javabytes

I stuck with Delta for 8 years as a PM/DM despite living in Chicago and having many more convenient options on UA/AA. The reasons? Considerably better operations, and excellent domestic upgrades compensated for lackluster award availability. Neither of those reasons hold true* anymore. So I left. But those were the reasons I stuck around despite the other two legacy airlines having hubs in my home city.

*DL may still be the best operationally, but AA and UA have improved considerably so there is no longer a real differentiator here.

DeltaFirst

Three words: Customer Service & Culture
I have been a FF with Delta seriously over the past 10 years. I fly mostly international for work. I've been a Diamond every year since it was implemented. Not as happy with the revenue based way miles are distributed now but that seems to be prevalent in most FF programs or will be. I've had a lot of success upgrading to business on many international flights, I've never wasted a GUC, save them for those long flights to Sydney, Johannesburg and Dubai when there was a direct flight from ATL. I use miles for Y,B,M,S,H,Q,K classes.

When I fly with my wife, usually on domestic flights, we fly first class. I pay $ for my seat and use miles for hers. I heavily use the Delta AMEX Reserve card, the companion certificate gets used every year. I squeeze out all the benefits that come with a $60K spend. I like that Skymiles never expire.

Can't say I've ever had a bad interaction with a Delta representative in person or on the phone. Courtesy and professionalism are consistent and on point, sometimes it's surprising the way situations evolve and turn out. In hindsight, I'm left with the thought that these are my kind of people, overall they're very personable people, I appreciate that. Early on I tried to find that connection with Continental and then United, wasn't the same.

If I have a grievance, it lies with the Skyteam Alliance. The interoperability between Delta, KLM & Air France are more times than not, very seamless. Not true with the others though I've read Virgin is getting better.

nomiiiii

As a Seattle resident I love Alaska Airlines (MVP/MVPGold typically on it every year) and its always my first choice if options are comparable, but with Delta growing here, more and more I've been booking with Delta since they tend to be undercutting the price often.

However, the biggest issue is that Alaska (and Southwest) have very generous change/cancel and same-day change policies, even for non-status members.

Having such a generous change/cancel policy is extremely important, and unless Delta starts charging less than $200/$75 for far-out-changes/same-day-changes, I can't really fully use them.

w4hagen

I've only recently (last three years) been in a position that requires a fair amount of travel, but in that time I've flown close to 200,000 miles with Delta, about 80,000 with American, and around 20,000 miles with United. I've also flown the odd flight on B6, Cathay, and WN. All of this travel was booked in coach.

In my experience the customer service and in flight experience with Delta is miles ahead of American and United. As Platinum flying out of Boston I've been pleasantly surprised with my upgrade percentage (including, shockingly, making BOS-LAX on a Monday morning and then later that day getting the bump to HNL). But even when I am in coach (more often than not) I found the flight crew to be significantly friendlier and courteous.

American and United have both been pretty hit or miss for me. I've had several odd minor things happen with each carrier that just left a bad taste in my mouth. None of these were major issues, but small things that contribute to an overall unfavorable view of the airlines.

My only real regret about investing so much of my travel time in Delta is how hard it has been to get any real value out of Skymiles. I've been banking for an upcoming honeymoon, and even with close to 400,000 Skymiles it's hard to find a business class itinerary that works well.

tennislover9

Reliability and "free" delta skyclub access with amex plat.

Focus on southeast US for my travels make them a winner as well.

Also skyclubs in general blow UA and AA out of water.

chollie

I keep flying Delta because of the people. When I had status, I always ran out of my 'job well done' certificates and had to substitute personal thanks and a followup email.

Great people make a flight better, even in coach. Great people handle IRROPS better. Great people just perform better generally, IME.

apodo77

Live north of PBI and it is the closest airport by 45 minutes.
Travel all over the US but rarely to the Northeast and with 11-12 flights to ATL daily it's a no brainer to use them primarily.

