Has anyone taken a peek into the future to see the newly planned schedule changes?

Let's take where I fly out of, SYR-DTW

Let's look at this Friday Departures... (This has been the schedule for awhile, good for me):

6:21 AM DC9-50
9:10 AM DC9-50
12:26 PM CR9
4:21 PM DC9-50

Friday 6/5... we swap out the CR9 with the CRJ...:
6:39 AM DC9-50
9:10 AM DC9-50
12:00 PM CRJ
4:21 PM DC9-50

We run this way most of the Summer until Friday 8/28... we reduce from 4 flights down to 3... and now 2 of them are CRJ's.

6:15 AM DC9-50
11:35 AM CRJ
4:30 PM CRJ

and it stays this way as far as the eye can see...

So, they reduced the schedule from 4 to 3... and get rid of F cabins except for one flight in and out a day. Wonderful. DL has just made NW 'like everyone else'. One of the reasons I've stuck with NW over the years is that SYR-DTW had F, and even as a Silver Elite, I usually was upgraded (except on Monday Morning/Fri Night... but then again, I was Plat and Gold until recently). Since everyone else did RJ's without F, or worse, NW was always a pleasant ride. I guess they see no value in that.

I've read about the downgrades in aircraft DTW-YYZ. What other stuff are they pulling? Does anyone know where these other aircraft are going? It's not like DL put them on any of the SYR-ATL/JFK/CVG runs, nor have they increased frequency on those routes. So, they're reducing overall service to SYR, and the type of service is getting downgraded as well.

How about your flights in?

EAU went from arrivals at noon, 4:30ish, 8 PM and 11 PM to just the first three. On top of that, they started enforcing a maximum connection time in MSP of 4 hours. Now virtually impossible to get in from the west coast - most day flights miss the last flight of the day with no 11 PM arrival, and can't take the redeyes because they get in too early to make the 4-hour connection window for the noon flight.

So now all my west coast travel has me driving/shuttling to MSP; at which point, why not just take the cheapest airline from all the options available?

On the upside, all our service is 340's, so can't go any further down than the bottom! (not that it matters for a 27 minute flight)

Is DTW your final destination?

Depending on your west coast destination, MSP should provide at least two good LCC options.

Flights in go from 4 to 3, same pairing.

Depart DTW

Now:

10:22 CR9
2:07 DC9-50
5:34 DC9-50
9:27 DC9-50

Next Week:

10:09 CRJ
2:00 DC9-50
5:29 DC9-50
9:30 DC9-50

By the end of the summer it's down to:

10:00a CRJ
2:15p CRJ
7:00p DC9-50

The worst part about the 3 coming back is no 9pm flight, I prefer that one the best.

Yeap, same problem I have - the late flight lets you leave at the end of the day for east coast flights and leave at some point OTHER than 7 AM in the morning for west coast flights. Forces you to blow an extra night in a hotel either way.

Alot of my business travel is to DTW/FNT/MBS/GRR/LAN.

Alot of my leisure travel is not. But the thought of connecting JFK/ATL/CVG just sucks.

The thought of almost 2 hours SYR-ATL on a RJ sucks.

CVG only has two flights a day, no thanks.

I do DL SYR-JFK all the time for business travel. I hate JFK, especially DL's variation of it (although, they actually have improved in the past 2 years). But JFK (and NYC in general) is a really bad place to get a connect. One cloud and your flight is delayed, and they cancel the regional flights first. Trust me. I never even fly home from NYC anymore because of the crap all the airlines pull with flight cancellations and delays. It's one of the reasons I bailed on CO as a Plat in 2003 was I was sick of the BS they pulled with EWR-SYR.

Now, I fly DL SYR-JFK and Amtrak back NYP-SYR. It takes maybe 45 mins more door to door, but it's consistent, and I enjoy a meal and catch up on work and no stress. It also helps one of my offices I work at in NYC is in Penn Plaza, so I depart the office about 15 mins before the train departs. I'm never worried about... will I make it to the airport in time? Oh, this traffic... can I make it through security? Oh, no!

So, yeah, I'm not thrilled with the SYR-DTW reductions in flights from 4 to 3 and the downgrading of the aircraft.

I'm also not thrilled with the reductions in F meals in general.

I'm also not thrilled with the MSP-HNL (a favorite of mine) reductions.

I'm not thrilled with the loss of using miles for upgrades for Elites on the lowest fares. Now it's impossible to use my miles. And I've always loved the other airlines that charge you 25k round trip for a F upgrade, but the first segment is on a RJ with no F. They should give you a discount! I never had to worry about that with NW, because, I always had a DC-9 or a CR9. So, now not only are they eliminating that in many cases, but, instead of paying $330 rt SYR-LAX, I've got to pay a minimum of $550 rt SYR-LAX to get a minimum fare type to use my massive pile of miles for upgrading. Thanks!

