Mark Kolier’s Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Delta Airlines’

The last of the major airlines to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy, American Airlines is reportedly http://nyti.ms/yKLPAc on Delta Air Lines/TPG Capital’s radar for acquisition. In case you are not aware Delta Airlines is now the world’s largest airline. US Airways is also considering a bid. What I first thought was ‘how far the mighty have fallen’.

I was never a huge fan of American Airlines but that’s mainly because I had a few bad experiences a number of years ago that made my shy away from them whenever possible. Today that’s an impractical approach to air travel as trying to avoid an airline only serves to offer the customer fewer options and likely higher prices.

Flying commercial airlines in the U.S. today is akin to getting on a bus or train. Few airlines distinguish themselves and if you are flying economy they all appear to be the same to me. Remember Jet Blue and their original appeal? Leather seats, individual Direct TV in your seat and snacks that were a bit different than other airlines. Jet Blue also tried to be fun with glib flight attendants and pilots. Today Jet Blue (to me) is pretty much just another airline. The leather seats are nice but wearing a bit. The Direct TV thing is pretty good but I’ve been on flights where my individual screen did not work.

Is there any domestic airline that distinguishes itself? Virgin America has made a concerted effort although their fares are notably higher than the competition. Since the airlines have decided to make air travel akin to mass transit it’s a game where the lowest fare wins and damn everything else. In fact I don’t know about you but I’ve noticed that most (not all) flight attendants seem to just be going through the motions and look like they’d rather be someplace else. The airlines constant labor disputes and troubles have taken away flight attendant’s smiles.

There are a host of well-known and not so well-known aggregators and an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal highlighted the craziness when it comes to fare shopping – http://on.wsj.com/xJ9qdQ. Also this week in a response to sites like Kayak, Priceline and Travelocity, the several airlines introduced a collective fare buying platform of their own that will launch later this year. This is in response to the airlines dissatisfaction with the aggregators taking too large a portion of the airfares for the airlines’ liking.

The race to offer the lowest price with the least amount of service appears sure to continue.
If you have a favorite airline is it only because of the ability to stockpile miles and rewards? Or do you really have a favorite airline because you perceive that airline to be better?

Actually I am convinced that airlines can and will try to get away with everything they can. For instance I am traveling on American to the west coast next week and decided to change my flight from the redeye on Wednesday night to the redeye on Tuesday night. I fully anticipated having to pay the fee to change. A change fee of $ 150 mind you. Not thrilling me when the entire discounted fare was $ 267 roundtrip!

However that’s not the rub. Somehow since I am on a discounted fare I have to pay the fare difference since it is inside a different fare price time frame when it would be more expensive to book the flight now than when we did 2 weeks ago. Huh? Wha? The idea being that if I booked the fare today for next week it would cost more than $ 267 round trip. Ok I get that. But I am changing the return time only and changing nothing else. The exact same origination, exact same itinerary.

So now the fare difference plus the change fee makes the change worth $ 339.00. That’s right the cost to change my flight one-way is MORE than the cost of the original round-trip flight itself. Kind of makes my head want to explode! But wait friends, there’s more. Oh yes there’s definitely more. Let’s say that I booked the flight and somehow in the interim period the actual fare went down. You’d think that I’d pay the change fee ($ 150) and then the difference would be credited back. But noooooo! The airlines don’t do that. It’s a one way street folks and you know which side of the street the customers are on.

I wish Southwest would have offered a flight that worked for me here. They don’t do the additional fee hustle and somehow they make money. No frills perhaps but no BS either. And while I am singling out American (they’ve incurred my wrath before), Delta and Continental do the same things for the most part.

What choices do we have? Not many. I fully realize that $ 267.00 roundtrip is a very low fare – below market even. How can an airline fly me back and forth in this day and age for $ 133.50 each way? I mean a $ 200 round trip fare in 1980 to the coast was an amazing bargain even then. What really toasts my bagels is that most people (including me) don’t really know what the risks are when you buy a cheap fare. And that’s just what the major carriers are counting on.

Air travel is now nothing more than Greyhound in the air and that’s obvious but somehow the carriers would like us to think it’s better than that.

All I can hope for now is to be happy I avoided the hated middle seat on a 6 hour flight. Since at a low fare that’s what’s coming next. Low fare = middle seat. You want an aisle or window – reach for the credit card. It’s coming folks, get ready for it.

Rant over. Or help me rant on?

I carry an Amex Platinum card for several reasons not the least of which is free access to several airline clubs (I wish there were more included but as you will read below the Delta Sky Lounge access is was a great thing for me this week). I also use the Platinum card for reservations in hard to get-in restaurants as they have a few tables every day and night in all the top places.

Amex Platinum also offers 2 for 1 business or first class tickets if purchased on the card – no other discount applies but still it can be a very good value. So it’s worth the high yearly fee since I get a lot of use out of it.

On Monday I was at LaGuardia and as I went through security the TSA agents asked to look through my bag. This was the second time in my last two flights. Last time they said it was random. This time they saw something which turned out to be a cigar lighter that I had forgotten was in the bag (and I have been looking all over my house for it – I just knew it would turn up). My Dad gave me that lighter and it has a lot of sentimental value to me as well as the fact that it works really well.

When something like this happens normally TSA takes it and it goes into the great abyss never to be seen again. This has happened with a cigar cutter I had (right after 9/11) in my luggage that was confiscated. (Apparently a then overzealous TSA agent felt I could pressure the pilot or flight attendant to put their finger through the cigar cutting hole and I would then threaten to cut it off – this policy has changed from what I am told).

So what to do? I remembered the Delta Sky Lounge was right next door so I asked the TSA agent to wait and quickly went into the Delta Sky Lounge to see if could get one of the attendants to come out to pick up the lighter and hold it for me until I returned. I walked in, explained my situation, the lovely attendant Marilyn was ready to help and walked right out, to pick up the lighter from the Agent Eric whom she said she knew. (We forget sometimes that the TSA agents are people with names, families and yes, personalities).

Marilyn came back in smiled and said she had it and would hold it for me and would be there when I returned since she was working that today. She was, I picked it up from her she escorted me out as per the TSA policy. This was a great example of a Delta Sky Club employee representing the brand as well as it can be done. I have had my issues with Delta Airlines http://wp.me/pJX7l-6a but they should be credited with having a class act like Marilyn as a part of their team.

Wish I had taken a photo of her – thanks Marilyn!