d00t

Just got back to Australia from a lengthy vacation in florida. Flew Qantas and AA to new york, and decided to give delta a shot for internal flights after one of my friends recommended them.

I had 4 sectors, LGA -> ATL -> PNS, and return. Each flight was a different aircraft and crew, and different times of the day so I think I got a good taste of how they operate and the aircraft.

Problems started from day 1 with delta.. What the f**k is with the check-in proceedure? Having to call customer service and get my baggage tags printed.. what a joke and huge waste of time and money!

Food on board ..well..lack of wasn't that great, infact it was terrible. Absolutely appauling.

Every flight was delayed, the final ATL -> LGA was around 3 hours delayed in total, which made my overnight in NYC almost not worthwhile for the flight out the following morning.

Cabin crew lacked enthusiasm and never smiled, little or no help when asking for it and the headphones.. oh my .. I remember using those 'air sets' back in the early 1990's!!! Is delta going backwards??!??

To their credit, the flights were generally OKAY, apart from the landings - I've never been so terrified in my life.

first class seats? what a joke.. they are small and cramped compared to every other airline I've been on.

to sum it up, I am soo angry at delta that I will never fly them ever again for any reason. I'd pay 20k to stay OFF a delta flight.

For an airline that is "struggling", they sure don't seem to give a fu*k.

If my experience with delta is any indication of how the other flights are.. I honely hope they go belly up.

Has anyone had a positive experience with this backwards, 1960's style airline?

JS

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience on Delta. To answer your question, "Has anyone had a positive experience with this backwards, 1960's style airline?": Yes. In fact, I find Delta to be the most pleasant airline to fly (domestically).

Do you know why the agent needed to call customer service in order to print bag tags? That does sound strange for such a simple itinerary.

All the US domestic airlines' food sucks or doesn't exist, especially on short-haul flights. I'm assuming you flew LAX-JFK earlier? You get more service on that kind of route than LGA-ATL-PNS.

Do you know why the flights were delayed? If weather, well, that affects any airline.

Re landings, I've never noticed a difference between airlines. What happened on your flights?

------------------
"Where's my money?" -- Pizza the Hutt

Floris

It is my theory that the small group of angry SkyMiles members who has been flooding this forum with complaints for months now, has started a new hobby: making up hoax stories under a variety of usernames. The above story is to negative to be true. So are topics like "Delta called me COLLECT" or messages claiming there is no food on flights from LA to New York.

d00t

No idea what the deal is with the checkin, but it held us up for a good 20 minutes doing that, then waiting to "check in". The checkin staff were not the brightest bunch either - and couldnt give me a boarding pass for the connecting flight?!?!?!

I flew directly from NRT -> JFK on American - excellent flight that one.. the extra leg room on AA really makes a difference.. especially since im 6'5"

Not too sure why someof the flights were delayed.. Apparently there was congestion in new york area on the 4th which I can understand and appreciate, but waiting 30mins on the taxiway to takeoff is kinda rediculous.. especially since atlanta has what...4 active concurrent runways?

Landings: fairly good weather all the time, visibility would have been the only real factor involved...

you know when landing and the main gear hits the ground.. and they use the rudder to steer left or right? one landing was a huge one of them and i almost fell out of my seat, hard breaks and reverse thrust would have been set to 3 or MAX for sure.

I've never been scared flying in my life, but delta has put a sour taste on flying with them in the future.

d00t

I have no pitty for delta. They could be saving a stacklload of cash from a few key improvements. Best thing they could do is employ me to fix it up =)

Flying_Duck

While I do feel Floris and I wear vastly different glasses when looking at the impact of Delta's Medaillion changes, I have always been a defender of Delta's staff trying for the most part to do the best they can with a poor hand dealt them. Thus, I do tend to lean more in his direction on this one. d00T's post as I read it, if authentic, excudes such an anger and not very suppressed foul language, indicating a pre-set mind about Delta, so nothing that they could have done, whether checking in, at the gate, in the air, landing and what-not could ever have been good enough.

