It seems that I wasn't the only person complaining about certain items missing from the Delta package. A number of things coming down the pike are mentioned, but absent items are mentioned as well. Please comment and let me know if I've missed anything.
Things going right:
744s and 763ERs are getting AVOD in the back. Thank you. It's been a long time coming. This will put the entire international fleet with AVOD nose-to-tail.
764s / 763ERs / 744s / 772Es are getting true flat-bed seats. Thank you. See my note on A330s in the "wrong" section.
Wifi is going really, really well. It appears that the entire pre-merger domestic DL fleet is complete (see the Delta Blog). It also appears that wifi is moving quickly through the pre-merger NWA fleet.
CR7s - at least some of them - are getting an F cabin. Not that I really wanted that, but good.
Pre-merger NWA aircraft are being remodeled quickly with leather seats.
The LA Skyclub is getting remodeled, and IND, PHL, and SEA are getting new clubs.
Delta.com for mobile devices is much, much better and very usable.
Things going wrong, or things undefined:
Delta.com is still a little broken. Every time I buy a domestic ticket within 5 days of departure with the upgrade showing available, I get downgraded at the time of purchase and I need to call to get my upgrade back. Am I the only one this happens to?
I have full faith in the wifi process - but in my humble opinion, if an aircraft gets an F cabin, it should get wifi as well (read: Regional Jets like CR7s, CR9s, and E170s). In addition, if DL continues to use international aircraft, like 763ERs, on domestic routes on a regular basis, these aircraft need wifi.
Is the A330 getting a flat bed, or is it staying with the angled flat?
With all the NWA remodeling, are these aircraft getting AVOD? I can't find any mention of A319s / A320s / 752s / 753s getting anything other than an internal facelift.
Delta got its single operating certificate on the first day of this year. Hopefully the merger speed will increase. Read more here.
The mobile version of Delta.com is still *thoroughly* busted. The certificate is invalid for the site, but at least they have taken away many of the broken links, and the mobile check-in section now links to a "this doesn't work yet" page. I realize that I oversimplify the IT world, but how long does it really take to get this working? You can still see current mileage balances at the mobile NWA site, which will surely be coming down soon. On top of that, when you check in online, make sure you check the box to get an e-mail / SMS / whatever sent to your phone with the boarding pass link. Sadly, it doesn't look like you can get a duplicate message sent if you accidentally delete the first one.
A lovely lady at CVG reservations told me (like I didn't already know) that Diamond Medallion credentials will be mailed off in February, and become effective March 1 (at the Medallion expiration cycle). She read it right off the screen, so it must be true, right?
On behalf of my outstanding readers, I asked about the cost for a spouse membership - for a Diamond Medallion member - to the Sky Club. Spouse memberships have traditionally been $200 more than the cost for just the Skymiles member.
Dear Mr. Hughes,
Thank you for contacting us through delta.com. We are sorry for the delay in responding to your message.
Yours will be complimentary.At this time, any discount for a spouse has not been addressed.I will pose the question to the Sky Club desk for review and get back with you if I am given any information.
We appreciate your business and look forward to seeing you on your next Delta flight.
Glad you folks thought that one out. Thanks so much.
On a more pleasant note, relating to my "Delta.com has gone off the rails" post, Delta.com just kicked me in the ass again - advertising a flight that I booked as "Upgrade Available", letting me choose an F seat on an M fare, and then promptly pushing me back into coach after the purchase. I called SMS, and the representative called a supervisor, who not only processed the upgrade on the outbound, but also on the inbound, which is beyond the 5 day window. Maybe this Diamond status will, in fact, mean something. We'll see.
Update Jan 13: I finally received a response from the SkyClub, it reads:
Dear Mr. Hughes,
Below is the response from the SkyClub desk.
Diamond Medallion does not begin until 3/1/2010. To add a spouse for a one-year membership it is $200.
We appreciate your business and look forward to seeing you on your next Delta flight.
(Name Redacted)
Medallion Desk
Well there you have it. Thanks soooo much for this special benefit.
Special Note: Any Delta employees - especially flight attendants - who read this post would be well served by not reading any other post on this site. Let's just pretend I'm a nice guy, OK?
Maybe it's Christmastime that has me rethinking things. Or maybe I'm developing a soul. Either way, the thoughts I have on Delta unionization are going to be a little shocking for those who have followed my previous rants. Before we get into that topic, I have a few thoughts on my recent trip to Sydney:
The new winner for the quickest customs check on earth goes to Los Angeles. It might have been 6 AM, but these people were beyond quick. It even beats the efficiency of JFK. The new loser: Sydney Kingsford Smith. Seriously - I'm not bringing any food into your island paradise. Could we speed up this line? Seriously.
