Still manage to provide?? I have a friend flying UA tomorrow, IAD-LAX-HNL, in coach. Meal service on both flights consists of snack packs, for sale. There may be some fresh food, for sale as well. While the snackpack I had on ATL-SAN a few weeks ago wasn't stellar, it was free -- and DL would at least give you a free meal on LAX-HNL (never flown that, but based on what I see on the site, that would be the case). Delta's not great, I agree with you there, but they're a shade better than many on this point these days.

What are you willing to pay for this service? The same prices that landed DL in Chapter 11 or a fare at which they can provoide those things AND make a profit?

Well, it's only partially relevant to this topic, but I don't believe for a moment that the "new" Delta is a financially sustainable Delta over the long haul. There needs to be consolidation among the legacy carriers, and that's what Parker's bid was all about.

It's interesting that the other airline bid out there -- AirTran's acquisition of Midwest -- seems to be inching toward reality. There are tremendous parallels between the two deals, with the difference perhaps the level of employee opposition. But I suspect the AirTran deal could be bad for Delta, because it will make AirTran an even more formidable competitor. For domestic travellers, that probably means that a lot of the frills that we frequent flyers like aren't coming back, because Delta will have to "commoditize" in order to compete. And if Delta doesn't make a mint off of flying to places like Kiev, the current period is just the calm in the center of the hurricane. Only time will tell.

My Two Cents--Generally, Two Thumbs Up
 

I'm happy with "the New Delta". I'm 4-1/2 hours away from starting the round trip that will requalify me for PM through 2/28/09.

PROS--I've been on time or early my last four consecutive round trips between the DC area and northern California. The captain came on the horn on a flight on Monday morning and claimed that DL had ranked first among all domestic airlines in on-time performance for 23 of the past 25 weeks.

Delta's automated phone service got a hold of me an hour before I was going to leave for BWI, to let me know that my flight through SLC was going to be 3 hours late leaving (which would have missed my SLC-OAK connection), and automatically rebooked me on the next flight out of BWI, which was the following morning; I got on the phone to SMS, and the nice lady upgraded my outbound ticket to full F status and got me what must have been the last F seat on both DCA-CVG and CVG-SFO--the flight actually arrived at SFO 30 minutes before the SLC-OAK flight was scheduled to arrive across the bay.

Delta's automated systems actually limit the amount of actual contact one needs with any employees prior to boarding the aircraft, which reduces the possibility for an unpleasant encounter.

Delta's CRC program is still top notch, and they have made some nice improvements, such as the massage chairs, kalamata olives in the DCA CRC in the afternoon, great bar service and choices at SLC, iced tea and lemonade on ice in pitchers on the bar counter at PBI, Ketel One vodka in the T2 BE/CRC room at JFK.

First class upgrade program continues to work for me, as I have scored 31 out of a possible 35 F upgrades so far this year, and have flown on mostly LUT fares (ironically, I missed by one seat on an M ticket ATL-LAS in April).

Skyteam works well for me, as I really like Air France, and Air France has a terrific operation on the IAD-CDG route--best coach flights I've had in a long time.

DL's hubs at ATL, CVG and SLC all seem to work very well. Personnel at CVG and SLC have generally sunny dispositions and go out of their way to help.

CONS--DL's hub at JFK is horrific, particularly the commuter operation at T2, where the walkway to the terminal was flooded with over 6 inches of water for at least 50 feet. This is not all DL's fault, as JFK is a pre-jet age airport with an obsolete field design and gigantic demand by all kinds of airlines. Personally, I would like to use JFK more (in the winter, when I travel to the UK, I would like to take an early flight to JFK and then spend the layover at nearby Aqueduct Racetrack), but for Europe trips I think I'm going to go through CDG from IAD.

I remember and miss "Royal Service" flights on the old L-1011s, where the meal was graciously served in at least four courses (4 FAs serving 32 passengers) taking 3 hours from start to finish. Those flights were fabulous. By contrast, I flew ATL-DEN last November, and no meal was offered in F (it was a few hundred miles short of the 1550 mile threshhold for meal service)

No CRC at BWI (although DL has a great CRC at DCA, and the NW World Club at IAD gives me everything I need in a lounge). DL and NW are together at the end of Pier C, and between the two of them they have a lot of traffic from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. It's a shame they can't get together to open a lounge (it would probably have to go on the ground level of Pier C, which is starting to fill up with restaurants and shops).

Generally shambolic baggage handling at BWI (it takes somewhere between 30-45 minutes for checked bags to arrive)--DL has not beefed up its ground staff to levels where it was 5 years ago or so. This is usually not a problem for me, as I carry on my bags, but when I travel with my wife, she insists on checking luggage, and we get long waits on our return.

