DL FA Insight on Passengers
 

Flying yesterday in D1 on a transcon, I spent a few minutes talking with the lead FA in the galley about a variety of things. She told me they are now given revenue information for each passenger during their pre flight briefing. Meaning, they know who paid to sit up front, who got an upgrade, who used miles. She said they even know who paid the most. She didn’t elaborate too much on how they use this data, but it was clear they were trying to focus on the higher paying passengers.

I knew they had some insight into passengers status, but never info about who paid what. I find this interesting, although not surprising.

Maybe they are prepping for Basic D1, so they know who doesn't get drinks and food :D

Maybe they are taking a page from Disney.
They track Everything!

No other company knows how to get their customers to spend more money.

I guess the statement "they are given" the information is a little ambiguous. Does that mean they are handed a printout that happens to have this information alongside many other pieces of information? Or is it a part of the pre-flight brief that is specifically talked about ("The passenger in 5A paid $14,000 for his ticket, so be extra nice to him . . .while the passenger in 2D managed to snag a seat for $3,000, so give him that stale bread leftover from the last flight . . . and that lady in 3B used miles, so you can be kind of grumpy with her")? If it's really just a printout, then the question I would have is "well, what do they DO with that information?"

In all my experiences in F and D1, I have not noticed any difference in my premium cabin experience depending on how I came to be sitting in it. It's the same seat, the same drinks, the same food, the same hot towel, the same IFE movies. Does the person who paid the most get tucked in or get a lullaby sung to them when it's time to sleep?

I think this is a good thing, but I'm a free agent who pays for all of my first/biz class flights.

If there are limited resources (meals, alcohol, blankets/pillows, and even good service :p) I feel the one who paid the most (and Y fares are oftentimes more expensive than discounted first) should get first dibs and elite status should be the tie breaker.

I once paid for first on a UA 777 flight and got like my 3rd meal choice after they upgraded a ton of elite pax at the last minute because of misconnects. Rightly or wrongly, I felt like UA didn't value my business so now UA is my second or third choice.

I wouldn't mind if they replaced FEBO with this on 321neos. Really all aircraft since I'm sure a lot of high fares are purchased after the preorder cutoff.

how far would you be willing to push this? Do you think someone buying a last minute full-fare ticket should be able to bump out of a particular seat? Like, let's say I want a window, but they're all assigned.

When evacuating, all Z-bucket ticket holders must remain seated until the higher buckets have cleared the slide

I could see Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary announcing an add-on fee like this ("Priority Access to the Exit Slide") even if just for publicity, like he did with the bathroom charges.

For the life of me, I don't understand what they are going to expect the crew to do with that info. But I do suspect that it ties into the Delta One Basic concept when it launches.

I'd be pretty disappointed if FA's were going to treat people traveling on a mileage ticket as some kind of second class citizen.

Im lucky enough to generally fly in paid business, and fly often enough that I accumulate quite a few skylines. My most common use for these is to use them on friends and family to either buy them business class tickets or upgrade them.

So if Delta were going to then treat people using miles as somehow less worthy of being up front, then I kinda feel that would reflect poorly on me.

I'm waiting for the time when FA's will be able to input specific passenger notes during/after a flight based on preferences, good/bad interactions and general observations...Its only a matter of time...:rolleyes:

For grins sake, I’m going to make a counter argument that’s more benign.

DL provides the FAs pax info for elite level and MM status on their iPhone. DL also displays some sort of business affiliate status Im unclear on (meaning, it’s not for employees… could be business travel? Or could be someone who DL has identified as being important?).

I can think of two benign possibilities for what the OP shared.
1) The FA wasn’t correct in what they shared.
2) It helps to inform for service recovery beyond tossing some mile and shrugging. It allows the FAs to acknowledge in a more personal way.

Not surprised at all they would know all this. Odds it’s something sinister is probably nil.

This is ridiculous. Why should it matter how you got up there? If you used RUC, you spent enough to get to Platinum or Diamond. It's bad enough that you only get one class upgrade now even for domestic. The service should remain the same for everyone if you're in Delta One but that's just me. More and more I feel like Delta One is becoming Delta None.