Sailing,

I'm in complete agreement with you.

I think you're a bit senior to me, but I remember when I was a new hire and I'd meet someone for the first time. In conversation it would come up that I was a Delta pilot, almost without exception they would say: "Good airline".

Now, in the same situation, they tell me their last "customer service horror story" with Delta.

The thing is, we could be soooo much better. I think it was for seventeen straight years we lead the industry in fewest complaints. When an "aw-****" happens, most people don't really ask for the moon, but they would like an acknowledgement that they had a less than optimal experience, that we as a company are sorry for that, and we'd like in some way to make amends. Bringing back the Red Coats is a big step in the right direction (IMHO).

(Sorry for my rant).

+1

Customer service on the most basic level is needed. Like they say a customer will forgive you for a bad flight, but they will not forgive you for bad service.
We have gone the opposite direction of this for many many years. Now that the industry is in effect leveled, and now it is down to service and how your debt is structured, you need to be doing it better than the next guy.

The ticket prices will come up as they need to to make this sustainable, but we need to have the majority of our customers at least not have a negative experience. The bus mentality is what it is, but we need to move our passenger better, provide them with more options with or without added cost, and make them remember Delta for the positive, not the horrible airports terminals, and cramped and oversold flights.

They say that 2010 is the year of customer service. Lets hope so. DAL needs it to compete on the world scale. We all want to be proud of our company and what it has to offer. That is lacking today.

Easy Chief, the SWA reference seemed tic to me

I get the same thing. After usually *****ing about how bad Delta is, they will then tell you how great Southwest is. Recently, I told someone I was a pilot for Delta and his response was, "Everytime I go on Delta, it's on a really small aircraft. I try to fly on Southwest when I can, but I'll go on Delta if it's a non-stop flight." I find this unacceptable that our customers are starting to associate Delta with regional jets. I find this unacceptable. Unfortunately for us, management's plan to fix this is to replace smaller regional jets with bigger jets still flown by Delta Connection carriers. We're screwed.

ACL,
I know what you are saying, but I am highly skeptical. First off, "Customer Service" is a corporate philosophy which must resonate throughout the company from the top down. This takes more than just words, it takes money and a committment. Secondly, you can't just have a "Year of customer service," what happens in 2011, we go back to business as usual? Thirdly, if a large percentage of our business is being outsourced, based on lowest cost criteria - how do we expect to improve customer service?

Scoop

Bingo!! That is the argument we have to take to the table when we try to recapture flying. Cost is not everything. Our management has been penny wise and pound foolish and it is showing in those anecdotes. Our costs and the DCI's are starting to converge. Add in the benefit of ownership of the process and we can make an economic argument to recapture small jet domestic flying.

Oh Buddy, I agree 100%. I stated it with about as much sarcasim as a screen full of words could muster up.

A true customer service would cost billions and that does not include the new terminals that are needed.

+1, agreed.

Well, Bar, if people are starting to vote with their pocket books, there is a chance that we will see real change.

1) Make check in as painless as possible, its insane the number of steps you have to go through on the kiosk.
2) Departure reliability has to go up, we cannot maintain our number 12 position. If you are late out, it just starts the pax thinking about the rest of the flight.
3) Give the pax a full can of pop/soda (depends where you are from)
4) Don't get the crap kicked out of you over the tracks.
5) Arrival has to be early or on time at the minimum
6) Don't oversked flights into already overcrowed hubs.
7) Most important...stop believing our own bs publicity.