As a plat upgrades are rare but overall I'm ok with an aisle seat anywhere on the plane.

beachmouse

I live in the small market US Southeast where Delta has about 60% of the passenger count from Podunk field. Price tends to be pretty much a wash if I can book 21+ days out. (American tends to come up cheapest for close-in cash booking)

Planes- most of Delta's flights out of Podunk are Mad Dogs or 717s. I can tolerate a United Express or American Embraer 135 for significant cost savings, but would rather not if there was no financial incentive for it.

IRROPS- Delta will escalate it a few customer service levels to find me a flight on a partner airline through an unplanned country during ATL ground stop recovery. United has problems rebooking me onto a functional IAH-DEN rebooking with tons of open seats

I've come to learn to stop worrying and love the ATL. And DTW is very, very nice too. I do not get the love for Charlotte some people have. For me, the E gate area there has all the charm of the Paris Metro system. IAH isn't awful, but I just like ATL better.

sethMCOflyer

I've always had a much better experience than on AA/UA. I do much prefer B6 but they don't have the same selection of destinations.

FlyingUnderTheRadar

Ditto ... on average they do a what I expect. Sometimes I see good, sometimes bad. I try to call both the good and bad.

As for the merger, for some it has been three decades ...

shukar

+1
+ Ability to get to DM with AMEX spend

cmd320

I by no means stick exclusively to DL, however the following factors cause me to sometimes find DL to be the best option:

-cheap F fares for short-medium distance flying relative to AA/UA
-decent network of domestic flights from Florida to places I want/need to go
-relative consistent operational and customer service (relative to AA/UA)
-lounge access via Amex
-least 737s (hate them) of the other major domestic airlines

GagaPilot

I grew up in the FL Panhandle, and like someone above correctly referred to it as "podunk," it is most definitely DL territory.

My closest airport at home is ECP. We have DL, WN, and UA express. I've found DL and WN pricing to be within $30 or so on routes they both serve. I always prefer DL to earn Skymiles (as devalued as they are), but most importantly for the ability to confirm a seat assignment in advance. This, to me, is very valuable when traveling with a companion. UA only has 2 flights a day on RJs, not at good times, and usually is significantly more expensive.

Go east towards TLH and we have DL, AA (eagle), and 3M (Silver). AA has good frequency, but the fares are always out of sight. Silver is a total wreck and unreliable. Better to take the DL flight north to the ATL and then go back south to central/south FL.

DHN to the north is exclusively DL connection.

Further west lie VPS and PNS. Too far of a drive in my case to consider.

Now that I live in ANC I'm still on DL to get home to see family, and the vacation routes (both domestic and international) I am researching for the eventual trip look to be best on DL. If I decide to vacation on the west coast somewhere I might consider AS (especially to HNL). But my company has me fly to SEA twice a year on AS and to me the planes always have a strange smell and are stuffy.

The only time I truly was disappointed in DL was the storm meltdown this past April. I was among the thousands stranded in SEA and the entire vibe of the SEA employees were that they just gave up. I ended up booking a one-way on WN to get to ECP and payed for business select (it was only $28 more) and enjoyed early boarding and free drinks.

The only thing I really wish DL would do is to lower (remove is not likely) their change fees. I can totally understand a difference in fare, but the change fee can be rough. Oh, and make Skymiles great again!

kavok

Previous posts have coveredalot of reasons, but for me the biggest reason is the Delts Hubs.

I end up flying between a lot of midsize and smaller metro areas, which means connecting. And while that also means I am flying regionals (more than I would care to), it also means choosing between connections in DTW, MSP, SEA or ORD, EWR, PHL, SFO.

And in the battle between who has the best connection hubs, DL wins and it is not even close.

GRALISTAIR

I have home and family in UK which means I travel internationally regularly so realistically that leaves DL, AA, UA and the ST/OW/*A counterparts not WN etc

I got DM and am addicted to the status and extremely regular upgrades and OpUps
I love the Choice Benefits especially GUCs
Much nicer staff generally IMHO - the people really are great -as a poster says above, the culture and customer service are just great - I go out of my way to fly DL and will spend upwards of 200$ more per ticket to fly them - my wife will as well.
Better service and more comfortable in Y than AA or UA
Much better experience in IRROPS
When in F, I think the food is better than AA or UA. It is about even internationally but again I prefer DL operationally reliable