RSSrsvp

That was part of the bulls**t logic that DL used to sell us, when they did away with the SWU's.

777 global mile hound

Interesting Topic.....Thanks... I recently started flying Delta again as a Gold Medallion From New York to Atlanta.This was because of United/AA and The Atlanta Hartsfield Airport problem plagued security line at the T- Gates.Which was a whopping one hour wait to reach the entrance of security.
My first flight on Delta consisted of being asked to get off the flight for a $200.00 voucher and change airports to get a later flight.I had dinner plans with a client in Atlanta so I declined.
Which I ended up missing with my flite landing after 11:00 Pm and not getting to the hotel till midnite!!!
They then offered me a $ 300.00 voucher to get off the plane which I also declined.We boarded somewhat on time.
The award goes to Delta for the sloppiest boarding procedure worldwide next to a third world country.Everybody heave,push,fight shove....together now
Then the gate agents yell at Pax get out of the way for first and elites....Announcements that nobody can easily hear.
We boarded at 5:30 a 767
BY 6:00 pm the pilot announced it would be 20 minutes before we could get under way.....while they figure out how to fill the fuel tank level.I joked to my seatmate that translates to at least one hour.Regretfully I wasn't wrong.........At 8:00 PM we the hostages sitting at the gate still had no food or water or ventilation (hot stuffy cabin)the pilot had to turn it off I assume for safety reasons.Making me **** sorry I didn't take the $300 voucher hours ago and flee to JFK for another flite.At 8:00 pm Delta decided to show us mercy and give us a bag of salted pretzels and a beverage and show the movie on the ground.At after 9:00 pm we were airborne able to watch the movie again for those to angry on the ground to watch it.Never did anybody including the supervisor I contacted in LGA express understanding or the ability to honor the dept of transportation rule 240 to be rebooked on a flight of my choice.....Even after articulating it 3 x.Never had a problem with United or AA fully honoring the Dept of transportation rules and exceeding them.After all this is a Delta problem with their own imposed mechanical difficulities.
Upon arrival in Atlanta I brought up to the supervisor there who went deaf dumb and mute on me when I asked why rule 240 was not honored..........He ignored me as much as he could and handed me a printed pamphlet about Deltas fine service comittment to improved service which out of date & printed in 1999 .
He said write to Delta Atlanta.
Appreciate everyones /anyones opinion out there in what you make of all this.My Delta opinion ranks among the lowest of customer care since
North West,TWA or Tower and we all know what happened to some of those.Many thanx to my experts out there for their advice in handling of these matters


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AA & Starwood,Marriott Platinum
Hyatt,Hilton Diamond
Swissotel Club Gold
U/A 1 K ,Delta Gold Medallion




[This message has been edited by 777 global mile hound (edited 03-24-2002).]

PIONEER

Over the past several weeks, it seems that Delta has been offering DBC much more often that was previously the case. The stats for 2002 may tell a different story.

brenno

Hmmm I need to fly to SEA (ex. AMS) in J (J fare I believe). Since I keep hearing these horror stories (BE/FC-seats being given to other PAX, no food, no service, no movies, no amenities and if something goes wrong no hotel) I might reconsider my airlines choice. SAS has shown me excellent Customer Care and so has AF. So I think I'll rebook tomorrow . Hopefully this will change I can't have a denied boarding. And I won't take money to go in the back. This really sucks and DL is going away the revenue of a passenger that used to pay high revenue fares. This sucks. btw I have flown 44,000 and none on DL this year this has to change!

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Cheers,

Brenno.

HRGM

Brenno:

you have to keep in mind that 99.9% (I'd guess) of passengers have at least an "adequate" flying experience. It's only the 0.1% of people who don't that will complain about it. You're reading stories about people who showed up for flights after the 10 minute gate deadline (which has been well posted for years!) and had their seats taken away. So if you don't show up late, your seat won't be given away.

I fly DL regularly (hell, I'm a PM). I've actually never had a BAD experience with them, only a few that were a little "off". The vast majority of flights were at least good, and many were excellent.

