runninaway

They dropped orient when they purchased Republic in the mid 80s. It was reflective of their effort to achieve more global reach and was followed shortly by code-sharing and ultimately the JV with KLM.

jimrpa

Ah, thanks for the explanation. Given what you say, it seems even more foolish to change the visual identity. Not that it matters now, of course.

5khours

DELTA ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? HARGH HARGH

This must be a new business strategy. Do everything possible to lose the trust and loyalty of your existing customers (make it impossible to get TPAC upgrades at a reasonable price, take away lounge access for Asian GMs without telling anyone, be the last carrier to put in flat-bed seats on Asian routes, secretly raise mileage redemption rates for intra-Asia award travel, etc. etc) and then put out a press release saying you're seeking to become a premium carrier in Asia.

Maybe it's like a management restructuring but targeted at the passengers instead. You get rid of all your top passengers. They could call it a Passenger Restructuring Program.

Or maybe there was a typo in the press release. It should have read Laughingstock Carrier not Premium Carrier.

NYBanker

You hit on some interesting points.


Indeed, Buick is an aspirational brand in China and Samsonite luggage is a premium product line in many parts of Asia. Similarly, Stella Artois, positioned as a premium beer in the US, is a peasant beer in Belgium ... And no Australian actually drinks Fosters ... Its their joke on Americans.

Against that, DLs j product is so inferior to cx, sq and certain others in the region that any premium fare pax will stick with who is best. Compare the best crown room/sky club in the system to the long bar ar hkg or the "private room" at sin ... You'd think the sky club is the discounted y lounge.

Americans nailed it on the design of the iPod/iPad, got a few en to the moon... but we seem incapable of running a true premium airline!

Exleftseat

To become a Premier Carrier you need to offer flights at convenient times, frequently, and provide premium cabin service as well as a superior hard product. Just as an example the NRT flights to BKK and SIN arrive at midnight at their destinations and leave early, early a.m. forcing pax to leave their homes or hotels at 4-5 a.m. I would call that inconvenient and I leave a comment about premium cabin service and the hard product open, because all of us already know the answer. Asian carriers, Premium or not, offer 5-12 daily services, sometimes more. Some on A380 or 747s.
Also, who wants to go through the painfully annoying security procedures when one takes a U.S. airline, combined to the easy walk through for Asian or for that matter, European carriers, when they provide Intra-Asian service.
Sure, I am stuck with a similar pattern with UA now, but at least they don't pretend and don't claim to be a Premium carrier in and/or for Asia. Know the role that you are assigned to play!!!
May I also point out that they are primarily talking about service out of NRT.
Premium Asian service goes many, many ways. Not just out of NRT. DL by nature of it's business fills probably most of their ongoing traffic out of NRT with transit/connecting pax originating in the U.S. A good portion of the remaining seats to be filled comes from contracts they have taken over from the PMNW days. The rest originates from contracts that have been signed at the corresponding destinations also during PMNW days. Where does the added passenger supply originate? From China, of course. No recession there, au contraire. But how long will that last? Trust me, DL still has no name recognition in Asia.
DL fired all the knowledgeable and experienced NW management in Japan and Asia. Vinay Dube, DL's senior VP Asia/Pacific has pretty big shoes to fill. Researching his previous CV, he surely has no experience in that market.

Pathfinder813

I've always been a DL fan since I first flew them as a kid in the early 90s on an L-1011 LAX-ATL (they always used the T6 gates for that flight... FL 264).

Anyway, I hope that DL does do well but I agree, the competition is fierce. I fly to ICN two or three times a year and last year, I flew it on KE, OZ, and UA. Hands down, KE has the best service in coach, then OZ. UA was just horrendous.

I think if DL just retrained their Asia flight attendants, that could really help. There are things that Asians want on a flight (I'm a Korean-American). When I fly KE or OZ, I expect there to be tea, good Korean food, and just a great level of service.

