The winds of change are beginning to blow at DL?
 

There's a sign of a change here.

We see DL representatives proactively addressing issues in, sometimes, a non-propaganda way. At least, non-SM issues.

It's evident that people behind the scenes are clearly on their toes regarding the notorious "NRSA" issue. Must be behind the scenes action on this, fierce memos and other things are circulating. Good for the SMM on revenue tickets.

SMI unfortunately is hamstrung by the power of [email protected].

It's going to be too late to prevent defections.

Note to SMI and others reading this: people like me are receiving PMs from your PMs, asking us how the water is over at CO, or UA. These are serious customers and are preparing to defect - they've already made the decision and are evaluating which way to jump based on opinions of other FF who've done the same recently.

Funny that nobody ever asked me or anyone I knew that same thing over at NW.

You can see that the SM market research department is so far out of touch with what's going on, it';s not even amusing. Everyone else, except your own management team, seems to know what's going on, and why.

You guys shouldn't be the last to know a. of the customers' feelings, b. of the strength of their feelings and c. the issues about which they hold those feelings. If research worked, you'd be the first, sensing the undercurrents and nipping them before there was widespread rebellion. It would enhance the damaged credibility of the SM management to do so.

And wake up! DL hard product isn't all. In the long run, to be competitive, you guys need to address some serious issues:

Fix the SM problems. All of them. The SM program is worst in class and is widely recognized as such. Just wait for the IF interpretation of that poll up top to be published! It won't look at all good for you guys.

The fact that only one person out of 240, so far, has voted an A in a SkyMiles poll here on the Delta board itself - which would most likely be the most skewed demographic possible for such a poll - is incontestibly worst in class.

But you did it to yourselves with your awful handling of the SM program for Medallions recently and your awful Orwellian nonresponse to the issues being raised. If SM were even in the ballpark with every other program, FF wouldn't be disaffected by DL.

Strengthen your relationship with AF/KL to the degree that NW flyers enjoyed on KL - full Elite reciprocity.

Management, you'd do much better to listen to SMI and colleagues - and give them some room to propose and implement program corrections and improvements. You'd be amazed what might happen.

Very well said. And echoes my feelings as well.

Having gotten that out of the way, let me be the first to welcome the flood of DL shills and apologists who will post here telling you that you are insane, and that your post is ridiculous and that you are making it all up and still in love with your "dirty little airline."

Somehow they show up on every thread where an NWA flyer comments on Delta.....

And vice/versa...

However, I would tend to agree with large portions of RTS's post. I've considered the jump to AA but it just doesn't work for me. Many other high revenue FFers have done the same. I have an NYC based friend who is a CO plat who's jumping over to DL because the grass is NOT greener there (in his opinion).

If you love your 752 on TATL routes ex-EWR it is. Look: the program is transitioning so it's bound to make some poeple unhappy. Likewise CO is transitioning to *, which is totally awful, complicated and confusing when it comes to earning miles on partner airlines.

However, it is undeniable that DL needs to change the perceived attitude that it's big enough to bully pax into flying with them, that the world turns around ATL and that small markets don't matter.

I was going through my bag and found my old "Keep Delta My Delta" button from the days when US was pursuing a merger with DL. That got me thinking, was there any similar effort on the NW side when DL was seeking a merger?

Can't say I disagree with RTS.

CO is not for everyone. WBurcham points this out - if you're NYC-based, doing a lot of transcons and not on full fares, then you're insane for flying CO, where Plats on M fares are often sitting in coach.

That being said, I've been pleased with my CO miles and my UA flights (I've been taking about 10 flights a month on United for the past 3-4 months...). I'll keep DL Plat due to living in MSP, but first priority is keeping CO Plat.

My view is the grass just looks greener... it's basically the same "manure" at all the airlines. I have been "elite" on several just due to several differnet "home" locations...

Delta overall treats me fine. I don't think "perfection" exists in the domestic airlines and I also don't get too upset when I don't get the upgrade or things don't go perfectly. And I live in Atlanta know.. I am not spending twice as long to get to someplace because the "grass looks greener"

Count me as a defector. There are just SO MANY better loyalty programs out there, I cannot continue to give DL my money. It is very sad, because I really do like FLYING on Delta, but I'm tired of all the spin on how great the truly pathetic SkyMiles program is. You cannot devalue everyone's miles by 50% and expect people to trust you with their miles going forward.

Just made my first CO purchase for the year, despite similar prices from Delta. Unless DL doesn't finally discuss and address the award calendar and overall lack of award availability (yes yes I know there are plenty of you that do find BE tix), I'm shooting for FO this year.

Hey RTS,

Your posts are always enjoyable and poignant. But I must disagree with the negativity of your thread. I agree with the portions that are quoted above. The AF/KL "arms length" relationship is a joke (as an analogy UA/LH is *MUCH* better and even that leaves much on the table). DL/AF/KL need to work hard to make us want to fly them. Until then, we will do what we all do, which is fly *just enough* to maintain status (which is *SO* easy).

I also 100% agree on your SMI comments above! Nice post.

TFD

One thing I always wondered, are the people in charge of FF programs, have they ever been a FFer?

It seems logical to me that they would hire someone with 10+ years of FFing experience to lead the program, but in reality if it's a bean counter who has flown a few times before being hired, there is no direction.

Just curious anyways.

Why would there be? Anderson was the former NW CEO, they were going to use the NW IT platforms, and take the "best parts of each" loyalty program. As a customer going into this the worst case was DL was a bit bloated in the Elite ranks because of all the DQM promos that NW never had. On paper the NW Elites should have been the least affected customer base in the history of modern airline mergers.

People really didn't get an idea of what was really going to happen until well after the merger closed.

Leaving for UA

Two more DL trips, then it's UA for me.

Requested status match on Friday, received an email telling me they will be open for such requests after 2/2. My first UA trip is 2/12.

I agree with others that it is unfortunate to have to leave. DL has a good inflight product, great line employees, and for me a good network.

Or they've always worked for an airline and have flown free and so have never had to deal with, for example, an award redemption.

Maybe instead free travel, execs should be give so many thousands of SM per year and any personal travel must be booked thru the website as a standard redemption. Bet the award calendar would be fixed ASAP.

I fly on my own dime, 4-6 TATL per year (from LAX) plus a couple/three flights to the midwest/east coast. What makes me fat, dumb and happy is a chance to fly BE on one of the TATL trips. In the past, that meant buying a NW B-fare once in awhile ($1200-1600 -- usually about $600 over a cheap fare) and upgrading with miles, or in a busy year, using miles for the last trip of the year once I re-qualified as Plat. And there was the occasional (for me, one out four tries) Phantom Upgrade.

Delta has priced the former out of my market and the problems with award redemptions has seriously challenged the latter. If I was sure I could do 100K BIS I would be gone. But my business is down, too, so I am staying -- still fat, still dumb but unhappy.

So what else could there be.... I guess it's different strokes for different folks. With my vacation time limitations, I find myself with mostly domestic or short intl trips. I would prefer DL domestic F over any of the competitors domestic F almost exclusively because of the IFE system & WiFi. A better meal (CO) doesn't matter much to me as I enjoy chicken and/or pasta.