SkyMilesInsider update: Sky Priority is HERE…
Apr 27, 2010, 10:12 am
#751
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: DL Diamond, Sky Club, United Club, Admirals Club, Hyatt Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 613
I don't know what SMI does, perhaps he is in PR and doesn't have a say in the decision he just has to deal with the flames.
FWIW I got a reply from DL today - it basically just reiterated the procedure and implied it had to do with on time departure. My email to them was short and sweet, saying that I did not like the idea and that I believed that premium cabin passengers should board before Elites.
Apr 27, 2010, 10:15 am
#752
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: SEA, SoCal
Programs: AS 75K, DL Plat, AA, WN, Hertz, HHonors, Marriott
Posts: 1,306
Then there is Alaska airlines....pretty much the same issue here. Delta is weak on the west coast and gained a long standing parternship from Northwest with Alaska. However, Delta has devalued that relationship as well. Should Continental and United merge, Delta will need the Alaska partnership to compete on the west coast and they don't seem to be wooing the Alaska customers.
AS's other major partner AA is actually nothing more than a codeshare partner, and offers no form of elite reciprocity whatsoever. While the occasional upgrades on NW used to be nice, everything else about flying that airline was pretty unpleasant.
Apr 27, 2010, 10:29 am
#753
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: DL Diamond, Sky Club, United Club, Admirals Club, Hyatt Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 613
If SkyPriority were really the packaging of a branded, superior, operational travel experience for those listed as qualifying, then the most important travel experience benefits such as first class upgrades, online access to elite economy seating, added luggage allowances and knowledge of the priority reservation line numbers would be tied to the SkyPriority offering, NOT to DL Medallion status. This is a glaring inconsistency in your definition and contrasting of the Medallion Program versus SkyPriority.
Based on my three flights under the new program, SkyTeam Elite Plus members and fellow NA joint venture customers from AFKL who now might consider flying connecting or originating DL domestic routes taken over from NW have lost their benefits: We have lost our inclusion in the upgrade process, we must spend loads of time on the phone across two companies and as many reservation systems fighting to get a halfway decent seat, we are charged for luggage on an inconsistent basis, we do not get a drink coupon when sitting in our back-of-the-airplane middle seat, we are not provided with the elite number to call and we are not treated with priority in cases of service recovery as we stand for hours waiting to be re-scheduled on new flights caused by unilateral DL schedule changes into impossible connection times.
The new Delta is doing their best to drive away business from their own alliance. We used to unquestioningly give all our US domestic business to NW, as much as half of it paid premium class travel. Now you would have to be asleep (or have no choice) to fly DL.
Based on my three flights under the new program, SkyTeam Elite Plus members and fellow NA joint venture customers from AFKL who now might consider flying connecting or originating DL domestic routes taken over from NW have lost their benefits: We have lost our inclusion in the upgrade process, we must spend loads of time on the phone across two companies and as many reservation systems fighting to get a halfway decent seat, we are charged for luggage on an inconsistent basis, we do not get a drink coupon when sitting in our back-of-the-airplane middle seat, we are not provided with the elite number to call and we are not treated with priority in cases of service recovery as we stand for hours waiting to be re-scheduled on new flights caused by unilateral DL schedule changes into impossible connection times.
The new Delta is doing their best to drive away business from their own alliance. We used to unquestioningly give all our US domestic business to NW, as much as half of it paid premium class travel. Now you would have to be asleep (or have no choice) to fly DL.
Also worth mentioning is that the NW-KLM deal was a much stronger alliance than the sky-team code sharing. The NWKLM deal had anti-trust immunities that allowed much closer tied-in operations. It is just not possible at this point on SkyTeam.
Apr 27, 2010, 10:36 am
#755
Join Date: Jul 2008
Programs: Delta Gold :-( KLM Gold HH Diamond
Posts: 107
Completely agree
Interesting points about the contrast between Medallion and SkyTeam.
Also worth mentioning is that the NW-KLM deal was a much stronger alliance than the sky-team code sharing. The NWKLM deal had anti-trust immunities that allowed much closer tied-in operations. It is just not possible at this point on SkyTeam.
Also worth mentioning is that the NW-KLM deal was a much stronger alliance than the sky-team code sharing. The NWKLM deal had anti-trust immunities that allowed much closer tied-in operations. It is just not possible at this point on SkyTeam.
