Delta Air Lines’ service outage last week stranded an estimated half million passengers, leaving many sleeping on airport floors, dissatisfied and upset at their inability to complete their travels, unable to locate their bags or receive answers from the airline.

However, regardless of how angry they are, the majority of them will return to the airline in the future. To paraphrase an old song, most travelers find it difficult to end their relationship with an airline.

The fact of the American air travel system is that tremendous forces retain passengers traveling with the same airlines, even after service disruptions like Delta’s. American, United, Southwest, and Delta are the four largest airlines in the United States, accounting for more than 70% of total air traffic. Passengers who live near one of Delta’s major hubs, such as Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, or Salt Lake City, have even fewer flying options.

Delta Passengers Are Angry, But Will Be Back. They Have Little Choice

Many consumers also have frequent flyer accounts and branded credit cards that link them to specific airlines.

A disgruntled million-mile consumer.
That’s the case for Don Hooper, who has a million miles in his Delta frequent flyer account after years of traveling the airline once or twice a week while working as a banker near Atlanta.

Now semi-retired, he and his wife Dorothy fly Delta eight to ten times yearly. They were on vacation this month, visiting Glacier National Park and attending a wedding in Bozeman, Montana, and were on their way home when they became delayed in Salt Lake City. They eventually had to buy their own Spirit tickets to return home by early Wednesday morning.

“I would not say I am angry. “I’m disappointed,” Don Hooper told CNN during an interview. “We were never communicated with, or contacted. We were left on our own. They left people to fend for themselves without any help.”

The collapse occurred as Delta attempted to recover from computer problems that stopped its systems from tracking the location of its pilots and flight attendants, making it impossible to staff all of its flights. CrowdStrike, a cyber security group, triggered the disruptions, which resulted in severe computer issues around the world on July 19, including over 5,000 canceled flights by a variety of airlines on Friday.

However, the troubles were primarily isolated to Delta by Monday, as other firms resumed normal operations, adding to the passengers’ anger. Delta canceled more than 4,400 flights between July 19 and 21, according to flight tracking firm FlightAware. There were an extra 1,800 flights canceled on Monday and Tuesday.

“Other airlines, banks, and corporations appeared to have worked it out. Delta didn’t,” Dorothy Hooper explained.

The Hoopers claim their experience was not as horrible as other travellers’. The Hoopers had enough money to reserve a hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, so they had a place to sleep even though they still wanted to leave town that night. Others had a different experience.

“People are sleeping in line at the ticketing kiosks. People were running short of nappies and formula. “Some vendors were running out of food,” Dorothy Hooper explained.

“We came out of this fine,” remarked Don Hooper.

By Friday, their bags had been returned, and Delta had paid them for their out-of-pocket expenses while giving them an extra $100 each. Even before that, the Hoopers expressed excitement for their next Delta vacation to Greece and Italy in August, despite their unhappiness with Delta’s behavior during the meltdown. Past experience and Delta’s supremacy in Atlanta and Don Hooper’s frequent flyer miles would keep them loyal to the airline.

Who will and won’t return?
Other passengers were not as eager to fly Delta again.

According to CNN, Jeremy and Kaylee Jones married on July 20 and left Spokane, Washington, on Monday for their honeymoon. Five guests were unable to attend the wedding owing to flying complications.

They arrived in Atlanta early Tuesday morning to catch a connecting aircraft to the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. But they couldn’t obtain one.

They eventually had to travel to Orlando to catch another flight to St. Lucia so that they would keep the money they had spent on the accommodation. Despite pledging to compensate affected customers, Delta’s policy would not have reimbursed them for their St. Lucia hotel stay if they had canceled the trip.

“Maybe in the future, but once they’ve figured it out, I would say, not in the near future,” Kaylee Jones replied when asked if they would fly Delta again.

“As of right now, I would roll with that sentiment,” stated Jeremy Jones. “No Delta for me, for sure.”

However, several airlines have seen travel demand recover following comparable or worse meltdowns. Southwest experienced a 10-day glitch with its crew scheduling software, resulting in about 17,000 cancellations during the year-end holiday travel period in 2022. It experienced two months of low bookings. However, many of those affected travelers returned to the airline. It just recorded record revenue and traffic for the most recent quarter.

Lack of options
The hub structure protects so-called “network carriers” like Delta from competition on flights into and out of their hubs. Cirium figures show that it accounts for 83% of available seats flown in and out of Atlanta when adjusted for miles traveled.

“They have a stranglehold on Atlanta,” explained Zach Griff, senior aviation reporter for The Points Guy, a travel website. “Even if you choose to fly a rival, you can only reach so many destinations nonstop. It’s always worth remembering because people’s memories are short. The book based on schedule and price. This does not imply that some customers will not resent Delta for this. However, this could be a temporary hiccup.

On certain important routes, there are several options, though only sometimes with the same regularity as other airlines.

“At the end of the day, people are going to act in their own personal interest,” said Scott Keyes, founder of travel alert service Going.com. “Most passengers aren’t going to inconvenience themselves, to take a longer or a non-direct flight, simply to punish Delta.”

Many business travelers will fly with an airline that has a contract with their employer, leaving them no choice except to choose their own carrier. That was the situation with Dylan Steele, a government employee who was stuck in Atlanta for many days, unable to complete a trip to Washington for work. Except in emergencies, he must fly Delta for work. By Tuesday, he had abandoned his plans for this trip after three days of futile attempts to travel from Atlanta to Washington, DC.

Steele, on the other hand, was sympathetic to Delta’s troubles and felt sad for the staff who were at the airport assisting passengers in locating their luggage.

“It has undoubtedly been an experience. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “On a normal day, Delta is quite good. They are making every effort to assist us. “It is not their fault.”

Delta Passengers Are Angry, But Will Be Back. They Have Little Choice

Another factor that is likely to entice passengers to return to Delta is its reputation for providing exceptional service. Stats back up this claim: Delta said in its second quarter statistics that in the first half of this year, it topped the industry in the lowest percentage of cancelled flights and on-time performance, with 39 cancellation-free days. It also has a fairly low complaint rate.

Don Hooper said he’s always received excellent treatment from Delta staff in the million miles he’s travelled on the airline before to this, and that’s another reason he’s not about to switch, in addition to the fact that he lives close to the Atlanta hub and has all of the miles in his account.

“As a million-mile flier, you’ve had some negative experiences over the years. Don Hooper stated that Delta has previously responded well to this issue. “We have been flying Delta for 34 years. “And I still will.”

SOURCE | CNN