DL frontline employees are the best in the industry, bar none. Don't make your decision based on a few gripes here.

cigarman

I have been constantly inconvenced by Deltas overbooking. I can report this last Thursday, that EVERY flight to JAX for 3 days was oversold. My flight was over sold by 31 PEOPLE!!! and as the redcoat put it, as she yelled at the home office. "QUIT SELLING SEATS! We have no protection, on ANY airline." Put 9 people in FIRST CLASS on USair. DBC 14 mad people. The daytona beach flight... same story. And this is not just this week. I switched to Delta in Feb. 39 flights. Offered vouchers so far on 9. Gave up seat 4 times for a total of $2750 in vouchers. Is this the way to run an airline? Paying me, more than I pay Delta???? I really think Delta's yield management is broken.

HRGM

There are two things going on:

(1) It's Spring Break time in Florida. That means more people show up for their flights than usual. Thus, yield management is bound to be off a bit.

(2) Yield management in general has been off since September 11. Airlines can no longer take the percentages they used for eons and eons and apply them to a route. It just doesn't work.

I do know that Delta does its best where it comes to yield management. I suspect that the yield people realize that they screwed up mightily, and that the problem won't reoccur on those routes in that situation. But most yield management (and overbooking percentage) is driven by a computer-driven formula. So just because they fix ATL-JAX doesn't mean that ATL-PBI won't be screwed up, and vice versa.


I understand you're upset. But if you show up for your flight early (or at the very least, on time), you stand little chance of being disrupted by these overbookings.

Spiff

Will you please email me your itineraries. $2750 in DBC is enough to make me buy U fares to just about anywhere.

cigarman

Any flight to Florida on a thursday night Spiff. Got $750 ATL-MCO. Got $500 ATL-JAX. Got $750 DFW-MCO. And the weird one... $750 DFW-ELP.

Passed on $200 SLC-COS, $750 LAS-SLC, $100 JAX-ATL, $200 ABQ-SLC, and $500 DFW-AUS.

By the way. 600+ CO flights. Offered $$$ only twice. Still think Delta is whacked.

andymo99

Rssrsvp, the logic, I assure you, is irrefutable. My numbers, used for illustrative purposes, are admittedly extreme. So if it turns out that the other 99 flights are also pretty full, then there is much to be said for the yield management imbalances. However, I have sat on many, many empty segments in 2002 that lead me to believe that there is much truth to what I write. Flights on holidays, flights into events (Olympics), flights into FL at certain times... often overbooked. But the multitude of flights shuttling back and forth between CVG and ORD... pretty empty, in the back at least.

jetsetter777

I just poked my head in on this thread and all I can say is, $750 for ATL-MCO????
I'd walk to MCO for $750.

I better start buying some DL tix!

Spiff

Man, I've had ATL-MCO, MCO-ATL, and MCO-CVG with no luck this week.

cigarman et. al. , please post your bump info on www.bumptracker.com

RSSrsvp

andymo99, What makes me laugh is the sequence of the following events:
1) DL does away with SWU's for GM's & FO's & limits PM's to 6 a year, claiming that the international routes are full and that it was for our benefit.
2) Outraged FT'ers start www.saveskymiles.com
3) DL has several web sales for B/E to fill up those seats that they claimed were totally full.

Frankly, their actions insulted our intelligence. If you want to have sex with a person, call it for what it is, don't tell them that you want to make love to them. They screwed us pure and simple! They still refer to us as their most loyal and faithful customers, which we are. It's too bad that it isn't a two way street.

If you were sitting on a jury, would you convict?

[This message has been edited by Rssrsvp (edited 03-25-2002).]

Viajero Joven

I posted the other day that DL capacity from DFW to ELP went down a few months ago, from 2 mainline to 2 CRJs. Still, though, I didn't know that many ELP folks flew DL. The ELP counter is always empty...

B747-437B

I don't think the absolute number of DBCs is an accurate portrayal of how well yield management is working. A perfect system would let Y fares be sold until the moment of departure and still go out with all seats filled. The second best alternative would sell the Y fares till the end and voluntarily bump the discount traveler. The worst alternative is to fill the plane with discount travelers, turn away Y fares and still go out with a handful of empty seats. Unfortunately, DL seems to be slowly drifting towards the latter scenario.