The revenue premium collected is not for the DBJ or hat. It is for the DL package, as mentioned above. I'll suggest it's due to the on-time performance, irop recovery (which the customer just sees as DL's "plan B" when things go bad), free bag, decent check-in experience, bording, in-flight comfort and amenities. We also get more for the origination/destination pairings and frequency of flights. These are the things customers are willing to pay a bit more for. Not the pilot costume. It helps convey the image, and the marketing of the brand, but no one has ever said, "I'll pay more to see that DBJ and hat". Instead, they'll pay more to get from "A to B" in reasonable comfort and the least amount of hassle.

The most likely thing a pilot can wear that will impress a customer is a smile. Everyone's got one and it doesn't cost a thing.

This. Standing at the door and saying goodbye is 1000% more impactful than the specific kind of uniform you wear. As long as it's worn professionally and clean, 90% of the people won't even know it's changed. Of the 10% that do, they'll shrug and say "oh, I liked the other one better but who cares what they are wearing."

You're getting North Face jackets?

People are talking about the uniform as if it were a binary scale. It’s obviously not. But let’s use that to illustrate, using some hyperbole.

If you were to walk into a Ritz Carlton, and see the people behind the desk, the bellhop, the doorman… All dressed in ratty sweatpants, what would you think about the business?

Conversely, if you went into a less-than-luxury, but decent hotel, and all the employees you met were dressed well above the competition, with well fitting, professional, and coordinated uniforms, what would you think of that hotel? Even if their behavior was bland…

Said ‘uniforms’ are not the sole determiner of your experience. That’s laughable. But don’t fool yourself into thinking that doesn’t play an important role in the overall impression with which you walk away from that business. Nor, that “literally no one would care”. I don’t honk the people saying that actually believe that.

If a business is trying to set itself apart, as Delta management clearly is (and successfully so, as evidenced by our “revenue premium”), the image & behavior of it’s employees, especially the ‘flagship’ pilots, is important. Why do you think PB has such a **** over the hats? Seriously.

We can disagree on the level it matters, but it’s not binary.

Yeah, but your analogy is flawed. First, because we don't wear sweatpants. We wear business suits. And we only do it 1/4 of the year. They clearly aren't THAT important if management and marketing only make us wear them during some of the slowest months of the year and when we are busy, it's a large portion of once a year travelers.

​​​​​​Your analogy would make sense if you and everyone else can tell me without looking up online what color their jackets are and how many buttons they have.

I wonder what the definition is of, "A reading comprehension problem"? Is that when somebody reads to just to argue and fails to understand the overarching theme?

It's a bad analogy because we are all arguing about one or two rows of buttons and he comes in and argues that people would notice if Ritz employees were wearing sweatpants. Of course they would. But we aren't arguing if people would notice if we started wearing our pajamas to work. We are arguing whether our legafy uniform makes people want to book with us.

I don’t think he was arguing rows of buttons, but an actual uniform and what I can do for the overall brand image.

Fair enough..there are enough quotes and enough people arguing different nuances. I agree it's important to look professional. That includes wear the designated uniform. I don't think the specific uniform matters, as long as it looks professional.

I agree 100%