So…in case you missed it, I’m breaking up with Delta Airlines:
For many years, I have been struggling with ‘settling down’ with an airline that would treat me with the same love I give to it. I would marry Virgin America tomorrow if it would only fly out of Montreal (or even Toronto, because I also love Porter). There really is no other airline that has consistently made me feel like I matter…even when I’m flying cattle class (aka Economy). And to note, this experience with Delta wasn’t the first let down. I had a series of snafus from them (lost luggage that didn’t show up for 1.5 days, multiple missed connections with odd and stressful re-routes, longest lineups I’ve ever experienced even when I checked in at home ahead of time, etc.). I understand weather issues, but it’s how a company responds that matters. And not just how they respond to their business class flyers…their economy fliers may be like me and courting an airline to see if that is where they want to camp out permanently.
All in all, I calculate that I travel between 60,000 and 80,000 miles per year (sorry planet!). Tripit, which I’ve been a part of since mid-2006, says that I’ve traveled 274,469 miles since I’ve been part of the site. That’s about 78,419 or so miles per year. For any airline, I’d think that I’m the kind of customer they’d want to have around. Not to mention that I have a pretty strong following of friends around the globe who look to me for recommendations for travel (restaurants, hotels, flights, etc) because they know that I spend a good amount of time in that area. So besides my own $$ spend (according to my Wells Fargo account breakdown, I spent about $10-15k/month in 2007 on travel expenses – now I usually get it covered), I have a bit of influence over the $$ spend of others who tend to travel.
But here is the thing…I have air miles here and there and everywhere (too many airlines have lost my business) and I really don’t relish the thought of starting all over again. Is there a way to leverage my own portfolio and get an airline (hello Continental? Air Canada?) to start me out with an equivalent amount of miles to my abandoned choices? Or at least ramp me up partway there? I don’t need to be a platinum member to start, but I don’t want to start from nil.
And besides me, I’m sure such a program would be a super enticing switcher for multiple travelers! Imagine this…if you are the airline to come forth with a, “You’ve been mistreated too often at the other airlines. We want to rectify that AND entice you to at least see if we are true to our word by offering you equivalent status/miles from wherever you feel stuck now,” I’d bet you would totally kick ass.
In fact, much like the personal data play that the Project VRM community talks about, why DON’T we have the ability to take our miles with us in general? It seems like another unfortunate silo that locks customers in and disempowers us to switch when we are dissatisfied with the service (which should be how you ‘lock’ us in – great experience!).
So…
- Any airlines that want to be a taker for my nearly 80,000 miles of travel per year? Caveat: must fly out of Montreal.
- Anyone want to create a mechanism for customers to leverage this type of data in order to have the freedom to move between airlines when they have been wronged?
I think this could be really powerful.
Hi Tara,
This really resonates with me. I was an American Airlines customer, then United, more recently Southwest and JetBlue. United was good, but then I started getting cancellations and odd delays. JetBlue is okay, but their crew is a bit too patronizing for me, and doesn’t fly out of Manchester. Southwest is good, especially with their new boarding process.
I have miles scattered over all of these airlines, plus a few thousand on Delta and US Airways and probably Airtran and others as well.
I just want the bin above my seat reserved for my bags (thanks JetBlue). I want a great boarding process (thanks Southwest). I want good seating options for my 6’4″ height (thanks JetBlue and United). I want good schedules from my convenient airport and frequent destinations (thanks Southwest). I want a good in-flight experience (thanks United and American).
- Matt H
Hi Tara,
Chris Guillebeau’s travel ebook might be worth picking up (and reviewing and posting an affiliate link to…I think he has an affiliate program.)
What you are looking for is called “status matching”…they will usually only do it if you have Elite status on one airline and you want it on others. You can also do what’s called a “challenge” — which is where you promise to fly so many miles in a certain amount of time with one airline, and if you do it, in return, they give you Elite status.
Taking some time to learn about travel hacking and in particular, getting Elite status, is probably worth the investment at your level.
-Erica
The reason we can’t take our miles with us is that all the frequent flyer programs are silo’d. Each has its own way of dealing with customers. We need a way of making relationships independent of those programs, and that’s a serious and worthy VRM challenge. I’m sure we can’t do it without the cooperation of the airlines, and I’m also sure the airlines won’t do it by themselves.
Meanwhile, I’m very curious to see if any of the other airlines will take you up on your offer. It’s certainly good one.
For what it’s worth, I’ve concentrated my flying, now running a little over 100,000 miles per year, with United. When I started with United, in 1990, I lived near San Francisco (a United hub) and flew frequently to Chicago, Denver, DC, Los Angeles and New York, which are other United hubs. (Seattle too, which is a well-served United city, though not a hub). My wife was also a highly frequent flyer with United, so it was to my advantage to leverage her status as well.
On the whole I’ve been happy with United. They’re a slightly above-average airline: clearly better than American, Delta and US Airways, and clearly not as good as the Virgins, JetBlue and a few others that work hard at being nice to customers.
I also understand United’s systems well, and that helps too. I know what kinds of planes they fly between certain destinations, what seats to look for on those planes, and so on. I also like that they’re the only airline that provides a way for pilots to share cockpit communications over the audio system (on Channel 9). For aviation freaks like me, that’s cool shit.
This year, however, I am cutting back on my flying, and will surely lose my 1k (>100,000 miles in the prior year) status. Once that happens I’ll be back to secondary privileges again. This already has me trying other airlines. For example, I flew on Delta last week from Santa Barbara to Salt Lake City. Picking a seat was an ordeal. The phone reservation system was down much of the time, “for weather” they said. This was at a time when there wasn’t much. Inexcusable. When I did get a human being, the seat he gave me was not the one on the ticket I got at the airport. So I think you’re right to dump them.
