Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
If you do not fly Delta all the time you may not “get” this post. You may not understand why I am publishing this and why I think about all of the below each time I fly. You may not appreciate why I get excited and so look forward to each time I get to fly Delta. But even if you do not feel like I do maybe you can apply a few of these suggestions when you do fly my favorite airline (note: SkyMiles is not my favorite rewards program)!
The nice thing about so many of the following suggestions are that Delta already puts in place the way to say “thank you” to those fine folks who work so hard for us. The rest is on us. Let’s take a look and see what you think:
- Be respectful and patient – really hard when they are wrong!
Travel is stressful for everyone. Can you imagine turning flight after flight all day long and putting up with “us” each day? Plus, for us frequent flyers, we often know more than those who work for Delta. Let’s all be respectful and even more so when we have to either A) educate those on the rules or B) walk away and talk to someone else.
- Phone survey after your call to Delta.
This should be automatic. When you are done with a call to Delta if you hold you should get a survey to rate the experience. BTW they are all shooting for “5s”!
- On Twitter ask to trigger the survey when you are done.
Many times when you are done with @Delta on twitter you will get, like the phone reps, a survey with 5 icons. The far right is a “5” or “very satisfied”.
- JWD i.e. Job Well Done Certificates.
Each year as a Platinum or Diamond Medallion you get a number of these certs in the mail inside your Medallion kit. They include a code you can give to just about any Delta representative (but not Delta Connection or Delta Global Service DGS folks) and they turn them in to Delta and it results in cash for them.
- Personal JWD cards.
For years now, on almost every single Delta and Skyteam flight, I have given these home made cards out. Not just in the air but on the ground as well. Over the years I have spent thousands of dollars with these (I fly a lot)!
- Get their name and email to Delta via “Medallion Thanks“!
I wish this got more coverage in the blogs but at least I can do my part. I love this option. It takes so little time and it gets recognition right to the folks that need to see it. Just do this please fellow flyers!
- Comment on Delta.com i.e. a compliment on Delta.com.
My guess is most use the above link to gripe about something that has gone wrong with the “Delta experience”. I have no problem with this as for the premium price Delta charges they should provide what is promised. However, you can also use this site to praise those who go beyond what is promised. You can even do this free on Gogo so why not do this?
- Help others with bags so FA does not have to, including close bins when (really) full.
Delta is doing all they can to have bins that will take a TON of bags. The downside is it can make them really hard to close. If you are someone who is strong (or even strong-ish) why not pop up and close these bins when you see they are full. Or, if you are the one who’s bag fills them to capacity, just take the time to close the bin. This is a simple thing but it matters!
- (Careful with this one) – Reorganize overheads to help.
If you look at the photo in the point just above you will notice a sticker in the back of the bin. It shows how bags (that fit Delta size check that is) should go when inside a bin. Yes, there is a risk that you may upset a fellow passenger by “moving” their bag but I always feel like I am just doing what they should have done in the first place.
- Offer to bump off a flight and take a later one!
One of the most stressful parts of a gate agent’s life is getting a flight out on time. You can help this if you are at the gate early and have printed an extra paper copy of your boarding pass. Simply hand it to them and let them know you have flexible travel and can help if they need it with an oversold flight!
- Show respect! Please take off earphones and pay attention during safety briefing.
I fly a lot. I bet if pushed I could do most of the Delta safety briefing myself. But each time it starts I take my bluetooth headphones off and listen and pay attention. You know some airlines require you to do this. Not only is it smart but it shows respect for Delta people who are there for our safety (if needed).
- Just say thank you and mean it!
I really should not have to post this last one but in our “rush-rush” world this can matter. Take a few seconds and be sincere.
What do you think of my list above? Do you go out of your way to thank the hard working Delta folks who do so much for us each time we fly? Are you going to try some of them after reading this post? – Rene
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
“Be respectful and patient – really hard when they are wrong!” ???
Respectful, yes to some extent, but patient? Sadly, they are wrong a lot of times and why should I waste all my time helping them solve their problems, especially for frequent travelers. If I treat my customers the way I get treated by some of DL’s call center people, I’d lose all my customers. We should not condition companies to get used to this. When they make the mistake(s) in the first place, it is their obligations to solve the issue… and quickly.
It really should be “…put yourself in the customer’s shoes…” approach. If they aren’t trained to handle most of the issues DL create, the agents should not be on the call center floor.
Thanks for the post @rene. As someone who doesn’t fly as much as other (just GM), I understand and appreciate DL employees and fellow passengers. I was upgraded to 1st on my DTW-PHX Saturday AM flight and my laptop bag didn’t fit in the seat in front of me. A fellow passenger put my bag up so the FA won’t have too—was in the middle of pre-flight beverage service.
There’s been times that I needed to do same-day confirm and the GM desk agent helped get me on the flights with the best change of getting Comfort + aisle seat. The few times I got the last seat on the plane isn’t too bad once the gate agent explained the process.
Almost all Delta employees I’ve dealt with have been first class. The Delta twitter folks have been great. The FAs are terrific.
But the frequent flyer program is not as good as it used to be, so I’ve moved on to Southwest.
All of the above are good points Rene! I think that in some Hubs the gate agents need to treat the customers with respect. I see that as the area needing Delta to observe and deal with. I understand it can be stressful esp with whether to upgrade pax or not but???? I’ve never gotten a survey post a tweet only a to mark.
If I have a great flight attendant (or agent elsewhere) I will send a Tweet to Delta naming the attendant and flight number. “Hey @delta Michael was an amazing FA on flight 874 tonight!” Do you know if that gets them the same recognition they would with one of these other methods?
@Mark – I would use the links (or email) in the post above.
There was a handwritten thank you note waiting for me on my way back from London, written by the Purser. I have never seen that before. It was really nice. Delta is a great alrline. I was using the 98K special roundtrip flash sale award for a trip I had to take anyway.
Also I did take the trouble to thank him in a significant way (via the Executive Office).