Canarsie

In addition to Delta Air Lines executives reading this thread (and select other Delta forum threads), I propose an attempt to arrange a roundtable-style meeting between a select handful of Delta FlyerTalk members and Mr. Gerald Grinstein with some of his employees, as I think it is always a good idea for the head of a company to hear how his customers feel about the current state of his/her company’s products and services. Additionally, I would be interested in assisting in the organization and attendance of this meeting.

This meeting is not meant to replicate the www.saveskymiles.com meeting that occured in Newark last year, but rather have a well-diverse cross-section of “members” of all sides come together for a discussion on what can be done to help improve Delta Air Lines to maximize the benefits to all involved, including customers and employees of Delta Air Lines.

The Delta FlyerTalk members should consist of a good mix of at least each of the following (with the FlyerTalk members listed in parentheses shown merely as examples):

• A long-time elite Medallion SkyMiles multi-million mile member (Cholula or mikey1003)
• A former customer (Spiff)
• An international customer (Dovster)
• A current customer who almost exclusively flies Delta Air Lines (Canarsie)
• A current customer who used to fly Delta Air Lines almost exclusively but rarely does today (Rssrsvp or bdschobel)
• A www.saveskymiles.com “contrarian”, for lack of a better term (BertBamboo, B747-437B or even perhaps andymo99), and
• A leisure customer (JPoor007 or obscure2K).

The Delta Air Lines employees should consist of a good mix of at least each of the following:

• Mr. Gerald Grinstein
• A pilot (perhaps the head of DALPA?)
• A flight attendant
• Someone from customer service
• Someone from the SkyMiles program
• Someone from sales, and
• Someone from marketing.

Please remember that the names of FlyerTalk members that I have listed are merely examples, not necessarily recommendations.

By no means is this idea perfect, nor is it a final idea. I welcome any suggestions by my esteemed FlyerTalk members, which is why I am proposing it and presenting it here.

Perhaps this is indeed the start of a good idea; perhaps I am simply dreaming. I realize the chances of this meeting happening are slim to none, but I try whenever possible to take a chance with the old saying that one never knows unless one tries, so here is my chance.

Please do not allow this thread to degenerate to “one side versus another” and “hey, moderator, you have done too much and yet you have not done enough.”

Let us all try to work together as intelligent people to come up with and brainstorm how we can propose to have a constructive meeting with representatives of Delta Air Lines.

JPoor007

Do you have the sort of pull to arrange something like that?

Canarsie

No, I do not.

dedehans

[QUOTE=Canarsie]

The Delta FlyerTalk members should consist of a good mix of at least each of the following (with the FlyerTalk members listed in parentheses shown merely as examples):

• A long-time elite Medallion SkyMiles multi-million mile member (Cholula or mikey1003)
• A former customer (Spiff)
• An international customer (Dovster)
• A current customer who almost exclusively flies Delta Air Lines (Canarsie)
• A current customer who used to fly Delta Air Lines almost exclusively but rarely does today (Rssrsvp or bdschobel)
• A www.saveskymiles.com “contrarian”, for lack of a better term (BertBamboo, B747-437B or even perhaps andymo99), and
• A leisure customer (JPoor007 or obscure2K).

The Delta Air Lines employees should consist of a good mix of at least each of the following:

• Mr. Gerald Grinstein
• A pilot (perhaps the head of DALPA?)
• A flight attendant
• Someone from customer service
• Someone from the SkyMiles program
• Someone from sales, and
• Someone from marketing.

Please remember that the names of FlyerTalk members that I have listed are merely examples, not necessarily recommendations.



Great idea. @:-) ....need to mix biz and leisure in the flyertalk representation....also sheer youth such as jpoor whose profile says he/she is a student and seems to truly love traveling....
Sorry but I seem to have done something wrong on your message inclusion, Canarsie...

RSSrsvp

Canarsie, your proposed meeting would be a win-win for all involved.

I would like to make a few corrections and propose a few additions to your FT list that was presented.

mikey1003 is a "former" customer with 3.7 million miles.

"Rarely" does not apply to me as I already have 26k MQM's this year and am back on track to GM status after virtually boycotting DL last year.

JS should be added to the pro-DL list.

B747-437B has chosen of his own accord not to post in this forum and if I am not mistaken does not fly on DL any longer. Therefore, I do not believe that he should be a representative of this board.

hfly should be added to the list of international customers.

indufan

I think it's a great idea and would help in any way possible.

A Delta grand tour in ATL should be included...to see some of the behind the scenes parts of Delta, the museum (employees and some family or friends according to Sky ), meet some a few SMS people, operations...whatever.

If they consider it, Delta will want some assurances that it is not going to be a ***** session. Delightly, the PBI didn't have nearly as much of that as I thought it might.

