Mai Perso - Travel adventures

Prelude to Airlines | June 3, 2012

With airline consolidation in full swing, we have harder time nowadays to find one we like. We used to travel with KLM when the main route was San Francisco or Portland – Amsterdam.
After a couple of terrible experiences with United, we swore we will never fly them again and honed in on Continental. Unfortunately, when United took Continental over, they managed to kill the Continental spirit and turned them into a United bunch of unfriendly lousy service providers and miserable amenities airline.
American Airlines, which we used recently, had a feel of well, a bankrupt company. It was somewhere between sad and depressing, which can be maybe good for a movie night, not a travel experience.
Delta started popping up on our favorite routs both to Europe, due to the Northwest merger, as well as South America.
On the trip to Cuba, the combination of miles and unused old tickets, landed us with Delta. We had a super helpful agent on the phone, who helped us plan the flights. We got a marvelous service on the planes, from smiling and personable Delta employees, and our biggest surprise was the food. It was served on modern trays and was very good for an American airline. If it wasn’t for the fact that most planes we flew, five out of six, were old or very old, I would have said that Delta measures up to European and Asian airlines. Which is a huge compliment in my book.
Looks like the merger of Delta and Northwest and the increasing competition, has brought fresh energy to Delta’s management and employees. It was just a great experience.
We will be definitely seeking a Delta route on our next trip, based on the service we got this time around. Maybe someday soon, the larger US airlines will manage to get it right and compete with smaller and foreign carriers based on service excellence. What a concept…

Minneapolis airport, Delta Sky Lounge.