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Posts Tagged ‘Delta’

The Trials and Tribulations of Buying Your Airline Ticket

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Writing regular blogs about the business of travel keeps me up to date with the latest news in airlines and travel. But there’s nothing better than to blog about ones’ real life experience making reservations and actually traveling. It makes you realize that the devil is in the details.

I have to travel to Florida in the middle of November for a meeting.  My first step was to go online and search for fares from Hartford CT to Orlando FL.  I did what I’d recommend you do…I chose an airline that I know has a lot of flights out of my home airport (Delta) and a carrier where I have a fair amount of airmiles.

But the most frustrating thing about being on an airline website to book a flight is when you find the perfect flight then you have to get off line and tell your associate about the cost, so that he can pay. Or you have to show your spouse what a great deal this is, or you have to get your relatives ok that the dates all line up.  That fare will be super hard to find again, and the web page will time out, leaving you having to start all over again.

So there I was, great price (I don’t know how Delta can make a profit with fares so low all the way to Florida non-stop) then I retreived the credit card information and was ready to book. What happened to that page that I left open on my desktop? Gone! 

So I went to Delta’s website and found the number to call to speak to an agent. The airlines would rather you book yourself without calling them, but I just lost that airfare screen, and on my scratch pad, I had the payment info. I found the number and after a long time, got an agent on the line.

I remembered the fares and the times so I told the helpful Delta rep what I wanted, and she found me almost as good a fare as I had seen on the website. I had everything she needed…except the exact billing address of my colleague. Gulp.

I frantically Googled my Connecticut friend, trying to get his street address.  There are a lot more men with his name in Connecticut than I thought. Gulp again. Tick tick, my name was on the ticket, but it wasn’t paid for yet.

I emailed him, hoping he’d quickly get the email while I was still on the phone to get me that address. I guessed, putting in the company address as well as a few others I found in the Google searches. While I was nervous, my Delta pal was fine.  Tick tick, tick. Finally she said yeah, here we go, and the billing address, the charge card’s 16 digit account number, that 3-digit number on the back, and the expiration. Bingo!

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Posted in Airport Parking |

Delta Will Team Up with Virgin to Start Australia Routes

Friday, July 10th, 2009

Now there’s more competition among airlines serving Australia.  For  years, only Qantas and United have offered air service between the US and Australia. But today, in the Wall St. Journal, an announcement came of a new partnership between Virgin Blue and Delta Airlines to open up a new carrier’s service.

Australia is very far away from the US, but it’ s very similar.  I traveled to the country’s second city, Melbourne last year, and found the people to be friendly and the pace and feeling to be very much like the US. It didn’t  feel European, except in the few neighborhoods settled by Italians and Greeks.

With the advent of this service, Qantas undoubtedly will feel pressure to lower fares. And that’s a good thing for Americans who want to experience the land of Oz. It makes sense for Delta to go this direction, since these long-haul flights are  where they can make much more profit versus shorter routes. The two carriers will form a joint venture and it will take about six months for the permits to go through.

Delta already serves Sydney with a daily non-stop from Los Angeles, as does V Australia.

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Posted in Airport Parking |

Another Big Merger, Good News? Not Sure

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Uh oh. Another mega airline merger. But are these two giants just ‘two drunks fighting in the dark,’ (as other large mergers have been described)  or creating value for the airline passenger?  Delta and Air France/KLM are  signing a deal to become   a $12 billion powerhouse across the Atlantic.

The airlines are saying that this agreement isn’t a merger, but that it will provide transatlantic customers with better travel options, and more nonstop flights between major US and European cities.  No new routes were announced, and so the already merged Delta and Northwest will continue.

Delta has also introduced a huge profit center, the dreaded $50 2nd bag fee, which will generate millions and infuriate more thousands. The rocky situation with reduced flights and diminished business travel makes this plan a desperation move….consolidation is so badly needed that even unworkable mergers will soon be cascading down the pike.

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Posted in Airport Parking |

Delta and Others Hear Customers: No More Indian Call Centers!

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

Finally airline customers trump airline costs. This week after hearing so many complaints about not being able to understand the people supposed to answer flier’s questions, Delta decided to give up its Indian call centers.

From now on, those jobs will be done by Americans, and callers will no longer be forced to understand thick Bengali accents and confusion on the phone.

It will cost Delta more, since in India phone center staffers get paid about $500 a month, one sixth the amount paid to US workers. One sad reality is that since business for airlines is down, the volume of calls is down too.

Delta will still keep their call centers in South Africa and Jamaica though. Apparently callers don’t have as many problems understanding these accents as they do the Indians.

US Air will do the same for its call centers in El Salvador and Guatemala, joined by United who are pulling back some of their calls that once went to India.

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Posted in Airline News |