Case in point: I flew from IAD to ICN on KE. It seemed like because the flight attendant didn't have anything to do (it was between the two meals), she kept cleaning the lavatories after pax used them. It's that sort of attentive service that is severely lacking on US-based carriers.

I'd have to say that because most US-based carriers usually have senior flight attendants on the int'l flights, they feel a sense of entitlement whereas the flight attendants on Asian carriers tend to be thankful that they were picked (competition is fierce in Korea to become a KE flight attendant) and do their jobs at the best of their ability.

I also think this goes to the level of service generally in Asia. Compare service from McDonald's in Asia to the US... that's basically what it is with the airlines.

SFO777

Senior indeed, in many ways. Hard to see how DL can even come close to offering a soft product as good as SQ or CX, given the cultural differences and without being sued for age, weight or attractiveness discrimination.

You'll never see DL doing anything like this, and that is the problem.
Across the World with the Singapore Girl

Burj

The age, weight, or attractiveness of FA's isn't such a factor BUT the cultural aspect is what Delta will have problems with.

On a 12 hour flight the lavs HAVE to get cleaned...but can Delta get an FA with 30 years seniority to actually CLEAN a lav?

pokeable

It isn't just age/attractiveness. It's the attitude they bring to their job. Like I told a WN pilot yesterday, I like flying WN because of the pathologic cheerfulness many of the WN flight attendants display. KE/OZ flight attendants, while maybe not as bubbly, seem to enjoy their jobs as well.

Think of it like refs in any major US sporting event. NFL, NHL, NBA refs for the championship series are picked based upon a review of their performance during the season as well as playoffs. DL may want to do something similar instead of just being based on seniority if they are going to focus on boosting their TPAC image.

StayingHomeIsBetter

Quote from the article:
[emphasis mine]

How does a company announce an ambitious goal, make a statement like this, and in the same week, alienate a significant fraction of their regional customers by egregiously jacking up FF mileage redemption requirements?

How many DL customers in the region would select "reputable" as their adjective of choice to describe DL right now?

What sort of "intellects" are running DL?

s1c3r1a1b3b3l1e1

This is an excellent summation of the recent changes. I have to wonder if they even realize how foolish they sound when they announce things like this. For those who are Arrested Development fans, it reminds me of the time when Michael told Gob, "Being a magician is a job where people laugh at you, and you don't even realize they are mocking you." (or something like that...I don't think I got it quite right, and I can't find it now.)

k2

There's a critical difference between being a premium brand to Asia, vs. a premium brand in Asia (the PR seems to indicate the latter is their objective). Although I do think they have a shot at the former thanks to hard product updates and weaker competition (US carriers); the latter requires a major overhaul of the soft product. That ain't happening.

The day that DL FAs clean the lavs mid-flight is the day this press release becomes something more than Wall St. spin.

RealHJ

KE coach you do get slippers and an amenity kit. In JL business only slippers, but no amenity kit, no toothbrush/tootpaste in lavatories, etc.

RealHJ

The convenient times is right on. Right now even for connections to US, it's typically 6-9 hour connecting times at NRT - and unless one has some places around Narita that they like to go to during the long connection (like I do), it's rather a nuisance and makes the flight unnecessarily long (e.g. HKG-HNL on KE can leave at 2:50pm and arrive sooner than DL, while on DL have to leave at 8am and arrive later than KE that departed some five hours later).

Plus, to be a carrier in Asia and not just for US connecting pax, there have to be (a lot) more than 1x daily flights to Asia destinations, and they have to leave at convenient times, not arrive past midnight and leave at super inconvenient times like 5am (only to then have to wait some 6-9 hours for a connection at NRT).

BenA

Northwest had some fairly odd aspirations for Seattle (SEA-LHR, SEA-SYD with the 787), but even if Delta hasn't pursued some premerger routes, it's patently unfair to accuse Delta of having "far less" presence.

With the larger SkyClub under construction, a second daily SEA-AMS flight, new routes to China, and more Asia flying rumored - Delta is hardly "practically absent". If anything, they're successfully running the new UA out of town...