This morning, I arrived in PHX after a four-hour delay in ATL, reportedly due to a need for new pilots (probably because the original aircraft went mechanical for 90 minutes, causing the original crew to time out).

That delay itself was bad, but Delta's broader operational, service, and IT failures have led me to decide to take a break on DL for the next six to twelve months, while it recovers from its self-induced staffing shortage and service cuts. Until then, I'll go back to United, which has actually outperformed Delta this year.

I was supposed to fly DCA-ATL-PHX yesterday, arriving at 10:20 PM in Phoenix. DCA-ATL was fine. But, after 8 PM � too late to do much about it � I got the update that the 9:26 PM ATL-PHX departure was pushed to 11:01. Then, at 10:37 PM, Delta pushed the departure to 12:14 AM. We pushed back from the gate at 1:25 AM. Even after we closed the doors, I watched as DL loaded heavy cargo.

One problem is that Delta doesn't serve a meal on this flight in F. They serve a snack box, the kind United sells in Economy. Of course, being in ATL, I knew there had to be options. Stupidly, I waited until 9 PM to look for food at ATL. Everything in the F Terminal, from which the PHX flight departed, was closed. I went to D, where the Grindhouse burger place had closed at 7 due to a staff shortage (but was still glad to sell alcohol!). Eventually, I got to B, where the line wrapped around the food court for Wendy's.

I decided to leave ATL via Uber and get food at a nearby bar. Good/bad decision: The bar was fine. But I was very lucky that I had decided to print out a boarding pass earlier: Because my flight was delayed, the Delta app had eliminated my boarding pass, and when I clicked the Boarding Pass button, the app merely told me my flight was delayed. Without the paper, I could not have gotten back through TSA when I returned to the airport, after dinner, at midnight.

(Also, N.B., when I got to the main terminal at 12:00 midnight, TSA closed for 20 minutes for cleaning. Also, the train stops at the E Gates, requiring a walk to F.)

We arrived in PHX after 2 AM. I took the bus to the rental car center, got one of the last cars from Hertz (self-selection), and then discovered that there was no one to check me out. I just arrived at my hotel via Lyft.

I would be prepared to write this off as a one-off, except that this is now the third ATL-PHX or vice versa A330 I have been on in two weeks that was significantly delayed for reasons not clearly related to weather. It seems to me that DL is dumping spare A330s on this route, which I thought would be great (more upgrades!) but seems to mean constant mechanical and staffing issues.

And, because DL's IT is terrible, those delays create needless downstream problems. Two weeks ago, I my PHX-ATL redeye was delayed. I rebooked my connection on the app, but, because PHX-ATL then delayed further, leaving me with a technically illegal (but very makeable) connection, I couldn't check in. (United's app would let me do so in this circumstance.) Delta rebooked me unwillingly; only by rushing to my original gate and begging did I get on. And, of course, calling the Platinum line didn't help, because the wait was 49 minutes at 7 AM.

I switched to Delta from United for better service. I still think DL is a friendly airline. But, for now, Delta's staffing cuts and service cuts, coupled with a seeming rise in controllable IROPS (likely tied to the staffing shortage) and ongoing IT shortcomings, tells me Delta is not prepared for the travel resurgence. United, ironically, is now the customer-friendlier carrier. Having had my Delta status extended to 2023, and having requalified already anyway, I'm giving Delta a several-months pause to get its house in order while I deal with the less-frilly, upgrade-deprived, but more-reliable operation that is United.

While Delta seems to have done a lot of the right things early in the pandemic (blocking middle seats, for example), and they have been generous with status extensions and rollover, I do agree they dropped the ball when it came to staffing up, route selection, meal service and other items when it came to the next (current) phase of pandemic travel. Hope they improve things by next spring.

I had the same issue flying out of SDF on Saturday. Captain never showed up........Ended up 12hr later in IAD. Got a bunch of meal vouchers and was able to extend my return date for free, but still a day wasted. That said, called Delta and someone picked up right away!

