readywhenyouare

I would make the argument that more people will now only want to make one connection to reduce exposure. United will be able to take you pretty much anywhere in the world with just one stop. For example with Delta you will need a connection at ATL/DTW/JFK and then another connection at AMS/CDG/ICN. So you're looking at three flights total.

DLASflyer

It's just fascinating that Delta is taking such a different path from its five largest competitors. I'm not convinced counting on connections through core hubs is a good strategy. In the eyes of the leisure traveler, what's worse than taking a flight during a pandemic? Two flights with three airports to navigate.

One of these strategies will turn out to be right and the other wrong. We just don't know which is which yet.

Lomapaseo

Top tier???? not anymore. They gave up a first class product just to compete with WN and Spirit. They are obvious third best when compared against their original competitors AA and UA

sydneyracquelle

I call DL with any problem whatsoever and the agent takes personal responsibility and gets me an answer and has the autonomy to work with me on free flight changes. No way I get anything near this level of impeccable service from Spirit. Last year I stupidly booked a Spirit flight to save a few bucks. The day of they canceled the flight and refunded my money and I had to buy a full Y fare on DL. Never again.

cmd320

For 4+ months you couldn’t even get through to an agent for hours and hours.

FlyerWx

It could just be me, but with a callback option, during those few months I didn't care that it took 3-4 hours, I just cared how Delta treated me when they did pick up. And all of those interactions were very pleasant.

Back to the problem at hand... Do I wish Delta would add more leisure routes? Yes. However, I trust they're doing what they are for a good reason. Adding routes that aren't likely to make money doesn't help DL.

SOBE ER DOC

As someone who flew at least 50% of my travel ex-ORD/MDW on DL I am down to 0% travel on DL. They just cannot get me anywhere with reasonable flight options and / or fares. There was a time when I had 30+ options from point-to-point, now I'm down to so few and timed so poorly that I can't use DL, even when I've tried to. Add to that the fact that their fare are so out of whack out of Chicago that it's a double whammy.

It's lovely that DL agents take good care of you and it's lovely that they are blocking middle seats but it means nothing if I can't use the airline. By the time this is over I will be so used to UA as my primary airline and AA as my back-up that I may not go back to DL...as someone who has been DM since its inception.

RetiredATLATC

The audacity of a business to try to remain in business.

bgasser

ORD is a UA and AA hub and MDW is a WN hub. DAL is never going to be competitive with routes in the Chicago market.

Justin026

Delta is putting significant effort into rebuilding theIr flight frequencies throughout the pre-COVID domestic network. Many, many city pairs have gone from 1 or 2 daily frequencies back to 4 or 5. As each improvement is made, the connecting schedules are restored.

Certainly a good time for an airline like Jet Blue to look around their network for opportunities. And for Alaska to look for some places to try to regain the initiative after their post-merger retreats.

Internationally, each of the Big 3 had 150 or so wide bodies being flown heavily In a market that now largely prohibits leisure and ordinary business travel. And all of the Big 3 have announced cutbacks in wide body fleet sizes. In flying exotic new routes, it will be a zero-sum game: each new route consumes 1 or 2 wide body aircraft from the shrinking fleet and a cutback to the pre-COVID network becomes inevitable. To be honest to their customers, where is United proposing to cut post-COVID service to let its planes open three new routes to Africa and cities like Bangalore?

eneq

Lately, Delta has been much more conservative than its competitors regarding new routes. They also seem to be much more focused on just making it through this crisis vs how to grow post-crisis. I'm sure they'll announce some new leisure-focused routes in the future, but I think company survival is the main emphasis right now.

flyerCO

This may change now that there's no need to funnel through certain airports.

Also they're likely wanting to see what added capacity from AA/UA does to demand. UA especially seems to have gone crazy with adding routes/capacity. CV19 alone makes forecasting hard, competitors added capacity only adds complexity.

HDQDD

More like 8 hours at night, ~10 hours during the day. ~3.5 flying.

I-85 goes through lots of traffic areas (CLT, GSP, ATL) and there's significant construction right now between the NC/SC state line and Spartanburg (roughly 50 miles of it). That stretch has lots of hills and transfer trucks. Not a good combo for only two lanes each direction (even before the construction).

Dawgfan6291

In this industry no one is ever "right" or "wrong". Delta was already way more conservative than United and American internationally and were doing just fine on just about every metric you can imagine.
You are also making a HUGE assumption that all these flights will actually happen. Sumer 2021 is as far away as Summer 2002 was on this day 19 years ago.

Go back around the time and look at some of the stuff announced that we still didn't see in pre-COVID 2019. 9/11 and COVID are very different but can be viewed in the the same as far as economic impact on the airlines. (Hopefully the impact wont be nearly as long) Routes like SEA-BLR either wont happen or will be a huge flop when it does happen.


Also as noted, American and United have quite a few 787s they need to do something with, Delta on the other hand doesn't have a ton of slack in the upper end of its fleet now that they pulled the 777. So a route like JFK-HKG(just tossing something out) would be tough to pull off with the current A350 and what they have planned for S21 already.

Dawgfan6291

You mean Delta isn't as competitive as three airlines with hubs in the city? I don't believe it!

I wonder if people in Atlanta feel the same way about Alaska? "what do you mean i have to make a connection in Seattle to go to New York. Delta and Southwest fly it non-stop, maybe i'll just take them and complain about how uncompetitive Alaska is on the internet!"