mike101

They are a shining example of why we have all these laws that discourage monopoly... so that companies don't start jacking up prices and ripping off their customers like Delta has since the merger. I wonder what travel to Asia would be like once JAL and Delta control 56% of the US-Asia market.

gj83

Delta still gets me from point A to point B. As long as they keep doing that I'll keep flying them

pbarnette

Really? Show me a single, legit c-sat survey that says this. Even better, show me a 'lot' of them.

This has taken on a life of its own and, frankly, it needs to stop. It simply isn't supported by any evidence that I can find. I'm open to seeing it, but nobody has provided any such link on this board. Instead, we have a bunch of people that read someone say this and decided that they should just repeat it, even though they couldn't tell you if it is true or not.

mike101

Well clearly if your expectation is merely to get to point A to point B I can see many other competitive airlines out there... the question is, what makes Delta stand out?

DeltaFirst

OP, others have said the same thing. The airline is too big with many conflicting customer service issues that take too long to get resolved presumably because of the merger with NWA. For me, I've come to realize that taking advantage of my Delta FF benefits can become a weeklong ordeal. This could be anything from trying to nail down an int'l upgrade on Delta or a Skyteam upgrade or even just being able to claim credit for FF miles you should recv anyway. Maybe other airlines do this as well but Delta has a habit of putting their most inexperienced untrained people on the front lines with the customer be it a TA, GA or CSR on the phone. That's the face that Delta gives us. That said, IMHO I believe 99% of the flight crews are top notch. The hardest part is getting on the plane and after you get off the plane. If I'm connecting through ATL, I do my best to avoid checking in baggage because that's where it will get temporarily lost. You'd assume ATL service would be "best in class", not so in my experience.

I still occassionally fly Delta but not like I have the past two years. I don't know if they're really much better but this year I'm giving Continental and *A the first go when I'm planning trips. The benefits aren't as hard to take advantage of and the web site actually works. I can request an Int'l upgrade online without speaking to a human being that may or may not know what needs to happen.

motytrah

The scrip in question is the stock NW "we're sorry" certificate they usually use in J. For instance a malfunctioning J seat IFE would get the same certificate (I've cashed a lot of them over the years.) There's a smaller certificate they typically give to Y pax, but this is a pretty long delay. There's a chance that NW might do an automatic MX sweep in a couple days and post even more miles to the OP.

NW has a history of being quite generous with the miles when there are MX situations. I don't think DL is nearly as generous when it comes to making things right. On the other hand DL has far more promotions and opportunities to earn bonus miles. Bit of a head scratcher really.

mike101

Instead of asking for evidence, maybe you could provide counter evidence... proving how unpopular Delta is these days is cake, just look at this board alone and compare it to others. For those that refuse to acknowledge the obvious, well why even bother?

pbarnette

What are you talking about? Someone said that there were a lot of c-stat surveys showing DL near the bottom. If you are going to claim there is evidence to support your position, then you should show that evidence. If you can't show that evidence, then you shouldn't be using it to bolster your case.

I don't care if people say, "I think DL stinks". I have a problem with people saying that surveys show that other people think DL stinks if they can't actually back that up.

Moebius01

Well, going by memory and a few quick searches. Ranked 12 of 17 in 2008 on USA Today, Travel & Leisure put out their Top 10 in July of this year and Delta wasn't there for domestic or international, and according to Wall Street Journal, Delta dropped to DEAD LAST among the major airlines in customer complaints in 2009... shall I go on?

eponymous_coward

In my case, I "stick" with Delta as an alternate carrier to my preferred domestic carriers (AS, VX, WN) when the routing/timing/pricing works (it's pretty easy to avoid problematic hubs like ATL and use good hubs like SLC if you are West Coast-based like me), and because I haven't had the terrible experience the OP had (6 hour tarmac delay on international flight + bad customer service)- plus they're my preferred carrier for INTL due to my liking rows 10-28 of the A333 as being among the best Y seats for a North American longhaul carrier, their miles get full EQM credit on AS, AMS is a good European hub, and AS status is a small boost on DL.

All that being said, I've known friends who've had some pretty awful experiences with airlines similar to yours, OP, and they've "fired" or "banned" them as a result. I pretty much fired US and cleaned out my HP FF account with them once US merged with HP and went into a severe tailspin in quality- dirty planes, ripping out IFE, lots of mechanical issues. That probably is the way to go- if you don't feel the love from a carrier, take your business elsewhere.

mike101

good point. I would like to see these surveys as well. I do know for a fact that there have been links posted of Delta being #1 as far as complaints http://www.ajc.com/services/content/...xsvc=7&cxcat=6

mike101

Yeah the list gets longer, you can also add how Delta is now #1 when it comes to miscellaneous fees AKA 'hidden charges'/billing shenanigans http://industry.bnet.com/travel/1000...-stands-alone/

whit5721

I fly Delta a lot...both domestic and intl. I've had bad experiences with Delta, but I've had many more good. I've had as many bad experiences with Delta as I have with other US airlines. I really think that they are pretty much on par. Anyone who tells you that UA or AA is far superior is delusional. I only see noticeable improvement when flying on a few Asian and European carriers. Delta goes everywhere I need them to, so there is no reason for me to change. As to why people only complain about Delta on this page...good question. Its getting kinda annoying. And its ALWAYS the same people. I think its become a hobby for them.

Moebius01

So far, the closet to a "good" ranking I can find is the JD Power ratings which has NorthDelta at #5 and #6 out of 8 (they beat USAir and United).

eponymous_coward

JD Power puts DL third, behind AS and CO.

ACSI, on the other hand, is a lot less charitable.

Note that WN is MUCH more highly ranked in this survey than DL, and "all others" and CO are the only other two categories where customer satisfaction hasn't crashed pretty hard over the lifetime of the survey- although DL hasn't tanked as much as other airlines, you can hardly measure this as success in retaining customer satisfaction.