BearX220

Well, this story has punched through the clutter, and I guarantee you management is paying attention to this one.

The story has legs for two reasons:

1. It's a man-bites-dog tale: everyone is used to being victimized / ignored / abandoned by the airlines; that's the meta-narrative in today's consumer culture. So when the reverse happens, it's news.
2. DL provided more than an airplane. It provided creative, out-of-the-box problem solving, initiated at ground level by on-the-ball employees with a smidgen of audacity and compassion. Of course it's close to impossible to come up with 41 spare seats out of OKC on irrops, but AA just shrugged and said: it is what it is. Go home. That is precisely what customers expect from AA, e.g. as little as humanly possible, which may be nothing. (Even if it crossed some AAgent's mind to pick up the phone and ring Dallas to explore options, the next-nanosecond thought was probably: "They don't care, they treat everyone badly. Why bother? Come to think of it, I don't care either; I hate management.")

DL employees may not have set out to provide a super-resonant brand differentiator, but that's what they came up with.

enviroian

Optics are what count. To the viewing public this reads one way and one way only: AA stiffed a group of kids trying to get to a class trip and did nothing to help. Delta came in, charted a plane to take them non stop and no charge and save the day. Done deal.

pinniped

Someone with no knowledge of airline operations will say "AA and DL are both huge airlines. DL found them an airplane. AA could have done the same thing, but refused to do so."

Someone *with* a little bit of knowledge of airline operations might say "AA and DL are both huge airlines. DL found a plane in Atlanta. AA has a hub in Dallas and they maintain airplanes in Tulsa, both of which are closer than Atlanta. Yet still DL found them an airplane, while AA refused to do so."

Someone with intimate knowledge of AA operations could probably speak off the record about how hard AA *tried* to find them an airplane and whether every operational consideration and every internal phone call was made to try. It's quite possible that great efforts were made, meetings were held, scenarios assessed, and there simply wasn't an airworthy spare anywhere within 2,000 miles. But no one is ever going to hear from that guy or listen to him, because to the public it simply appears that AA didn't give a **** whereas DL did.

wrp96

Yes, because it's cheaper than the other guys.

s0ssos

Cause at the end of the day it is about results. Not effort.
And AA simply didn't come through.

When I fly, if I had to get somewhere I would choose Delta. Because I think they can get me there with a higher probability than AA. I don't really care how "hard" AA tries. It is irrelevant.
When you hire someone to do a job you don't really want to hear how hard they failed. If they didn't do the job, they just simply didn't do the job.

SOBE ER DOC

Woulda, coulda shoulda.

This story has traction because DL employees went out of their way to assist passengers on a competitor's airline. They went above and beyond. Why? Because DL has empowered their employees to do so. AA's relationship with their employees has deteriorated and their employees are, in turn, taking it out on the customers. That little fact aside, AA has become ridiculous with respect to the cancellation rate on their regional carriers during IRROPS. DL is far less likely to cancel flight. Are they delayed hours at times? Yes, but that's better than being cancelled and scrambling to find a solution.

In this instance, regardless of why the cancellation happened, DL came out smelling like a rose and AA like the fertilizer that rose is planted in. Sad think is, I beg Dougie doesn't even care.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

No I don't think AA will give this much attention. Parker is a numbers guy and for him it's all about a ROI. There's no ROI on this act by DL but of course there's lots of positive brand image. Parker is of the LCC mode. You want cheap, we give you cheap and don't expect much more than cheap.

COSPILOT

Years ago my company had a major breakdown, and for 3 months I didn't turn away clients, I simply handled the transfer to my main competitor. I was the hero in doing so, and once we had our act together the clients stayed with me. That is how you handle things. AA could have still been the hero in this case, as in AA doesn't have the airplane, but we worked with DL and resolved it. Nobody loses, everyone wins.

Edit: I have an award laying around somewhere from that competitor, as I was number 1 in sales for that 3 month period for them.

SJOGuy

Of course. For most of the flying public, "Airline X is cheaper" blots out all memories of "I will never fly Airline X again."

cmtlatitudes

Story was on ABC evening news tonight. Interviewed the teacher and some students, candid shot of the Delta agent contacting someone remit the plane from one of the student's phone, snaps of the students on the plane and touring Virginia and DC in the past couple days, a bright and cheery statement by Delta agent modest and so happy they could help, and the crowning touch -- all of the students lined up in a group shouting "THANK YOU DELTA!" and waving into the camera with giant smiles on their faces. The ABC news-person included a brief mention that American had issued a statement apologizing for the cancellation, saying that it was weather related and out of their control. Lots of commentary by the broadcasters as to how heartwarming the story was and thanks to Delta.

Would be nice for American to sit up and take notice.

enviroian

LOL what a joke this airline is. Kudos to Delta for stepping up to the plate to make things right.

FlyerWx

As a meteorologist, I get that weather has impacts on aviation, but AA needs to work on their adverse weather mitigation plan. Oh wait, they outsourced their Met. Team... I'm assuming they were schedule to fly on AA 1566 on June 2nd, as it was the only (reasonable) flight out of KOKC that got cancelled.

Can someone check EF for AA 1566 on June 2 and see what the listed reason for the cancellation was?

snorkmaster

This is just another example of an airline that's losing hearts, dollars, and social media fanboys/girls again and again. I've thrown in the towel for way more coach flights on Delta to be treated well and flown on time. I've sent my spend on Delta tto American along with my frustrations in a constructive manner. Why the hell should a lifetime platinum spend elsewhere? They've lost they're way' aside from a little love for old school loyalty, they can't even be bothered to care about a garden variety $9,000 spend customer.

richarddd

I often hear that airlines need premium pax and frequent fliers to make money. These groups often pay attention to more than cost and this incident just reinforces conventional wisdom that DL has better operations than AA.

A week from now most of the flying public likely won't remember which airline was which.

Viewers might wonder why the weather affected AA but not DL.

madrooster

More recently a few days ago (10 Jun), Delta had to cancel DL40 SYD-LAX due to landing gear issues. When they cancelled the flight in the end, they booked everyone into hotels etc. as per standard procedure, but also managed to rustle up a charter boat to take all disrupted pax on a Sydney harbour cruise to see Vivid Sydney.