HeathrowGuy

From continental.com:

Effective Oct. 27, 2009:

*100% Elite Qualification Miles and Elite Qualification Points can be earned on discounted fares regardless of where the ticket is purchased or issued.

robbert

Delta's planes are clean with mostly friendly FAs. ATL is busy works well if the weather cooperates. I'm tracking many itineraries and DL is almost always one of the cheapest.

I'm starting to think their strategy is to be the WalMart (or maybe better: Target) of the airline industry. Be big, cater to the masses and keep them happy with low prices and a reasonable product. That also explains the fee-happiness, it's a way to keep the base fare low. Good short term but risky long term because eventually people are going to catch up on what fees and an inferior FF program do to the value they get from their $$$. The FT crowd is just fast to catch on to that.

MikeMpls

+1

We've only booked WBC awards because we wanted to ensure that we got our value out of our NW miles before were devalued by DL. Our last WBC trip is coming up -- future redemptions (not on DL ) will be in Y, as was my trip to Geneva last week on UA.

I think the OP is correct, at the moment. Whether Delta's resident fan club here likes it or not, it's trending in that direction. However, I wouldn't place any bets on what the landscape will look like a year from now. With $5B in cash, DL/NW is nowhere near the head of the bankruptcy queue. Delta still has time to adapt & survive; whether or not DL has the will to do that, I've no idea.

DiverDave

You are most wise, Obi-Wan Kenobi! ^

David

pmaddock

Before I post my response to the main thread - I'd suggest you recheck the CO situation. They've dropped the 50% EQM nightmare five long years after copying it from the pre-SOS DL.

Oddly enough I too have to say that US was my leading contender as a replacement but not sure now that CO is making changes.

AirlineDeregulation

I think the idea that Delta will fail is absurd. Maybe if everyone who flew DL was on flyertalk that might be the case. But let's be honest here. I'd venture to say 99% of people who fly Delta on a daily basis have never even heard of flyertalk.

The average American will fly whatever airline gets them from point a to point b the cheapest and/or fastest. And since DL after the merger will have more flights to more destinations, I'd say they should be fine to the average flyer.

Even many top level frequent flyers don't care about miles and rewards programs that much. I know plenty of them. Many people will get status on whatever airline has the most direct flights from their city to where they are trying to get. There's a reason that even US has many frequent fliers.

The idea that Delta will fail because of negative changes it is making is a very flyertalk-centric view of the world.

pmaddock

My 2 cents on the main topic - amazing how much we can type in a short time isnt it?

I don't see DL plummetting in any special way as compared to the other airlines. They've created an airline of great size with enought capitalization that they have a shot at being 'queen of the pigs' from a performance perspective. That's only from a Wall street perspective and/or the current perspective of Corporate America.

The sad truth of it all is the DL is still a Legacy Carrier in an very hampered industry. The combined pressure of Wall Street demanding a quaterly profit and customers who only care about price is squeezing virtually every intangible value out of the system across the industry. We're deeply rooted in that intangible value set as FF flyers. At some level DL and the others know that we're valueable as is customer service in general but the short term pressures lead them different directions. And although I personally think that DL's management is especially afflicted with a desire to cow-tow to these pressures - its not like most any other legacy carrier of size is that far behind.

Take a look around the other carriers - including the ones that DL won't show you on the competition charts. They all have substantial flaws as measured against the standards the vets have seen. Many ration upgrades too much, others have limited award avaibility, almost all of them have the darn multi-tiered award structure issues, others rely too much on RJs, and on it rides. As I survey the landscape after DL's reformat of the NW program I can tell you I don't see any clear winners. DL may be a dissappointment to many but its not like you won't find issues with the competitors. All you can really do is what I'm doing now - compare the flaws and decide which set you can live with.

TTT

Nice, thoughtful post. Many people need to do as you have done and find the best program/airline for their current situation. No airline/FF program can be all things for all people - there are always going to be gives and takes.

Just FYI, once CO leaves SkyTeam they are allowing full EQMs on all published fare types regardless of place of booking.

MrAndy1369

Honestly, I disagree with that notion. I think US Airways is more of the Walmart/TARGET of the skies, while DL is more like the Macy's/JcPenneys.

