Fear and loating in the skies -OR- How I stopped flying Delta and learned to love Orbitz

[darlox]

Once upon a time, in a land seemingly far, far away, some bright fellows invented a magical flying machine. It would soar through the skies, while smartly-dressed employees served medium-rare steak and bubbly champagne to the honored customers who came aboard in their Sunday finest

Comments

[bunny42]

There was a time when Delta was top-notch. I was once stranded in Atlanta due to weather delays on my return from Cleveland. Delta provided a bus and drove us all around Atlanta finding accommodations for the night, and then gave us breakfast vouchers to use while we waited for our flight the next morning. (This was after coming back to get us at the motel!) Then, a few weeks later, came a letter of apology (for the weather, no less!) and FREE TICKET VOUCHERS FOR ANOTHER FLIGHT! To be used within the next year, to go anywhere in the Continental U.S. And I wasn't even an Elite passenger, mind you. Now that's service.

During those days, Delta was employee-owned and damned proud of their service and care of their employees. I suppose the discount airlines undermined Delta's fairly high but consistent pricing. It was worth paying a little more to some of us, not to be treated like cattle. But, unfortunately, the bottom line eventually won out, as it is wont to do.

I've had the most success, lately, with Jet Blue, but I now order my tickets through Travelocity or Orbitz. Seems a shame that they can find consistently lower rates than the airline's site itself. After all, causing us potential customers to surf for decent rates makes it possible, if not likely, that we'll end up selecting a different airline, and then what have they accomplished? As usual, they don't ask us. They just do the will of the bean counters, and the passenger be damned. Well, I say, if as venerable a corporation as Toyota can fall to the ravages of the bottom line, what's to stop the airlines, as well? Remember when NASA thought they'd save a few shekels by eliminating some of that unnecessary redundancy? We got Challenger. This attitude goes all the way to the top.