The Situation

OP said "thick layer of white dog hair and some urine." There is no guarantee it was from the dog

charlesdemar

I can at least attest to the Wifi complaints - at least 30% of the flights I've taken in the past 90 days have had wifi issues or the wifi kicks on with 20 min left in the flight. When I write in, I get the "talk to GoGo, sorry, nothing we can do" line as well. Obviously, GoGo is no hurry to help me and since my company pays for the wifi, a credit is pretty meaningless to me. In the past, at least they told me they would discuss this with their vendor. Now it's like they are just tired of hearing about it.

Robert Leach

Immense amount of whining in this thread. Honestly.

My approach when GoGo doesn't work is to ask the flight attendant for some miles. Sometimes you have to remind her/him that they can do that using the tablet they carry.

I am in the midst of a five day/8 flight trip. I don't see the sky falling. Food is always hit or miss and has been for decades (but the burger sliders I just had FLL-DTW for lunch were excellent FWIW). Flight attendant performance always varies and has for decades, but around 90% of the time it is excellent. Check-in experiences vary, but I don't recall any disastrous lines in a while.

I think that, overall, the carrier is doing a pretty good job managing a very complex operation on a global scale yet still delivering personal service a substantial part of the time.

FullFare

I'm sorry: Either you are a shill for DL or what you're reporting is a straightforward statistical aberrancy. There is no question the service has deteriorated (I have flown over 250 medallion miles past 3 yrs, each with 15K+ spend). I also fly the max on AA, and have been EXP from forever with 12K+ spend every year.

The GoGo service on DL has been in the toilet for quite some time. The flight attendants all know it, and I can't believe DL doesn't know it. They do. I, for one, need the GoGo to do stock trades and I have blown well over $100K opportunities over the past 2 years because of GoGo poor service. No one will likely bleed for me, I'm sure, so save the snide comments.

So, all I can do is walk with my feet, and I have. I only tried DL 3 yrs ago because UA stunk so bad. I quickly went from 0 to 1 millions miles in that time. I was liking DL when it started out. Earlier this year I watched low level brain farts like Bastian and his guys taking newspapers out of the sky clubs. I mean, come on now, newspapers? I and others complained. I saw I could get the WSJ at SFO on my last flight the other day to JFK.

It is painful that the airline industry has consolidated so much, or I and others could make DL feel the loss of our patronage. Regardless, I figure things may eventually equilibrate. But make no mistake, the DL service has gone down over the past 2 years, whilst the stock has done well (I have been in and out of it many times). My financial advisor, when I complained to him, told me: "Why do you keep a position in a stock you keep criticizing the product that you are using"?
I didn't have a comeback for that. So, wife and I have each over 3mm miles to burn, since we quit flying DL. Trying to give them to grandkids and employees of mine. We each even have 300k medallion miles. I'm not sure what will happen to them since we will barely have $1- $2 K spend this year (flying only routes where DL has a monopoly, like SFO-DTW).

Aside from the cheap wine, consistently crummy food, and bad wireless, the thing that pains me is that I perceive the carrier doesn't care, and I thought when I started out with them that they did.

AANYC1981

Delta definitely knows their WiFi reliability is not good and they are actively trying to fix things in concert with Gogo. Not trying to make excuses but reporting the facts.

btonkid12345

This 1000%. DM Desk used to have the BEST agents who tried to bend heaven and earth to help you if you were nice. Now most are unfamiliar with how to make basic bookings (I had to call FOUR TIMES to find a DIAMOND DESK agent who knew how to make a multi city award booking, and had to correct multiple that it isn't a stopover unless you are > 24 hours in an international location - can't believe I had to correct DM Desk agents on that)

Exactly this. And you mentioned SFO-DTW...good luck finding that nonstop at a reasonable miles prices. DL has completely destroyed SkyMiles by not imposing a ceiling on redemptions - its truly insanity to see a domestic redemption (regardless of the exact flights and class of service) pricing at 200K or more SkyMiles. INSANITY.

pvn

I have literally never gotten a rude agent on the DM or PM desk. I've gotten agents who wouldn't do what I asked (when I asked for a rule to be bent) and I've also had agents who didn't understand the rules/policies correctly, but never once have I had anything even approaching rude.

