motytrah

Who cares. The point is the GA dropped an F bomb on the PAX. A supervisor may or many nor have heard it, but also essentially avoided all ownership telling the pax to pound sand.

MikeMpls

I never said it was up to WBC standards. You're putting words in my mouth. But was much better than standard F service, as many in this thread (and myself) will attest:
With regard to short flights, many times people have short connections and are unable to secure any food or drink in the previous airport. Couple this with the multi-hour tarmac delays for which DL is becoming (in)famous and you have a recipe for extreme passenger discontent.

DLBeno

Distribution is not curtailed and **anyone** on either side--NW or DL--can pull up the operational metrics anytime they want. We on the DL side receive good news about NW operational performance all the time--for example, last week, NW had a record 5 days in a row with 100% flight completion (no cancelled flights system-wide). This was sent to all DL employees in the daily news feed we get on the company intranet. Nothing is being curtailed in the manner you stated.

You are correct. NWA is running a smoother, better performing operation than the DL side at this time. Didn't dispute ya here at all.

DLBeno

I was answering Mike's point. That's who cares.

And regarding your point, yes, very poor form on the part of what happened between the pax and the agent and the supervisor.

That said, we still have no context on this incident making this a purely one sided story.

MikeMpls

Thanks for the clarifications. I'll have to needle my source.

meh130

I have only flown NW once in the last year, twice in the last decade, and three times in the last 15 years. Each of those were one-way domestic flights. However, I will never forget one transpacific NWA flight back in 1993 or 1994 on a 747-200. It was the middle of the night, and I woke up parched. I got up from my window seat and climbed over my seat mates without waking them (I was pretty limber for 6'1" back then), and walked towards the back of the airplane. There were no FAs in the galleys or in the jump seats by the exits beside the galleys. Finally, I made it to the back and found two FAs sitting in crew rest seats chatting. I stopped, and waited about 30 seconds until they reached a pause in their conversation. I asked if I could get some water to drink. One FA pointed towards the galley and said something like "go get it yourself". I was stunned, because I had flown NW across the big pond several times, and I had never encountered such an attitude. Needless to say, I took my own sweet time in the galley. I ended up just standing there and emptying a half-full pitcher of lemonade, pouring glass after glass. I think I may have offered some to a passer by as well, figuring if it was gone, someone would have to get up and make some more.

My last NW flight, a DC-9 from ATL to MEM, had very nice FAs.

tvnwz

Seems this post is a skud missle with the OP not posting more information. I am very familiar with TPA. I have a home here and am through Tampa three or four times a month. DL and NW are together, but not very combined. There is a seperate NWA ticket counter area that is mainly serviced by NWA employees. The flights leave and arrive out of dedicated NW gates and run by the old NW ground staff and CSA's. I understand all the NWA managers have been reassigned or terminated and all management is Delta.

It appears to me that the OP encountered a Delta agent--not a NW agent. I find that the DL agents are not very informed/trained on NW procedures and while they try, it appears they think that soon NW will be on DL systems and why bother to really learn the NW system that will be going away.

But, we don't really know what happened that caused the comment and we will see if the OP offers up a more detailed account. Until then, I don't think any of this means much.

dusdidt

We Worldperks Elites who are best able to compare NW and DL GA service best since we've been flying NW for decades and now DL. We are best able to notice the difference, not some DL plats here who seemingly are here to tamp down NW Elites' complaints and pep up DL. Obviously, DL Plats would be hard pressed to compare the gate agent service in cramped, old and disorganized ATL with NW gate agent service in spacious and efficient DTW. Unfortunately, I have been connecting in ATL all this year and subjected to the DL gate proceedure and culture that would happily eliminate the GA if possible. When I first started flying via ATL, I was shocked by the DL GAs diminished customer service that has become overly reliant on the flat screen monitors at the gate to communicate all info to passengers so that many DL GAs never looking up from their computers, often seeming to discourage passengers from approaching the counter. Passenger linger in front, hesitant to speak up. Being in the travel industry, I examine all aspects of travel when I fly. When I first started flying DL regularly, I went up twice to a DL GA with my old BP to ask if I needed a new BP. The GA never lifted her head from typing in the CRS and never spoke one word to me but only motioned with her head toward the monitor or nodded or shook her head to each question. I finally had to telephone Delta from the gate to get a full explanation to my BP and procedural questions. Every time this year, I connected through ATL except once through DTW. and I tell you traveling through DTW is a superior experience. The DTW GA's are former NW agents, even if they now wear DL's uniforms, are trained in engaging not avoiding the passengers because they have not yet been reduce by the DL automated info monitor and become passenger phobic. If DL plats here prefer an automated voice recognition phone system over a real person when they phone their airline Elite desk, then they maybe will certainly find DL GAs better than NW. I sure don't.