If SkyPriority were really the packaging of a branded, superior, operational travel experience for those listed as qualifying, then the most important travel experience benefits such as first class upgrades, online access to elite economy seating, added luggage allowances and knowledge of the priority reservation line numbers would be tied to the SkyPriority offering, NOT to DL Medallion status. This is a glaring inconsistency in your definition and contrasting of the Medallion Program versus SkyPriority.
Based on my three flights under the new program, SkyTeam Elite Plus members and fellow NA joint venture customers from AFKL who now might consider flying connecting or originating DL domestic routes taken over from NW have lost their benefits: We have lost our inclusion in the upgrade process, we must spend loads of time on the phone across two companies and as many reservation systems fighting to get a halfway decent seat, we are charged for luggage on an inconsistent basis, we do not get a drink coupon when sitting in our back-of-the-airplane middle seat, we are not provided with the elite number to call and we are not treated with priority in cases of service recovery as we stand for hours waiting to be re-scheduled on new flights caused by unilateral DL schedule changes into impossible connection times.
The new Delta is doing their best to drive away business from their own alliance. We used to unquestioningly give all our US domestic business to NW, as much as half of it paid premium class travel. Now you would have to be asleep (or have no choice) to fly DL.
Based on my three flights under the new program, SkyTeam Elite Plus members and fellow NA joint venture customers from AFKL who now might consider flying connecting or originating DL domestic routes taken over from NW have lost their benefits: We have lost our inclusion in the upgrade process, we must spend loads of time on the phone across two companies and as many reservation systems fighting to get a halfway decent seat, we are charged for luggage on an inconsistent basis, we do not get a drink coupon when sitting in our back-of-the-airplane middle seat, we are not provided with the elite number to call and we are not treated with priority in cases of service recovery as we stand for hours waiting to be re-scheduled on new flights caused by unilateral DL schedule changes into impossible connection times.
The new Delta is doing their best to drive away business from their own alliance. We used to unquestioningly give all our US domestic business to NW, as much as half of it paid premium class travel. Now you would have to be asleep (or have no choice) to fly DL.
Apr 27, 2010, 11:57 am
#756
Join Date: Oct 2008
Programs: HH Diamond
Posts: 612
Interesting points about the contrast between Medallion and SkyTeam.
Also worth mentioning is that the NW-KLM deal was a much stronger alliance than the sky-team code sharing. The NWKLM deal had anti-trust immunities that allowed much closer tied-in operations. It is just not possible at this point on SkyTeam.
Also worth mentioning is that the NW-KLM deal was a much stronger alliance than the sky-team code sharing. The NWKLM deal had anti-trust immunities that allowed much closer tied-in operations. It is just not possible at this point on SkyTeam.
Last edited by NWA012; Apr 28, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Apr 27, 2010, 12:01 pm
#757
Join Date: Oct 2008
Programs: HH Diamond
Posts: 612
I would somewhat disagree. While the reciprocal upgrades have yet to be re-implemented (the latest word is that it's slipped to Aug) AS elites currently enjoy preferred seating and priority boarding on DL. We also have full reciprocal lounge access. There's also some indications that Alaska Gold's will be included in Sky Priority sometime later this year.
AS's other major partner AA is actually nothing more than a codeshare partner, and offers no form of elite reciprocity whatsoever. While the occasional upgrades on NW used to be nice, everything else about flying that airline was pretty unpleasant.
AS's other major partner AA is actually nothing more than a codeshare partner, and offers no form of elite reciprocity whatsoever. While the occasional upgrades on NW used to be nice, everything else about flying that airline was pretty unpleasant.
Comp. upgrades
Hotels during ANY delay
Elite access phone lines
Priority luggage
Select seating
FlyNow fee waiver
Apr 27, 2010, 10:55 pm
#758
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 8,527
I forgot to add to my above long list of lost SkyPriority-related benefits that after DL dismantled the very successful alliance between AFKL and NW that we Platinum Elite Pluses now have also lost our lounge access when our itinerary does not have an immediate adjacency of an international connection that day. For those of us who tend to have to bounce back and forth on the customer-inefficient hub-and-spoke system between the US hubs to access Podunk, USA to get our work done, this has been yet another slap in the face and reason to drop DL and Skyteam (where they are not exploiting onerous local monopolies).
