evergrn

I've observed some problems flying without status on DL, but I don't fly enough within US (plus I'm Silver with UA) to know if these are issues that are unique to DL or not. I'd love to get feedback particularly for people who fly DL and either AS or UA a lot.

I only average ~20 flight segments a year for domestic US travel. I fly more internationally. I'm based in SEA. Within US, I've been flying DL, AS, UA about the same, although DL more often than others over the past year. UA will always be at least one program of choice, since most of my foreign travels is on Star. But the reason I'm posting this question is I'm trying to decide on my strategies for US-domestic travels going forward and see if I should make a concerted effort with DL (immediate agenda for me is deciding whether to ditch my AS card and get either DL Gold or AMEx Platinum card). I realize there are other things to consider such as mileage plan and partners. But for now, I'd like to get an idea as to whether these issues below are more prominent with DL or more of industry-wide thing.

1). Unregulated boarding. Yesterday I saw a family of 7 with 6 rollerboards go in before anyone else, and the youngest of the 5 kids must have been at least 4. Thursday I was zone 3 and I continued to wait while zone 2 boarding went on endlessly until I noticed that a bunch of people lined up and being let in were Basic Economy (zone 4 on their BPs).

2). Purchase DL Comfort, but still get raw end of the stick. After the aforementioned situation on Thursday, I decided I'm not doing zone 3 anymore and actually purchased Comfort seat (which I guess is DL's version of Economy Plus). My BP said I was now in Sky zone. Yayyy!! But then so many people boarded during the Premium/Medallion stage (not sure if some of these were unregulated lices). By the time I boarded in the Sky zone, there was no overhead bin space up front and I ended up needing to put my bag 2-3 rows back from my row 10 seat. This tells me that DL gives higher priority to upgraded Comfort pax than to those who paid for it.

3). DL pulls the plug on new routes incredibly fast, making them unreliable. This is actually based on what I've observed of their international routes, but I wonder if this extends to domestic US. Their SEA-KIX experiment next year will be like the 3rd time in the past decade, with each prior one lasting less than 2 years. SEA-HND, NRT-KIX, SLC-NRT all lasted less than 2 years.

4). Flights to/from SEA have great service, but everything else is either average or terrible. I've found SEA crews to be good to excellent on DL. Yesterday's SEA crew on the MSP-SEA provided CX level of attentiveness. But in my limited experience, MSP crew is hit and miss, ATL crew is downright horrible. [DL seems to be really trying hard to capture SEA by offering free Y meals on transcon flights to/from SEA, etc. If/when this courting period ends, I wonder if SEA crew will also deteriorate.]

vincentharris

MarkP24

In general, my experience with Delta is that it far exceeds the competition. It sounds like these may be isolated incidents, and dependent on gate agents. I can't comment on your experience at SEA as I don't fly in and out of there frequently. In general, boarding is quite regulated, and gate agents do send those who try to board early back. C+ is a better product than the competition, although my experience has been as receiving it complimentary and boarding as a Platinum.

Mr. Tickets

wxman22

I am pretty much a DL person, since every time i try someone else, I'm disappointed.

it sounds like you are spreading yourself too thin and not able to attend real status anywhere because of it.

How often do you fly international?

Daitheflu84

Delta FO (Silver Medallion) here, also based in SEA. I agree that the Seattle crews are typically excellent and that's one reason why I fly them religiously now. Havent had a ton of problems with MSP crew, though some of the DTW folks can be downright surly.

As far as unregulated boarding goes, I think most boarding processes end up this way, particularly with the families with lots of kids. I will say that I've seen Delta GAs stop gate lice from boarding improperly on multiple occasions.

Regarding the # of folks boarding prior to SKY, Seattle can be hit or miss. I typically get upgraded to C+ and subsequently get to board fairly early on, but sometimes it also seems like half the plane boards with the PREM cabin/Diamond Medallion group. I'm sure it's a lot worse in ATL/DTW.

All in all, I am very happy with Delta and think they're excellent domestically. And as a newly minted Silver, I'm getting upgraded to FC or C+ about 80% of the time (8 of 10 segments since achieving status), which I think is pretty decent.

evergrn

I'm not sure if I follow you. Did you mean to say that the only people sitting in Comfort seats getting higher boarding priority than paying Comfort customers (like me) are Diamond Medallion who got upgraded? Other elites who're upgraded from regular coach to Comfort should have similar boarding priority as me, no?

If this is correct, then who were all those Comfort zone pax that boarded before me and filled up all the overhead bins? Is it possible that they were all Diamond Medallion? I lined up as soon as GA called Sky. I was one of the first 5 people to line up after they called for Sky priority.

evergrn

Okay that's good to know. Btw my experiences weren't just at SEA. One was at SEA, another was at MSP. But it's good to know that you feel DL boarding process is no less policed than other airlines.

evergrn

Okay I guess different experience for different folks. Yeah it was complete disarray two days ago. It's not like I fly any one particular airline a lot, but I recall EVA and UA and ANA being very good about sending people back for walk of shame. By the time I boarded after all those BE pax with rollerboards, there was barely any overhead bin space left anywhere and there were still a good 30 people boarding after me. The whole time I never heard call for zone 3 or 4.

evergrn

You are right. I'm spreading myself too thin. I fly TPAC to Asia usually 4x a year. 80% of my Asia trips are on Star carriers.
My international travel pretty much gets me Silver on UA. From SEA, it's difficult to fly UA domestically. SFO is about it for me, and for some reason my company's corporate travel does not seem to favor UA. Well I don't think I fly enough domestically to get me status on any other airline. But I'd still like to be treated better even without status (via credit card, etc) and I'm trying to figure out my options.

evergrn

Ok this is very helpful.
As far as DL GA stopping lice from premature boarding, do you think this is enforced more often than not at SEA?

It's alarming to hear that it's common with DL for tons of people to board even before the Sky group. The few times I do fly UA domestically each year, I do tend to fly E+ (UA's version of Comfort) but I don't ever recall any issues with overhead bin on UA. Is it that there's just tons of Diamond Medallion members (I don't know much about DL's program) or is it again boarding enforcement issue?

Daitheflu84

I would say that neither of these things have been an issue for me. I'm a new medallion, but I've been consistently flying Delta for a couple years prior to that and never noticed these occurring more than once in a long while. From what I've seen and experienced, there arent as any DMs in SEA as there are in MSP, DTW and of course ATL. I suspect this is one reason why I have a better than 50% UG ratio, which even Platinum Medallions struggle with achieving in the aforementioned hubs.

garykung

Not unique. FWIW - boarding abuse starts becoming a norm, although the degree of impact varies by airlines.

Not unique. This happens with UA as well. Not sure with AA.

Unique. While I am not a DL flyer, based on my observation, DL cuts routes based on straightly profitability, i.e. DL will cut routes as soon as they are not making a profit as expected. While I won't question DL's ability to make a profit, DL starts losing customers because of the network issue.

Unique. Most of the DL hubs are non-competitive, unlike other airlines. So there is no incentive for DL to improve services.

aero0729

DL exceeds in only one area and zero others. In flight Entertainment. Everything else is terrible.

ATLMike1234

Help me find these other airlines so I can fly them - they're not UA and AA, which have poor service out of the majority of their hubs regardless of competition level.