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Delta was the first carrier to implement the hub and spoke system back in the day. Hence the mammoth Atlanta hub. Couple with Delta IT management. This ranking shows Delta ranked as #1 - most on-time carrier at 84%
I booked with Southwest for the holidays on a roundtrip down to Florida. Took my arrival flight with no problems. They kept cancelling and rebooking my return flight about 4 times and then never rescheduled my return flight. Delta was the only airline remaining with any seat availability that was not first class back to ATL. It was my first time flying with them.
What I liked about Delta (factor in I booked the cheapest seat possible, a middle main cabin seat):
- Every seat had a charging station and free TV/movies. You could also listen to Spotify or track where your flight was. It was nice that every seat had a screen on the back, I get motion sick VERY easily and because of it I cannot look down while I am in moving vehicles for long periods of time so I always book a window. So because I had TV to watch, I did not get motion sick.
- Staff was friendly and professional
- Onboarding was a breeze with no barriers or traffic jams. Offboarding also somehow felt faster or quicker than Southwest once they opened the door at the gate, not sure why.
- Despite being towards the latter of people to board, I was still able to get a suitcase in the storage bins.
- I had to check in a bag - this process was smooth at the check-in desk
- Snack options were good
- As far as the route to/from SRQ - Delta offers the best availability in terms of multiple flights and time slots, probably because Atlanta is a Delta hub
- When I landed in ATL, the Delta app notified me exactly when my checked bag with bag # was coming down the baggage carousel and at what carousel. This is an amazing feature because the ATL baggage claim is not a walk in the park, and I have not seen another airline do this. I got this notification on my phone when I was in the restroom so I was very lucky that I was able to track down the baggage carousel and grab my suitcase. In fact it appeared about five seconds after getting to the carousel so it was accurate - great!
- I landed in Concourse B, which appeared (I did not spend a lot of time in this Concourse it was after 9 pm and I had to work the next morning I was just trying to get home) to have better restaurant offerings than Concourse C.
What I did not like about Delta:
- Paying an additional $30 on checked baggage (this probably wouldn't have bugged me if my ticket was cheaper)
- Only water or coffee was offered
- My checked baggage (hardshell suitcase) was cracked and damaged upon arrival but it's hard to say if that was Delta or somewhere else on the chain.
- My one-way ticket, after taxes fees (not including checking baggage) for a less than 1 1/2 flight was $300+. I spent approx. $200 with Southwest with free baggage included for the ROUNDTRIP (both arrival and return). I realize I booked last minute given the Southwest meltdown but this is still expensive given the short length of the flight itself.
I don't think I'm flying Southwest ever again after this after being a loyal customer for many years and having a credit card with them. Now that I live here in Atlanta Delta is appealing due to the amount of options they have, especially down to SRQ my regular travel place and that's not a big airport. But I also regularly travel to BWI (might switch to PHL since BWI is always a painful experience for me) and in the future might make more regular trips to MSY, PHX and ORD. Though I might just drive to New Orleans instead of fly.
I am not the only person planning on no longer flying Southwest. If this is the case how will Atlanta benefit? Who would take over the vacuum at Concourse C?
Count yourself lucky you only paid $300 for a last minute trip on Delta. Length of flight is irrelevant—SAV is an expensive destination for example. Usually less than 7 days out delta will be $400 each way. Delta is particularly harsh on airfare in general, while Southwest normally prices its tickets to sell. Delta knows it can fill its planes with connecting passengers so it shoots for the moon on Atlanta’s nonstop flights. That’s the most annoying thing about Delta imo and why I still fly southwest a good amount.
Complain to Delta about the bag. You might get a refund or skymiles out of it.
Complain to southwest about the flight. They might reimburse the cost of the delta flight—this is up in the air.
Also, set up a skymiles account and apply the ticket credit retroactively.
Delta is pretty good on the seat back entertainment systems. It isn't 100% across their fleets, but it is fairly common. Most routes longer than 2 hours will have it nearly every time.
If you buy a ticket on their website there is a list of icons that show if the plane has things like, wifi, entertainment screens, etc.. It also shows you the plane type, so you can learn what to expect from the onboard experience.
The Atlanta airport, which of course works closely with Delta, overhauled the baggage distribution system in the last 10 years. Bags are delivered to the gates by an automated conveyor belt system and it is pretty fast and efficient. Delta is ultimately the one responsible if your bag is broken. I have always resisted hardshell bases, as the plastic is a thing brittle layer that I fear is too easy to break. Admittedly, I'm testing one hardshell right now for a specific purpose to test my assumptions. When it was first built Delta had a guarantee on how quickly they would get your bag at the carousel. I think they did away with that, but it is fairly fast.
What is overwhelming to most people is the number of luggage carousels we have, but also the amount of flights a single carousel serves. Because 2/3 of people on the flights are connecting, fewer bags come to the carousel from a single flight in Atlanta on Delta. So a single carousel could have 6 or 7 flights of luggage on it.
