FlyerTalk Forums - DL Demand Declining Faster than Industry? (2025)

Just picking random dates is not particularly insightful as there can be considerable class inventory variability from day to day (Google Flights calendar searches are more useful for getting apples to apples comparisons). TYS-DEL roundtrip D1 Z fares start at around $6K which is not much more than DTW and ATL Z fares which start at around $5k. JFK-DEL is obviously going to be a much more competitive market than any of the other three.

that’s probably somewhat determinative.

for Q3/September yes….tons of high end leisure TATL for the month, I have every confidence September 2024 revenue will be high.

My question is more about October, which is when leisure dies down until Thanksgiving. We get a much better picture of business travel demand in these times.

for me crowdstrike destroyed the delta premium. They are now like any other airline. I’m wondering if they can maintain their premium In a competitive environment.

I agree with you on this. My husband and I have two trips coming up later in mid and late October, and on one trip we upgraded 4/4 segments via FCM offers and the other 3/4 segments via FCM (one segment still has no offer). Checking the seat maps indicates F is almost full on every flight. Only 1/8 segments would I estimate as of now would have a good chance of an upgrade clearing. Y is so-so, but with BE fares it’s hard to judge a seatmap. So I’d agree DL is still performing well, at least in premium cabins. (And I’m guilty of contributing to that with the FCM offers being a bit lower than what I usually see, and took advantage of them being on DL Amex Companion Cert tickets that couldn’t have been booked in F to begin with).

I have family that complain more about DL than they used to, but still find themselves booking them, especially for F.

Also purely anecdotal my husband had a Dec trip on AA he ended up refunding due to schedule changes and rebooked on DL.

I think we are seeing an overall seasonal (expected) decline in October. But too soon to say DL has been negatively impacted.

October has become a heavy travel month for TATL these days as the European travel season has spread into the fall (weather is still decent and you don’t have the crazy summer crowds so lots of Americans have pushed their European travel into Sept/Oct). Also October sees fall school holidays in many European countries so you also get heavy Europe-originating traffic.

As for the Crowdstrike incident, it’s quite telling that Delta is still #2 for on time performance year-to-date in the DOT reports even after including the Crowdstrike effect. Anecdotally, all of my dozen Delta flights in September were either on time or early.

The Delta “premium” is under far more threat from lazy FAs than crowdstrike.

Never experienced as many completely smooth flights that required fastened seat belts than this year. When you do get service, the FAs are unfamiliar with what they’re serving.

The poor service quality has been there since covid, but these phantom “turbulent” flights are getting out of hand. Yes, I know the pilots control it.

Whether or not your complaints are valid, the question posed in this thread was whether Delta was seeing a greater drop in demand compared to other airlines. There is no indication that the issues you perceive have any such impact, even if people complain about it in multiple threads on Flyertalk. Few people adjust their travel plans based on the possibility their biscoff may be delayed or the FA may be "unfamiliar with what they're serving"

When it comes to people choosing (or not choosing) DL versus other carriers, I think it comes down to if they have had a negative experience (or multiple) with the company and how much it impacted them.

If a non-frequent traveler was caught up in the DL Crowdstrike fiasco, they might intentionally book elsewhere next time based on a poor recovery experience. Then again, these type of travelers will likely ultimately vote with their wallets and for the right price would endure it all over again.

For those who fly DL enough to see how DL’s onboard service standards have declined, they will likely be tempted to book elsewhere to see if the grass is greener.

Point being, there’s multiple factors at play based on the type of passenger and their reasons for travel. I think the next earnings report on October 10 will show if any of the above truly has had an impact.

My point is that things that people on Flyertalk love to complain about do not actually have a significant impact on demand. Indeed, even the people who complain about delayed vodka sodas seem to continue to fly Delta. Those complaints are not new and to think that suddenly that will have an impact on demand in the last quarter lacks logical support.

​​​​​​https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-air-lines-skymiles/2126386-delta-should-embarrassed-their-current-service-offering.html

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-air-lines-skymiles/2137464-no-service-first-class-entire-flight-3.html

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-air-lines-skymiles/2050871-can-anyone-explain-why-dl-fais-so-lazy-moody.html

These complaints about "lazy" Flight Attendants and unsatisfactory service are not new. They have not caused a decrease in demand, even amongst the people complaining.

Regarding paying a premium... there are lots of reasons people do this. It's incredibly subjective and can relate to love for a brand as a whole, living in a place that has "great service" from the airline, experience with the employees, the frequent flyer program... basically anything. I've never been "in love" with Delta, or any airline, so have a very different perspective than your first post in this thread. I view my relationship with DL through a strongly transactional lens.

When you say "Crowdstrike destroyed the Delta premium," I'm a bit perplexed. Yeah, it sucked... and I was very in the thick of it as a passenger. However, all of the other airlines have had similar issues over the past handful of years. No airline is immune from a meltdown. No airline has handled their meltdown super well (otherwise it wouldn't have been a meltdown).

At the end of the day, why do you buy a ticket on the flight you do? Time of the flight? Price? Loyalty to the frequent flyer program? The reality is most people who aren't hub captive should buy tickets on whatever makes the most sense to them, be it price or flight times. Free upgrades are infrequent and the major airlines are virtually indistinguishable in the product they provide. Their FF programs are essentially rebate programs now with miles that don't expire. IMHO, the sweet spot for a non-hub captive to be loyal to any airline is if you aren't buying F and achieve PLT, or higher, status.

Load alone is not necessarily an indicator of economic performance.

Almost every differential in a domestic First market I have seen has fallen dramatically this year, often by more than 50%. Such massive discounting will push up loads.

Nonstop options are 99% of my consideration.