or is it just me?

is this because domestic airlines have gutted the experience knowing people want cheap and not quality? Just my personal experiences I have noticed most experiences have gone downhill. This is not about specific employees or experiences but noticing a decline in quality over time. Examples?

Sky club is just a glorified terminal seat. The bar is so understaffed most of the times you have to stand in line for a drink which just does not scream “exclusive experience” to me. Even in hubs most of them are falling apart with broken chairs, dated items, torn furniture, etc. it seems like DL does not invest a dollar back into the product. Back in the day when I was an infrequent travelers I would gladly pay $29 to enter. Now if it wasn’t for the credit card getting me in I would never come.

Medallion phone line. It seemed like the DM desk and even PM used to be WAY better. This week I called because I needed to change a flight but just ended up canceling since I paid under $200. This was the end of the call “ok it’s done *click* please rate the agent blah blah blah”

it it seems like there are more computers by two or three fold compared to employees staffing any bag check areas (regular, special line, sky priority line) it’s a problem at all not just one type. I feel like it’s going into target seeing 49 check out lines and only 3 are open. Maybe DL is taking a page from Target?

i am certain I could keep going but this is what I have noticed as a trend over some time now.

This post is meant as a legitimate discussion and if others have noticed a downward trend and not meant to be just a gripe session about one flight or one experience.

my question is over the last 10+ years people all say “how can DL do this X change?” And then they do something to make X look like nothing. Where is rock bottom for the overall experience? :)

Also believe me any time I have to fly AA or UA I completely recognize that DL is the best of the 3 by far

Regarding the quality of customer service interactions, I think as the economy improves post-2008, it’s harder for companies to keep talented employees. There are more competitors and other industries now offering compensation that competes with Delta. And more experienced baby boomers are retiring.

edit: and I’m not saying I think things have gotten worse. These are just factors to consider that have a negative pressure on the labor economy as a whole.

thats a really good point I never thought about before.

Yep, everything was better back in the day and it’s the company, not you. Definitely no way you’ve gotten used to flying and only notice the bad stuff now, or gotten grumpier with age.

Couldn’t it be both? :)

I’m DM and have been for more than 5 years and have been traveling hard on NW and then DL. I think things are generally better, with some decline and some improvement. I think the SC is a good example. The food is way better, there are more drink options but they are more crowded. I think if you look you see something like that across the whole DL service experience.

This is my 8th year as a medallion, first as a Platinum. I was gold six of the other seven years and one year as silver. In other words, I missed the golden age of elite hood and I’ve only known elite status post-merger.

My my opinion is the overall onboard experience has gotten vastly better over the past, say, 17 years, but there are definitely parts of being elite that have declined even since I first became silver. For one, I think onboard catering in domestic F has definitely fallen. On the flip side, I think catering on intercontinental Y has improved. But what has absolutely declined is the quality of the phone agents I get. Even as a PM, it feels like half the time I’m getting a phone agent who knows maybe a third as much about Delta policies as I do, and that is incredibly frustrating. I remember once when I was silver, my
flight home Fromartz AUS to MSP was going to be delayed about 3 or 4 hours, and the agent immediately suggested rebooking me on AA via DFW. I know policies have changed and other things have happened that that’s much less likely now, but just a few weeks ago I called to get my wife/daughters preferred seats moved to new preferred seats closer to mine/my son’s C+ seats (separate PNRs for the UGs, of course) and was told it couldn’t be done. Even though it was a phone agent who’d helpfully put us together in the first place. A quick tweet took care of it. But seriously, the quality of Delta phone agents, even on the platinum line, really has cratered. I suspect the booming economy and relative lack of joblessness is probably to blame.

My two cents.

I have had excellent experiences all around dealing with all DL employees across the entire company. I wish I had more JWD certs to give out.