Denrael

<rant>

Airline wars continue. Each year, airlines spend millions on loyalty programs. Their goal being simple; convince those of us that fly that they deserve our loyalty. When you think about it, they all offer essentially the same crappy service and cramped seats that make a greyhound bus seem like luxury. Give that, it comes down to hub cities, willingness to endure pain, and other intangibles.

My airline of choice is (was) NWA. I’ve had my problems with them, but overall, for me they offered one of the best loyalty programs in the business and their WorldClubs are the best domestic airline club in the business.

As everyone knows, Delta acquired NWA to become my new “Global Premier Airline”. Needless to say, I am not thrilled, and I’ve slowly watched them try to repackage poorer perks and convince me it’s an improvement. That being said, I have enough miles built up that I need to give Delta a chance. To be fair, I have had a few good experiences so far this year so the jury is still out. On in particular was in Fort Lauderdale yesterday where the ticket agent was friendly, efficient, and sympathetic of my cancelled flight woes. That’s all it took. He did his job well, offered me a smile and an understanding of my day.

This week, I was at Washington-Regan, standing in line for TSA. Every frequent flyer knows that fight crews are given preferential treatment for getting through TSA as well as the number of bags they are allowed to carry. In this case, the rudest flight crew (4 people) I’ve seen in a very long time, came through the line.

The line was about 20 minutes long, but of course the flight crew can move right to the front. At that point, they all reached in, and started taking bins. That wasn’t close enough however, there were still 3 people already putting items on the conveyer belt ahead of them. So, after budding in to get the bins, they moved up to right in front of the scanner, and started loading up their bins. Each were carrying between 3-5 bags, and still wearing jackets, etc. So, the entire line waited while they got organized, and sent their stuff through. On the other side, they took their items, leaving the bins on the conveyer backing things up further until the TSA person could get over and stack them so the belt could move. At no time did I hear an “excuse me”, “thank you” or the like. Rather it was an entitlement.

I understand that they live in airports. So do I. On average I travel 125,000 domestic miles a year and in excess of 120 flight segments. Can anyone name one other industry that expects to succeed by having employees flaunt that they are more important than their paying customers?

Oh, the crew in question? Delta.

</rant>