My fellow board member RobertS975 posted this on the DL board last night.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020221/hsth026_1.html
At least one airline knows that it is important to keep frequent flyers who are a major source of revenue in the air, and not behind the wheel of their cars.

Since 9/11, DL has been a leader in innovative promotions to lure people back into the air and now they are the first to step up to the plate on this important issue. "Simply Good Business" which all DL board members hate has turned into "Simply Smart Business"

A big for DL!

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[This message has been edited by Rssrsvp (edited 02-22-2002).]

If this holds,this is great news.

From the press release:

"The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) today reconfirmed that airlines can configure security lines as each carrier deems appropriate so long as there is a consistent flow of customers to the TSA security checkpoints."

Hmmm. Sounds like a pretty nice loophole to me.

[This message has been edited by SuperSlug (edited 02-22-2002).]

While I support the rights of an airline to do something like this in principle, if the government is doing it AND every flyer is paying the same security surcharge without any choice in the matter, then it's wrong to treat them differently.

If I'm paying $10 on some round trip and wait two hours in a line and someone else gets right through for being "elite" while paying THE SAME $10, it's not right. If you pay the same amount for the security, you should get the same level of service. And if the airlines want to kiss up to the elites, fine. Let them pay a (higher) security charge for the elites and subsidize the cost for those in the longer lines. If the security charges are different, you can morally justify the difference in line sizes.

Why reward customers' loyalty at all?

Hmmm. Let me guess. You do not have elite status? Time to face economic/business realities. The airlines need their elites, desperately.

Over the course of a year the differential in costs is already happening.

You are paying 10 dollars once a year because you travel once on vacation in a year. Twice if your ambitious or have the means.

I am paying 20 dollars A WEEK. Over 1000 dollars a year. I am simply getting fair treatment for the contribution I make. If I pay 1000 dollars and get the same level of service you get at 10 dollars, then frankly, *I* am the one getting ripped off.

Consider this. Government already HAS preferred lines for frequent travellers. Built by taxpayers in many major metropolitan areas, these fast lines serve only the frequent traveller who pays for the privilege of not waiting in line. Government not only sanctions this privilege to a few, they actively advertise it! Don't believe me? Next time you go through a toll, look over at "e-pass" type lanes. LANES NOT ONLY BUILT WITH TAXPAYER FUNDS, BUT RESERVED FOR THOSE IN THE FREQUENT COMMUTER PROGRAM!

Regards,
-Bouncer-

[This message has been edited by Bouncer (edited 02-22-2002).]

Or as I state don another thread.....

If you travel once a year and you lose an hour (and as you travel so rarely you probably show up hours early ANYWAY) it means nothing.

If I take 120 Flights a year, and lose an hour each time I LOSE 5 DAYS OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!

Good for Delta!!

As far as good customers getting special attention, it sure seems to me that is the way the world turns.

In every business there are at least 2 classes of customers. The occasional one and the regular one. If you are a regular at a restaurant, you will always receive shorter waits for a table, a better table and often times free drinks or other goodies on the house. In the manufacturing business, you always give better prices to your major customers.

The airline business is no different. So when you ask "Why reward customers' loyalty at all?" My answer is, that this is how the airlines make money and stay in business.

Ziggy, the elite customers fly at least 50 segments or 50,000 miles a year. Though that does not by itself make them any "better" than you, the sum total of the security burden for someone like that would be far greater and disruptive to our economy and therefore our society than to the individual that takes two or three flights a year.

As far a e-pass lanes go in Illinois, anyone can pay the transponder security deposit (it's not much)and some amount of money for tolls. I seldom travel the Illinois tollways but I do have a transponder. I don't know why everyone does not do this. I'm pretty sure that the state of Illinois isn't putting in these lanes just to be nice. They have to add lanes anyway because of increased traffic loads, so why not have some of the cost paid for?