Welcome speech - attendant discretion or driven by analytics?
 

On a flight this morning, an agent went through a pretty long drawn out (45 seconds+) speech thanking the military (even though it appeared that there were no active duty military on the flight) and even asked the passengers to clap to show their appreciation.

I am not a fan of this sort of spectacle at all and don't understand the societal fascination with thanking a specific profession - but that's not the point of this post.

My question is whether or not Delta FAs have full discretion (within the bounds of a minimum speech) or if the speech is prompted based on analytics? I ask because I have never once heard an FA do this speech on a Monday AM business traveler heavy flight - but this particular flight was chock full (at least 60-70 people) of older folks on some sort of group excursion.

Is this a case of Delta prompting the FA to say something based on flight demographics (older people = more likely to be pro-military = build positive emotional connection to Delta through transference of emotions) or is this purely an FA making a judgement call about the same? I'm pretty sure I've had this FA before on the same route and she did not make this speech before so I don't think it's just something she normally does.

I'm genuinely curious as I do notice different thanks (whether million miles are included, Diamonds are referenced explicitly, and so on). Just curious how much of it is agent discretion/personalization versus Delta prompted based on demographics.

Does anyone know?

It's based on statistical fact. Seems like post-Vietnam there was a cultural realignment due to the harsh treatment of Vietnam veterans that has created more of a pro-military culture. Support for the military is almost twice as high among 55+ than 18-34 for example. Example Gallup survey.

Does anyone know the answer to the question at hand? I don't want this thread to focus on the rightness of the military appreciation thank you, rather whether it is FA discretion or if FAs are prompted to do it based on their devices.

To answer OP's question: I don't know for certain, but I highly doubt that they have any sort of analytics that indicate what kind of welcome message to recite in the cabin. I would guess that this was just a member of the cabin crew going outside of their normal spiel, whether acceptable/permitted by DL or not.

I dont think soliciting applause is appropriate whether sanctioned by DL or not. I have friends who have done tours of service and I can say ALL hated and loathed having to travel in uniform because everybody wanted to thank them and make it a big deal.



Nobody says are there any sales people on board??? Everybody let's take a moment to thank them for their service. Are there any doctors on board who have participated in doctors without borders? Lets take a moment to thank them for their service. Any CIA agents on board.... I could keep going on :) (nobody take offense all of these were meant to be tongue in cheek)

Yes, I've noticed this too - FAs are definitely prompted to do things for certain passengers (and it seems to vary between flights). I've personally never once been thanked for being a Diamond Medallion but I have been thanked for being a corporate customer twice (which I think is funny). It was clear the FA was going down a short list on her app (far shorter than the list of corporate travelers almost certainly on that flight). I doubt attendants are expected to do that every flight so something must have triggered her to do that.

On the SMF upgrade - that is Interesting.. and unless you were flying at a very off hour (e.g., Saturday flight) that is the only reasonable explanation for getting an upgrade on that flight as a PM. I'm a Diamond that usually flies that route on M fares and have never once cleared except once due to some IRROPS (and when in an especially bad Y seat I've even applied RUCs a few times). Suppose it could be a fluke but that is a hard upgrade and does seem likely to be a surprise/delight thing.

Umm, did it not occur to you that perhaps the 60-70 people you identified as travelling as a group were going to some kind of war memorial event? Groups are often organized to go and attend some kind of memorial for a specific battle or to a certain place, etc. That would have been my first and I think obvious guess. Even if the flight were domestic (you don't say) it could have been a bunch of veterans and spouses headed for their 'Annual Regimental Re-Union' for example.

I'm not sure how that's relevant to my question. Either it was Delta prompted or it was flight attendant discretion. Presumably if it was a group that she found out was for a memorial service then it would be FA discretion (I doubt Delta's system would have picked up on it whereas I could see it using demographic data).

To answer your question, though, I don't think this is the case. The nametags the folks are wearing are for a company that seems to specialize in leisure tours.

It was to Portland - and as mentioned the nametags imply a tour group that specializes in leisure tour events.

And the implication you're proposing is that the FA was made aware of the purpose of the trip and is emblematic of FA discretion and not driven by analytics? Whether or not the tour group was going to a memorial service or not is not super relevant otherwise.

Back to the question -

Yes, Delta collects whole lot of segmentation data about its passengers - enough to surprise you.
I tend to believe that they have now taken this to next level and are trying to use this insight to encourage positive behavior i.e spend more on Delta

I find it more offensive when the FAs take their time to thank DMs and Pms but forget about Golds and Silvers.

