Originally Posted by
BearX220
Cynics saying Delta is foolish for giving the Y trade anything but a grim experience at a low price sound like the Big Three US automakers in the '70s when Toyota, Datsun, and the OPEC crisis all came to town. The idea of competing on quality at the low end of the market was seen as ridiculous. You know the rest.
Honda sold a lot of first-gen Accords because of an ingenious little coin holder on the dash. Standard equipment, less than a dollar to install, stole customers from GM for life.
In the airline business, once choice and quality have hit rock bottom, you can place Kirby's bet -- that there is no material amenity or experience design tweak customers will respond to -- or Delta's bet, e.g. that a few small differentiators can move loyalty, demand, and repeat business.
A Delta coach passenger may deplane remembering only that the crew produced hot towels, which probably cost < 3 cents per seat. Better than getting off a United flight remembering only that it took three hours for the first and only drink service and no crew member spoke a word beyond "Drink?"
It will be interesting to see.. because while DL's long-haul Y experience is on its way to being substantially better than US competition (let's not forget that their 777s are 9-across and they don't fly the 787), the ULCCs in continent after continent have proven that people will throw that all out the window to save fifty cents.