Originally Posted by PowerFlyer

The Shuttle is, in theory, a brand. But its a dying brand and the Seattle routes defiantly are diluting it. I was on the SEA-LAX flight this past week and found it to be odd. The food was good but I doubt anyone on the plane understood why this was different than any other DL (or AS) flight from SEA to LAX.

I guess "Shuttle" now means frequent service with stepped up inflight catering all aimed at business travelers.


Back in the Day Eastern's "Air-Shuttle" was modeled on the 42nd street shuttle or other frequent quick-turn train services along the Penna railroad. It wasn't fancy (and nothing on Eastern was fancy to be honest) but it ran really frequently and you didn't need a reservation...heck until the 90s you didn't even need a ticket. You showed up, you got on the next flight. I guess it was NY Air (which is the current DL Shuttle by way of Pan Am) that introduced the bagels that only disappeared last year and started to make it a more upscale experience. Slowly, everything that made the shuttle the shuttle has gone away:

1. Security ended the buying tickets on the plane
2. Yield management programs end the no-advance reservations, switch to any flight (there was a Peak/off peak only designation, just like the train)
3. The value of the LGA/DCA slots for other routes ended the standby flights
4. Operational efficiency ended the dedicated fleet (and introduced the BS First Class) and
5. Amtrak ended mainline.

I get that the Shuttle of yesterday is gone and doesn't make a lot of sense anymore...but it should at least have a very standard schedule. Flights should run at regular top/bottom of the hour times (even if that's really just a marketing thing and they pad an extra 5-6 minutes) so that the service is known and predictable: if its hourly it should run at 7a, 8a, 9a, etc. If its 8 times, it should be every other hour at 7a, 9a, 11a, 1p, etc. It should have dedicated gates, special check-in and security lines, and probably should have its own branding signage in the terminal. Otherwise the marketing will mean nothing. This is particularly true in SeaTac where "Delta Shuttle" means very little to anyone who isn't from the Northeast corridor. At least in LA and SF, there are a lot of transplants.