departure drinks, their meal orders were taken, their coats were placed in the closet, all while we were still seating without any of that and with our coats in the seats. Nobody addressed anyone by name at any time either, nobody thanked us for flying Delta, nada (in my experience, pursers usually make at least a “greeting” and a “good bye” rounds in BE; the good ones would even come to coach to acknowledge DMs, if not too many of them are on board).
Drinks and menus were still nowhere in sight, whereas our neighbors to the right were offered a second round of PDB. Not the end of the world, but … let’s call it amusing. The 2 yo was for some reason fussing instead of falling asleep as he normally does, needed to be changed (he ended up in our arms for most of the flight), so I went to an FA to give her our coats and was then helping my wife with changing, moving the bags to the overhead bins, unpacking the blankets/pillows, etc.
The purser showed up – no, not with drinks or menus, and not to welcome us or greet us by name – but to tell me that I could not be in the Business cabin. Mind you, we were still on the ground, with the door open, I was on my knees in the bulkhead well out of everyone’s way attending to our son, with the total of 5 people in the business cabin – 2 of them NRSAs, and one paying pax seating on the opposite side from us. I went back three rows where my daughter was almost ready to fall asleep, but she left her backpack with her favorite toy upfront. Went to get it only to be “greeted” by the purser who reminded me, politely but firmly, almost in a hostile way, that “you paid for two seats, and that’s what you get, and I hope you know Delta’s policy that you cannot go beyond the curtain and disturb the premium passengers, and if you needed anything, you should use the call button and I would get your wife.” Her condescending and patronizing tone was appalling, but I took the high road and did not respond in kind. I should have, right there and then; it would have made things easier in the future. I only reminded her that my wife still was not offered anything to drink and was not given a menu. “So, what does she want?” I suggested she asked my wife directly.
Shortly after the take off, my daughter suddenly woke up and was about to throw up. She never gets airsick, so both kids must have eaten something disagreeable or were just tired from a long trip that day. A bag, a quick cleanup and, as instructed, a call for an FA to get my wife so we could change my daughter’s shirt. An FA from the back of the coach cabin came up and was very surprised and irritated by my request and told me to go and get my wife myself. I explained to her that the purser instructed me to do it this way, and that I was not allowed to visit them in the Business cabin, ridiculous as it was. She got my wife, I gave my daughter some meds, changed her, things were improving, and she fell asleep again. I decided that I could quickly finish a photo project from the trip and pulled out the laptop only to find that both power outlets in our row were dead. Asked the purser to reset our seats, she did that, but nothing changed (well, this time the entertainment systems died too, but the screens remained brightly lit). The FA called the purser again, who offered to move us to different seats (not together), and in the middle row. Obviously, could not work for us, especially with a sick child. “There isn’t anything else I can do” and walked away. I covered the screens with bent safety cards to block the light.
I worked until the laptop battery died, and then very politely and apologetically “could you please do me a favor again” asked the FA to ask my wife to come to my seat. The response was priceless: “I am in the middle of the service and cannot do it every time you need her” (that was only the second time, by the way). It was like a bad Stephen King’s movie or a benzo dream – my wife was mere 5-6 feet away, but I could not get to her because by doing so I could disturb the two “premium passengers” in the BE cabin. I should have just walked in, but did not want to antagonize the purser. We still had good 5-6 hours to go. I went back to the galley in about 30 minutes, the FA was just sitting there, and I asked whether she finished the service and could now get my wife for me. “Oh, no, I will only finish it in Los Angeles, but will get her when I have a moment.” I just shook my head.
We ended up switching seats with my wife a few hours into the flight so she could get some rest as our son would only sleep in our arms (ironically, the 2nd seat in BE for which we paid was empty 90% of the flight). A different shift of FAs must have been working the cabin then, and the FA who was serving me was great – nice, attentive, professional (perhaps apologetic for her colleague’s behavior? Not sure).
To add a twist to the story, all of a sudden there was an announcement as we were pretty much in the middle of the North Pacific: medical help was needed in the last row of the economy cabin. I wanted to retract my head like a turtle into its shell, hoping that there would be someone else on board who could help. Got up, looked back, but nobody was walking there. Put my son in the seat, went to the back. Not sure how to describe the purser’s facial expression: “you again?” or “hell, no, not you!” or something like that. She quickly regained her composure realizing why I was there. I asked what was going on and how I could help. Fortunately, the situation was not very serious, took the vitals and checked the meds that the person was taking. The pax who did not feel well, the FAs, and the purser were appreciative and grateful. Went back, checked on my wife and daughter, both were sleeping, the screens were still glowing brightly, but the make-shift covers were holding up OK. My son was asleep in the seat next to me in the pretty much empty BE cabin (incidentally, ex-NWA BE seats are very inconvenient for children – constantly sliding down and getting caught by the seat belt at the neck; made a usual contraption of two pillows to stop him from sliding down), and I was finally hoping to eat and get a couple of hours of sleep. Asked for my pre-ordered Japanese dinner, some wine, which was surprisingly fine, and was treated very well by the FA working my cabin.
