Hampton Inn Cary, NC (RBC)

"Formal" towels in the bath area:

DELTA sent me a survey asking about my most recent flight delay ...

Under Comments, I added something similar to the following:

On Monday, 25 July 2011, my 1552 CT flight from BTR to ATL, DL 4983, was delayed till 1830 CT. I found this out from the Departure Display at BTR (my 'notification' of the change in my itinerary from DELTA). I called DELTA and was put on standby for a flight to MEM connecting on to RDU.

The BTR gate agent tried to book me on a later flight to ATL but found the connecting flights to RDU were both oversold. He response was "Yuck!" I was able to board the flight to MEM, DL 5540, and then connected on to RDU arriving about an hour later than was my plan.

DELTA should stop using 'weather' as an excuse for flight delays. The overall DELTA schedule only works when the weather is perfect. DELTA as no slack, no cushion ... there are no allowances for anything to be delayed. One delay messes up the whole system. DELTA is trying to maximize revenue from its aircraft while risking non-service to its customers. It is somewhat like a restaurant that tries to save money by not having a roof installed. When it happens to rain, the restaurant blames the non-service on the 'weather' rather than their trying to make the most money by cutting costs.

-30-

Smiley Anders for July 26, 2011

Smiley Anders
Advocate columnist

Thought for the Day

From James R. Madden: “In this era of downsizing, shrinking budgets, deficit reduction and so on, we should keep in mind the following:

“If one really could always ‘do more with less,’ then one would eventually be able to ‘do everything with nothing.’ ”