Do they really need a Master Sommelier to choose wine that's $7/bottle at Safeway?

not asked yet:
- Would DL consider extra FC award inventory for Medallions like they do for Y (and like NW did)?
- Would DL consider some sort of fee structure to allow Medallions to upgrade intl fares below M if they can't be competitive with competitors SWU?
- Is DL looking at a real strategy for managing mileage inflation - its starting to rival the US government?
- Can DL get service consistency between the regionals and mainline - service varies wildly
- inconsistent meal availability on similar routes (esp Comair)
- pre flight FC drink service
- snack service
- Is there any major change coming to how Medallion status is earned?
- Will there be any revision of the Million miler program? With apologies - Silver Status is so marginal now that its not really 'goal worthy' anymore.

2nding:
- Skyclub
- # of locations if far lower than it was 4 years ago yet membership rate is the same/higher than 4 years ago
- issues with partner lounge accessibility (e.g. AF in IAH)
- what is the story with PHL?
- Award inventory and/or website redemption - so much has been said

Many us read from Jeff R's many interviews how they have measured the upsells to M and that it's in the "hundreds of millions of dollars." This is used at the main justification for maintaining the least competitive SWU's among DL's primary competitors. I have 2 questions related to that:

1. Most companies are unable to measure accurately the customers that "balk." That is, the line at McDonald's is too long, so you leave. In DL's case, they have a lost a lot of former loyal fliers because of their uncompetitive SWU's (and the award-level hyperinflation). Why does Delta by its actions seem to think this is insignificant? In my case, my air travel business level is the same as it was last year, when DL/NW got all of it. Now I've given half of my business to *A. It would have been all of it if I had started redirecting my business at the start of 2010 rather than the middle.

2. Since DL recognizes UA, CO, and AA as its primary competitors, how can they justify keeping the least competitive SWU's vis-a-vis the fact that Jeff R admits that the #1 elite request is more competitive SWU's. It only stands to reason that eventually they would lose business over it. I doubt that DL is right and UA, CO, and AA are all collectively wrong.

flight numbers?
 

Why does Delta constantly change the flight numbers and switch departure times to plus 5 minutes, minus 5 minutes and then also require you to get seat you booked on original flight back?

Maybe one of you Road Warriors knows the answer to this. If so, please post.

This long-time almost exclusively NW flyer was looking for every reason possible to stick with Delta/NW, but by early this year it made no sense to me to continue to avoid diversification.

Should I continue to fly Delta while holding out hope that (among other things brought up in this thread, but this is most importantly to me):
1. Delta will at some point improve both coach and business class low-tier award availability,
2. get rid of the astronomical mileage requirements for some itineraries (i.e., 3x to 5x the low-tier amount),
3. provide some kind of limited free change options on awards (like your competitors do),
4. reduce the maximum award change fees (at the very least for domestic tickets) and
5. truly make award searches user friendy?

Here's another one...

DL does a number of surveys of passengers but have they considered taking this a step further? What I was thinking was how about setting up a focus group to bounce ideas. Yeah, there would have to be NDA's but maybe this instant insight from outside DL would give them valuable info from another perspective.

I was going to ask something similar: Does DL have customer focus groups (especially of frequent fliers) to validate changes before they happen? If not, which of us do you want as volunteers? (See, for example of something that could have benefited, SkyPriority boarding rollout.)

Also, how about a system to allocate bulkhead seats to Medallions when they aren't needed for bassinets, etc? These are some of the best Y seats on ULH flights, and often get assigned basically randomly. Example: Row 30 on the 777s.

My situation in regard to this is that the M or higher fares are now so high that it's undoable for personal or business travel, so I now buy the lowest fare offered. Previously, I would routinely buy up to a NW B fare and redeem miles for upgrades on both personal and business international itineraries. These fares were more than the lowest available, but not so much more that it was beyond reach. With the current setup, DL is missing out on the extra revenue I was willing to pay as well as the benefit of getting some miles off the books. This also now gets me to giving serious consideration to trying OpenSkies for transatlantic flights, where a business seat can be bought for about what I used to pay for an upgradeable fare. Of course, if DL fills the business seats anyway at higher fares, they are better off, but not all flights go out full with paying passengers and it would be interesting to see what the bottom line was with the prior situation at DL & NW vs what it is now, to know if there is any hope for change.

I wonder if part of the reason the upgradeable fares have increased so much is the relatively low value DL seems to assign to the SWUs. At the platinum level, they seem to be "valued" at only $50-$100 each when compared to the other options available, so maybe the thinking is that the upgradeable fares need to be high to get sufficient value from the upgrade transaction. Perhaps some middle ground could be found by bringing M fares down and allowing only mileage upgrades from M, since the mileage redeemed would have more value than the SWU. SWU could then be allowed on B and Y so the financials might add up acceptably.

Personally, I would prefer is DL allowed mileage upgrades from K-fare with more miles.

Question re Refund Issues
 

Is upper management aware that obtaining a legitimate ticket refund (a canceled flight, for example) can take many weeks and even periodically requires intervention of the credit card company to make progress?

Keep climbing? Are mojitos coming back? :D

I am in the camp that cannot get enough SWUs, but choke at the inflated M fares. M to GVA in November came in at $3.2K which meant I almost lost the trip because in my situation it is all or nothing.

I also find it distracting that there are various rules governing u/g available on the KLM segments out of AMS (for example EDI, ARN, IST) and I have to keep calling back trying to find out if this has cleared. DL says they can't put me on a waitlist and I seem not to have found the correct way to setup EF alerts for AMS-GVA-AMS. EF rejects DL flight # and I didn't go for KLM flight # and code (D) because DM desk says there is space when looking strictly at AMS-GVA-AMS but not as part of a ticket starting at OKC or even DTW.

Folks, to help us formulate a series of questions for this DO, can you frame your posts in the form of a question or questions you'd like answered??

It would be a great help.

Thanks.

Did you really like those "mojitos"? They did not seem at all like a real mojito to me. no mint ... no muddling....

Mai Tais on the other hand... ^

What about the margaritas?

Also, are the "Have one on us" coupons if you have not been upgraded random now?