Originally Posted by
BearX220
I was a NW lifer too, mainly because of WorldPerks and generous upgrades for Platinums, and I was also unhappy at NW's quick erasure along with the virtual destruction of the FF program, cancellation of affinity Visa cards in favor of Amex, etc.
But at the end of the day I have to agree the DL approach was superior to the UA hybrid one. By ripping the band-aid off all at once RA got the merged airline thinking and acting as a single business unit. Look at the business results. I'm no longer a DL SkyMiles member but fly DL often (I credit my DL segments to AS MP) and it always makes UA look crippled and dysfunctional. You sure don't hear announcements from "your proud Northwest crew" over the PA. Some of these United employees sound like they're still fighting the Civil War. Which is to say, deranged.
I just want to point out a few things (from having flown both DAL and NW in this time frame when I was still with none-pass) first, NW's service quality was not so hot. The seats were awful (don't get me started on the NW 757 seats) and the food/drink was a bad joke. While the new Airbus 330s were nice, the rest of the fleet was dark, dark, dark. DAL made some immediate soft product upgrades, and has been working on hard product. Yes, the more generous NW mileage program got axed, but there were some counter vailing service improvements.
But more important, the NW/DL merger took place in a time of extreme economic pain, and with both airlines financially on a short leach. Everyone was cutting in this time frame.
The situation Jeff faced (raising yields, less competition) did not necessarily call for the product quality cuts and MP cuts he imposed. It was very different than the hand that Anderson had in 2008-10.
Put another way, Jeff's plan was driven not by need, but by a belief it would up yields so that UAL was out-performing, which it has not.