MikeMpls

That certainly was the attitude during the sLUT fare debacle. In the end it was Leo & Robby who packed their bags.

DP-340

1) FT appears prominently on search engines. If one performs a typical keyword search in Google or Bing with words such as "Delta medallion upgrades" FT is there on page 1. At minimum it is an undesirable publicity that you wished went away.

2) It provides arguments to conversations among elites. If your friends and/or colleagues are heavy fliers, it is hard to not to find at least one 1k, ExP or PM/DM that hasn't heard/read FT.

3) It makes it clear to the DL insiders that the malaise on PMUs, skyrocketing M-fare, etc. is not going away.

DP-340

Exactly! Talk to us and give us a chance to love DL back.

buckeyefanflyer

How many airlines are now consolidated into Delta from previous mergers.

Northeast Airlines
PA AM (partial)
Northwest

Any others

Crazyhotelguy

So much of what is being said here is true.

1. Negativity is at an all time high.

2. DL is listening.

3. I believe that DL is much more focused on operational efficiency and improving the bottom line (especially during current economic times) to really care about what customers think.

4. Do not expect positive changes without expecting some.negative consequences.

5. This will backfire and bite them in the end. It may take a few years.

6. If you really and truly feel that you cannot handle DL's policies and lack of customer response, I suggest you speak with the loudest voice that you have that WILL get their attention. YOUR WALLET. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the ride. It is obvious now that DL has taken a stance. Some may not like it, but the line is drawn in the sand... It is almost like a bad rellationship where one thinks the other will change, but in the back of their mind, they know the truth. Denial.....

I am not a DL loyalist, But I have lived through and survived the demise over at US. Things here are not nearly as bad...... As long as I am being upgraded, i will stick with DL. I have come to the realization that my miles are worthless.... So also goes my US Miles and Hilton Points. This is a growing trend...

DLdweeb

Western.

kuwakku

I think Delta knows about the problems but not sure if the people here can have enough effect. The best way is for the customers to vote with their dollars. For me, I have not spent much with Delta this year. I was able to book almost all of my travel (all awards tickets) this year before the merger. So, I will wait until next January to make a decision of what to do. I think it will be clearer then the voices here are really being heard and addressed.

raehl311

Now, I don't like the new DL at all, but...

Why would they want to maximize travel instead of revenue per flight?

"WIN" for the airline isn't most PAX, it's most profit. Flying the most people doesn't do you any good if you don't make money doing so.

StayingHomeIsBetter

By and large the folks at DL are great... an occasional surly GA... sometimes a phone agent that needs more training, but that is a management issue.

And, as others have pointed out, the hard product is pretty good.

Overall, my belief is that the problems at DL are management problems.

My issues are not with the airline and its good people, but with the management that makes things miserable for all.

That is why I have begun using "DL management" rather than "DL" in my posts.

DL could return to being a truly great airline... under new management.

Moebius01

I'd say they're hearing, but not listening (or vice versa depending on which version of the expression you prefer). I don't think any DL execs are blind enough to think they're doing a great job as a company right now.

The problem as mentioned a ton of times in this thread is that they're more concerned with the pretty numbers on the bottom line. So if a change has a negative impact on the FF base (namely us), but a positive impact on the bottom line, they'll take it.

Then at some point, that will backfire, too many people will get fed up and leave, and the bottom line will suffer. A few heads will roll, some "fresh blood" will come in to try fixing some things even at the cost of bottom line, life will be good for a few, then the cycle will repeat itself. What you hope for is that during one of the cycles, you get the right combination of people in that realize there's a balance to be had.

doglover

Quite simply because we hold tremendous influence. Not with DL management obviously, but with everyone we communicate with.

Whether it's with a peer at work. When we're raving about how we're treated by DL... we steer business. Then they rave about DL and they steer business.

Whether it's here on the board. When others can search or read our displeasure our messages are amplified many times. Or on other forums, blogs and twitter. Our voices are amplified many times over.

How are you voicing your displeasure?