Last year, I was heading back to Florida on what was Spring Break getaway day for the GRR local K-12 school districts. I'm guessing 80%+ infrequent leisure travelers on the first leg because the FA on the GRR-ATL flight gave a 2-3 minute talk on the Skymiles program and why you should sign up, Delta miles never expire, etc. and there was surprisingly no mention of the co-branded AmEx credit card involved.

So there apparently are other targeted messages the FAs are encouraged to give.

If this is true I think that answers my question. I doubt any FA would normally give that speech of that length and detail out of their own discretion. It seems like there is some sort of prompting that goes on with their devices to tell them what to say/focus on.

Probably too long ago to remember, but did the speech sound "canned" (i.e., read from the device) or was it more organic from memory?

Leisure tour companies often organized tours for veterans groups.

I seem to remember thinking it sounded like she was going down a list of bullet points, so probably something from their tablet/phones being covered.

could have also been a new/trainee FA. they just read the script that is handed to them. one time on some regional airline (CR200 so only one FA as I recall), there was a huge book she was literally reading out of for the safety speech and all the other nonsense they fill the airwaves with. the more experienced FAs who have the speeches down tend to ad lib a lot more.

that said, i'm confident DL has the ability to push messages/manifestos/canned speeches/what have you to FAs and probably expects them to read it, perhaps even going so far as having "secret traveler auditors" to check if they actually do. whether or not they exercise this ability, i am not sure.

They are not forgetting anything ...

As for the OP's observation. The more the FA talk the less people listen and will pay attention. People started paying attention to the safety briefing because Delta changed it up enough that it was entertaining to watch.

Not as entertaining as Turkish Airlines though.... :)

Also I find the new one about the uniforms to be HORRIBLY boring and makes me zone out.

Hah - that's pretty funny. Completely off topic but I refuse to fly Turkish though. They're incredibly petty about IRROPS. Paid J ticket connecting to a *A partner in BKK - a maintenance delay in IST resulted in me missing the light. Next flight out to my destination was 16 hours later the next day. Neither TK or TG were willing to rebook me on any of the dozen or so non-S* flights (even in Economy) because their "systems wouldn't let them." I said fine, I'll book it myself and ask for reimbursement. Booked a $156 AirAsia flight (obviously in Economy versus the lie-flat J I had on TG) so I would turn a 16 hour delay into a 3 hour one. Filed for reimbursement and it got rejected (and no refund for the unused portion of the original ticket). What a joke!

I guess you think 45 seconds is a lengthy speech? I hear messages for close to 3-4 minutes on DL all the time and it does sound like they are reading from a script. I don't sit in FC so I cannot see the person making the announcements, to see if (s)he is actually reading from a script, but it does always follow the same patterns.

Turkish Airlines claims they follow EU261 but have no legal need to do so (unless flying ex-EU). Turkey has its own EU261-like regulation but is very ambiguous about connections. I filed a complaint with the Turkish regulator, followed up three times, and never got a response. So clearly enforcement is lacking - I assume TK is too connected to the increasingly autocratic state for any real regulatory backlash.

To complicate things further, it was UA ticket stock. UA tells me that Turkey is responsible to dole out compensation (and as far as I know they are correct). UA offered me 25K miles or $250 voucher as goodwill but I declined them because they are not responsible. Similarly, a credit card chargeback just impacts UA, not TK - and I'm not about to risk my UA account over $150.

Thai told me that TK is liable but offered me the great circle value of the total price of the ticket I did not fly as a voucher, but my total flight was about 12K miles and the last leg was only 500 miles so it was both trivial and I do not expect to fly Thai again in the next year so I declined the comp.

TK says they got me to my connecting destination "with only a 1h55m delay" and that they took care of me by offering a hotel, food vouchers, and next available flight rebooking (which I declined).

It's partly my fault for a complex itin (UA ticket stock with TK and TG legs) but I was flabbergasted that TK would fight me over a $150 comp claim (which was less than the value of the hotel and food vouchers I was offered). I didn't even try to claim the comp for the taxi trom BKK to DMG.

Point is, cute video but don't fly TK unless it's a nonstop. Sorry to run offtopic!

For something completely unrelated to the flight or Delta yes, I think 45 seconds is lengthy (and it may have been longer, just wanted to make it clear it wasn't just a one liner).

It is entirely possible the passenger manifest included military members on official travel. The different military branches go back and forth on uniform requirements when traveling on official travel.

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... :rolleyes:

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.

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. :)

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" :eek:

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)

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.

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.

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.

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)