RealHJ

You are one of the few.

Most others never heard of Delta, or if they did just vaguely. Most airports have few if any Delta planes. Most of us have just seen a regional Delta RJ here and there (and may be very few mainline aircraft), and have always thought of it as just a small southern US airline (well, that plus SLC). Delta didn't become truly global until it brought NW. But, its mindset is still that of a small southern US regional airline and is reflected in everything it does. So sad to see the global reach being squandered by this myopic and southern US centric approach, not being able to see things in a global perspective (DL mgmnt I mean).

slipbeer

I was actually wondering if there is a region where Delta has already acheived a reputation as a premium brand.

GBadger

Guess I should clarify what I meant here for those who hadn't experienced NW's reach in Asia first hand. NRT was populated by several (not just one or two, but several) NWA aircraft every day. Those birds went on to serve many other Asian destinations. I'm not saying NW had the prestige of Asian carriers, but they were certainly a recognizable brand. Then, when DL took over, instead of taking that brand and running with it, they basically changed everything, upset people, and now seem to be wondering what else they can change to bring people back to an airline that largely no one had heard of. I hope it works for them, but this whole "try things two or three times before starting to get it right" thing is getting a bit old!

n301dp

Maybe Delta should adopt a catchy musical theme for advertisements?

FWAAA

I've heard that Buick and Cadillac enjoy a certain cachet in China, so perhaps there is hope for DL to be perceived as a premium carrier.

jbcarioca

When DL bought the PanAm Europe routes it began to dismantle the good parts of PanAm immediately, with special emphasis on eradicating the group of TCN's (third country nationals) who really provided the global perspective and multi-lingual base so sorely needed, not to mention service culture. Small stations that had been gems for PanAm, such as NCE, were quickly transformed from islands of excellence to desolate mediocracy.

With PanAm 82/83 there was catering by Roger Vergé is FC. The crew did not know how to serve this stuff so he showed upo himself to demonstrate. Things like that made PanAm is some places the airline of excellence. Buying National destroyed them. DL wiped that out immediately and the flights, still existing as DL 82/83, are the usual garbage. OK, but not class.

The foregoing is not to diss DL, they are doing as much as they can. They cannot take the southern US perspectives and suddenly become world class.

Try taking a flight to/from Brazil with nobody in the crew who can speak Portuguese. Sad. OK if cheap is the objective. World class, Not!

mikeinmiami

I am new to flying Delta this year. I have focused on AA but started to use Deltaon long hauls with Saturday being my third long haul in 6 weeks and on the last two the spirit was not there in BE. It's got the feel of hurry up so we can get done which is strange on a 10 plus hour flight My experience on AA is the same but when I am on a Asian carrier it seems so much more about having me wowed which makes me feel great and that makes me loyal. I wish Singapore flew out of Miami.

motytrah

This is the JL DOMESTIC F product Japan.

http://www.jal.co.jp/en/inflight/dom/f/seat/

That's just the Domestic seat. Are they seriously going to put the dodgy Institutional Blue seats against something that looks like it's out of a Lexus.

Moreover, the Asia Brand and Operations has been mismanaged from day 1. I just don't see them recovering.

1) Fired NW VP of Asia ops out of the gate. Which I think lead to alienation of the market.
2) Mismanaged the Asia credit card partnerships. Essentially leaving customers in the lurch without a DL affinity card for the better part of a year.
3) Yanked lounge access for Asia Elites with no notice.
4) Let the Asian markets languish for the better part of a year almost with few promotions
5) Website support for non-English speakers was spotty at best. Often displaying US Only promotions and banners.

That's a lot of negatives to overcome in a culture that has a long memory when it comes to poor service.

gideyup88

Is the article comedy? It almost made be spit up my lunch. Delta trying to be luxury in Asia and compete side-by-side with Cathay, Singapore, Asiana, ANA, Thai etc-? Being a premium airline in Asia is about the hard product AND the soft product. Maybe Delta can aspire to be as good as Air China LOL…

The Atlanta marketing guys believe their own hot air too much, they s/ try flying into Narita, Hong Kong or Singapore and see what a real lounge (hot noodle bar, massage chairs, hot gourmet buffet, amazing service not always looking for a tip) and “luxury” coach experience feels like, never mind business & first class. Certainly isn’t Delta. The Asian airlines are probably saying BRING IT ON…

StayingHomeIsBetter

I was actually shocked to see on my DTW to PVG (and on the return) flight earlier in the year that the safety announcement was only run once in English... and the plane was easily 80% Asian.