I am not ready to subscribe to Floris's conspiracy theory, but d00T's post does appear to me to be over the top.




[This message has been edited by Flying_Duck (edited 08-06-2003).]

MisterX

They could make a "stackload of cash" with a more pleasant personality. There was one flight attendent on a JFK-FLL run which had one attendant who had a anger streak a mile wide. Everyone has a bad day but she was just one person with a super nasty negative attitutude. (delusional self importance) I did not file a complain with Delta, what is the point? ("HOPE" you don't meet her)

Did this stop me from flying again no, but I did look at other airlines when I booked my overseas flights. (alternatives were worse)

hnechets

I gotta take a mild execption to this part of your post.

In the 1960's, you were treated as a valued, and special person, because Delta WANTED your business.

Other things were not as good (price of tix, no FF program, etc.) but I would love to be treated today as pax were in the 60's.

Sadly, those days are gone, not only at Delta but at all the major domestics.

jimrpa

I'm sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience on Delta. May I recommend that you try UScare (or UselessAirways depending on their mood) and their fabulous Philadelphia hub the next time you come over? :-)

All joking aside - I've only ever had one frightening landing. Air France from Paris to Lisbon. The pilot is lined up on short final (probably less than 50 feet AGL), suddennly, full throttles and a steep LEFT climb! Back up at pattern altitude, he gets on the PA and babbles in French. Sadly, neither he nor the FAs on board bother repeating the babble in English for the ignorant American on-board. Well, the next go-around, we landed without incident. For some reason though, it's always seemed to me that AF landings are usually a bit "steeper" and much "hotter" (i.e., they fly high and fast right until short final, then totally cut power and dump in lots of flaps and slats to get the airspeed and altitude down - FAST). Of course, I'm not really an accurate judge - they may just be following the manufactures recommended procedures.

MM/PM widget

The old Southern Airways (later Republic then bought by Northwest) flew their DC-9's the same way. I alwasy figured it was because they were all Ex-Navy pilots trying to stay current on carrier landings. It sure was scary as H--- though!

indufan

I have real problems with the changes to the SkyMiles program. But, I have few problems with Delta otherwise. In fact, that is why I really want them to change some of the issues so I can continue to fly them. I have no desire to start flying another airline and learning everything about them from the ground up.

In this case, if you had such a bad experience just make it a point of not flying them again. And your vulgarity is just plain rude and you used techniques to deliberately get around the automatic weeding out of such language by flyertalk.com. I would like to think we can have spirited, lively, and sometimes heated discussions here without resorting to such tactics.

JRF

Floris you are just the same, except on the other side of the road.... you blindly defend DL.

The real problem is posters with multiple user names, and those that can't or don't bother to read and understand the changes to the DL program.

alb222

Read the other boards, those airline suck. Read this board, DL sucks. I for one have had my most pleasurable flights on DL. Flew last week SJC-ATL-FLL/RDU-ATL-SJC. Every flight was oversold..........every flight had volunteers........every flight left on time. Service and checkin with the kiosks was quite fast. All airlines have good and bad days. Would like to read some good stuff for a change. DL had 9.5 million in July. I wonder what percentage thinks DL sucks? I sure it is a minority.
Just my opinion.

Cholula

We just report it as it is. Kind of hard to put a positive spin on what's been happening with DL lately. The posters on this board are or were among DL's best customers at one time. We'd LOVE to report some positive, good experiences we've had lately. Or better yet, report some positive, "feel good" view of the future.
I can't personally think of anything to cheer you up. Maybe you can check the Jet Blue or Southwest boards if you want good stuff. Until DL decides to welcome back their rapidly diminishing Elite FF's, you're not going to see a lot of laughs around this forum.

Vikedog64

Holy smokes, don't hold back. What do you really think?? Sounds like the years before 9/11 at UAL..