I'm going to vent a little about Delta, sorry.
You know what bugs me most about flying? I am aghast at how the airlines rip us off now with charges for everything, I mean Jet Blue are now charging for pillows and a blanket - $7! Delta now charges $50, yes that's right, $50 for the second checked bag! The only airline left who doesn't charge for a first or second bag is Southwest. Now I used to hate the whole cattle mentality of Southwest but since they introduced the Business Select fares I have been using them and quite liking them, not always happy but hey at least they show some respect for their customers. I think that's what bothers me the most about the others and Delta in particular, it's so disrespectful to us as consumers. I used to pay about $400 for a round class ticket to NYC from SLC (I do it once a week) and now the price is roughly double that at about $850-$1000 round-trip. So if that's the increase for fuel, (which I totally understand, I'm not expecting them to lose money on a flight) then what's the nickel and diming covering? The CEO and board bonuses?
I bought a ticket the other week using air miles, now keep in mind I have done about 160,000 actual miles on just Delta this year in 6 months, flights which I have paid for, and yet when I redeemed those miles (75,000 of them) Delta charged me $802 for fuel surcharges! Are you kidding me!!! Seriously! WTF?! I could have spent $100 more and got a round-trip ticket with Virgin Atlantic and accrued miles! What bothers me is that since I am now paying all these increased fares to cover all the 'fuel increases' one would have thought that one had already paid for the fuel? Well if I paid for the fuel on the 'reward ticket' what exactly was I redeeming the 75,000 miles for? Please tell me it wasn't for the dried chicken and famous Delta Biscotti cookies I have to ask for since they try their best not to offer the snacks if they can avoid it? The other day on a flight to NYC from SLC not once did they bring around snacks or drinks, we had to ask for a drink and snacks (and yes I was in first class - bad treatment isn't reserved just for the economy section you know, parity in abusing customers is a Delta standard, ooooh here's a new one for that ... 'Delta - Change is screwing everyone'. Like it? Yeah me too.) I called Delta, because you'd think they care that a Platinum member (for that matter anyone who is a customer) was concerned, and they didn't have an answer, none, nothing to say except that they agreed with me and that they were very sorry but the decision wasn't from them it was from the 'boardroom'. Ohhhhh, the boardroom, well that explains it all then. The boardroom members wouldn't know a customer if they tripped over one on their way to their private jet. It was strange to me that they just simply didn't care.
I have since stopped flying almost completely with Delta (only two flights this week), I only take them if I can find no other alternative, I just feel abused. I called them and told them, yeah, they weren't bothered. You'd think they would be really considering they just got out of bankruptcy. Of course I was one of the mugs who wrote and complained to Congress when Delta asked me to, I opposed the hostile takeover bid from another airline and wrote all the letters they asked me to. Of course I suppose they figure it will take them at least a decade to annoy of all of the new customers they'll acquire in the NWA merger, so it'll be at least 10 years before they have to declare bankruptcy again and screw a whole new bunch of small suppliers and customers and then they'll start again.
Delta had become my favourite airline over the past few years, they nearly had me believing the marketing, I thought they were really serious about change. I just didn't realise which way they were changing.
You know I was willing to deal with a certain amount of hassle or even to agree to disagree on some things because there were a few perks; for example, priority upgrades if I purchased economy tickets, upgrades are based on a number of factors including Sky Miles status, class of ticket, flight disruption for the day and whether or not the desk agent has a friend wanting an upgrade that day. Well I normally pay for tickets at the last minute so I normally pay a high economy fare, I am Platinum status so I mostly get upgraded if I haven't purchased a first class fare (which is about 40% of the time). Yeah, not even that is safe anymore. I got a mailing the other day telling me that if I opened a special Delta American Express credit card account that i would now take priority over even Platinum members! really? REALLY? So now people can just pay for the cheapest ticket and as long as they did it on the Delta AMEX they'll get priority over me as a loyal flyer and my 'Y' class fare? Nice, really nice. I can see it now ... another one of those posters that have become all so familiar ... 'Delta - Change is redefining loyalty, there is none anymore. You stuck with us and so we don't need you anymore'. Nice.
I think they should start charging for carry on baggage, oh yeah, and bathroom usage, how about charging for toilet tissue separately if they use the bathroom? Now that's a captive audience! Just imagine you get up to go to the bathroom and you put in your 5$ bill to open the door, you 'do your business' and then you see a little flashing light with a sign lit up saying 'Please insert $1 for toilet tissue'. You insert the money and get - 1 Sheet! Noooooo! How many times can I fold one sheet?! So you spend another $24 on more sheets. You are feeling pretty low and broke now and since you were taught by your mother to wash your hands after going potty, you do indeed insert the 10 quarters for the water to turn on (if you had the extra 4 quarters you would have paid it to get the hot water) so you can wash your hands. As you return to your seat you realise that someone else is in your seat! It's one of the 'standing reserve' passengers who took advantage of the 'They've been gone from their seat for longer than 10 minutes rule' and they paid the $200 fee for your seat. Damn! Now you have to wait for some other poor sucker to go to the toilet. Gosh flying first class ain't what it used to be. Still at least you're not in economy, standing up all the way to London is such a pain....
Is it any wonder I now am willing to add on an extra flight to LAX or SFO to get Virgin America to JFK? Well, they seem to appreciate the business.
So I guess ... 'Delta - Change is seeing how much you can abuse flyers before they have had enough and decide to move on'.
Mission accomplished.
Now if we can just get Southwest to do a decent frequent flyer programme ....
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