hughw

That's the headline from Delta's full page ad in today's New York Times which is obviously taking on CO, although not by name. The rest of the copy says:

"We love 757's. So much so, that we fly them just about anywhere across the country. But when it comes toflying across the Atlantic, we know you want more cabin space. And we can promise that when you fly Delta to Europe, you'll experience a roomier, smoother ride in one of our 767 or 77 widebody planes. Don't cramp your style. Book your next trip to Europe today at delta.com."

It sounds like all of CO's flights and ads for them are starting to hurt Delta.

Xyzzy

Most people don't care about anything but price.

climbermom

In addition to price, some of us care about not flying through Atlanta.

MBM3

Good point XYZZY. Given that enthusiasts such as ourselves are, in reality, a tiny segment of the travelling population, one really does need to remember that the majority of leisure and business travellers are concerned with many others things beyond the model number or manufacturer of the plan. I would say the following primary concerns rings true for most non-enthusiasts:

1) Price
2) Convenient times
3) Direct flights

People may grumble about other things such as meals, movies and the like, but I have to believe that the above noted items play the biggest role when purchasing tickets.

J.Edward

Should CO choose to respond they can go the route of

• Higher Server/Passenger Ratio In J
• Wider J Seats
• New AVOD System
• More Flight Choices (due to increased frequencies)

That being said, for personal reasons I would prefer a widebody for the TATL flights but would certainly tolerate a 757 if I realized a time savings.

Also, I wonder why DL did not target fuel stops of the 757 due to range issues. I'd of thought that would certainly bolster any marketing campaign they're currently waging in the NYC area.

BenjaminNYC

What a dumb advertisement.

hughw

By and large, except for a few flights like a second daily flight to Paris from New York, it seems to me that most of the destinations served by 757s are destinations that Delta doesn't even have non-stops to, except maybe CO codeshares. Does the average person want to make a connection in Atlanta or London or wherever just to fly on a larger plane? I don't think so.

Anglo Large Clawed Otter

I'll take a CO 752 any day over one of DL's ratty 763's. Reupholstering some of those DL birds with roadkill skins would be an improvement.

sxf24

DL is adding AVOD to B/E and has a passenger:crew ratio up front roughly equal to CO.

Fuel stops have not been mentioned in advertising since they happen fairly infrequently. It's hard to sell a benefit that, well, might not be a benefit. Besides, consumers have always viewed larger planes as more comfortable and safe (even if it is not the case).

sxf24

BCN, DUB, MAN, SNN and TXL are both served exclusively with CO 752s and DL 763s from NYC. There are also several destinations from ATL, but that eliminates the benefit for the targeted NYC audience (larger plane + connection ≠ small plane non-stop).

TVCMH

Yup. We've all heard pax remark about how small the plane is when they board ERJ's - meaning that they've paid no attention to the A/C type nor the seat map before arriving at the gate. Given the opportunity to fly TA on a CO 757 for $350 or a DL widebody for $375 I can assure you that 90%+ of the flying public is headed to CO.

ijgordon

I don't think so, from a marketing perspective, they're touting a perceived benefit of their product. That's the point of marketing.
To some people, even many here, the benefit of a larger cabin / widebody is certainly important. How much more important vis-a-vis price? Well, that depends on the person.
For me, I am flying NYC-BCN this summer. I probably would have taken DL on the widebody, but they haven't matched CO's summer BF sale, and so want $3700 for BE vs. $1900 on CO. Nobrainer - stick with CO. DL does have a cheaper fare for $2200, but it has a 7-day stay requirement, which doesn't work for me anyway, but if it did, I'd still probably pick CO. For $100 or less, I very well may have chosen DL for the widebody and a few extra inches of pitch (yes, tradeoff on width).

HeathrowGuy

That ad is highly misleading - widebodies do NOT guarantee more personal space than narrowbodies - it all boils down to the configurations used by a particular airline.

the-ca-goat

I agree. The current ad campaign is

My current favorites are (they may not be verbatim, but close):

Brazil, it's different down there. New nonstop service to...

Fly to where men proudly wear skirts. New nonstop service to Edinburgh...

Huh? Who comes up with this stuff, really?

kersie

Regardless of the merits of the truth of the statement, I think that in the NY area, these ads could be helpful to DL. DL has added a lot of direct flights to JFK from Europe ... and especially because a lot of them are cheaper and/or the same price as CO's flights to the same destinations, many people may prefer to fly on the bigger planes.

Now, the far more important thing I think is not the size of the plane but the entertainment system. I've been in the true coach section of a wide-body BA flight and let me tell you, it is *not* pretty, but IFE helped make it somewhat better. From what I can tell, neither DL nor CO really seems to have their stuff together on this point.

As for ERJs, I know a surprising number of people who book away from them, including my parents (but they also know to use SeatGuru without me telling them to, so maybe they are more on the range of frequent fliers) and a lot of my friends who think I'm crazy for posting to this board