Similarly, there was no hot tea on the beverage service carts, and a request for such was greeted with a rolled-eyes equivalent of "If you must..."

BTW, on my intra-China air travel, an English safety orientation was always provided, in spite of a relatively small percentage of non-Chinese on the flights.

For an American airline that has demonstrated difficulties in relating to American PAX, I suspect DL is aiming a bit too high. But, in typical DL management fashion, they will probably delude themselves into thinking that a lot of flashy advertising will make up for the service failures.

(Hopefully, they will find someone competent to proof-read the translation of the advertisements.)

RealHJ

JAL is really not that special. I just flew a JAL int'l 12 hour flight (booked as an award flight using Delta SkyMiles - thanks, Delta, for letting us book OW airlines as award flights using SkyMiles!). While first class sure is big, the business class seating is not as good as the NW WBC (sorry, DL BE) in 747s and A330s. Same style angled lie-flat, but, extremely tight. Barely 6ft long. The feet go under the seat in front. That means that if you sit in aisle, the person at the window has to literaly climb over you to get out (as your feet are under the seat in front), thus assuring that you will be woken up when (s)he does so. That means, no good sleep if you are in aisle, and feeling trapped if you are at window or in the middle seat.

The NWA (sorry, DL) 747 and A330 seating is at least more spacious, and, IMO, more comfortable. (Though of course the JAL seating is far better than DL's outright awful 1980's style recliners on the 767s - those are just shamefullly bad.)

And, the Japanese menu item on JAL was not as good as it is on DL (ex-NRT/NGO/KIX, not ex-US) either. It was fine and had some more variety, but not that good. And the second food item (western menu) was also really mediocre. Lots of choice, yes, but what I had was really poor quality meat (all the fat and veins - ugh), though on the menu it sounded like some really fancy dish from som big-name restaurant.

So, personally, after having flown JAL business class, I am disappointed and think that DL is better, both seating, food and service (at least I can get up when I want, not like on JAL whenever seatbelts are on the FAs seems like they'll have a stroke when a passenger gets up!) wise, and it made me feel better about flying DL. (Only thing JAL has in its favour is a far more extensive menu...but, at least what I had, was not any good.)

But, that's just my experience.

Oh BTW, the JAL product I flew in was their 2nd last (not the latest) business class seating. This one:
http://rgst.jal.co.jp/en/inflight/in...at/index1.html

Burj

I think comparisons to JAL are problematic as JAL is having a lot problems and is more Japan oriented than Asia oriented.

Comparisons to SQ, CX, MH, KE, and TG are probably more reasonable as those airlines have good reputations across large parts of the Asia market.

Sabai

You are correct - Hilfiger, Polo, Coach, etc. are aspirational brands. Where DL really faces a challenge is the soft product and developing some sense of, and sensitivity for, its targeted audience.

Witness the discussion of "Procto-lina" on these boards when some opined that her finger wagging was offensive to other cultures; the derision from Bubbaflot loyalists was considerable. It's attention to details - large and small - that separates true 5-star airlines from the also-rans. I don't see any US carrier committing the necessary resources over the many years that it would take to inculcate their staff with the subtle and generous service mentality that is inherent in Asia.

It's not just airlines either - a Holiday Inn in Singapore offers as high a standard of service as does an Intercontinental in the US. It's tough to go up against people who put a lot of personal pride in effecting near-flawless service delivery.

dream7

Delta becoming a premium brand in Asia is as ridiculous as their Best in Class claim for SkyPesos. Just because Delta says something doesn't make it the case.

TTT

I was under the impression that all DL flights had a LOD FA on-board. Is that not the case?