Delta to Close City Ticket Offices in the United States Except in New York City
 

I did a search for this and didn't see that it's already been posted, so here goes ...

I had the rare opportunity to do business at the CTO at Lenox Square in ATL tonight. I needed an international reissue on a paper ticket. I was helped by the most attentive agent who processed my reissue in record time. Lord only knows what I would have encountered in South Terminal tonight -- probably long lines and agents who've never seen paper tickets.

Anyway, while we were chatting, she mentioned that the Lenox location would be closing soon. In fact, she said, DL has decided to close all of its US CTOs, except NYC. She said the decision came down about a week ago. Moreover, she told me that the Perimeter CTO actually is a money-maker for the company and that the entire cost to operate CTOs worldwide is a mere $3m/yr. Nevertheless, apparently DL has decided only NYC passengers are deserving of a CTO -- and fancy storefronts and double MQM promos. It is, after all, the center of the universe.

I expressed my dismay to the agent and told her I would send an email to DL, which I did, but it probably won't do any good. Sad for the agents, who are among DL's most senior and knowledgeable. It's also another example of DL's lack of interest in their ATL-based passengers, IMO.

So, if you're a CTO fan, who doesn't live in NYC, you might want to drop DL a line, as well.

That stinks. The Greenbriar and Perimeter locations are wonderful to do biz with. This day has been long coming though. The Perimeter CTO was just about closed a year or two ago. A ton of letters to some sympathizing ears turned the tide though. Maybe the same can happen here?

What address did you send a letter to? I vote for opening the Gwinnett one again. I miss it horribly.

True but irrelevant. I like the CTOs but I use them once every 2-3 years. They're definitely a waste of money. $3MM a year isn't exactly chump change.

Don't waste ink and paper. There's not going to be enough outrage expressed to make a difference. There are only a dozen or so people left in the world who use CTOs, and three of them have posted on this thread. ;)

Just the regular website form ...

https://www.delta.com/emailus/servlet/EmailUs?cmd=go

Did I read that properly? You like something? I thought you were here just to be acerbic and contrarian. :D

You know what else is a waste of money? Renting NYC storefront space to set up airplane seats and hand out airplane food. Yes, $3m is chump change for a company like DL, and note I said that was the worldwide budget. There are far more CTOs outside the US than inside.

Email, friend. Email. No fuss, no waste.

As I've said elsewhere, that's how I've reached nearly 8,000 posts, just being acerbic and contrarian and providing nothing of value.

• What airplane seats and airplane food? I must have missed this.
• $3MM is significant to a company that has come out of bankruptcy and is looking to show profits.
• The CTOs outside the US cost far, far less to maintain, so I have to believe that the bulk of the $3MM is spent on the domestic CTOs.
• Airline agents are probably the least reliable sources of hard, factual data.

You want to kill all those electrons? Are they less deserving of compassion than trees? :D

Looks like the only DL CTO left in the US outside of Atlanta(3) or NYC(1) is one in Cincinnati. United and NW have closed all their US ticket offices. Like DL, AA and CO only have a few left in the US.

I always look at this Korean Air CTO down the street from me oddly. A horrible location in my opinion, but I guess they think it's worthwhile to keep a CTO on the northside in ATL. It's a hike to the airport!

I thought they'd already done this years ago. I can think of several cities that haven't had CTO's since at least the early '90's... Sure was neat to see those offices. Never had occasion to use one, though...

What's a delta CTO?

City Ticket Office

I'm planning on heading to the Lenox (ATL) CTO this afternoon to book a DL AMEX companion ticket - must be done in person. If they would make more things like this available over their website, then doing away with the CTOs would be less of any issue.

The AMEX companion certificate no longer requires that you book it in person. I just booked one in the last couple of weeks, called ahead to reserve the seats before I thought I was going to have to head to CVG and the agent informed me the whole reservation can now be made over the phone.

It was (still is?) a storefront around 57th and 7th called Delta 360. They had a bar-type area, lounge, and, in the back, a sample of the new BE lie-flat seats. If you got an e-mail from DL you could bring it in to get a free CRC pass, and they also had daily ticket give-aways.

I thought it was nice marketing. The Sat morning I was there it was busy, and the location is in a high foot traffic area. And the new seats are impressive.

CTOs probably made more sense in the era when travel agents were getting a 10% commission for issuing airline tickets, even when the customer had made the reservation themselves via the telephone. So whatever business the CTOs could do essentially saved the carrier from paying out a TA commission.