Dovster

Canarsie, I appreciate the honor of being included in your list, and I have no doubt that such a meeting could prove of immense value to Delta, but there is no way I would fork out $1000 and subject myself to 28 hours in Economy to attend. (Nor would I pay the cost required to be in B/E).

Mr. Grinstein, please do not take this personally. I happen to love Coca-Cola and was sorely disappointed when it first announced it was dumping the traditional formula for a new one.

Still, if I had the opportunity to change their minds by attending such a meeting, I still would not have paid for B/E from Israel nor taken the 28 hours in Economy.

(Before anyone notes that I have made that trip several times in the past few years, let me point out that I was the chief beneficiary, not some corporation.)

mikey1003

Just because I am a FORMER DL PAX, that does not mean that I do not have anything positive to add. I would love to meet with DL.

Flying_Duck

There is no question that this would be great if bought into by Delta, but therein lies the devil. If the push for such a meeting comes from the FT group, Delta may come, listen, roll their eyes when out of sifght and disregard any suggestion made, such as what seemed to have happened with the SSM meeting. Whatever the reason for the consessions made at the end of 2003, I don't think anybody would claim it was because of the meeting earlier that year, rather the real and implied threat of a measurable a customer base of leaving Delta if not changing.

Ideally the group suggested by Carnarsie, a group which we heard from Cholula and others existed in some format in the past, should be pushed by marketing people in DL who would have recognized the potential benefit to DL of tapping such a cross section of Delta frequent flier experts. Going through FT to get a cross section of flyers with some legitimacy would make sense, but it has to be Delta recognizing that this is to their benefit and pushing for it as one otherwise may call the group Delta's Office to Obliterate Medaillion Elites Dissatisfaction

akhullar

What am I ? Chopped onion ?

This smacks like Unionism - i.e asking to be at the negotiating table Do the Bush thing - Fly AA & SW

CelticFlyer

Delta in listening mode is a good idea, but such a meeting could only give them general ideas and they could get most of the same ideas by trawling through this board. At the end of the day what matters is how their existing and potential customer base reacts to a variety of possible alternatives and for Delta to turn that information into a business plan they need statistically valid market research which such a meeting simply cannot provide.

Of course I personally would be delighted to be able to bite somebody's ear about providing direct service between *my* favorite EU and US city pairs, not to mention getting some decent malts in BE......

Art234

As one who has participated in a meeting such as this with US, I think it would be wise of DL to meet with the group. I would even go so far as to offer my services as I speak fairly and in the interest of all frequent fliers.

I was a former Gold medallion since 1999, and my last flight on DL was on February 26, 2001 (it was burning miles). With the changes to Skymiles and the subsequent Comair strike (which affected me tremendously), I tried US and never looked back. Although US has its problems (and I am vocal about them with US management as well), they have treated me very well, and I am headed for my fourth year of Chairmans Preferred (83 seg, 65K miles ytd).

I sincerely hope DL has the sense to take a meeting with this group. US is beginning to listen--I just hope it isn't too late.

atl runner

I think this is a great idea and I would be more than willing to attend. Being an Atlanta resident, it would be easy for me to arrange. I guess I fall in the category with Canarsie as someone who flies DAL almost exclusively. I'm a multiyear Medallion who alternates between GM and PM. And my wife is a multi-year PM who flies both domestically and to Europe. Although I'm generally positive about DAL, they are not perfect in my book. I do a mixture of domestic travel and a couple of trips to Europe a year. So I would offer a balanced mixture of opinions. I would be willing to help try and arrange something like this although I don't have any special connections with DAL. ^

DLfan

I love the idea Canarsie ^ , and would love to have the ear of a DL exec for an hour or two. However, I fear the concept is doomed from the start and here's why. Before agreeing to meet with such a group, DL would want and deserve to know the goals and objectives of the meeting. What would or could those be - in a sentence or two?

With the representative group you have assembled (not the individuals, but the positions they represent), could a central theme possibly emerge? What would the DL execs hear other than 10 different opinions from the 10 different individuals present. I doubt there is any ONE thing DL could do to make everyone in the room happy, abandon their current choice of airline and return to flying DL, AND be economically feasible for DL. If they stumbled onto an idea that made even 50 percent of them happy, that would represent a major accomplishment for DL.

So in the end, I suspect the take away message for DL, at best, would be that "you can't please everybody". This they already know. What will that have accomplished?

Now if a central message could emerge from such a diverse group, that WOULD be a powerful message indeed. Ideas?

Allow me make a alternative suggestion. A more appropriate approach and one more likely to succeed IMHO, is to ask Randy to request and host an online FT chat with a DL exec. I know UA and some others have done this in the past. Perhaps DL would agree if asked by such an industry titan as Randy Petersen. That would actually give us all an opportunity to participate and be much less threatening to the exec.

CelticFlyer

Good idea. ^ With the announcement of the new leadership team somebody might be up for this.