pbarnette

Travel and Leisure isn't a scientific survey by any stretch, so we can toss that out. And the customer complaint numbers is not a survey, as you claimed, and represents a tiny, tiny number of complaints and does not purport to (and does not in practice) rate customer satisfaction.

Every legit survey, that adheres to even the most basic rules of survey design shows DL as middle of the pack of their cohort (legacy network airlines). You can see that here:

http://www.jdpower.com/travel/rating...tional-network

and here:

http://theacsi.org/index.php?option=...155&i=Airlines

pbarnette

The ACSI is pretty unforgiving to all of the airlines, not named Southwest. The CO score is still incredibly low and puts them behind the post office, for example. I don't dispute that DL engenders low levels of customer satisfaction, but the reality is that the other legacy airlines do not do any better - when it comes to deciding to switch, it is important to bear that in mind.

mike101

IMO, Delta is awesome when it comes to operating their flights... and if you are a hub captive, Delta is the clear choice. When it comes to the SkyMiles program, that's another story.

So to answer the original question of the OP, if you are looking for a FF program that is honest and best in class, that is anything but Delta. But if you are looking for a good airline that can get you from point A to point B, Delta is competitive.

Moebius01

You're right on the JDPower as I read the list wrong, middle of the pack.

Now, discounting T&L because you don't consider them "scientific" enough is a rather silly, and in my opinion slightly rose shaded glasses response. First off, I said c-sat survey, not overall rankings based on all the critera JDPower uses. Just customer satisfaction. In that regard, the T&L survey is every bit as valid as any other out there. I've read similar surveys in BusinessWeek, WSJ, and others, and most times Delta has been at or near the bottom for 2009.

And in an attempt to get back to the topic at hand. I pointed out that I'm sticking/stuck with Delta as I rate convenience over service. So far, and I'd say that flying weekly gives me a decent sample rate to go from, Delta has been at best average. I've had decent (meaning acceptable) crews, an exceptional crew, a handful of rather bad crews, and one completely unacceptable crew. If I was asked to rate my satisfaction on a 1-5 scale with 5 being best, Delta would get a 2, maybe 2.5. That's based on customer service (crew, GA, and callcenter), ability to deal with IRROPS and general delays, and base value.

iuchris

I have asked myself that question a lot in the past month. I was/am considering a move to SW but, for now, I am sticking with Delta. The reasons I am staying:

1. Status --> Upgrades
2. Miles. I can use the miles for gift cards. I am taking a one-year moratium on personal travel so I can obtain tools for my workshop (in a new house), furniture and other household items, and lenses for my camera.
3. Destinations. Hawaii and Int'l.
4. Familiarity.
5. For SW, I could not get a direct flight from Indianapolis to Milwaukee to fully leverage the benefits of their Milwaukee promotion. If I was going to move to SW I wanted to get "status" with them as soon as possible.

There may a few other reason but these are the ones I think are most significant.

iuchris

Almost forgot, the most significant reason I would be leaving would be the inability to get a low-cost (in miles) reward fare. Delta continues to raise the cost for redemption. When I leave, this will be the reason.

MJLogan

I don't fly a lot domestically, but I do 3-4 TATL trips a year, usually flying into CDG. With DL I can earn full miles on AF non-stops LAX-CDG, even in the lowest fare classes (as long as I book the DL codeshare). That's a big benefit for me.

tvnwz

I guess I am just lucky. Last year I flew only 165,000 BIS miles. Grounded in December with a DVT. All of last year, I had only one mechanical that would have delayed me enough to miss my connection in MEM. A quick call to the Plat-Line quickly got me on a flight through ATL that got me in BEFORE my original arrival time.

In my years and years of flying with NW and DL, I have never been seriously inconvienced. I can not say the same thing about FL, TW, US, HP, YX and CO. Those airlines have thrown me at least one delay that caused me to leave the next day.

That's a great record for NW and DL and I salute them!

pbarnette

The T&L survey fails to meet even the minimum requirements for sampling techniques. What it measures is the relative scores assigned by those that a) read T&L and b) bothered to respond to the survey. Nothing else. You can't extrapolate from it, except possibly to the population of T&L readers as a whole (even then, you shouldn't swear on a bible). You also don't know what the experiences are of the people responding (i.e. they may have never flown DL), as the T&L survey doesn't gather that data. Heck, you don't even know if DL scored lower or was excluded for some other reason. It is pretty much worthless, especially as it differs so dramatically from the much more scientific JD Power and ACSI surveys.

I highly doubt that you have read any such survey in BusinessWeek. As far as I know, the only customer service survey BusinessWeek publishes is their customer service champs article every year. This isn't an attempt to rank airlines, it is an attempt to highlight high levels of customer service across industries. JetBlue is the only airline that made the most recent list, so there is pretty much no way to tell where DL ranked. Again, correct me if I'm wrong.

longing4piedmont

What your are missing is that you flew with a NWA crew, on a NWA plane, and they are as miserable in their life as most of the posters here who are were happy NWA customers, but never miss a chance to bash Delta. (NWA is gone folks, get over it.)

I've been PLT on Delta for the past 6 or 7 years. They seldom disappointment me. I fly them between 4 and six segments a week. I judge an airline by whether they get me where I need to go and on time. Any one can do that when the skies are blue, but the real measure of an airline is how they treat me when things go wrong. In this they excel every time.

Don't judge Delta on the disgruntled folks at/from NWA......

secretsea18

Now who is bashing whom?

longing4piedmont

If the shoe fits.....

Moebius01

Unfortunately, I don't commit every article from every publication I read to memory, so you may be right that it wasn't BizWeek (though that's sticking in my head).

I must admit though. If Delta put as much effort into improving their product offering as you do into trying to convince people that they're actually really happy with Delta, they'd be leading the pack by now. You can try to discount various surveys and rankings because they're not scientific enough, or some publication doesn't like Delta, or whatever else you decide to toss out there, but the fact remains. They are surveys, they show people are dissatisfied with Delta, and in many cases, show that people are more dissatisfied with Delta than other airlines. C-sat is c-sat no matter how many ways somebody tries to spin it. In that regard, Delta is suffering.

But, since you want scientific, how's this? According to the Department of Transportation, based on January to October 2009, Delta had the highest number of complaints among major US carriers at 1.67 per 100,000 fliers. Second to worst on baggage incident reports per 1000.

whit5721

I came to DL from NW, and I think longing4piedmont is right. Time to move on or move out.

Moebius01

Ummm. yeah.... Pot. Meet kettle.