I agree with you on the checked bag fees. With the main 3 airlines, they are all doing it.
You can get 1 free checked bags with a $100 annual fee Delta credit cards for you and everyone on your reservation, so it is worth doing if you take 2 round-trip flights a year or travel with family members.
Their $250 annual fee credit card can be good for some people. It gives you 1 free round trip ticket for a companion for economy flights, so if you're getting the aforementioned card anyways and a roundtrip ticket for your significant other costs over $150 for a minimum of 1 flight a year, then it can save you some money. It is probably more useful for people traveling to the west coast.
If you get Silver status from flying frequently, the first bag is also free every time.
Just a heads up American Airlines is a viable option for trips to PHL as nonstop flights from Atlanta, in addition to Delta. United is a good viable option on he ATL to ORD route. I've flown those routes before.
For BWI and MSY you really want to fly on Delta. The other options are the ultra low cost carriers (Spirit/Frontier) and I only recommend that for younger budget travelers with little to no luggage. They really nickle and dime people to make sure they have the lowest listed fare.
I already shy away from Southwest. I do price compare to an extent, however. The problem with ATL is unless you're flying to another hub or one of the 15 largest cities in the country, the only nonstop flight option is Delta or a low-cost operation like Southwest. For this reason, I do check the cost of Southwest and sometimes a flight connection. Just to make sure Delta isn't overcharging too much to provide a nonstop flight. Sometimes a single connection on American or United can be far cheaper than a Delta non-stop. This isn't always the case, but I do check.
The fear I have always had with low cost carriers and I will use MSY as an example. My travel needs are time constrained. I always arrive at the airport 2 hours, because of this. I'm not one of those business travelers that learn to get every extra minute of sleep. This is how I make money, so I don't take the chances.
Southwest has 2 daily flights to MSY and only 1 is in the morning and 1 is in the evening. Delta runs 7-8 flights and can make adjustments to demand. If something happens with 1 flight or there are travel issues, it is easier for me to get onto another flight that will still get me there on time. This is a large reason I still prefer the big carriers. Just simple plain redundancy.
Drink service depends on the flight length. 251-499 miles is an expedited service. That is the Coffee, Tea, and Water service.
Flights over 500 miles have the full service that adds Sodas, juices, and pay alcoholic drinks.
I could be wrong about this part, but it doesn't seem to be a hard rule. Atlanta happens to be 400-600 miles from everything. We're in the middle, which is why it is such a big hub. I feel like I often get full drink service when the flight is sometimes closely under 500 miles.
I have also seen expedited service when there is weather and turbulence on a route that is 600 miles and they know they are time limited for service on rare occasions.
Delta made some changes to their staffing 8-10 years back. I'm not sure what they did exactly, but the customer service is usually better than American or United. People got friendlier and the uniforms came off as better dressed and slightly trendier. This is not always the case, admittedly. As a whole, I notice a difference. Delta is usually doing better, IMO.
Will Atlanta benefit from Southwest Airlines' meltdown? They cut a lot of Air Tran flights after the merger, and they also have a lot of gate capacity at ATL on Concourse C to expand.
One thing that concerned me about Southwest is how they immediately removed the international flights from ATL and moved them to their other "focus" cities.
That is when I felt like they gave up on ATL as any type of a small air hub.
Those are flights that usually needs some connections to maintain as a daily flight on and off peak service during the year.
It's gave me a sour opinion of Southwest how much they removed service from ATL. I had a rather positive opinion of AirTran.
One thing about Southwest is they don’t seem to like sharing hub airports with other carriers. They typically go for the smaller airport in big markets and then they can get some pricing power over city pairs that aren’t served by anyone else. Examples DAL, HOU, MDW, OAK, BWI. MCO is a grey area, as is BNA (if those constitute hubs).
The only hub airports they share with another carrier’s hub operation are DEN, PHX, and ATL (if you count us as a hub!). But in the case of ATL I think it’s clear they prefer to drive more business over hubs they have more control over, and mainly keep the ATL operation up to prevent the emergence of a big hub by Spirit and Frontier (which has sorta happened anyways).
I’m generally sorta negative about southwest but recommend people without a Delta card book them for domestic trips because of the no baggage fees and you get a decent shot at a non-middle seat, which is more than I can say of Delta.
While Southwest has (sort of) hubs (e.g. Houston Hobby, Denver, etc.), their routes are often point-to-point. I remember being on one flight that continued on across the country with four additional hops. I would definitely not call them a "hub and spoke carrier" which I believe is part of their problem. When one link in the chain breaks, all the other links are affected. Hub and spoke has its drawbacks, but I believe (with no evidence to back it up) that the overall reliability is much higher.
