I think Comair is a little jealous.....

[miles otoole]

You have missed the point too. First Class doesn't have a middle seat. Ever sat up there? Maybe not because our best passengers with the most miles or the richest people buy tickets to sit up there. They tend to buy more walk up tickets, which pays the bills. Even Song has better seats and Live TV, which beats an RJ any day---even in the middle. People getting off Song love it---true fact.


Bye Bye--General Lee

Nope-the majority of people who sit in the front do not buy F ticks-thanks to your generous FF program, most buy regular fare and upgrade using status. 2 family members are DL Plat Colonels and regularly buy the cheap fares and upgrade. If I remember correctly from business polls, people would rather have convenience and frequency than the ability to upgrade as long as the flight is 1.5 or less. Remember, as Delta is struggling and cutting costs, so is corporate America.

 

[General Lee]

Nope-the majority of people who sit in the front do not buy F ticks-thanks to your generous FF program, most buy regular fare and upgrade using status. 2 family members are DL Plat Colonels and regularly buy the cheap fares and upgrade. If I remember correctly from business polls, people would rather have convenience and frequency than the ability to upgrade as long as the flight is 1.5 or less. Remember, as Delta is struggling and cutting costs, so is corporate America.

Miles, Miles, Miles,

Come on now, I guess you haven't heard of Simplifares? You haven't? That was created to fill first class with more walk up fares. And, we just added $100 to each walk up due to gas. The bad part is that we haven't really been able to do that in the back, since most don't care back there. But, the front part of the plane is full of people paying more than the average joe to sit up there. Too bad we can't be all first class----wait, we are---on Song!

And, businessmen want more frequency? Like more RJs to fill in between busy times? That is what Fred Reid thought with our RJs. Boy, was he wrong. And, corporate America is doing a lot better now with the strong economy than after 9-11. The only ones hurt are the ones who can't pass along the fuel costs to the comsumers----a la certain airlines. Fedex and UPS can, but we cannot. (until all of the labor contracts are broken.....)


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[SouthTex]

Uh oh, I smell blood...or is it the Kool aid?

 

[cmrflyer]

I agree with the generalisimo, Song is very good, i was shocked. It still looks old inside, but he is right, it is a thousand times better than Delta's usual old 737 and MD 80 crap.

 

[CarjCapt]

Oh come on. Our "best" passengers are the business guys who walk up and pay the highest fares. Those guys hate RJs. There have been articles in the Wall Street Journal all about that. They want to work and get their bags out if they need to. The First Class section domestically has no middle seats. Even the Song 757s have better leg room and live TVs----which beats an RJ any day---any seat. Sad but true.


Bye Bye--General Lee

General, you just don't know what you are talking about.

I commuted for 10+ years and if given the choice of a middle seat in a full aircraft or the jump seat, I took the jump seat.

My wife, who travels every week (first class) and pays walkup fares on occasion, will go on a RJ if the only seat in a Mainline a/c is a middle seat. There have been times she has gone on a different flight so as to not to sit in a middle coach seat.

She prefers the RJ because of each seat is a isle or window seat and she can "pink tag" her overnight bag.

 

[spinproof]

General, you just don't know what you are talking about.

I commuted for 10+ years and if given the choice of a middle seat in a full aircraft or the jump seat, I took the jump seat.

My wife, who travels every week (first class) and pays walkup fares on occasion, will go on a RJ if the only seat in a Mainline a/c is a middle seat. There have been times she has gone on a different flight so as to not to sit in a middle coach seat.

She prefers the RJ because of each seat is a isle or window seat and she can "pink tag" her overnight bag.

General CARJCAPT is right . Other articles state the convience of plane side baggage. "Pink tags" and no middle seat as a positive and perferred by most who are not privilidged to fly first cabin. With that said I do feel the E170 and 90's are a positive step in cabin comfort.

 

[Tomct]

Yeah, I have to agree. Most people like coming off the RJ's. The thing they like most is the fact that they get GOOD service. This is something that is lacking still at BIG D! Sorry General, but I still battle with the "Cat Ranchers" in the back and they just are an angry MOB! Plus, if you start throwing first class seats on RJ's, Forgetaboutit! People would prefer them to almost anything! Just going off what I have heard from the passengers coming off the airplane!

 

[ERJDRVR2]

There is no negotiating capital to waste. LOA 46 is already written and it states that as long as ASA and COMAIR remain wholly owned airlines that 25% of Delta's total flying would be allocated to those airlines. It would only seem to reason that since ASA is no longer wholly owned then COMAIR gets to pick up the full quarter. The next couple of months are going to get real interesting.

Don't forget RAH is partially owned by Delta.

 

[EMB170Pilot]

With that said I do feel the E170 and 90's are a positive step in cabin comfort.

HUGE step bud!

 

[wms]

Miles, Miles, Miles,

Come on now, I guess you haven't heard of Simplifares? You haven't? That was created to fill first class with more walk up fares. And, we just added $100 to each walk up due to gas. The bad part is that we haven't really been able to do that in the back, since most don't care back there. But, the front part of the plane is full of people paying more than the average joe to sit up there. Too bad we can't be all first class----wait, we are---on Song!

And, businessmen want more frequency? Like more RJs to fill in between busy times? That is what Fred Reid thought with our RJs. Boy, was he wrong. And, corporate America is doing a lot better now with the strong economy than after 9-11. The only ones hurt are the ones who can't pass along the fuel costs to the comsumers----a la certain airlines. Fedex and UPS can, but we cannot. (until all of the labor contracts are broken.....)


Bye Bye--General Lee

Simplfares is more DAL smoke and mirrors. Go on line and do some comparison. On example is MCI to AVP, walk-up simplifare $1089. Normal walk-up fare on USAir $350. Simplifares works in some cases, but overall it has no more substance than "good goes around".

As far as which airlplanes are cost effective or not depends on pricing power. It's not sensible to fly 6 RJs on a segment when you can do it with 4 MD-80s. But it doesn't make sense to fly MD 80s into markets that can't support them. Have you thought about why DAL is contracting RJs instead of buying ML aircraft? DCI carriers have the credit to get financing, DAL doesn't. According to our ex-pres (his mouth to my ears, not hear-say), ASA secured our own financing and made our own payments. I'm sure DAL would like to buy planes, even some kind of 90-110 seater, but they cannot get the financing. But they need to have more planes to keep up. So whether it's a WO or the 7th DCI carrier or the 77th, DAL will get someone to to operate airplanes for them until they have the credit to get their own.

RJs cost alot per seat to fly. But "alot" is relative. We could fly one pax planes and be profitable if there were the pricing power, but for now there is not. There's no pricing power and no way for DAL to aquire more cost effective planes withouy hiring the flying out and that won't happen. So they are stuck with getting contract carriers to fly more and more RJs for them.