Anyway, it’s a VRM project for sure.
Hi, Tara –
I certainly know how you feel, and to some extent I know how the airlines feel as well — a good friend of mine is a Delta pilot. As Doc says, United is definitely an above average airline, even though it is too easy to have an awful experience on any airline these days. Before I get into the shortcomings in passenger comfort supported by FAA flight regulations, I have to start by pointing out that airline tickets have been dropping in price (adjusting for inflation) for at least 30 years. Deregulation was the worst thing to happen to airlines. Before that time, a lot fewer people were flying and were paying a lot more for doing so, although you could fly standby for 1/2 price or less. And very few people were flying 100K miles/ year. But the service was divine. People used to get dressed up just to fly somewhere. Continental used to have a bar with video games onboard in the economy lounge. It was a great place to meet people. Now we have collectively traded comfort for price; it’s been a race to the bottom. It pleases no one, except that a huge number of people fly now. Then came 9/11. Now we all are condemned to forever deal with restrictions from either security or dereg concerns. In the old days, if you missed your Delta connection, you could still use your ticket on another airline. And yes, the profit margin of the airlines together was high enough that they would all pay for you to stay in a hotel if you got stuck in transit. And yes, the average ticket price was higher. Before deregulation, you couldn’t have a race to the bottom, with cheaper and cheaper airlines slicing up the profit margin. Before 9/11, you could make last minute travel changes, no problem.
We now need a new look at air travel. We should have international regulations for larger seats, a system that allows flexibility in travel plans, and pays you a voucher if you get stuck somewhere. And we also need a way for airline employees to be even more helpful than they were in the past to make things easy for you, by better connectivity. To some extent, this has happened — it used to be very difficult to get a seat assignment ahead of time. But in other areas, passengers like you and I have been made to feel this big: tiny. Except in the case of personal space on a plane — there we are made to feel like gigantic freaks.
Meanwhile, you can get unsilo’d frequent flyer miles from some credit cards. But you need 3x as many as the silo’d ones.
Thanks to technology, plane travel could be better than ever. But we should raise minimum standards for flying through legislation, if the market can’t create a better experience. Yes, we would pay more for our tickets. But it could be worth it. Especially if they brought back standby at half price for those with some flexibility.
I sympathise with your general complaint about air travel, but would argue that you probably don’t have much influence on your friend and followers travel decisions. You might well dissuade them from or be wary of choosing another carrier in light of your bad experience. Positive influence however is much misunderstood and overstated.
And an airline won’t need to reward you for your disloyalty to them (which is effectively what you’re asking them to do with your post hoc VRM model) because the industry is screwed by its systems and its cost structure which have been undermined by low cost carriers and cherry pickers like Virgin. The resultant reduction in travel costs to historically low levels has been great news for travellers in the short term, but now the downside of cost competition is coming home to roost. Airlines should know that if they provide better service then you (and I) will come running and they won’t need to bother about our miles (an historical promotional device that they all despise anyway).
The key issue is whether any business that involves physical activity (i.e baggage and machines/planes) and direct human interaction can maintain service standards while increasing volumes and decreasing prices. I would love to think your scheme would work, but I think those fundamentals are against us.
Yep, status matching isn’t hard at all. You can call up pretty much any airline and they’ll status-match you. I’m a big fan of Continental (been Elite with them for a few years) but I like United quite a bit too. Thankfully they’re both in the Star Alliance, so they share FF miles. Anyway, I’m getting off track there – meant to clue you in on FlyerTalk:
http://www.flyertalk.com/
It’s a forum with tons of inside info on getting elite perks, like status multiplier programs. Airlines often run get-elite-quick programs where they’ll double or triple your miles in your race to elite for the first year, and FlyerTalk members post ‘em.
I have to admit that this first of this post was really funny because of the music and your tone but at the end I felt really bad for you because it seemed like you were really very sad. First of all I hope you finally made it home ok and got some sleep. I can understand your frustration – it sucks to have them not care. I think that the world is going to shift so dramatically in the power that the customer has in the next 5 years that companies like Delta will finally have to wake up and get it. Did anyone from the airline respond to this post? It would be really interesting to see if they are even listening.
At Matt et al…Delta has actually responded and I’ve been having good conversations with them.
As for the sadness, yes, I was angry and sad, but I’m also a decent actress and wanted to make this video as close to a breakup as possible!
You are a good actress. It was one of those cries where I wanted to give you a hug yet I thought you might be so mad you might start swinging.
I’m curious how Delta heard this? Are they listening or did someone tip them off. You have some good ideas above but I am very interested in if they realize there is a conversation they need to be a part of and are working on being an active part of that conversation. Step 1 in rehab is admitting you have a problem.
Frequent flyer programs and other customer loyalty efforts exist in part to lock-in customers (e.g. faced with a choice of airlines, I will often go with only one to accumulate “rewards” over convenience and price), and the issuing company reaps the financial benefits from this lock-in. However, one could argue that there are clear financial benefits for a vendor in supporting openness, choice, and independence as well. Your proposal suggests one way a vendor might embrace alternatives to lock-in, or at least facilitate breaking out.
A key strategy to facilitate more of this is to help clarify and quantify the value of customer openness to companies who might benefit from it. We have begun a research project at the Berkman Center to do just that – provide evidence that users consistently behave in ways that create more value for companies that provide alternatives to lock-in. From this evidence, I hope organizations will then get creative and help support user-driven efforts to grow relationships with vendors. With airlines, this might take the form of an independent frequent flyer program that is self-managed and shared with participating airlines, who subscribe to your travel feeds and provide benefits to those who travel frequently regardless of airline.
You’re in Montreal, now! Air Canada! Star Alliance Gold, baby!