BenA

Yes. Delta’s most senior employees who will be last to be furloughed are also the ones qualified on their largest aircraft, so unless this drags on long enough to justify requalifying then on different aircraft types, redeployment of bigger aircraft will continue, IMHO.

This will likely result in consolidation of two narrowbody flights into one widebody in most cases.

BenA

Anyone know if the reductions are already loaded or if they are still coming? None of my upcoming trips are affected yet, but they are also all international flights on major trunk routes...

sydneyracquelle

I tried to book some dummy flights this morning and several flights each day are completely sold out in all fare classes even though the seatmap shows 50%+ availability. These are the flights that will be cancelled.

ClipperDelta

Some of them are definitely loaded - e.g., JFK-TLV has been suspended from tomorrow (3/11) on for two weeks for now....the JFK-BOM frequency cuts (to 4x weekly) starting in April have been loaded...etc.

xliioper

They will most likely get loaded this coming Schedule Change Saturday. A few were loaded last Saturday and you can find them in the OAG Changes update on airliners.net. At this point, many just appear to have zero'd out inventory.

sdfcardinals

From my understanding from a Delta pilot buddy, they feel pretty confident that mandatory retirements should negate the need to furlough pilots. He also said that for a furlough to make financial sense, the pilots would need to be out closer to two years. He is unsure about the flight attendant manpower situation, however.

defrosted

Thanks for the tip.... I tried searching for my flight next week.

Good News: It isn't sold out.
Bad News: It is 10% CHEAPER than when I bought it!

Intl359Widget

If you're still traveling next week then this is an excellent opportunity to take advantage of the change fee waiver and re-fare your itinerary to save money for future travel.

jrl767

provided the purchase date was inside the waiver window ... I have a couple of UA segments toward the end of the month that I booked on 29 Feb, but their window starts 3 Mar

defrosted

I realize I could HUCA but my first attempt was a no. Agent said you could only cancel and apply for future travel not on the same flight. She could cancel and rebook on same flight but she would have to apply the change fee, which would negate the fare savings and then some.

She told me the waiver was only for people not wanting to fly right now.

In reading the update on their website it does say "can be changed one-time to an alternate itinerary" [emphasis mine] so I am not going to fight it. Plus my booking is complicated so the time wasted fighting isn't worth there savings as I would use a voucher but the rest in my group would likely not anyway. Plus I do feel like it is sort of taking advantage of the nature of the waiver.

defrosted

At least their waiver didn't start March 1 with you booking on Feb 29, because that would be 1 in 4 years type of luck.

Juanefny

Has this been announced yet?

ab2013

The PR mentioned they'll announce more specifics later this week. I imagine network planning and revenue management are having a ton of fun right now getting that sorted out - they have been zeroing out inventory on some of the higher frequency markets at least domestically.

jalves

Funding pensions doesn't do anything for the shareholders. Buying back stock does help the shareholders by increasing EPS numbers.

travelinmanS

All the airlines are in big trouble now. Stock price, debt to asset ratios, debt to stock price ratios, etc don’t matter when you aren’t taking in any cash. These companies need to do whatever they can to reduce spending and somehow bring in some cash now. Profit is an option, cash is a fact.

I would look out for even more severe cuts by all airlines over the next few weeks and if this goes on for a few months at least a handful of bankrupt airlines will result.