While DL has its own problems, it's a pretty solid airline with good service all around, IMHO. Flight attendants are often friendly, employees are professional and kind (with the expectation of a few rotten apples, which you can find everywhere), and flights are often on time. All this is talking about my personal experiences with them. They did mess up on my spring break trip, but have more than made up the experience.

My personal opinion? CO and DL both are the cream of the crop here. US and AA are in the middle. United and Southwest leads the pack on the bottom.

*takes off my "Let's show the world I drink DL kool-aid and am just spurting propaganda hat here*

FlytheTail

Interesting thread with a lot of solid posts. I'm also coming from the NW camp, where in hindsight we Plats were pampered with great customer service, wonderful FF perks, true SWUs, more domestic meal flights, a comparatively excellent & functional website, etc. I'm also getting frustrated with the "new" DL and have found their booking sites (revenue or with miles) to be almost useless (Orbitz, here I come). You won't find many DL apologists here, which is fine, as many of them probably never knew how lush and green the grass was in the NW camp.

DL, on the other hand, does have a solid domestic and international product. Planes are clean, service is usually good or better, the seats are good to very good (not including older 767s), and IFE is only improving (absent in NW). I'm trying to see the plus side of things... but that can be difficult at times.

I think the major airlines are trying to figure out the bare minimum needed to retain their customers yet, of couse, be profitable. I don't like it and we always have options with other carriers. I'm seriously thinking of jumping over to CO/UA but will give stick with DL through 2010 and see how things go. In the meantime, burn your NW miles as soon as you can. We may only have a few weeks left to use the NW award booking engine (speculation on my part).

thepla

True on paper; not true in theory. AA has standard award availability more often than DL.

indufan

If you don't round, it's going to be a lot of 9s after the . .

DeltaFirst

I've been very satisfied. I fly mostly to Europe, Africa and Middle East. So the Delta/AF-KLM combo gets me to where I need to go with pretty good schedules, all things considered. I always check to see if the other alliances can get me to where I need to go and usually they can but the layovers between flights are usually painful whereas in the past 2 years my layovers on Skyteam trips have been minimal with the longest being 4-5 hours. It seems like some NWA customers have axes to grind, had NWA taken over Delta I might feel the same way. Although I sympathize with your situation, the truth of the matter is I really don't care. To date I've almost accumulated over 200K MQM on mostly Delta flights I must say my experience has been extremely positive. PMU certificates work for me because I plan ahead well in advance, usually a month. I'm looking forward to the 2010 FF program where upgrade availabilty on int'l flights will increase with the same day option. But the bottom line is Delta will keep me as one of their 2nd best customers as long as customer service stays top notch and pricing remains competative. The other perks are just extra icing on the cake.

Denolloyd

Precisely.

When DL starts making Exxon type profits, my complaining will begin. Until then, so long as I get my domestic upgrades, clean interior, AVOD, INT J award bookings, INT Opups, friendly FA's, non-stops to most major EU cities, and so forth, I'm more then content.

EMMV

Exleftseat

It probably is correct that DL will not fail in the short term. Whatever reasons we may have to think they will fail, they won't. The question is, do they have foresight? Everything they do is truly based on their Southern heritage. They, on their own, were not successful to Asia. Only the NW acquisition will give them ( a short ) break. They had to go to Africa, because their Atlanta based politician supporters forced them to. Europe, they picked up and screwed up from their Panam acquisition. And South America is just a blimp on the radar screen. Their low fare adventure is dead. Truth told, I have never met anybody who stated that they are a DL supporter or even a flier. Yes, I know there are lots of people on their flights, but I have talked to AA fliers, UA fliers even US fliers, disappointed NW fliers, I have talked to tons of ex BN/TW/PA fliers. Where are the DL people? Only in ATL? The DL lounge in SFO had 10 people during two visits, the DFW lounge none except my SO and me.
I remember the early 70s when I lived in CLT. We all wanted to commute on EA, but DL had this late night, early morning L-1011 from/to ATL. How could you refuse that. Nothing to do with loyalty, just comfort. Today comfort is not to be had on any other U.S. airline in Y except on UA with E+ and loyalty comes only with fulfillment of promises, where DL sadly lacks.
The future looks grim for DL, but maybe they will change some of their ways. DL loyalists will hope and think so. I was a huge NW supporter, both in spirit and from my checkbook. I will watch it flying the friendly skies ( and they really are friendly!!! ). Come on over.