The purser stopped by at some point to thank me and offered a voucher (or miles?) in appreciation of my help. I declined, as I did not want any compensation for a service that I did not really provide, but she insisted saying that it was not a payment but rather a token of appreciation from the airline. Asked me for my Diamond card, put it through what looked like a credit card machine, and out came two pieces of paper with absolutely unreadable text, except for the Delta logo. I am sure she told me what they were, but my mind was elsewhere, and I had no idea what I got. It did not really matter. All of a sudden I felt crushed and exhausted even though the previous day was spectacularly pleasant and relaxing. There is a barely readable 15 on the paper, so maybe I got 1500 or 15000, or xxx miles? We’ll see. I also asked for the full name and the card of the purser, which she gave me after I repeated my request.
The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful, except for my daughter throwing up again just as we were about to begin the descent. Would have made our life much easier to have her and my wife with us for the last 15-20 minutes so we could change and regroup, but I did not even want to ask. Although the flight arrived at T5 at LAX, we needed to be transferred to TBIT by bus and were the last people to leave the plane – needed to change our son, wash up our daughter, and get our stuff together. Were riding on the same bus with pilots and FAs, and I could barely resist the urge to come to the purser and the "perpetually busy” for all 10+ hours coach FA to tell them about their accomplishments on this flight. They were laughing and joking happily completely oblivious of the damage they caused.
My daughter was so excited when I gave her my Diamond luggage tag recently; she put it on her suitcase with such a pride after I explained to her that it was to recognize those who spend a lot of time in the air and therefore know how to behave on the plane. And I would never forget a look in her eyes when she was told that she could not use the nearest BE lav to clean up and was not allowed to go beyond the curtain to her mother.
I have flown on many different airlines in many countries, and kids get children kits, backpacks, crayons, special meals, etc. to keep them occupied and entertained. I know that DL does not do that, so I did not expect any of it, but to purposefully complicate a trip of a family just to exercise authority in the confines of a metal tube is despicable. I am not sure what satisfaction the purser got from it and what was going on through her mind when she got on her high horse, but it was perverted. I looked her up, and she is indeed a NWA veteran, with years of experience, and very active in the Flight Attendants Union.
My wife, who does not fly very often but enough to experience different airlines on different continents, was shocked by the treatment we received. She thought that kids would get something special (I remember my daughter being invited to the cockpit while the plane was on the ground), especially being in business class, and that being a DM, I might get some consideration given our situation. She asked me if I knew who the VIPs in the seats to the right were, and I had to explain what being an NRSA meant. It was embarrassing.
Sure, I understand the rules – I usually fly upfront and also don’t like to be disturbed by people walking back and forth into the BE cabin from coach when I am sleeping, but in this case the cabin was empty! There wasn’t anyone to be disturbed there except for my own family. And the circumstances were not ordinary either, and it was very obvious. Any reasonable FA would offer help seeing that something was not right with two kids. Professionalism aside, compassion would be a natural human response; at least trying not to aggravate the situation further! In this case, the lead FA showed no sympathy, was blatantly disregarding simple requests of two paying BE passengers, and was in general spiteful, for no apparent reason. There is no excuse for such behavior. I have taken hundreds of flights on Delta, and I have never experienced anything like that before, but I also have never been in a similar predicament. I guess, formally speaking, the purser acted by the book, but to what end? I often read here about Delta’s drive to protect their premium product, but it looks like the purser was protecting the two passengers in that cabin who were riding for free and harassing the two who were paying their way.
Was this an isolated incident or is it a reflection of the decline in the corporate culture at Delta? I always drew a line between corporate management and the front line employees, who have generally been very professional and kind. I may have been wrong, for it seems that the rotten attitude – from the changes in the SkyMiles program, the devaluation of the miles, the decline in the quality of the meals, all accompanied by the ever increasing prices – is trickling down “to the trenches.” We must be really nothing more than sheeple to be fleeced, as Delta’s $$ bottom line is doing well.
The most painful thing will be explaining to my daughter why she should remove the Diamond tag from her lovely suitcase.