Another criticism of the BWI operation is that, for late night flights, the arrival monitors are not properly updated (for example, a flight which was shown to have been "at the gate" had not left CVG, and turned out to be 2 hours late)--as there are no DL employees landside at that hour other than the baggage people who seem to be under siege these days, it can be quite frustrating waiting for an arriving passenger.

OVERALL--I'm pleased with DL--they are trying really hard, and have come a long way over the past 2 years. I'm sticking with DL and the Skyteam.

IMHO there should be food served in the F cabin for any trip over 1,000 miles. I recently flew LGA-PBI on a morning flight and was only offered a choice of chips or nuts in the F cabin. That needs to be improved upon.

In addition, I wish that they would bring back the "Song" quality food for sale menu for NYC-FL and also all transcon flights.

Can't speak on the F food situation but BOB on transcons is supposedly coming back in the fall. As to the IFE in planes other than ex song. The summer schedule does not leave a lot of room for down time. The cabin/IFE upgrades should pick up pace in fall.

Satisfied? Yes. Delighted? No.
 

For what it's worth, I'm "satisfied" by the new D E L T A, but I'm not delighted.

To get to "Delighted":

• Meals on flights scheduled for 2+ hours. A distance requirement is not sensible. I can leave PHL at 4 in the afternoon and not get into DAB until close to 10 at night. Buy on board (in coach) and a meal (in first) on PHL-ATL which is always scheduled for longer than two hours) would be welcome.
• In-lounge dining option for BE flights departing the US in the evening. Give us more time to SLEEP onboard!
• Priority baggage tags that actually mean "PRIORITY" - across the entire system. Priority tags on my bag shouldn't ensure that it's the last bag off the aircraft!
• Look into offering some type of "Premium Economy" service (at least on the ultra-long-hauls) that we can upgrade into ON DAY-OF-DEPARTURE/AT THE GATE! Nobody wants to pay a Y fare, have spare miles/PMUs and see BusinessElite seats fly empty, but Delta has adopted that as a policy. A Premium Economy cabin, with a little more leg room and WIDTH (I'm thinking Domestic First Class), free cocktails, first dibs on coach meal choices, and a snack basket, could well be a step towards a win-win.
• Get some real international partners that offer true international first class awards to destinations. Get rid of the stupid KE blackout dates (I wasn't able to get the one KE award seat that was open during the non-blacked out period of 29 February 2007 this year!) and reinstate KE and AF First Class awards!

Delta's been claiming that BOB was coming for years!. Song was supposed to be where they rolled out the kinks before deploying to mainline. I suspect that cabin dining on the new D E L T A will continue to be your choice of Sun Chips, peanuts, Biscoff cookie, cracker with spread, and random pseudo-healthy snack bar for the foreseeable future :rolleyes:

One thing I do love about Delta is the Shuttle. The only improvements the shuttle really needs are:
(1) Bonus MQM and miles. If I pay $330 for a one way LGA-BOS Y fare, I should get more then 750mqm. It took me months of traveling this route several times a week to qualify for FO. If I spent the equivalent $ on transcontinental, or even travel to the midwest I would have been a PM.
(2) Offer liquor in addition to wine and beer
(3) Get rid of the surly male GA that works gates A3/A4/A5 at logan.

Years? It hasn't been gone for "years". Well...maybe 2 of them.

I believe song was launched 3-4 years ago. One of the stated intents for song was for it to be an "incubator" for new concepts that would eventually migrate over to mainline. We've seen live TV come over, we've seen fancy drinks come over. Where the heck is the food???

Which part is not correct?

As I understand it:

For Windows it is
Medallion Status
Fare Class
TimeStamp

Same for gate lotto except YBM which trumps Status.

There was a thread months ago on this but DL never really came clear on what any changes were and stated that nothing had changed.

Pretty sure for gate lotto, B/M does not trump other Medallions. Only Y will do it.

I have first hand experience as an FO last September on a B fare getting bumped to the top of the list. Not sure if this has changed.

I just pulled this off of Delta's website.

"Confirmation Windows

Medallion Level Clearance Priority
All Medallions Time of ticketing for Y class fares
Platinum Medallion 5 calendar days in advance for B, M, H, Q, K, L, U, and T class fares2
Gold Medallion 3 calendar days in advance for B, M, H, Q, K, L, U, and T class fares2
Silver Medallion 1 calendar day in advance for B, M, H, Q, K, L, U, and T class fares

Clearance starts with B class and continues in descending order. If Medallion level and fare class are equal, time of ticketing will be the tie breaker. "

As much as anything, this ticks me off. I can pay more for my T fare than most markets will pay for their L,U fares, but if we are both PM ( or GM or FO, for that matter) they will get the upgrade because of a lower price but higher class ticket.