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As part of a test, customer service desks will disappear from Delta Air Lines Sky Clubs at two major airports. The affected locations are New York-LaGuardia (LGA) Terminal C lounges and Los Angeles International (LAX)’s T3 club.
Why?
As TPG’s Zach Griff first reported, “..agents will roam around with mobile devices to help with easy rebookings,” he wrote in a Tweet/X/whatever. “If successful, Delta will roll this out network-wide.”
News: @Delta is eliminating customer service desks at two Sky Clubs (LGA, LAX) in a new trial.
Instead, agents will roam around with mobile devices to help with easy rebookings.
If successful, Delta will roll this out network-wide. What do you think? Personally, I’m not a fan.
— Zach Griff (@_ZachGriff) March 22, 2024
Yeah, me neither.
“To take full advantage of Delta’s digital tools and help scale servicing capabilities, Delta Sky Club is piloting a mobile-forward servicing model in the LAX Terminal 3 and LaGuardia locations,” a Delta corporate spokesperson told us. “Guests of those Clubs will continue to receive the hospitality and attentive service they’ve come to expect during their visit.”
To be clear, this is a test — and it’s possible the help desks could return to these locations.
Delta added that this will help agents scale their support in times of significant disruption to the operation. It’s also a way to get customers to guide customers to use self-servicing tools via their mobile devices. Delta said there are some changes coming to the Fly Delta app this May that will improve customers’ ability to manage flight changes during irregular operations.
Here’s the thing about the Sky Club help desks: you don’t need them until you really, really, really do. The fantastic customer service agents inside the LaGuardia Sky Club literally saved me from losing a job two months ago.
My Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card earned back that day its $650 annual fee and much more. (See Rates and Fees.) Sky Club agents have helped me with other rebookings in less urgent situations, seat reassignments, and more.
I’ll be honest: I rarely see people lining up at Sky Club help desks. But when the fit hits the shan and everything flies everywhere, the last thing passengers paying premiums for lounge access through credit card benefits or premium tickets need is hunting down someone who can help.
Or lines snaking into bars, buffets, and customer seating areas. Because you know darn well that will happen.
Let’s call it for what it is: an excuse for Delta to try and eliminate positions often held by longtime (and amazing) employees who are probably at the higher end of their position’s pay scale.
Delta confirmed to us that additional seating will replace the service desks (at least, in the pilot clubs).
But maybe Delta can figure out where to put lecterns behind which the agents can sit? (I’m curious if these decision-makers ever worked retail jobs that required standing for hours.)
Initial Reactions
Here are some of the responses to Mr. Griff’s tweet that caught my eye.
Yeah, no.
— Dennis Lennox (@dennislennox) March 22, 2024
I do t need them roaming like I’m at Home Depot. I much prefer a dedicated desk if I need a CSR
— ATXJetsetter – Austin’s Frequent Flyer (@ATXJetsetter) March 22, 2024
(Gotta say: I usually can find people at my Home Depot. Whether they know what they’re talking about, tho… )
Delta is becoming the leader in fixing what isn’t broken…
— DTWenjoyer (@DTWstan) March 22, 2024
This is dumb, especially since at LAX they literally have a wait to talk to an agent.
— Andrew @ The AGM (@andrewfielding) March 22, 2024
I’m a Delta loyalist and I think this is a horrible idea.
— Charles V Luck (@CharlesVLuck) March 22, 2024
Bingo. This sucks.
— Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) March 22, 2024
Comical – they have a perfect Agent Assist setup at LGA. The space is huge, now it’s on ME to play hide-and-seek with the agents if I need a change? This makes no sense.
— Michael Pomposello (@mpomposello) March 22, 2024
Finally,
I never thought I’d say because @Delta has been the gold standard of customer service for years. I’ve loved them dearly and flown them loyally because of it. But every decision they made, and flight I’ve taken recently shows that customer are no longer valued by #Delta.
— Jason Meucci (@jmeucci) March 22, 2024
Final Approach
Delta is apparently eliminating service desks in two of its major markets’ Sky Clubs — to trial a new model where agents roam about lounges.
What do you think about this? Please share your thoughts in the below Comments section.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card, please visit this link.
