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“We’ve been starving — and sitting on a ham sandwich the whole time.”
Ah, yes. Major corporation executives using hunger as an analogy for their marketing and financial plans.
At a Delta investors day in 2011, current Delta Air Lines President (then Delta’s Executive Vice President of Revenue Management, Marketing and Network Planning) Glen Hauenstein said, “Historically, we have seemed to be singularly focused on selling airline tickets, and forgetting that we can sell customers other things… We’ve been starving and sitting on a ham sandwich the whole time.” (via The AJC‘s Kelly Yamanouchi, subscription required)
(Delta customers who are vegans should be especially outraged. 😉 )
The gist of the conversations that day was Delta selling additional services. As Ms. Yamanouchi wrote:
Delta hopes to evolve from just imposing new fees for what once was free — checked baggage and meals — toward selling improved services such as premium economy seats and eventually selling customized or bundled offerings. For example, passengers could buy things like food, in-flight Wi-Fi, priority boarding and other services by checking off boxes while booking a flight on Delta’s website.
That’s certainly happened since then. And not just on Delta but other airlines, too.
So, What’s The Beef Ham?
Delta is now the defendant in a class action lawsuit brought by passengers who claim they can’t get reimbursements for money Delta said it would make good on.
Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian flew to Paris while the airline recovered from its now-infamous technological meltdown. Granted, Delta was well on its way to returning to normal when Mr. Bastian headed to the City of Lights. And Delta reportedly paid a mint to be an official Olympic sponsor.
But it still wasn’t a good look.
Delta isn’t conceding responsibility for its slow recovery after the CrowdStrike disaster. (It’s probably a smart legal move on Delta’s part, though look where they are now.) Both sides are now embroiled in a catfight over who is to blame. Even Microsoft is getting in on the action, publicly blasting Delta for “not modernizing its technology.”
One might think a premium airline would have premium IT.
If you’re so good at selling ham sandwiches, why did you leave your customers starving at some important moments in their lives?
Start buying the premium ham, Glen.
A Quick Note to Delta Employees
For the Delta employees who read our blog: We know many of you love Delta. Heck, a lot of us travelers do, too! We’ve heard and read countless stories about how frontline employees, flight attendants, pilots, ramp agents, and others did whatever they could to help.
My family and I flew Delta several times during the past week and a half, talked to phone reps, and saw how gracious and resilient everyone was.
Let’s hope you’re in charge of the airline someday.
In the meantime, bring everyone back something nice from Paris, Glen.
We hear the ham sandwiches are great.
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.
Their ‘ham sandwich’ idea is definitely not kosher!
We should all become vegetarians and let Delta eat its “ham” sandwich! Knowing Delta’s reputation, that “ham” in their sandwich, is likely just a bunch of baloney!
ADK love your wit – wish it wasn’t so true. Delta has pushed us past the limit. Great if ‘Corporate America” can keep them in business, best of luck. Husband and I have been Diamond since it was created and what ever top tier was before that (Platinum? too many miles, tickets and years ago to remember), both of us are 2MM. Really heartbreaking to Delta loyalist to see what it has become. Flying AA Sunday, first class, nonstop, for what Delta wants coach for a one stop flight that takes three times as long to get there.
For us, Delta took a hit when it bought NW because of their ‘personality’ difference. From there it went from bad to worse and then worse. Not sure if the Delta employees resented them or vice versa. Regardless, it has been Delta descending ever since, IMHO.
Delta needs to create incentives for customers to spend in each of its revenue channels. In the original SkyMiles overhaul, it attempted to do that. Although, the specific implementation was flawed and it (temporarily) reversed course. Nonetheless, Delta needs to give customers a reason to book hotels and rental cars via its portal. It needs to give customers a reason to use its shopping portal. Affording credit towards tier status (via MQDs) is the path. AA’s Loyalty Points scheme has been wildly successful and popular.
For The Record… I LOVE Croque Monsieur (the French Version of Ham Sandwich). Maybe Delta can start serving or selling it in flights. LOL!
If Delta wants to expand beyond their core business, which is the “transportation” business; then, they need to first demonstrate to the public that they are the best of the best in what the do. So far, I do not believe that they have. Here is why…
It took a friend of mine 2.5 days to get home from Los Angeles to S. FL. To be fair, I know a lot of the Delta Agents worked tirelessly to get passengers home during the IT meltdown. When my friend asked the airport staff about meal & hotel voucher during his ordeal, the reply that he received from the airport staff was “Delta is not offering vouchers because this is an act of God” even though early on the day Ed Bastian already posted on Delta.com that passengers are eligible for food and hotel vouchers. Basically, this tells me that messages are not being filtered out to the field. I guess, Senior Management team in Delta did not bother to pickup the phone (even though they all have company issued cell phones) to update the airport managers & agents. Posting a message on Delta.com and hope that staff will have time to read that message during a meltdown with 1000s of passengers queuing for help shows poor management and execution. In addition to posting online, they should have also actively communicated and updated the airport managers/agents by picking up the phone and start calling. This is a clear example as to why Delta has not shown that they are the “best-of-the-best” in what they do!