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Delta is an Atlanta based airline, and as such I admit to a certain fondness for them, mainly for nostalgic reasons. In the past decade or so, they have become everything I hate in corporations run by egomaniacs too big for their own britches ... politically correct, looking for handouts from the government, and not even trying to manage customer expectations with good service and on-time deptartures/arrivals, or rates in line with industry realities. This compensation nonsense is just the latest.

AirTran, also Atlanta-based, is kicking Delta's ass ... new jets, employees that are trying hard to be service-oriented, and competitive prices. I have 300,000 frequent flyer miles on Delta, but I never fly them anymore ... Airtran goes everywhere I need to go, and I appreciate their efforts.

On September 11, 2002 (one year anniversary of 9/11) I was flying to Florida, and the CFO of Airtran came to the gate and made a PA announcement, introducing himself, acknowledging the increased security, and thanking us for flying on an orange alert day ... class ... everyone at the gate applauded. I can't imagine any of the Delta hotshots doing that.

Delta sucks. I live in an area served by Delta and USAirways, so in order to go to a bigger international airport, you have to go Atlanta to NY, or Charlotte to NY. I normally buy my tickets through Expedia, and choose the lower price fares, since I'm self-employed and nobody is paying my bills but me.

I fly to NY, the West Coast or Europe a few times a year, and I've been flying Delta regularly, even though changing in Atlanta was miserable because the connecting flight to my city (Gainesville) is almost always either (a) late or (b) cancelled.

Well, a few months ago Delta had the nerve to send me a letter telling me that unless I paid more for my tickets, they were going to "reduce" my Medallion benefits! You have to realize that the "benefits" are practically non-existent anyway, consisting of being able to board earlier and eventually accumulating enough miles for a ticket to someplace or another.

Result of the insulting letter: I went to Spain a couple of weeks ago, and drove to Jacksonville and flew Continental. I'm going to California next month and I wouldn't dream of flying Delta. I'm willing to drive an hour and a half to another city just to avoid Delta.

I recall one time coming back from a deployment to Germany. Our Marine Air Group was tired, P.O.'d and more than a little unhappy with the Major who had made the travel arrangements. We were scheduled to fly out LATE that day (we arrived at Norfolk EARLY in the day) but Delta bent over backwards to get a couple hundred people on the next flights out to the west coast. Sad that they have gone so far downhill since that time!

I also had a fondness for Delta, going back to the 50s when it was Delta-C&S, and when they had a big presence in Memphis. For many years they had an outstanding safety record, but thats ancient history.

I used AirTran for a multi-point trip a few years ago. I thought they were quite nice.
The only glitch was for my first flight from Memphis to Atlanta, the plane could not start due to a dead battery, hahaha. They had to wait for a new battery to be flown in from Florida....4 hour delay :(

Memphis is now ruled by NW/KLM, and it has been good for me.
I can take the KLM direct from Memphis to Amsterdam, and never have to see the nightmare airports like NY, Chicago, or Atlanta.