• I am lobbying my travel department to switch to Star Alliance
• I am no longer a 'fan'. I have stopped steering new customers to DL.
• I've tried communicating directly with R. Anderson.
• I add to the volume of unhappy voices on Flyertalk.

redtailshark

I know what you're saying. But I think you'd believe differently if you had seen the 07 OnePass event and the dialog that CO's chief executives performed in front of over 400 CO OPE.

Larry and Jeff performed a skit, using a series of observations about OnePass that had been harvested almost verbatim from FT over the previous year. I'm sure Scott had prepared these for the presentation. "Jeff, I want to know why we, the Elite customers, can't u/g to BF using within 24 hours of departure if inventory control believes that BF seats will remain unsold?" "Larry, hmmm, well, you're right. We've changed our policy regarding day of departure u/g protocols..." etc.

The effect was amazing.

Yes, we're listening. Seriously. No, we can't grant all requests, but we've given them all serious consideration. And in the cases we can't grant the rq, we'll explain why not without patronizing the elite customer base.

I know from talking with many other OPE at the event that this was very effective and impressive demonstration of how CO's management keep open channels of communication with their elite members. The nonaligned folks I talked with were also impressed with this.

It's such nonsense for DL, by comparison, to follow the COI argument and pretend that any improvement in SM conditions automatically results in hundreds of millions of $ of lost revenue. They're imprisoned by their own limited logics and unwilling to work with customers to find paths to improve SM that don't necessarily cost vast amounts of lost revenue, or which might even enhance net revenue. That leads to this customer-unfriendly stance and factual inversion of the :-: best in class :-: SM program.

The SM stance is illogical, ridiculous, unnecessary and uncompetitive. We don't need to believe that it has to be this way, because some of us have seen with our own eyes how it can, and is, being done differently.

SDF_Traveler

Based in SDF, this is more or less my issue with them. Since they've gobbled NW, they are typically the best option with respect to schedule and destinations. I do have a choice, but DL, in general has the schedule because of its size, flight frequencies, and hub locations.

The employees at SDF are great, most crew & FA's are great, but I've had many problems with DL lately between the website, IT issues, messed up tickets, etc. that I'm just fedup.

The other day I had a business class ticket (award) somehow downgraded to economy and into N class. On the BP it was clearly a Biz Award per the fare basis. I finally did get back into biz being persistent at the airport. The problem seemed to be IT/delta.com related.

Things can happen on any carrier, but it seems there are still major problems with DL, the DL website & their IT. Booking revenue tix on delta.com has even been problematic with misleading pricing errors, error messages booking simple tix and just is not reliable. I really don't need this crap and I'm generally not happy with SkyPiles on the redemption side.

DL has lost a lot of revenue from me this year because of delta.com / IT problems and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. When delta.com flakes out and I need a ticket, I don't always have the time to call, go via web support, etc. I just go to AA or CO and book the ticket without hassle.

I really like Delta, but management needs to get delta.com fixed and make SkyPiles competitive.

YesLetsDiscuss

There are some important points to consider here.

You say that the conversation has become negative, which means it wasn't some time not too long ago. Obviously there are several reasons for this (don't just blame the merger). Remember that the people talking here are the customers, not some random people who decided one day to start logging on to FT and start bashing. They obviously have good reasons.

These FTers that you mention may form a very small percentage of DL customers, but they are also some of the most air travel and airline educated customers who fly Delta a lot and other airlines as well. I like to think that due to the interaction and the interest in all things Delta, the members here become aware of the Skymiles products before most of non-FT frequent flyers. Consequently, FTers are the first to recognize how the program changes will affect them. Other flyers are bound to reach the same conclusion later.

Unfortunately, by that time it will be too late to turn the ship around. DL would have lost some of its most loyal customers. And some of its most vocal ones, on whom DL ought to depend on the feedback. Its the 21st century after all - you can't hide a sub par product behind false claims and promises.

And remember, DL hard product is not the big issue here, its the frequent flyer program - much easier fix if the management desired.

hazelrah

It's not only the FF program, it's Delta IT as well.

And listening is one thing, there ought to be accountability too by Delta management. The board ought to look into whichever Delta executive made the decision to stick with Deltamatic versus transition to the Northwest IT and that person ought to be fired.