SFO777

Could you have flown another airline, one that actually serves real food? Would be interested in learning route and price of your ticket.

David7

No, I could not have. I also try flying AF where possible due to the better service and comparable hard product but with the current flight timing and travel/testing restrictions of France (and Netherlands) I could not.
In any case, lets say I could have flown an airline that serves real food such as AF. Can you provide any guidance on how to get two main courses on AF?

Appreciate the question but I don't know how my ticket price is relevant to this? It was not very expensive if that is reassuring.

SFO777

Sensitive much? Indeed, you have a much better chance of getting an extra main on AF, not to mention preflight lounge food depending on the routing, which alas you seem reluctant to identify.

fly747first

Just want to share an experiment I conducted on a recent SEA-ATL flight in F.

During boarding, I observed one of the FAs moving around a large cart drawer with ice on top to cool off beer cans (something other flyers previously reported). The cabin crew on this flight was beyond hard working and lovely... they constantly, constantly patrolled the aisles offering water/beer/wine refills and extra bags of snacks. I do not drink alcohol so when the crew offered beer and wine right after take-off, I politely declined. The lead F realized that I had brought a cup of ice but eventually melted and she very sweetly told me she had noticed I wasn't drinking the rest of my Coke. I told her that I don't like warm beverages and that unfortunately DL still refused to provide ice to First Class passengers and she laughed, saying: "I know, right? But we can have secrets with our nicest First Class passengers!" She then brought me two cups of ice from an unopened package they were holding in a different cart and explained that though they aren't supposed to provide ice, it breaks her heart to see passengers not enjoy the flight and that she couldn't get herself to allow me to go without a soft drink on such a long flight. This FA was so kind and loving that I asked her in private about the return of soft drinks and she mentioned that "most likely they will return in April" though she didn't know the exact date. And, just like we have suspected all along, this has nothing to do with Covid but an internal war between the former highly parasitic Northwaste cabin crews who want to the bare minimum and the legacy DL cabin crews who are appalled by the low levels of premium class service whilst management is more concerned about preventing them from unionizing which has always remained an objective of the former NW crews. Another FA overheard our conversation and she also expressed her frustration with the current situation and the hypocrisy of it all, especially when some DL executives aren't shy about demanding ice when they travel yet they expect the FAs to deny it to revenue passengers.

CMK10

3/11 SAV-ATL 717-200: F got snack bags, no service. The rest of the plane got nothing
3/11 ATL-RDU 737-900: Snack bags for everyone (Goldfish and Clif Bar), no beer or wine for C+

FlyDeltaMD88

I can tell you speaking with different FA's (and you can see this on Sam Chui's most recent Youtube video) a majority of them do not like providing the current service and want to go back to serving soft drinks/liquor.

Again, most likely penny pinching executives and lazy PMNW crews who enjoy the current offering.

The Situation

To be fair, in the early days post-merger, there were a ton of lazy PMNW crews, but most of them have been weeded out or retired. The last time I spoke with a PMNW crew was just prior to COVID and they provided a very interesting and blunt assessment of the state of things at DL. They were not lazy as much as they had just lost the motivation because DL management does not listen to or care about employees. They had a very long list of ways they wanted to improve service (and some cut cost at the same time) and had suggested all of them to management, but were met with the attitude of "what does an FA know." So they are not lazy, as much as they have given up and you can blame DL's arrogant and penny-pinching management.

CMK10

I have to take issue with your use of the word "majority". Because I can tell you that based on the majority of my flights the crews are making less than the bare minimum effort. So unless I'm suffering from a statistical anomaly where I'm only getting stuck with the minority crew I think plenty of them enjoy how little work they're doing.

ldonnelly

Flew DL1375 STL-SLC today in Main Cabin. A220-300, full (to COVID capacity). Snack bag was handed out with the little "we're glad you're back" card, Delta branded purified water, a Biscoff pack, a napkin, a small wipe, and some almonds. FAs gave water out on request.

As for the flight, it was delayed 20 minutes on departure, extremely bumpy, movies/TV on the screens wouldn't work (rebooted 3 times to no avail), the internet was out (so no IFE on my device), and the live TV was very spotty. At least the crew was nice and we arrived in cloudless Salt Lake 10 minutes early.

fly747first

Respectfully, your response lacks credibility. Speaking to a single PMNW crew who allegedly had great ideas and they were, again, allegedly shut down by management doesn't make such occurrence statistically significant. Moreover, out of thousands of PMNW cabin crews, what evidence do you have that "most of them have been weeded out or retired"? To be clear, I'm not defending DL's highly dishonest management at all, but at the same time, we can't just assume that thousands of PMNW crews magically disappeared.

OhHellNah

Finally just crawling out of lurkdom to reply to SFO777's post to say, "Hey! I put that movie there!" I worked for HBO for 12 years and sold IFE to airlines. Our little IFE team was literally just my boss and me, so any HBO programming you've seen onboard anywhere in the world.... we did that

(I was laid off last fall, THANKS AT&T RE-ORG, but the airline days were the fondest in my career, bar none.)

buckeye91

Always loved watching the Sopranos on Delta’s IFE

jamesteroh

How are they handling jackets in FC with Covid? I'm assuming that service went bye-bye as well (and in fairness to FA's I don't blame them for not wanting to handle jackets right now). I know bin space is always at a premium anyway so wondering how people are handling their winter coats now

Qwkynuf

My experience has been that they offer to let me hang my own coat, but they have said that they are not allowed to handle them. Overhead bin space has *not* been a problem on any of the flights that I have been on. I am sitting at 100% upgrades over 24 flights so far this year, so I can't speak about what happens behind the curtain (still waiting for the shoe to drop on the upgrade percentages), but with First typically only half full, there are often bins that go out completely empty.

dcadwell

Agreed. Bin space has not been an issue, coat service I haven't seen.