I do like these things on Southwest: (1) two free bags (2) you can generally get an aisle or window seat fairly easily (3) no change fees (others now do this). I do have a lot of points with them. I probably will not dump them completely but I will be more cautious. They need a good PR firm now that's for sure.
We just dropped off my niece for a Southwest flight this evening. We arrived an hour early just in case they still had a back log of fliers trying to get home from all their cancellations.
Reality was the Southwest counter was a ghost town. They even dropped the cost of her flight for last minute fliers. There had to have been a large number of people that changed their ticket or cancelled their reservation from her original flight.
Frontier Airlines in 2023 plans to increase capacity on selected markets, with the assignment of A321neo aircraft. As of 01JAN23, planned A321 network additions as follow. Note the airline’s schedule is currently updated until mid-August 2023 inclusive.
240-seater Airbus A321neo
Atlanta – Cancun 17FEB23 – 07MAR23 A321neo operates every 4 days
Atlanta – Dallas/Ft. Worth 08MAR23 – 19APR23 1 daily
Atlanta – Hartford 08MAR23 – 19APR23 1 daily
Atlanta – Houston eff 21APR23 4 weekly
Atlanta – Orlando eff 17FEB23 6 weekly (7 from 25FEB23, except 4 weekly 08MAR23 – 19APR23)
Atlanta – Philadelphia 16FEB23 – 06MAR23 A321neo operates every 4 days
Atlanta – San Juan eff 20APR23 1 daily
Atlanta – Tampa 08MAR23 – 19APR23 1 daily
Frontier is becoming what Southwest was supposed to be in Atlanta.
I don't think any of these are new routes, but upgrading something like San Juan to a larger aircraft daily is a positive sign that they're having success with this new expansion.
I booked with Southwest for the holidays on a roundtrip down to Florida. Took my arrival flight with no problems. They kept cancelling and rebooking my return flight about 4 times and then never rescheduled my return flight. Delta was the only airline remaining with any seat availability that was not first class back to ATL. It was my first time flying with them.
What I liked about Delta (factor in I booked the cheapest seat possible, a middle main cabin seat):
- Every seat had a charging station and free TV/movies. You could also listen to Spotify or track where your flight was. It was nice that every seat had a screen on the back, I get motion sick VERY easily and because of it I cannot look down while I am in moving vehicles for long periods of time so I always book a window. So because I had TV to watch, I did not get motion sick.
- Staff was friendly and professional
- Onboarding was a breeze with no barriers or traffic jams. Offboarding also somehow felt faster or quicker than Southwest once they opened the door at the gate, not sure why.
- Despite being towards the latter of people to board, I was still able to get a suitcase in the storage bins.
- I had to check in a bag - this process was smooth at the check-in desk
- Snack options were good
- As far as the route to/from SRQ - Delta offers the best availability in terms of multiple flights and time slots, probably because Atlanta is a Delta hub
- When I landed in ATL, the Delta app notified me exactly when my checked bag with bag # was coming down the baggage carousel and at what carousel. This is an amazing feature because the ATL baggage claim is not a walk in the park, and I have not seen another airline do this. I got this notification on my phone when I was in the restroom so I was very lucky that I was able to track down the baggage carousel and grab my suitcase. In fact it appeared about five seconds after getting to the carousel so it was accurate - great!
- I landed in Concourse B, which appeared (I did not spend a lot of time in this Concourse it was after 9 pm and I had to work the next morning I was just trying to get home) to have better restaurant offerings than Concourse C.
What I did not like about Delta:
- Paying an additional $30 on checked baggage (this probably wouldn't have bugged me if my ticket was cheaper)
- Only water or coffee was offered
- My checked baggage (hardshell suitcase) was cracked and damaged upon arrival but it's hard to say if that was Delta or somewhere else on the chain.
- My one-way ticket, after taxes fees (not including checking baggage) for a less than 1 1/2 flight was $300+. I spent approx. $200 with Southwest with free baggage included for the ROUNDTRIP (both arrival and return). I realize I booked last minute given the Southwest meltdown but this is still expensive given the short length of the flight itself.
I don't think I'm flying Southwest ever again after this after being a loyal customer for many years and having a credit card with them. Now that I live here in Atlanta Delta is appealing due to the amount of options they have, especially down to SRQ my regular travel place and that's not a big airport. But I also regularly travel to BWI (might switch to PHL since BWI is always a painful experience for me) and in the future might make more regular trips to MSY, PHX and ORD. Though I might just drive to New Orleans instead of fly.
I am not the only person planning on no longer flying Southwest. If this is the case how will Atlanta benefit? Who would take over the vacuum at Concourse C?
The only carrier I can think of is United Airlines if Southwest keeps eliminating Atlanta routes and gates on Concourse C. I guess we can see what United do with those extra gates they have on Concourse T, but United Airlines lacks a strong Southeast Hub.
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