As it would turn out, the best crew station for Delta is Los Angeles. Hands down. More on that later.
The 777-200LR is an amazing beast. I realize that I don't get a lot of 777 exposure because DL doesn't have many of them, but that doesn't take away from the fact that this plane was epic. I was too drunk / lazy / indifferent to get pictures of the crew rests, but after riding in BE on this bird, I was so pleased with my experience that I didn't care. I highly recommend the DL 777-200LR. Just awesome.
Sydney is a great town. I wish I could have stayed longer. If you're young and single - plan a trip there during the summer months. Amazing.
And on to the main topic:
Some of the best interactions with flight crews that I have been privy to involve long-haul international flights. I mind my own business and don't get out of my seat during the transcons, but there is only so much sleeping and working that I can do on a 10+ hour flight. I find myself wandering back to the galley and starting a conversation that surely isn't the most fun for the crew, but I learn a lot, and I would be willing to wager that the crews learn something as well. For the first time in my life, I had the opportunity to speak to a Los Angeles based crew. Delta hasn't always given their LA people the best opportunities - since the Western buyout, DL hasn't been known for keeping Los Angeles very stable. The schedules and destinations seem to change for the LA hub / focus city / gateway / whatever-it-is-this-week on a regular basis. Since the introduction of Sydney and Sao Paulo, though, it seems that some of these flight attendants are finally getting the options that they deserve after many years of service.
I spoke primarily with the woman who was running the mid galley for the BE section, who, for anonymity's sake, we will call "Oprah". No matter what you think of the real Oprah, she has a world view that is educated, to say the least. I don't want to suggest that Oprah was the only flight attendant that I dealt with. This crew - all 11 of them, was the best crew I had ever seen. Ever. As a guy with more than 100K in the air on DL - every year for quite some time - I've seen my share of crews, and many have been excellent - but not like this. Every last one of these women were polite to the point that it was difficult for me to understand. The in-flight leader was the best I had ever seen, and one woman is particular, we'll call her "Elizabeth", was amazing. I was reminded of the Delta of my youth, where service really was important, and where no flight attendant would ever think of doing anything less than her best for the passengers - in all classes of service. I heard a number of unprovoked comments getting off the plane - on both legs - about how "amazing" or "outstanding" that the service was. Most of these comments came from passengers in the Y cabin.
The crew's service level was already well-known to me by the time I struck up the conversation with Oprah. So, with nothing else for me to talk about, I started in with my union issues. Oprah then revealed a few things to me, that, to say the least, caught me off guard. Oprah was the epitome of a dedicated Delta employee - she came in through the Western buyout, and her goal in life, as it related to her job, was to provide the best service possible to the passengers, whether or not a union was able to organize. I had not heard that line before, and I was a bit shocked by it, but something in her voice made it impossible for me to doubt her. She went on to tell me a few other tidbits that I had heard in passing, but that until I heard them from her, I wasn't sure if I believed.
She told me about the Atlanta crews, who had been "spoiled" by the company in Delta's attempts to keep the crews from voting for the union. This treatment - directed squarely at Atlanta and away from the rest of the bases - surely isn't a shock, and is a tactic that any smart company would use. The detriment to, and anxiety for, the other bases as a result of these tactics leaves something to be desired, though. The more disgusting issue in this process is that the "spoiled" Atlanta crews are the worst behaved in the system. I would take a JFK, CVG, SLC, SFO, BOS, or anywhere but ATL based flight attendant crew any day of the week over the folks in Atlanta, who have elevated indifference to a new level.
She then went on to describe the massive cuts in pay and benefits that the flight attendants throughout the system have encountered over the past few years. We all know that these cuts have affected flight attendants at all airlines, but the bigger issue for the Oprah was the general lack of information and input that the flight crews had in the process. She said something that hit home with me - that Delta had "more than a few opportunities to listen", all of which they ignored. I couldn't help but think of Jeff Robertson, the master of the "post and run" at Flyertalk, who would announce changes that would "surely benefit" the customer, and then never respond to questions and complaints that would arise from the changes. It's nice to see that Leo Mullin installed a system that is impossible to remove.
She then described ALPA's dealings with Delta, which I suggested was like comparing apples to oranges. I asked her how well unions were working out for pre-merger NW employees, or even UA, AA, or CO flight attendants. She suggested that she wasn't convinced it was better for those people, but that some positive changes had happened as a result of union action. I brought up the issue of union protection of workers who should otherwise be fired - and workers who create undue burden for good, honest employees - and she suggested that with a collective effort, these types of workers will be few and far between, as evidenced by the outstanding efforts put forth by the flight crews at LAX to make the NWA people feel at home. I think that her point here might be a bit overreaching, but a small flaw, nonetheless.
