Beyond what I paid for? I'm not a DL apologist (before someone says it). I pay for a service (transportation from point A to B) and Delta has provided that 100% of the time within reason. Beyond that and basic courtesy/professionalism of their employees (and this varies from person to person) I don't expect anything from DL or any other for-profit entity. Why do we need to be "wow'ed"? This is a common carrier in a relatively competitive industry. If I want to be wow'd I'd fly private, perhaps on my own jet and pay for things that would perhaps wow me. But then again, if you pay for something and you get it, would you be wow'd? Its the common courtesies and uncommon kindness that would (should?) wow us but then again, they are entirely person dependent. A large corporation cannot mandate or control those. So they do the next best thing, which is put in place standard operating procedures. And some corporations fail to ensure that their employees follow SOPs for various reasons. And I have not witnessed that on a noticeable scale at DL.
BTW, they do not depend on any one (or more) traveler's "repeat business" as the OP states. In a competitive market, the winner offers something of value to the maximum number of users/customers. If DL or any other corporation has figured that out, its because of their ability to compete in the market, not because of the largesse of customers. Would the OP continue flying DL if they sucked at providing a basic service that he/she paid for? Would she/he continue to give them "repeat business" if they weren't of value or even if they were at a hub that had reasonable alternatives?
Last edited by zeebanker; Oct 30, 2018 at 5:06 pm