Following up on its years of frequent flyer innovations, such as getting rid of frequent flyer charts that let consumers know how many miles a frequent flyer redemption will cost, Delta announced today the launch of its new “mystery fare” program.
“Our marketing research shows that customers love not knowing how much they’re going to pay for stuff, so we figured, why limit this to our award-winning frequent flyer program? Why not share the love with all of our customers?” said Delta Executive Vice President Walter Kowalski.
Instead of seeing actual dollar amounts, customers buying tickets on Delta’s revamped website will see a whole bunch of question marks. Once the ticket purchase is complete the customer will learn how much it cost. Addtionally, all fares are now non-refundable.
“Was I upset upon learning I’d be paying $783 for ATL-JFK even though I purchased two months out? Sure,” said Alpharetta, GA resident Edna McElroy. “But Delta’s new mystery fares are so much fun I can’t wait to see how much I pay next!”
What’s next for Delta? Kowalski said the company’s next project is to remove the destination from the list of customer options. Customers will instead fly to a location of Delta’s choosing. “We know our customers, we love our customers, and we know the customers are going to love this!” said Kowalski.
Nicely done. And it meshes nicely with the experience I had on the phone with a customer “service” supervisor last week. I was trying to, as was possible just last fall, upgrade mileage tickets with cash (so as to collect back fees from Husband’s and my premium cards). No dice. I could, if I wanted to, pay double the amount I’d paid the night before for main cabin seats, in order to sit in the front of the main cabin.
I pointed out that there were ZERO additional seats sold in the 24 hours since I’d booked our seats and chose our seat assignments. I was told, flat out “This is what’s available today.”
When I suggested that Delta’s customer service had deteriorated greatly, I was also told that, if that was my belief, maybe I should terminate my relationship with Delta. Hmmm. Maybe I should.
Wow, that’s impressively brash from Delta, Micki
Delta is thinking honey badger
I kind of thought so, too, Trevor.
Even three years ago, Delta customer service seemed to be done by actual human beings who tried their best to be helpful. If this guy is a supervisor, it’s clear why the CSRs are such jerks.
Would somebody PLEASE buy out Delta?
Maybe Delta could start the next round of Enhancements with mystery departure times. “Think you love ATL now? You’ll love it even more in 11 hours!”
Great post. Thanks for the laugh.