Apr 28, 2010, 1:06 am
#759
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 827
From simply a perception standpoint, that JV seems much weaker now than it did previously. NW had KLM's logo next to theirs on almost all marketing material, websites, and signs in airports. They were clearly one strong partner back then (for as long as I can remember first flying NWA 16 years ago). Now, DL does not show KLM's logo on anything other than some signs at the check in locations and gates, but definitely not on their website. Likewise, as of Feb 1st, KLM removed the NWA logo from their site and did not replace it with DL's.
Apr 28, 2010, 1:13 am
#760
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 827
You really hit the nail on the head here, I can't believe Delta does not understand this.
It's a sad state when I call the "Global Assistance Center" in Atlanta and get a lecture for routing a customer on KLM during irregular operations and told I can not do this and that at Northwest I was not allowed to do this either. I am standing in front a customer who is facing me with a KLM logo as big as the Delta logo behind me. What's the point of the joint venture? Do they not realize we share costs and revenue on joint venture routes? Why is Delta not training their people?
It's a sad state when I call the "Global Assistance Center" in Atlanta and get a lecture for routing a customer on KLM during irregular operations and told I can not do this and that at Northwest I was not allowed to do this either. I am standing in front a customer who is facing me with a KLM logo as big as the Delta logo behind me. What's the point of the joint venture? Do they not realize we share costs and revenue on joint venture routes? Why is Delta not training their people?
Apr 28, 2010, 1:23 am
#761
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 8,527
From simply a perception standpoint, that JV seems much weaker now than it did previously. NW had KLM's logo next to theirs on almost all marketing material, websites, and signs in airports. They were clearly one strong partner back then (for as long as I can remember first flying NWA 16 years ago). Now, DL does not show KLM's logo on anything other than some signs at the check in locations and gates, but definitely not on their website. Likewise, as of Feb 1st, KLM removed the NWA logo from their site and did not replace it with DL's.
Hopefully, sooner or later there will be a realization in Washington that, just like giving carte blanche to banks to screw the country, it was a huge mistake to grant anti-trust immunity to a company like Delta that is obviously not interested in following through on the consumer benefits that were promised when selling the JV and that is not performing as a reliable provider of public transportation but rather seeks to abuse monopoly power.
Last edited by Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM; Apr 28, 2010 at 1:29 am
Apr 28, 2010, 8:32 am
#762
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: Northwest Gold Elite, Hertz 5 Star, Holiday Inn Platinum
Posts: 27
I just want to chime in with my 2 cents about the new boarding process. It is the worst thing I have had to deal with since the merger. I recognize there are some growing pains, but the fact that this concept made it out of a meeting makes me insane. The people flying in F catch the shaft in the worst way. Last week I was in F and was probably about the 40-50th person on the plane (MSP). What is that all about? Zone 1 should equal F. Period. The amount of people milling around the "SkyPriority" lane 10 minutes before boarding is comical. Delta, please fix this yesterday.
Apr 28, 2010, 10:28 am
#763
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: RDU
Programs: AA GM, DL DM, DSC
Posts: 1,540
I just want to chime in with my 2 cents about the new boarding process. It is the worst thing I have had to deal with since the merger. I recognize there are some growing pains, but the fact that this concept made it out of a meeting makes me insane. The people flying in F catch the shaft in the worst way. Last week I was in F and was probably about the 40-50th person on the plane (MSP). What is that all about? Zone 1 should equal F. Period. The amount of people milling around the "SkyPriority" lane 10 minutes before boarding is comical. Delta, please fix this yesterday.
Call pre-boards
Call First Class
Call Zone 1
Call Zone 2 and so on
Simple and they leave SP as is to save face.
Apr 28, 2010, 5:34 pm
#765
Join Date: Oct 2008
Programs: HH Diamond
Posts: 612
Out of curiousity, did the "global assistance center" realize they were wrong in lecturing you, or did they still stick to their story (and if so, I'm wondering why they felt they knew what NWA allowed..lol, since they clearly have a hard time figuring out what they can do with DL itself)?
These are the same people who said I could not route a Delta customer on Northwest last summer during a weather delay. They advised me to rebook on Delta for the next day - Northwest had a flight that avoided the weather in Atlanta at no delay to the customer. Seems like a no brainer to me. I have no confidence in the "Global Assistance Center".