I may have noticed something in the last week.
I flew six legs on Delta, including Asheville, NC (AVL), Atlanta (ATL), Jacksonville, FL (JAX), and Las Vegas (LAS). At each of the big-city stops, the Delta check-in area was a maelstrom of activity. Lines were long and my initial reaction was one of horror.
Then I noticed something—those lines were moving rapidly. The wait was really not all that long. The hubbub was furious and noisy, but Delta personnel were everywhere, helping the confused and moving things along. Also—could it really be true?—the Delta folks seemed to be friendly, helpful and courteous.
Is Delta onto something here? How many of you remember when doctors’ offices were small and friendly? Today they’re large—with many doctors in the same practice. Do you remember when that happened? Seems to me that doctors formed bigger, more efficient offices in order to cope profitably with the lowered fees and rising demands of Medicare.
Is Delta doing the same thing to cope with the lowered fees resulting from competition? Has a major airline actually decided that maybe deregulation is not going to go away and decided to learn to cope with the market—as former GE head Jack Welch put it—as it is and not as it should be or as you want it to be?
I have contacted Delta’s media department with this question and they have promised to call me back. I’ll let you know what they say.
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