ewok22

Because of my work I fly mostly US Airways which always seems to be the butt of everyone's jokes, but I have adjusted to their level of service. I had the opportunity this week to fly YYC-MSP-DTW in Delta J and I have to say the experience was not what I expected. I was kind of excited to fly another airline in J for a change.

PROS
Sky Priority Line was great (Wake Up US Air this works great)
They use glass etc in J

CONS
Aircraft hard & soft product very dissapointing, poor J seats, and I did not know anyone was still flying DC9's
Did manage to get breakfast YYC - MSP and it was a 1/2 bowl of Wheaties and some fruit, bagel. That was the only meal served in 6 flights
Snack basket was pathetic
3 hour flights with 1 pass only of the pathetic snack basket???
The majority of Delta employees I encountered on the ground or in the air were dis-engaged and just going through the motions. Don't thikn anyone smiled ever.
Sky Club dragon gave me a hard time because I only had a 1st class ticket but when I told her the rules about International 1st class entry she let me in but what a dissapointment the lounge was so I left after 15 minutes.

All this happens at US Airways as well, but not consistantly (6 delta flight in a row) , I don't know I just came away from this weeks expereince as dissapointed.

US Airways is far from being great but they sure are looking mighty good to me right now

mbarreto

You flew standard domestic F, not International J. If you want to see the real DL J product you have to buy a ticket in one of the markets served by DL Business Elite.

Maybe DL isn't for you!

bubbashow

Oh....you were on the dc9. Dl saves the lounge massages, caviar, and tattinger for the widebody flights out of yyc. Lol. Its called managing expectations

flargley

You were just flying domestic F, but I still do agree with most of your gripes.

I always dread the flights to/from my home (MSP), as more often than not I get absolutely atrocious FAs (PMNW), and fly in those crap NW planes with the seatback traytable.

And the one-pass thing absolutely kills me, and is the norm rather than the exception.

Also, I can't count the number of times I've filled in that survey DL always sends you to ask about the ground staff, and I don't think I've ever had a smile.

ewok22

Actually I was not so much trashing Delta as I was saying their all the same and for some reason I thought Delta might have beem better.

The DC9 was actually from MSP - DTW not YYC and I was only expecting a nice seat.

I apologize not sure why I was saying J when it was clearly only a Canada / USA flight is First.

If I fly International I generally fly SQ but if Delta has a great J seat/pod and service sounds like I should give them a try.

Before I get totally flamed by the Delta Sky Priority members this was just an outsiders view after 6 flights. Remember I paid $3k for the service this was no upgrade

HongKonger

If you are used to flying SQ in J, you definitely should NOT give DL a try.

Actually, please do, I eagerly await your report, I'm setting the early line on the over/under at 6 comparisons with DL on the negative end of all of them.

DL2SXM

Then hopefully you will no longer fly Delta and you will go back to the ugly sister airline.

Madefornow

**Deltalina finger wag** WE ARE FAMILY with the sister airline

ewok22

Wow.. somebody can't read...I never said US Airways was good, I said I adjusted to there service....

Chill nypLieu it's ok Delta can't be evrything to everyone

Josephmay

Ewok22,

Welcome to the Delta board.
I really don't think your flight choice was a good representative selection on which to judge the whole Delta airline experience. As you are well aware, plane, flight duration and destination selection are critical in determining the inflight experience. The 27 DC-9s (of a fleet of 790 aircraft) are the oldest aircraft in the fleet with an average age of 33+ years.
http://www.delta.com/about_delta/cor...ircraft_fleet/

I generally find the seats comfortable, alcohol decent, food ok and the FAs very nice to terrific when I fly Delta. It is usually a good overall experience though rarely a great one. Also as the top cabin on Delta is Business and not First, I don't think DELTA can compare to those airlines flying TATL or TAPC with a true J product.

For me, I'd rate Delta as having a decent to good hard product and the best (of the legacies) soft product.

avidflyer

I think the OP had 6 flights and only one was on the 9. It is interesting how many people assume the DL hard and soft product is the best. Believe it or not I flew US for the first time in many years last month and they were actually quite good. Probably a fluke but unless you are flying all of the US carriers all of the time you never know what is out there. For a short time the DL 777 was the best ride in the sky and that is no longer the case in just a couple of years. In fact I think some of the 777's are starting to look pretty beat up.

sbjnyc

That seems odd. I've never had a problem getting into a SC just showing a domestic F BP.

jlemon

Plus the Porsche for the front cabin pax was probably in the shop that day which is why he had to board the old fashioned way........oops, I was thinking about LH.

N808DE

I find ewok22's experience to not be all that different than my experience (ORD-MSP-LAS and back) in F over New Years. DL has drifted a long way away from the service it used to provide.

I avoid the DC9s whenever I can, but I was totally unimpressed with service levels on all 4 of my flights, regardless of a/c type.

Between 2008-2011 I flew regular Int'l J and it was better (thank God) than domestic F, but still not where it could be. I hope things will improve some day.

T.J. Bender

I'm not going to go so far as to say this was 100% of the cause for your hard product concerns, but it doesn't help. Most of those D95's are in pretty good shape considering, and DL keeps them clean, but the hard product is inferior to much of the fleet. Some of the older PMNW and PMDL 752's have what I would consider to be worse F product, but almost any other aircraft in the fleet offers what I would consider to be a more comfortable seat up front. That said, there's no other aircraft in the fleet that rides like a DC-9, and for that reason alone, I'll be a little bit sad when they're gone.