3Cforme

Bend being the operative word. Diamond agents, too, are responsible for implementing fare rules, SkyMiles rules, and the Contract of Carriage.

People filled with hyperbole, who can't manage objective fact, and who lack the emotional maturity to accept rules apply to them find a place on my FlyerTalk Edit Ignore List. Kid, indeed.

kcmd

I used to fly DL exclusively but last year noted some, if not more, of what other here have stated, I decided to give AA a try, better flights for me anyway for where I travel out of DCA/IAD. So far I've been pretty happy with AA, some minor travel issues were handled well..and some major ones were handled very well. And at the time I didn't even have any status with them other than traveling in F. It's only a few months but so far so good. Candidly I don't except a world of difference, but I'm willingly to explore the other options.

AANYC1981

AA is swiftly catching up to DL despite the merger lead DL had....very soon AAs planes will be much better than DLs 767s or A350s (767 with a door) and domestically there isn’t even a contest. DL is awful on domestic premium cabin.....they’re so cheap they can’t board a pre-meal nut appetizer as one small example.

MCO Flyer

Oh please, I guess you will enjoy those new 737 MAX 8s with 29-30 inch seat pitch in Y with no AVOD and less MCE seats available. F is the same as DL with 37 inch seat pitch with no AVOD. I'll take a DL 767 over a AA 787 in Y any day and if I can secure Row 1 in D1 on a 767, the seat isn't that bad. The A350 suite is a full 2-3 inches wider than the 767 seat, so I'm not sure where your judging your comments at there. DL does a much better job at the interior of their airplanes than Discount Dougie and AA.

ND76

I've noticed this too; it seems like the experienced people who staffed the diamond desk in the past and were very deferential and really helpful have been replaced by people who get paid for 8 hours a day of "work" whether or not they provide any useful service. This, of course, flows from management; the economy must be so good now that, if they lose a loyal customer, so what, there are 3 in line to take their place. This is not always the case with the people who answer the DM line phones, but it is a creeping problem.

There are little things going on at Delta that have slightly diminished the experience for me; very little things, if you've flown this airline as long as I have. On the other side, they have upped their game with technology, such as the RFID bag tags, telling you on the Delta app where your bag is, giving their SkyClub agents hand held scanners to check you in (they have these now at DCA, JFK and SLC, as well as at ATL B and LAX).

Mister Nice

Interesting topic - I have found things to be generally very good inflight. However, the airport experience has been very hit or miss for me. From my observations, could be totally random or wrong or depend on timing, it appears to me that check-in staff have been reduced at many airports. It is kind of disconcerting to see 20 ticketing desk podiums being staffed by just a handful of people. I haven't had any trouble accessing Sky Priority check in areas but have noticed longer lines in the SP area and have become frustrated when the lines stall as the agent has to deal with complex issues and there is insufficient help to open a new SP position or pull SP over to the main check-in area. Onboard wifi has indeed seemed to become less reliable. I don't have to use telephone agents very often BUT am actually INCREDULOUS that there are still issues with coding upgrade certs properly- just automate the darn process and let us check availability and apply them online- this should not be so hard and saves everyone time and money .

btonkid12345

I think this is a result of cost cutting thanks to Bastian and Hauenstein. Nowhere is it worse than ATL when at best half the stations are open and the agents don't even say "Thank for you for XX status." This is their worldwide hub after all, and the world's busiest airport - where you think they'd want to set the example.

youvesaiditall

I mean the service being out must have saved you some big $$ on a few trades, no? Or are all your trades money makers? Or just the ones that GoGo screws up?

Personally I have rarely had issues on GoGo--even flying a plethora of ancient MD aircraft. Is it fast--god no. But it does the trick for e-mail and messaging. Same experience when flying AA.