Access to the SkyMiles lounge is the least of our problems.
Delta’s recent changes to their SkyMiles program prioritizes profit over customer loyalty, and people are outraged.
But it’s not just airlines: There’s a deep dissatisfaction with essential services from education to healthcare. The solution, unfortunately, seems to be paying more for elite status and bypassing normal services. These two-tier systems feed the perception and reality of two Americas: one for elites, and a lesser one for everyone else.
Bloomberg Opinion’s Nir Kaissar explains why Delta’s decision to create a culture of elitism is not the answer.
—————————————–
Subscribe to our channel! / @BloombergOpinion
Follow BLOOMBERG OPINION here:
➤ Twitter: https://twitter.com/opinion
➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloombergopinion
➤ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bloombergopinion
#opinion #delta #elite #incomeinequality #wealthy #education #healthcare #airlines
Fannie Stubbs 
Jennifer White 
Gerlinde Tarbell
Still the best US airline. I’m sticking with Delta
Delta is now a credit card company with airplanes.
You pay a lot today to fly on main cabin and all you get it half poured Coca-Cola and 80 air filled bag of chips and unhealthy biscoff cookies. I think it’s not worth it. They care more about money than their customer. Not worth flying with them.
Shame people are so stupid and entitled. There's not enough resources for everyone to live like kings, and airlines are LOW MARGIN firms, barely making profits on a good year, hence why so few of them exist these days. The old ways aren't economical. What Delta did makes sense, but they executed a good idea POORLY and that's the issue. Delta is still the BEST Us airline, next to Southwest for the value. AA & United are just high priced versions of & Alligiant & Spirit
Its always been that the moment I'm travelling outside the US I don't even consider American-flagged carriers.
This was inevitable. Inflation simply effects the status with airlines. When I flew 10 years ago the upgrade list was less than 5 for top tier status customers. Nowadays even more than 15 🙂
There are tens of thousands of anecdotes of loyal Delta passengers in the lower medallion tiers willing to spend 5% sometimes up to 10% more to stick with Delta. The changes to the frequent flyer program just destroyed the excess pricing power they had with this group. I’m not sure if it was arrogance or something else that caused Delta to be blind to this.
buy a new mike or learn how to use it
Every other airline in the US is absolute crap so we have no choice, I’m staying with delta
I can't help but wonder if the industry has spun out of control post regulation era. While airline regulation in the 70's/80's created bureaucracies and inefficiencies it did help to keep the airlines themselves in check. Regulation carefully set the terms under which airlines could do business. It was designed to ensure that they remained a stable business and a reliable mode of transportation. Deregulation, in turn, allowed the airlines to pursue profits in whatever way they could—including getting into the financial sector. The proponents of deregulation made a few big promises. The cost of flying would go down once airlines were free to compete on price. The industry would get less monopolistic as hundreds of new players entered the market, and it would be stable even without the government guaranteeing profitable rates. Small cities wouldn’t lose service. In the deregulators’ minds, airlines were like any other business. If they were allowed to compete freely, the magic of the market would make everything better. Whatever was good for the airlines’ bottom line would be good for consumers. They were wrong. After a relatively short period of fierce competition, the deregulated era quickly turned to consolidation and cost-cutting, as dozens of airlines either went bankrupt or were acquired. Service keeps getting worse, because the airlines, facing little competition, have nothing to fear from antagonizing passengers with cramped legroom, cancellations, and ever-multiplying fees for baggage and snacks. Worse still, without mandated service, cities and regions across the country have lost commercial air service, with serious consequences for their economies. And when a crisis like 9/11 or the coronavirus pandemic comes along, the airlines—which prefer to direct their profits to stock buybacks rather than rainy-day funds—need massive financial relief from the federal government.
Good for delta.. about time they did this to clean house
This is the last straw by Delta I'm now doing all my travel by Greyhound
You’re not alone. They do the same to its pilots.
This elite business is a little more complicated than it appears at first blush.
First off, to explain this whole crave for elite status, I think it would be useful to get the insights of an evolutionary biologist. The airlines are touching a genetically programmed mandate and exploiting it.
I’d also argue that customer (myself included) aren’t loyal; we’re addicted. Our supplier has raised the price.
Finally, maybe brutally, customers are getting the service they want. Relaxing, carefree travel is readily accessible, but the majority of passengers choose no-frills, basic economy. Just look at any plane and how it fills up over time.
The real story here isn’t that airlines are changing the bargain: the question is why now and why not decades ago. Have the major carriers been managed by blithering idiots for the past six or seven decades? Why did it take them so long to realize that since restaurants don’t throw in a free flight with food that they perhaps shouldn’t do the opposite; they should charge for food, baggage, etc. Airlines are slowly waking up to the fact that they’re for profit businesses.
Agree. We put away X dollars for funzies and were planning to travel to Europe or wherever when we retired. But airline travel … and airline travel on Delta has become so miserable that we might make one long trip a year (go to one place and stay). And screw delta.
You spoke of the grand old days of legroom and meals on flights. Welcome to the 21st century! That does still exist at some airlines just not US ones and hasn't since de-regulation (think 70's). Delta is still chasing the concept of higher margin business fares, which aren't coming back after Covid. They have successfully addressed the average passenger with free airborne internet, after becoming a skymiles member and a robust inflight entertainment program. Try to find that in your nostalgic airlines of yore!
I decided a few years ago that I would choose to upgrade my experience, by only flying first class. I am not wealthy, but I decided that air travel was intolerable in coach. My wife and I argued about it, but we ultimately agreed that if we couldn’t justify my flying first class, then I wouldn’t fly at all. For me my only two options are first class or not at all. I found that virtual meetings can suffice for most business meetings. Thus I can eliminate 75% of my business air travel with effective planning. In terms of personal travel, knowing that most of my family lives about a thousand miles away, I can either occasionally fly first class or more frequently drive and do AirBnB, or find affordable hotel lodging options en route. I do my 1000 mile drive in two days and line up business calls during travel. With CarPlay it’s seamless. Time is the variable, but I am willing to invest my time in not ever again flying coach. Life is simply too short to suffer through a multi hour flight with my knees jammed into the seat in front of me. If everyone made a similar choice the airlines would start flying empty, and would improve their quality of service. The problem is that the flying public puts up with it.
Yup, Amen! Is there any possible way we could put you in charge, Nir? 🤔✌️😎