I’m on the plane to right now (ok, I’m actually driving to Jerome but I needed to stay awake – don’t tell Holly) on my way to Boise. As some of you remember I spent quite a bit of time in Idaho just before Evan was born. Not to worry, this was just a one off trip to wrap up a few loose ends on a small project I’ve been running from MN. I was, however, one of the lucky travelers to fly out of the MSP airport the day Delta finished changing over most of the signs and banners from Northwest to Delta. I’ll admit, not seeing the typical NWA banners made the flight feel a little different.

Now I’m not really hung up on if I’m on a Delta, NWA, or Sun Country flight. What I am hung up on is if the airline personnel act like they care, the plane is comfortable and my flight was relatively relaxing. My first flight with Delta missed the mark on all three points.

Now I can remember when the major airline out of MSP was Republic Airlines (yes, I can remember that far back) and that flying was something special. When I traveled for Penford (late 90′s) the feeling while flying was a little less special, but the airlines still worked to make your flight pleasant and enjoyable. As i continued to travel for work you could see the cirners were starting to be cut, just a little at a time. When I traveled for my last project to Idaho on a regular basis, the only thing that made the trip tolerable was the fact I got bumped to First Class on almost every flight due to my elite status.

And today… I still got bumped to First, but the size of the plane and the attitude of the personnel made it feel more like a cattle car. On top of all this, they now charge people to check a single piece of luggage. Unless you’re a regular traveler who makes some sort of elite status, flying is to difficult to manage.

So thank you Delta, you’ve officially made me want to fly only out of necessity. I want to help save the airline industry, but when you sell what is ultimately a crappy product (excessive fees, stealing another inch of seat to seat space, etc.) what do you think your customers are going to do?