But on most my recent DL trip through ATL, at gate B6 I once again got that head motioning passenger ignoring GA but also witnessed an unforgetable scene. The waiting DL pilot of my departing flight to LGA, Captain Robert Woods, notice a perplexed passenger who the GA was ignoring. He asked to looked at her BP and seeing she was at the wrong gate, he looked up her gate and walked her over to it. When our incoming plane arrived, a deplaning passenger at our gate seemed lost and Captain Woods came from behind the counter and asked if she needed help. The elderly lady was connecting to a DL flight to Nigeria in E concourse. He took her roller and walked her all the way to the the train. It was an imaginary sequence that one only sees in an airline TV commercial having us believe that flying is still smiling, caring, and friendly. But this was real. I went up and told how much I appreciated his exceptional care and professionalism. Captain Robert Woods reminded me of the professionalism of Captain Sullenberger. I felt very safe on my flight to LGA and happy to be flying Delta.

troyintn

I tend to agree as merging the two is only a facade until they have one certificate. Until then It causes more confusion.

BOB W

SInce tgtg has not brought out ther context of this incident, I would hold off on making any bold, broad statements. There are always two sides to a story.

TTT

I think you make some good points, however, I don't think it is fair to say NW elites can compare the two products better than DL elites. There are many Delta elites who had to earn their keep flying NW and visa-versa and all probably have had different experiences with each carrier.

Everyone's experience is valuable to the discussion, but IMO, no one individual experience should be used to make basis for judgment on the quality of either airline.

On a whole, I have had good service from both airlines. I have also had snippy service from both airlines - but I can't say that either airline has provided bad service, in my experience. I have seen and experienced both airlines providing good service recovery when dealing with irregular operations. Fortunately, I have not seen anything the OP described.

I guess my point here is that no one group is better fitted for making comparisons for each carrier simply because they are a DL elite or NW elite. All experiences are valuable to the whole, but individually shouldn't be used as fact.

There are many satisfied Delta customers and many dissatisfied Delta customers. The same holds true for NW or any other airline. The only experience that matters is yours.

dusdidt, I hope you write Delta about the Captain. I have seen one other example of this from an OO captain. We were waiting on the ramp in SLC and a mother with child was standing in the snow. The captain took off his jacket and gave it to the mother to wear while she waited. I wrote a note on Delta.com complimenting the captain and got a nice note back from the Director of Customer Relations at Skywest.

TTT

I wonder if things would have been different had the merger been more like the KL/AF merger - kept separate for quite a while.

Stripe

This is an issue in AUS as well, where the NW desk was closed, the contractors laid off, and the NW computers moved over to the DL desk with no warning and little training given to the DL agents. They are frustrated about it and can offer little help with irrops on NW operated flights. They told me that directly. From the standpoint of an agent, the fact that they are being put into that situation signals to them that management doesn't care about the customers' business. So why should they? It's no wonder the agent in TPA blew up like that.

That didn't prevent them from combining, then gutting, the FF programs.

Gargoyle

Could we just have a single sticky Consolidated Delta Bashing Thread?

The endless repetition in multiple threads wastes bandwidth.

MikeMpls

An endless repetition in a single thread will waste even more bandwith the way vBulletin is designed.

Multiple threads exist because multiple people keep having issues with Delta. Please address your wrath at the source of the problems (Delta), not at the customers who have to deal with Delta. FT fora are not intended to be lovefests.

Have you read the Flying Blue forum lately?