I am lucky (?) enought to fly a lot on KL/ AF metal every year, and have therefore Platinum membership or Elite Plus in skyteam speak in the programme.

Flew Amsterdam - Minneapolis this week, in Y (eek) ! and have to say I was very dissapointed in the service. Cabin crew were rude and surly, EVERYTHING was too much trouble, and reminds me just why I avoid US carriers whenever possible.

Ok, I never expected to be treated like a business class passenger, but just common decency would have been nice instead of snarls and food and drinks being virtually thrown at me, despite my please and thank you's whenever decency required it.

Flying home tomorrow, Dallas - Atlanta - Amsterdam- Humberside, and have to say I am not looking forward to it in the slightest.

Hi tezzer,

All airlines have good and bad crews. I've had some excellent experiences on both DL and NW, I've also had bad ones.

But then, I've also had AF crews that didn't want to do any work, or excellent AF crews.

As such, I would not blame a whole company based on a single flight.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

Welcome to Y in the "new improved Delta" where many of us live some of the time.
I make it a point to acknowledge the good ones and not put up with the rude by making a comment to them when needed.
Amazing the difference in reaction I get
I always know are times when you need to give people room for bad days BUT on TATL flights you are stuck together for longer and I expect it to change at SOME point in the flight. Sometimes that happens when I make a point to mention to the FA what I observe. Don't get me wrong.. are some very nice DL FA's too!!

I do not expect them to treat me different as a DM in Y then any other passanger when it comes to attitude in general service on a flight.

I fly a lot on KL/AF as well and notice the difference in "general" service attitude.

Reminds me of the AF crew I had the displeasure of serving me in BE (paid, I might add!) on my way to Tokyo. They were terrible. I would go as far as saying it was the worst BE experience I have ever had and worse than all but the worst Y experience I have ever had. Thankfully, I flew NW back to the States and had a good experience. NW always did have good/great service in BE. I have also flown on some short hop Intl flights (e.g. CDG - VCE) and had terrible AlItalia and AF crews. Crews are hit and miss but I will say that the ex-NW crews (ex-NW BE crews excepted) are, in general, worse than the rest of the DL crews.

It's not clear, but it appears the OP may have been on KL/AF metal this time.

I hate to generalize, but I do see a greater difference in FA attitude between the cabins on EU airlines than on US airlines. Perhaps more of a sense of the old caste system? Then again, most of my experiences on EU airlines the past ten years have been AF/AZ, neither of which is noted for deferential Y service .

No, it was delta metal, and to be honest representative of the service I always seem to get on TATL flights, on NW previously or Delta now.

AF crews can be poor, for sure, KL less so IMHO but for service, try Emirates, Thai or Singapore, where nothing is too much trouble, and customer is king as opposed to a pain in the .ss !

I agree that I've had had good and bad crews in both cabins on all of the skyteam partners.

I would generalize to say that US based crews can be warmer and more homey, while European crews seem more professional, so some of it is subjective.
(I actually seem to get along better with AF crews than many American's report - maybe because I speak the language.)

The one difference that makes me more comfortable on DL metal than on AF/KL metal is that I feel like if things are really bad, I know that a complaint to DL after the fact will (eventually...) result in some sort of response or gesture that acknowledges the experience and gives me the sense that someone has heard me and may actually take action.

I've simply never had that happen on AF or KL and it makes the bad experiences even more frustrating knowing that no one gives a damn...

I recently flew Y outbound/BE return and there was a world of difference. Funny thing was, it was some of the same FA's.

Y class always seems like more of a cattle call. The food is poorer, the service slower, and the FA attitude is they have to serve too many people so they rush through service. Status means nothing, you are just another BIS.

When these same FA's were working BE, they were more relaxed and focused on the needs of each passenger. Of course, it helps when you have so few passengers to be responsible for.

Yes, it would be nice to be treated with a little respect in coach but I wouldn't count on that happening until they add at least a couple more FA's to relieve the stress.

The SkyTeam forum, which is now the new home for this thread, is the more appropriate forum for the topic of this thread rather than the Delta SkyMiles forum.

Regards,

Canarsie
Co-Moderator, Delta SkyMiles forum

Yup, return was as bad as expected. Dallas - Atlanta was good, they even put me on an earlier flight to get me there with more time to make my connection. Pity the airframe had gone technical, so we were delayd for an hour or so. When it came to boarding, I went into the priority boarding lane, at the correct time, with my platinum card handy, and my Elite plus membership printed out on my boarding card, but oh no, I was sent back and round to the economy lane ! Despite a brief discussion with the gate agent, it made no difference, back I was sent !

The flight itself reminds me why I travel business 99.99% of the time on long haul, it was the most uncomfortable night of my life, with a few 15 minute snatched sleeps between babies screaming etc.

Nah, forget it, it's never going to be Delta again, not in coach anyway !

Hi tezzer,

Sorry to say, but I've not encountered these issues with DL. I get zone 2 boarding, and Sky Priority printed on my boarding pass.

As for babies screaming, that's not DL's prerogative, I've had them on every airline I've flown with. (And reading the post on the AC board today, if you fly KL out of YYZ, it's the babies flight because of the connections to India and Africa ... talk about stereotypes)
Cheers,

GenevaFlyer