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More Delta vapor ware for fliers
When Delta announced the initial set of changes to their loyalty program last year, it became pretty clear that customer experience had become lower priority than corporate profit, which is funny because they are tightly intertwined. This is just another example of the short-sighted decision at Delta that validates my own decision to drop the AmEx Delta Reserve cobrand card at the end of its annual cycle. (But, hey, I will spend exactly $20/mo at Resy restaurants on the Reserve until then, splitting the excess beyond $20 to cards with better restaurant perks. Thanks for the goodbye gift of a few free meals, Delta!)
And yes, I agree that this is an excuse by Delta to let go some of their most effective customer service agents. If there is no place to find them – like at a desk – it will be much less apparent when they don’t exist.
Before COVID, the staff of Sky Club service desks were the best of the best. Now, if you got anything complicated to deal with, my experience with them has been a big Zero. I have been told by more than one of them I should call the 800 number for help. So unless I have an immediate emergency, I do not try to use them anymore. The only thing more useless is Delta’s chat service. So I use the Platinum 800 number, and get use to hanging up 50% of the time and calling back hoping to find a knowledgeable agent.
There is old saying…. you feed an army for a 1000 days and you use it for 1 day. As you said, those experience CSR may not appear be too busy most of time; but when there is a IROP and the queues are line everywhere, that is when an experience CSR becomes valuable. The last thing customers who pays over $600/yr annual fee (or spending $75,000+ on DL AMEX, which equates to $4,500 in commissionable revenue based on a 6% fee that AMEX charges merchants) for club access need is to have to hunt for a CSR. Perhaps, the folks in DL corporate who came up with this idea have either never flown before or ran out of work to do.
I can’t begin to count the times I have used the service desks in the Skyclubs over the years. With their phone/chat customer service standards/abilities at an all time low level, including the DM line, the service desks are one of the biggest perks of the Sky Club should you need it. When you have an issue, many times it needs immediate attention, and taking the time to HUCB until you get an agent who is able and or willing to help you with your issues is not an option. There are also many times that issues can be dealt with inside the airport especially once a flight is under gate control….I have even had a SC agent call the gate before on certain issues……no phone/chat agent can do that. And DL thinks they can offer the same help via roaming agents with a mobile device that they can with a computer? Gonna be less of “the computer won’t let me do that” and we will now here “that can’t be done from this handheld device” (think flights using RUC’s/GUC’s or other special situations).
So what does Delta want me to do now, pay a lot of money for a credit card to enter an overcrowded lounge whose food area looks like one you see at an all you can eat buffet with people looking like they are in a competition to put as much food as they can on tiny plates as if its their last meal on earth, all while letting their screaming kids run around? I would much prefer to go back to the 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s where the lounges had limited food offerings but were a quiet, spacious retreat to catch up on work or just simply relax.
I second the YEAH? NO.
Years ago at JFK we needed customer no service no one in lounge could help had to leave and go to a help Kiosk. Roaming sounds even more fun
I think I witnessed the soft roll-out of ‘roaming’ at the Boston Terminal E SkyClub a few weeks ago. A SkyClub manager and a bathroom/facilities worker were ‘roaming’ together at a table in the back of the club, having a loud conversation for over an hour, while the bathrooms quickly went to heck. Probably going to train the CSRs in ‘roaming’ at LAX and LGA, next. Well done, Delta!
I think that was just a Boston Sky Club being a Boston Sky Club.
@Chris Carley, you’re right. Seems a valid explanation for the BOS SkyClub.
Back to the topic of the post, taking away the central location for assistance will for some, obfuscate the benefit of having a CSR for assistance (out of sight – out of mind). For others, the hassle of trying to locate a ‘roaming’ CSR – who may possibly be in the process of helping another guest, could create an awkward situation where the guest seeking help ‘hovers’ by the CSR until their turn to be served.
Out of frustration, of course, we will have to use the ‘digital tools’ that are maintained by the honored and legendary Delta IT team. Seems that this is their ultimate goal – not necessarily customer experience.
At least they didn’t have roaming bathrooms.
What could go wrong with this?
Look, I love being creative and tinkering with stuff. To a degree, I get it. I’m curious what ideas Delta throw to wall and don’t stick.
But doing so much after receiving taxpayer bailouts is just not a good look.
I fully agree. Terrible idea!!!!
Once again…so much more value for my soon-to-be-non-renewed $650.00 Reserve card.
If there were a way to page a roaming agent by scanning a code nearby, then I would say it’s a great idea. If it’s pot luck whether you can find one when you need one, it’s a bad idea.