dinanm3atl

Couldn't it just go in the delta canceled flights on April 5th thread?

flyerCO

It's is SOP. However what you get varies with the length of delay. It's not just rolled out at the drop of a delay notice. It depends on the length of delay.

slutide

I was stuck at ATL from 3PM to 3AM yesterday. The F SC stayed open till midnight, E till 4AM and B all night.

I think what the meltdown in ATL is indicative of is the barebones staffing levels imposed by corporate. They have the minimum amount necessary for operations on a perfect day. If anything goes wrong (as we've seen with IT and weather meltdowns) the wheels come off. It was ridiculous to see hundreds of people standing in help lines for hours when only two people were working a counter.

wrp96

Thanks for the correction-other people were reporting that none of the SCs stayed open hence my post.

The Situation

I didn't start flying DL until 2007, but I am sure everyone remembers how awful the experience was on ALL airlines back then. Airlines had to be cheap to survive. The reason I switched was DL was the least bad airline. Every year, DL made small improvements under Anderson, until 2012ish, when those small improvements accelerated into big improvements. Meanwhile, the competitors were going further and further downhill each year. Given the environment Anderson inherited and competitors' race to the bottom, I think a lot of the criticism of Anderson is misguided.

readywhenyouare

2012ish? Gordon's and installing seats with all the comfort of a park bench were big improvements? Maybe I'm just hard to please lol.

dinanm3atl

We're saying they should. I didn't hang around to see if they did.

Good on Delta.

Widgets

ATL left the B Sky Club open all night during the early January weather meltdown. The General Manager for ATL Sky Clubs was seen helping in there even at 3 in the morning. Also FWIW there's a sizeable crew of G.O. (corporate HQ) employees who volunteer to help at the ATL airport during times like these. They do the simple work like direct lines and simple boarding pass scanning so the airport employees can focus on rebooking and technical work. I'd be raking in some gravy if I were a Res specialist today... double-overtime for $60/hour? Yes, please.

arlflyer

Credit where credit is due: really impressed with DL's online flight rebooking capability. As a no-status nobody with a discount Y fare onto which I'd added purchased upgrades to F, DL automatically rebooked me upon cancellation into a 3-sector reroute, but kept me in F. Nice enough. But when seats on the direct flight opened up, and it allowed me to grab them - still in F - I was pretty much shocked. I figured those paid upgrades would have gone out the window since I didn't buy that class of service, or the F seats certainly would have been held for elites. And even aside from that, the ability to grab any seats on a reasonable reroute without involving another human was super impressive. Coming from an AA lifer, that grass really is greener!

EDIT: As I was typing that post, they canceled my flight!!!

poppabear

Since late last year, I've noticed more cases than not of snacks/soft drinks rolled out at the gates of delayed flts. LAX,SEA,MSP,DTW,JFK,SFO, and others, as well as on Qatar in MIA, LAX. ^ I have yet to see anything at any station on AA Doubt that I ever will as long as Dougie has anything to say.

Also as a Diamond and ExecPlat with AA, I will say hands down, that Delta has treated me better during IRROPS, regardless of the cause. I've had some "very creative reroutes" over the years, including HNL-NRT-ATL-DEN, when there were no seats from HNL-US Mainland available in any class for 2+ days after my original HNL-ATL-DEN flight "mechanicaled"

nk15

Lol...In my last DL meltdown, I was rebooked on the app 5-6 times, every time in a more ludicrous 2-3 stop connection with 30 minutes layovers, all of which got cancelled. And I had elite-plus status...

DL sucks, it has lead the race to the bottom for many years, and it continues to lead the industry in ludicrous "enhancements"....

I flew more than 200k eqms on AA last year with no operational problems. I flew DL 1-2 times and fell into major clusterfs.

Widgets

So AA following DL in onboard amenities upgrades and hard products is really leading the race to the bottom... and the operations stats don't lie

nk15

I tried to cancel an electronic DL ticket within the 24-hour risk free policy, the website doesn't work. Called, one hour wait time to call me back. I try to check refund status, website doesn't work, no idea when will get money back. What a miserable embarrassing airline this is, I don't know why I even bother...Wait, I know, I am just trying to get rid of my last few useless skypesos...

Widgets

So are you getting rid of your last SkyMiles, or are you cancelling a ticket?

Orange County Commuter

I spent 24 hours in DFW not too long on an epic AA meltdown. And my all time horror story of the rudest airline employee ever was AA. (It's been a while, she tore up a ticket, threw it in the trash and then claimed I somehow climbed over the check in counter, tore up my own ticket and threw it in her trashcan. She then cursed like a sailor while her supervisor stood beside me and told me, with a straight face, "she's one of my best employees". I really would have hated to meet his worst employee since the "best" was telling customers that she hated her job and that we were all idiots. While I was talking to the supervisor she was berating another customer "you really shouldn't pack two suitcases it's too much work for us" LOL!)

So the "race to the bottom" has competition IMHO.

(But considering we have Spirit out there holding tight onto "bottom" I feel certain both Delta and AA won't make the "worst airline ever" award)



I have been elite on several of them. The grass isn't really greener, it's just different manure. There is not a dramatic difference on any of them IMHO. And for everyone who storms off to another airline from Delta, there's a person who used to fly that airline saying "never again" and storming off to Delta.