Online booking now sucks, thanks to DL. The NW booking engine doesn't work well anymore.. and DL's booking engine is pretty much useless except for basic flights.

I've been pretty vocal about my thoughts on how Delta/NW has handled the US Bank/AMEX issue seeing how I've very loyal there.

I'd say I'm pretty ticked! lol

The more and more I think about it, I can come up with a list of "cons"... I don't know of anything positive yet for me under DL.

Just wondering -- Jet Blue would get you out of there, but unfortunately not to Michigan, esp. not to outstate Michigan.

JetBlue is pretty nice in comparison to the Regional Jets. Heck, even their ERJ's are pretty nice, I was on one of the direct SYR-FLL's before they cancelled it. But, they do offer SYR-MCO, which is nice.

You'd think that Delta and the other companies would get wise and figure out how to keep their premium customers. The more cutbacks they make (like this) the more likely I, along with alot of other travellers will look at JetBlue or other options.

However, you mention the Michigan thing, and, they don't fly to alot of other small to medium sized cities that I sometimes have to fly to for business. Plus, their frequent flyer program sucks. You either fly with them constantly, or you lose your points. Not a fan of that. I fly them a few times a year when price/time is better, but I have nothing to ever show for it. It doesn't make me seem too welcome.

But then again, you've got the whole JFK thing. I hate flying through NYC unless I'm actually going there. Nothing but problems.

I've also banked a ton of miles for upgrades to places like HNL... and I'm actually starting to toy around with some International flights... JetBlue unfortunately doesn't do that.

So, alas, here I am. A few years ago I thought of US, but even then they've dropped alot of their service out of SYR.

Maybe I'll just take the train.

Greetings:

As I am originally from ROC and went to law school in SYR, I feel for you. There may be no way to avoid the RJ shuffle other than driving somewhere to catch mainline. How is CO out of SYR? I know it is probably all jungle jets, but the ride to CLE would be very short I would think. In any event, the SYR schedule might improve later in the year if you are set on staying with DL/NW. Good luck!

Safe Travels.

Aren't DL's schedules notorious for constant changes? Perhaps you will get lucky and these will be reversed down the line.

Well, I hope so. NW would occasionally do 3 flights a day during the slow season (like, in Jan-Feb right after the holidays) but they'd always bring it back. And they always had at least a CR9 on the route.

I'm curious to where they're putting the CR9 and DC-9's if they're taking them off this route (and presumably others).

I'm also noticing ROC goes from 4 flights (3 CR9 and 1 CRJ), to 2 CRJ and 2 CR9 around 6/5, to all 4 CRJ's on 8/28. Down to 3 CRJ's 11/06.

BUF goes from 4 DC9-s to 4 CRJs.

Not sure if they increased any flights from DL hubs in BUF/ROC, but my guess would be no.

Just running some quick searches, there appears to be a lot of nasty cuts coming with the fall schedule. I sure hope they aren't done with the Sept. schedule yet, but I see a number of flights gone/cut/downgraded.

There are a lot of cities losing a frequency out of the last DTW departure bank. DTW-PIT goes all-CRJ. DTW-ORD even starts seeing CRJ's. One bright spot, DTW-OMA gets E75's.

Sure looks to be a lot more CRJ flying at the expense of CR9/E75/DC-9 flying.

Looks like they may be putting more DC-9-30's out to pasture later this year, along with the 757's and MD-88's they mentioned on the last quarterly earnings call.

I wonder where the CR9's are all going... They're obviously still in service. Did NW have any more on order? I figured that was going to be their plan for replacement of the DC-9's when they were to be retired.

Get used to it.

Delta's forward fleet plan doesn't include 34 757-200R's and the 25-30 DC-9-30's currently flying for NWA. They are to be retired beginning with the post-summer schedule and continuing throughout 2010.

Does anyone really think Delta's idea of a merger was to continue a schedule where the old NW hubs compete with the DL hubs? What's happening in Syracuse will happen thoughout the system as Delta takes out capacity so it can charge a better premium on the remaining number of seats. DTW and to a lesser extent MSP will be seeing more regional service as the NW mainline fleet is pruned.

I am surprised that 757s are being retired, as Delta is finding them quite useful in their fleet.

Is there something specific on the 757-200Rs that makes them less desirable? I did a google search on that term and came up empty.

In any case, it would be more useful if "SYR" were included in the thread title.

David