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Delta A350 to have Comfort+? CFO says A350 will have 5 classes of service...

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Delta A350 to have Comfort+? CFO says A350 will have 5 classes of service...

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Old Mar 6, 2017, 11:54 pm
  #1  
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Delta A350 to have Comfort+? CFO says A350 will have 5 classes of service...

12 minute 40 second mark of his presentation at the Raymond James Conference yesterday, http://wsw.com/webcast/rj104/dal/ :
"We phase out of the 747 by the end of the year and put on the new Airbus A350 product with 5 classes of service including the new Premium Select product in economy."
To me this must mean that the new A350s will come with Comfort+ otherwise how else do you get 5 classes of service - Delta One, Premium Select, Comfort+, Main Cabin, Basic Economy, and that's all one could think of, right?

I am quite happy as I know many of us Medallions were concerned we would have lost access to the Comfort+ seats on these new planes. The initial information released about the A350 made it unclear if not doubtful that Comfort+ would be on board.
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 12:34 am
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Either Paul just broke news that Delta is turning around on its initial announcement that the A350 would not have Comfort+, or he misspoke. I think he may have misspoken because I wouldn't call Basic Economy a class of service. Basic Economy is merely a Main Cabin experience. So even if the A350 includes Comfort+, it would have four classes of service. I certainly hope the A350 will have Comfort+.
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 6:31 am
  #3  
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I also think that he wouldn't be referring to Basic Economy as a different class of service. It's a highly restrictive booking code but it isn't a different onboard service or cabin.

Perhaps he meant that with the introduction of the A350 that Delta as a company will now offer five classes of service?

Delta One
Premium Select
First Class
Comfort +
Main Cabin

Ugh, I hate the name Premium Select. It sounds like groceries. They should have just kept it Premium.
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 6:38 am
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  1. Delta One
  2. Premium Select
  3. Main Cabin
  4. Basic Economy
  5. Cargo
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 6:44 am
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1. Delta One
2. Premium Select
3. Main Cabin
4. Basic Economy
5. Lawn Chair on Wing
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 7:21 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by Widgets
Either Paul just broke news that Delta is turning around on its initial announcement that the A350 would not have Comfort+, or he misspoke. I think he may have misspoken because I wouldn't call Basic Economy a class of service. Basic Economy is merely a Main Cabin experience. So even if the A350 includes Comfort+, it would have four classes of service. I certainly hope the A350 will have Comfort+.
check out slide #12 (or 13 of 46 in the pdf): http://s1.q4cdn.com/231238688/files/...inal-PRINT.pdf

DL execs, or at least CEO Ed Bastian in his Investor Day presentation, consider these to be separate classes of service. Those are exactly the 5 classes of service essentially spelled out in a graphic.

While I agree with you that there's no meaningful difference once on board between basic economy and main cabin, they are considering it a separate class of service since it appears separately at online purchase and there are more restrictions associated with it (no upgrades, last boarding, no seat selection etc.) to make it a different experience.
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 7:31 am
  #7  
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Originally Posted by C W
I also think that he wouldn't be referring to Basic Economy as a different class of service. It's a highly restrictive booking code but it isn't a different onboard service or cabin.

Perhaps he meant that with the introduction of the A350 that Delta as a company will now offer five classes of service?

Delta One
Premium Select
First Class
Comfort +
Main Cabin

Ugh, I hate the name Premium Select. It sounds like groceries. They should have just kept it Premium.
See my last post. Also, listen to the webcast playback - I transcribed Paul Jacobson's exact quote - there is no other way to interpret his statement than that the Delta A350 will have 5 classes of service.
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 7:39 am
  #8  
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Originally Posted by dmorbust
See my last post. Also, listen to the webcast playback - I transcribed Paul Jacobson's exact quote - there is no other way to interpret his statement than that the Delta A350 will have 5 classes of service.
I certainly hope you're right! I very much want to see C+ on the A350.
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 8:52 am
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I would hope so. How else can DL get the segmentation that they and the industry are wanting?

I am concerned that PM's won't get the free C+ on Int'l flights.
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 9:11 am
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Probably they already heard a lot of pushback about C+ being completely replaced with PS.
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 10:10 am
  #11  
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Originally Posted by Widgets
Either Paul just broke news that Delta is turning around on its initial announcement that the A350 would not have Comfort+, or he misspoke.
Now that I think of it, was it ever really announced that the A350 would definitely not have Comfort+? I know any mention of it was omitted from the Premium Select announcement, but it was never explicitly stated that Comfort+ wouldn't be there right?
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 10:43 am
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Originally Posted by dmorbust
Now that I think of it, was it ever really announced that the A350 would definitely not have Comfort+? I know any mention of it was omitted from the Premium Select announcement, but it was never explicitly stated that Comfort+ wouldn't be there right?
I agree that it was left somewhat vague, although I do seem to recall one announcement explicitly stating that the a/c would feature main cabin, PS and D1. I don't think it said no C+, but left it out.
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 10:45 am
  #13  
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I'm not sure if it was previously announced there would not be C+, but I thought the cabin config was somewhere and C+ was not mentioned... so maybe thats where it came from.
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 5:14 pm
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Originally Posted by dmorbust
check out slide #12 (or 13 of 46 in the pdf): http://s1.q4cdn.com/231238688/files/...inal-PRINT.pdf

DL execs, or at least CEO Ed Bastian in his Investor Day presentation, consider these to be separate classes of service. Those are exactly the 5 classes of service essentially spelled out in a graphic.

While I agree with you that there's no meaningful difference once on board between basic economy and main cabin, they are considering it a separate class of service since it appears separately at online purchase and there are more restrictions associated with it (no upgrades, last boarding, no seat selection etc.) to make it a different experience.
The graphic spells out the 5 classes of service as 5 different types of fares sold, which is consistent with how DL has sold Basic Economy and Comfort+ for a while. The graphic says nothing about the A350 (or any other plane) being a "5-class plane" in any conventional sense. Without listening to the audio, it sounds to me like describing it as a 5-class plane was a speako.
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Old Mar 7, 2017, 6:25 pm
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He misspoke. I count at least 9 classes in this leaked deck.
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