Delta airlines exits bankruptcy, enters new era of lousy service and delayed flights

[Tiger in Spain 0]

I haven't flown recently but I used to fly Delta a lot. By a lot, I mean more than 3 times per month. My experience with them has left me with the impression that they stopped giving a sh*t about their customers around 1999. They went from merely lousy service and general apathy to vindictive spitefulness. If I were the Operations Manager for the airline, I'd fire every single peanut thrower and customer service representative on the payroll and hire some people that actually paid attention during flight attendant school.

Here's one of my numerous bad stories about Delta. This one is rather tame since it deals only with their rewards program. I could write a book on bad service, poor treatment of customers, and lost luggage; but that would get my blood pressure up. Anyway, I was a frequent traveller (Silver Medallion member) on Delta back when I was stateside and had over 75K miles racked up on my Sky Miles account. I flew the Atlanta to San Diego route mostly, but also a lot of overseas trips (mainly to Madrid). Each time I tried to cash in to upgrade (seats verified to be available), I was denied. The last time I tried to use it, I realized I had enough of Delta airlines. I asked the customer service rep at Hartsfield why I should even have the damn card if the airline refused to honor the miles. I was told, "Take that up with management. It's not my problem." I handed the wench my card and told her to stuff it. When I got home, I wrote a scathing letter to the CEO of Delta airlines and told him exactly what I thought of his airline. That was over 5 years ago and I have yet to get a reply. It will be a cold day in hell before I fly with them again.

Delta exits bankruptcy after 19-month restructuring

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc. emerged from bankruptcy on Monday, following a 19-month, $3 billion restructuring during which the carrier thwarted a hostile takeover, cut costs and jobs, and eliminated some unprofitable routes.

The third-largest U.S. airline also added some 60 international routes in an effort to offset brutal low cost competition in the United States that has pressured the airline industry since the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Atlanta-based Delta is much leaner after reducing capacity and some $1 billion in labor costs by restructuring union contracts and eliminating 6,000 jobs.

Its chief executive, Gerald Grinstein, plans to leave the leadership post after a successor is found. Last Monday, the carrier posted a narrower first-quarter loss compared to a year ago, boosted by higher fares and the cost cuts.

Delta expects to cut net debt by more than half to $7.6 billion at the end of 2007 from $16.9 billion at June 30, 2005. It also forecast a pretax profit, before special items, of $816 million this year, after a loss of $452 million in 2006.

The carrier rejected a hostile takeover bid from US Airways Group in January, successfully rallying creditors to its go-it-alone strategy.

Delta's exit from bankruptcy leaves Northwest Airlines Corp. as the only major U.S. airline under Chapter 11 protection. Northwest expects to leave bankruptcy by the end June.

LTFA

[AUJarhead 72]

I stopped flying Delta around the same time as you did, TIS. I was living in Atlanta, and would fly literally every week to my client on Mondays, and then back on Thursdays. I was Platinum on Delta, usually getting 100 segments by early December. Around 2000/2001, they changed the way that they calculated status, so that someone like me, who happened to be flying to Boston every week, would barely make Silver for a year of traveling. However, if I spent the exact same amount of money as 50 round trips from ATL to BOS, I could buy 10 round trips to France, and make platinum. This was because I was buying "L" class tickets. When I called Delta to explain how unfair I thought this was, I was told that I should "just buy a more expensive class ticket." I've never flown Delta since then, unless I had too.

And I had to about a year ago. I was working for Florida A&M University, and there are basically two airlines that I could take, Delta or USAirways. Since Delta had the better connection times, I took Delta. In the 8 weeks that I took Delta, I had travel delays 7 of them. Fed up, I tried USAirways. In the 4 weeks that I took USAirways, I never had a travel delay.

I'm done with Delta.

[otterinbham 0]

I'm knocking on wood as I write this, but in twenty-two years of air travel on business (once or twice a month on average), I have only had one major delay in air travel--because of a mechanical difficulty that took them two hours to fix. Then again, I learned early on how to avoid problems.

1) Travel early, not late. If you catch the later flights, your chance of a delay increases significantly, chiefly because delays on all the flights and connections tend to accumulate as the day goes on.

2) Confirm the flight before traveling to the airport.

3) Never check your luggage. Or, if you have to check a bag, make sure that a change of clothes and toiletries make it on the flight with you.

4) If the window is really tight for your connection, let the flight attendant know so she can notify the agents ahead.

Again, I've been really, really lucky. At the same time, some of those things I did helped me avoid big problems later on.

[Captain Liger 0]

It was March 2002 and I had been living in central Texas all of two weeks. I drove to Austin early one morning to catch a flight home as I was getting married. Austin is a 45 minute trip if the traffic is good. I left for the airport two and half hours early. Since I was new to the area I didn't know the shortcuts and stuck with the main highways and interstate. For those who have never been to Austin before traffic in that city is horrendous. I didn't anticipate the amount of traffic I encoutered. Long story short, I made it to the Delta check-in counter 40 minutes before the flight left for Atlanta....and there was hardly a line at security. The Delta clerk was nice enough to inform me that I missed check-in by exactly one minute....and then she chuckled. Yes, chuckled. I had my dress blue uniform in hand and explained my predicament and that there was plenty of time to make the flight. She told me "You're on standby. I need to get to the next person."

I have not flown Delta since and will not. Ever. I'd rather hitchhike than fly Delta. But, then again, I married Satan's ex-wife so I kind of wish I'd never made the flight at all.

[AUJarhead 72]

3) Never check your luggage. Or, if you have to check a bag, make sure that a change of clothes and toiletries make it on the flight with you.

With the restrictions on liquids, this is my biggest pain. I'd rather buy a big tube of toothpaste, and use it for several weeks, rather than have to go to Target every Monday to buy a new travel tube. I just check my luggage now. But, I do carry a spare set of clothes in my computer bag.

The scariest moment I had was about two summers ago, flying American from San Fran to St Louis. We're about an hour into the flight, and the captain comes on and says we're making an immediate emergency landing in Denver. We went from 35k feet to the ground in about 10 minutes. He told us that the onboard computer had died, and wanted to get us on the ground asap.

After 4 hours in Denver (they had to fly the part in from Jackon's Hole, WY of all places) we were back on our way to STL. They didn't let us off the plane though, there were no American gates open in Denver. Not very much fun.