ethernal

On another "curious Delta analytics note" - I have never once been thanked as a Diamond medallion on any flight. My partner I was flying with (on an award ticket booked with my account) was thanked for being a Gold medallion by a flight attendant on a flight we were both on yesterday. I couldn't help but chuckle given that I've never been thanked as a Diamond and my partner is only Gold because I gifted it.. and since I was in the aisle seat the flight attendant literally had to lean over me to thank my partner.

I guess Delta's algorithms decided that my partner is a more at-risk customer than I am...

SDQBound

I've been thanked several times, including a personalized card by the purser and captain a year ago on a JFK-CDG flight. But I have noticed FAs consulting their handled device and going to specific passengers to thank them. So yes, it seems that analytics are there, but knowing how much FAs rush the service these days, I would be curious to know if only a portion of them take these analytics into account.

ethernal

I imagine it is 100% driven by "the list". As the FA was leaning over I saw my partner's name on the device and my partner's seat number (as well as another 10 or so names - potentially more as that was all that fit on the screen). I was not on the list (at least the portion of the list that was visible, but it appeared to be ordered by seat number so I would have been on it).

Agree that they might not always have the time to do it, but I imagine they are given a prescriptive list by Delta that is a subset of the total passenger itinerary.

My guess is that either (a) Delta sees that most of my partner's travel is leisure and therefore views my partner as more needing care and love as opposed to me who they assume will take the best flight irrespective of cost or airline or (b) my partner is a "newer" medallion and therefore should get more attention as opposed to an established one like myself. Although that latter hypothesis is questionable since I have never gotten attention at any stage.

Zorak

Could be a combination of a lot of factors, so hard to draw firm conclusions from scattered data points. Fun to speculate though I've gotten whatever this is once, with the FA saying "you're one of our targeted customers today"

You mentioned your partner was booked using your miles -- were you on the same PNR? You'd think that, even if their algorithm had semi-randomly selected the lower-ranking member of the traveling party for recognition, that it would show you were traveling together to avoid just this sort of awkwardness (I mean, relative to the whole thing being a bit of an awkward exercise to begin with)

garykung

I would say it is more practical that DL can give out free F&Bs to military, instead of "thank you for your service". But again - as a profit-making business, we all know what the result will be.

FWIW - if you want to appreciate the service of our military, do something practical rather than using your mouth only.

ethernal

Yep - we were on the same PNR. And that was exactly my thought (and why I thought it was humorous) - it's already awkward enough, doubly so when the higher ranking person on the same PNR is ignored.

Agree that it is a combination of factors and that speculation is a bit silly - but as you said, it is fun to hypothesize.

HWGeeks

I never been thanked because of the handheld but since I fly a flight once or twice a month and normally it's the same FAs they stop to greet me when they are off the plane and spot me at SDQ or when I board they come over and chit chat for a minute or two.

I actually prefer that to a forced computer driven hello.

TPAtoAnywhere

I have been thanked as she consulted the handheld. I'm closing in on 5 MM butt-in-seat miles and she mentioned it. Thanked me for being so loyal. Asked how long it took to rack up this kind of raw mileage (28 years btw)