I'm taking a break as well. I'll fly the trips I have booked through the end of this year, but I've stopped booking flights into next year. Normally, I have my schedule booked well in advance (9-10 months), but I'm just tired of spending every Saturday trying to find out which of my flights have changed this week, picking new flight schedules, then waiting hours for Delta to call back because their call center is overloaded.

It's really taken the fun out of travel.

I mean... You admit you made some risky decisions on your own, so I won't address those.

The food offerings in domestic F have been crap during the pandemic - I'll give you that - but historically a flight that late for ATL-PHX doesn't have a meal anyway. Look down to the "medium flights" section and note the times. https://www.delta.com/us/en/onboard/...ce/first-class I forget when they started doing this but it does indeed suck and it caused me to adjust my travel times a little. (Now that I think about it, I think it was longer ago than I thought. I think it was around the same time US and other carries increased the minimum distance juuuust far enough to rule out a lot of southwest/rocky mountain destinations.) On the other hand though, you can't blame DL for ATL's lack of dining options when the skyclub(s) is/are open until 10'ish.

As for the hold times; I continue to be dumbfounded by this. For the time being I'll see if the club agents can help with issues on upcoming bookings.

The boxed meals on ATL-PHX started on 8/17 according to flight status listings, but there's a 9PM cut-off for domestic FC meals. So the 9:26PM ATL-PHX flight and 11:55PM PHX-ATL red-eye flight won't get the meal boxes.

Either add the boarding pass to your wallet on an iphone or take a picture of it in these situations. And you still could have printed another boarding pass from a kiosk. Admittedly it's an unnecessary workaround for an IT issue that has existed for years, but it is what it is.

The highlight of my week over the past few months is getting out of bed early every Saturday morning and going through every one of my cheap BE bookings to see what changed so I can switch into much better dates and times for free.

I have to admit that I've taken advantage of that myself.

Taking a pause on DL as well, at least for the most part.

Reasons:
1) given free PLT status on AA, might as well take advantage of the free upgrades while they�re widely available and save the money I�d normally spend paying for F
2) Delta�s terrible onboard product at present
3) AA and UA are both flying generally better planes with AA offering a lot of domestic 777 flights
4) Delta�s industry trailing transcon offering

I'll have to say, it's not a bad break. I'm trying out some different airlines and destinations while still banking on earning status:
- LATAM to Lima
- LATAM to Rio
- Air France to Cairo
- AM to LHR
- UA to Zurich (using points)
- EK to DXB (using points)

I've been tinkering with that idea. No longer flying for work I'm generally paying for first/business TATL's for vacations, but if I'm lifetime gold and won't be going much higher on an annual basis - what's the point besides loyalty and points hoarding?

agree and have been through with every thing in your post� my last flight on DL was the last flight from ATL-DCA and we were awaiting pilots. Got in so late (after midnight) that the rental car booths were closed to exit. Nobody apologized or tried to make this right at DL. Meanwhile on United, it�s a well-oiled, on-time machine with all employees who seem genuinely concerned about every step of your journey, from when you might need to call into reservations, at the airport at the United Club and gate agents and in the air, with flight attendants who seem happy to be at work. United really is shining so brightly, it�s hard to look back at Delta.

if you think it is more A330 and this route related, why not go DTW or SLC or JFK routes instead? Time permitting of course.....seems there are close departures to the ATL option and then you could avoid this happening for a fourth time.

This is kind of the travel Tilt-a-Whirl a lot of us are dealing with in the COVID era - and it was actually somewhat prevalent pre-COVID.

Go with airline A for a while; then have a bad incident where it really screws up your day. Vow never to fly THEM again. Switch to airline B for a while; then have a bad incident where it really screws up your day. Vow never to fly THEM again. Switch to airline C for a while; then have a bad incident where it really screws up your day. Vow never to fly THEM again. Switch to airline A...