cmd320

Presumably that logic is airtight. But when you sift through Delta’s marketing BS, you find the real reason service levels were reduced was to cut costs as the airline hemorrhaged money. With that unlikely to change any time soon, service levels aren’t returning. If they were coming back in three weeks time I can assure you the marketing team would have been all over that by now.

btonkid12345

Plus, they retired/bought out many of their more senior employees. Why would senior FAs stick around when they can’t do their 4x a month international round trips anymore?

Many of the employees still there are lower cost because they’re newer. And I shudder to think if many of them have become used to these lower service standards, and will DL tiptoeing to avoid unionization, a lower service level may become habit for many of the employees after 13+ months of it.

ekozie

just for perspective, I'm fairly young, fly an equal mix of biz and leisure, and have been loyal to DL for over 7 years now. With 350k rdm and almost as much in mm qual, I'm seriously considering jumping ship if the board doesn't get rid of Ed or if he doesn't turn things around quick. Stop with the unreliability and terrible lack of cabin service, or lose future FFs at your own peril.

MCO Flyer

Reading the Delta pilot forum on another site, they say that sadly the board has Ed’s back 100%.

cmd320

That's because as is the case with most boards, they're just as stupid as the CEOs they're meant to oversee.

MSPeconomist

Do you have a MDGA hat?

Repooc17

Go free agent and never look back. Schedule and price > one-way loyalty.

ethernal

LOL - ya'll are ridiculous. Why in the world would the board fire the CEO of the top performing domestic legacy airline by the metric that the board cares about (financial and equity performance) over the past ~5 years? AA has had trash financial performance for years. UA is much improved and has improved, but was "recovering" from a much lower market cap. And despite all of the complaints about Delta from some noisy posters above, equity markets are quite happy with Delta's performance post-pandemic relative to its peers. Note that AA bet on government aid to keep its operations running and it has paid off... but they could just as easily gone the other way.

I think most folks complaints about Ed are of a political persuasion rather than a company performance persuasion. And if that's the case, you're fighting a lost cause there. This isn't the place to discuss politics, but it is in a company's best interests to follow where the money is. And demographically, that's in a certain direction that has been widening since the mid-2000s.

Maybe folks can start talking about Ed's removal when Delta's market cap isn't about the same market cap as both UAL and AAL together.

NYC Flyer

Gotta pass time somehow until catering is restored and we can start the Remember how bad DL service was during COVID thread...

cmd320

That's a pretty small group in which the only two competitors are run by Doug Parker and Scott Kirby, dumb and dumber.

ethernal

Ahh got it. You're right, companies like Spirit are really blazing the trail and who Ed should aspire to emulate. I know how much you care about catering, and just wait till you find out how great Spirit's complimentary onboard service and catering is...

Biscuittin

Although I otherwise like DL as an airline I'd prefer the option of having catering and a wider selection of beverage choices on board as some of the ULCCs do. I don't mind paying for it.

cmd320

Actually, yes. In terms of market innovation and business strategy, the LCCs have been the leaders for the better part of the last two decades. Comparing domestic F on legacy non-meal flights with BFS on NK, it’s hard to see the value proposition of domestic F over BFS.

The only tangible difference between these products is a complimentary snack/beverage service and when you consider I’m paying on average 25% of the domestic F fare for the NK fare+BFS, that’s a lot of BoB snacks/food/drinks I can buy, far more than I’d ever be given on a Delta flight (or a 90 minute domestic US flight on anyone else for that matter). Legacies have been the followers in the industry pretty much since 9/11. Don’t worry though, I’m sure the Mayo Clinic has all the answers for Ed & Co.

DLASflyer

Another hour with Ed via TPG:


I found this reassuring. He seemed to genuinely acknowledge the frustration with holiday cancellations and onboard service levels. Said the snack boxes business travellers hate will go away soon and real food is coming. Also free wi-fi in ~24 months once Viasat reaches critical mass on DL aircraft.

cmd320

I love how they think that only business travelers hate the snack boxes...