The real problem for me - and where I felt genuine sympathy for these flight attendants (an emotion that I am generally not familiar with) - was in understanding the lack of communication coming from the company. I've written a good deal about the possibility of Delta becoming Pan Am, and the former folding in the same spectacular fashion that the latter did. What Oprah told me did nothing but further my predictions. The flight attendants - the heart of Delta - deserve to be dealt with on a fair and equitable basis. They have given their lives to the operation of what once was an amazing and trend-setting airline, and an airline that they truly believe in. They believe in Delta even when some of the company's strongest advocates, like yours truly, become disillusioned.
I might run a company, but that doesn't mean that I know the best way to run all companies. I do know this: in any business, good communication doesn't stop at being a key to success. Good communication is the foundation of a path, that when deviated from, leads to the certain demise of the organization. So, my message to Delta is simple - start working with your people on a reasonable basis - and not just during the time periods when you think they are going to unionize. If you don't, world's largest airline, you will certainly reap what you sow.
Despite feeling a bit like Lenin right now, I'm still a Republican. That said, Delta's outstanding flight attendants - in Los Angeles and beyond - deserve no less than fair, regardless of my party affiliation.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
-Hunter (you know my email address)
A special note to Oprah: I totally screwed up when you offered to set me up with "Elizabeth" and I told you not to do it. Maybe it was the 6+ beers I had consumed in an attempt to sleep. You have my contact details. While you don't owe me anything, how about you pass her my information? Or you could send me an e-mail and tell me to go f*#% myself. I'm beyond smitten with that young woman. Thanks.
Kenny Chesney - Better as a Memory
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates
So I'm about to be off the Australia, and I'll be sure to report on the 77L flat bed experience. I really enjoyed the 76D flat beds, and I have little doubt that the equivalent will be better.
In thinking about everything, and buoyed by CO's recent addition of system wide upgrades, I've decided to split the baby. Next year, I'll use Delta for domestic travel, and Star Alliance for international (which means Continental) and west coast short hops that aren't practical from San Francisco on Delta (which means United). Ironically, San Francisco is the only big west coast location that isn't serviceable for Delta and its partners. How is it I couldn't get going in Los Angeles, Portland, or Seattle, where I would get help from Alaska?
It's going to take 200K miles per year (125 for DL and 75 for CO), but I think it's doable. It would be even nicer if I could get another 38K on BMI. As I reported earlier, my concerns were simply stated:
UA won't match top tier. Now, the CO upgrade options (which Fozz tells me are transferrable) will help this problem greatly. If a corporate travel option allows me to get 1K on UA without having to "earn" it the hard way, I'll switch. Until then, I'll be looking for ways to get my hands on more CO certificates.
UA and CO don't have the product that DL does for inflight purposes. Still true, but I was pleased to see leather on the UA flight from SFO to SAN. My main issue is Wifi, and since I'll be doing really short hops on UA or really long hops on CO (no carrier has wifi - except the BA thing - on these flights), the issue is muted.
Non-stop destination issues. No longer a problem if I use DL for domestic.
Labor problem. I'm still screwed here.
Ultimately, a way into the UA 1K problem would fix a lot of this, and Wifi equipped aircraft would fix it to the point where I could be happy. But this is a good interim fix.
Not that you would be getting this from here first, but just in case:
The evil union of flight attendants at BA has voted to strike from 22. December to 2. January. Way to ruin everyone's Christmas, you assholes.
The general statement can be found here, rebooking information here, and a message from the CEO here. The general message - if you have BA flight bookings during this period - is that you are screwed. Even I feel the pain for them, and for their partners who don't deserve this kind of garbage (like American and Qantas).
I'm not biased against just United for their labor issues. Unions are horrible, terrible groups and they don't deserve to exist. Don't agree with me? Fuck off.
Yeah, I did what I never wanted to do, but it wasn't as bad as I thought.
Here are my thoughts:
1) The RCC product is a tie with the SkyClub product in my opinion. Both the SFO and SAN RCCs were very nice and had a better food selection than the SkyClub. The RCC people seemed very indifferent about customers, though, and the no free drinks thing was an irritant.
2) The UA flight attendants were "OK". Two were very nice, but the one who wasn't nice didn't help their case. On a side note, the acclaimed Channel 9 was turned off, so that wasn't any fun.
3) The SFO gate agents were the worst gate agents I have ever encountered. I heard them mocking customers. They were working a 6 AM flight that was half-full. How hard can it be? These people were worse than DL Atlanta gate agents, and that's saying something.
An experience like that will never allow me to decide to use United as my primary airline. But - the product wasn't as bad as I had imagined. It just seems that 1K and UGS people are the only ones getting help - and not getting mocked - if there is an issue.
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