Last summer we introduced Economy Comfort on our international flights and it’s proven to be a huge hit with all of you! Since then we’ve received a ton of feedback and many of you have asked us ‘when will you make this available on the rest of your flights?’ Well today we’re happy to share that beginning in late spring for travel next summer, you can select Economy Comfort on more than 800 additional planes!
The product will be offered on domestic and short-haul international flights onboard all of our domestic 767, 757, 737, MD88, MD90, A320, A319, DC9 and all two-class regional jets including the CRJ900, CRJ700, E170 and E175 aircraft. Here’s what the seats will offer:
- 34+ inches of pitch. This means even more legroom!
- Priority Boarding. Now you can have just a little extra time to stow your carry-on and relax as you travel to your destination.
So how does it work? Once you have your Economy ticket purchased, you can choose an Economy Comfort seat via delta.com, our self-service kiosks or Delta reservations for an additional fee of $19-$99 one-way including Alaska, Hawaii, and short-haul international flights. Or, if you purchased a full-fare Economy class ticket, you’ll get complimentary access to the new seats.
Just like our long-haul international Economy Comfort option, if you’re a SkyMiles Medallion member you’ll receive added benefits. Here’s the breakdown:
- Diamond/Platinum/Gold: Complimentary access at time of booking
- Silver Medallion: 50% discount at the time of purchase or free access at check-in
We hope you like the expanded Economy Comfort product and we’d love to hear your thoughts. What flight are you booking next summer that might include an itinerary with an EC seat?
Chris B.
Sr. Product Manager
Customer Experience Planning & Development
October 20th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Are you actually going to redoing aircraft to include these rows at the front of planes or are you basically just taking existing exit rows and bulkheads and calling them Economy Comfort? If so, you really shouldn’t be charging Silver Medallion members for something they already get for free. Are there any premium seats for Medallion members that won’t be available for anyone else to buy?
October 20th, 2011 at 10:57 am
Chris,
It’s a nice token effort and certainly appreciated. But I hope you and your peers understand that Delta, along with the other carriers, have steadily taken out all the pleasure and positive experience of flying over the past few years. That is what has commoditized the airline industry to a great extent. Within the cabin, there is absolutely no difference between the airlines and nobody, including Delta, seems to really care about keeping their customers happy and providing them a good experience. Believe me, I know the number one priority is safety and Delta, like all carriers, does a good job there. But if you are really serious about differentiating yourselves and enhancing the customer experience, you need to go way beyond an extra inch or two of pitch in economy seats. Coach is still a cattle car, nothing more than a glorified bus. If you can change that, and get closer to the way it used to be in the 70′s/80′s pre-regulation, then you’ll see loyalty grow and with it the willingness to pay higher prices.
DWH
October 20th, 2011 at 11:17 am
What about Alaska Airlines MVP Gold 75Ks? Will it be free for us as well as part of the marketing agreement between both airlines?
October 20th, 2011 at 11:40 am
This is great news. Why not offer it at point of purchase though, instead of making the passenger go back and buy it later? Is it to avoid competition with first class sales at point of purchase?
October 20th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Great idea Chris! The product sells itself and is a true win for everyone. Such great news
October 20th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Chris,
This is a great product enhancement that I think SkyMiles Medallion
Members and regular customers will really appreciate. Will movies be
free for those customers seated in Economy Comfort as well.
Another product enhancement I would like to see would be free movies in coach on JFK-LAX/SFO since those planes are operated my 75E and do not offer live television. This could be an added selling feature that the customers would really appreciate.
Ryan
October 20th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
So, this sounds great on the surface. But once again, Delta continues to offer premium products that focus on their Diamond/Platinum/Gold customers, and further subordinates Silvers. As a Million Miler, this continues to annoy the daylights out of me – while I watch the value of 25 years’ brand loyalty continue to erode. What really is pitiful is that United offers its Million Milers the equivalent of Gold status for life.
And one question for Delta. So, as a Silver, I book a seat and pay the fee for the Economy Comfort seat, then get upgraded either before check-in or at the gate. Do I get a refund for the Economy Comfort seat fee that somebody else will be sitting in, now ? This is obviously: 1) not well thought out, 2) needs to be addressed immediately for your Silver members; 3) going to further alienate the Silver tier which is almost being rendered useless between Sky Priority, the overall benefits suite, and now this.
And so I repeat. Delta needs to compete with United’s MileagePlus program and the lifetime status it affords its longest-term loyal customers. After 16 months of dialogue with DL about this issue, I think I may be done. DL needs to compete with United, or it may very well lose my business to them.
October 20th, 2011 at 11:16 pm
Will you offer an annual pass like an airline not to be mentioned here does?
October 21st, 2011 at 11:42 am
You can totally remove my previous post since your moderators obviously are not going to publish it. Seeing it sitting here unpublished is just making me even angrier with Delta right now !
October 21st, 2011 at 2:37 pm
This is so awesome and the Economy comfort seat is offered. You are definitely taking your customers needs into consideration.
October 21st, 2011 at 3:31 pm
This is really, really nice. Delta has done a great job improving the quality of service available to its most frequent flyers and those willing to pay a bit extra for better service. As a Diamond Elite member, I definitely welcome this improvement to service on aircraft with two-class service. Although I usually buy business class for international flights, I buy domestic coach tickets and, unfortunately, out of MSN even Diamond members don’t always get upgraded-especially if traveling with a non-Diamond member. Well done, Delta.
Unfortunately, this improvement highlights a downgrade that has occurred in another area. In announcing this improvement (and it is a BIG improvement), Delta’s CEO said: “Our goal is to make sure premium customers are sitting in premium seats,” said Richard Anderson, Delta’s chief executive officer. “Delta already offers more First Class seats than any other U.S. airline and by expanding Economy Comfort we’ll offer customers even more opportunities to select a premium seat.”
This is a great goal for a CEO. Please consider, however, that for many of us there is another change that has been made by Delta that has resulted in the loss of availability of premium seats and service and also a very significant decrease in the quality of the non-premium seats and service available to a subset of customers. This reduction in service quality is a result of Delta’s expanded use of small, single class regional jets on routes that previously were served by a combination of mainline aircraft and larger (two-class) regional jets.
Examples of the above reduced service for MSN:
1. Of 8 daily MSN-DTW flights, 6 are on CRJ 100s with one-class service and small, tight seats with limited pitch.
2. All 3 flights MSN-ATL are on CRJ 100s
The new economy comfort for domestic routes is truly a nice service improvement but please keep in mind that some of us have seen a significant decline in service quality on the majority of our flights. Thanks for listening.
October 21st, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Despite others’ complaints, I think this a great idea and Delta should be lauded for it!
Quick question: Does the introduction of Economy Comfort mean that some First Class seats are going bye-bye on some planes?
October 22nd, 2011 at 9:36 am
So what I’m seeing here is yet another benefit for Gold, Platinum and Diamond members and another kick in the shins to Silver Medallion members. While this is fantastic for the aforementioned, for the silver, you’ve basically added yet another level of making us feel like our loyalty is pointless. At this point, just get rid of Silver medallion; it’d save you and us a lot of headache.
Also, I’m curious as to the point dteetzen raised… are you just taking the bulkhead and exit row seats and re-purposing them to sell them and adding a few more rows with extra leg room in and taking away the seats silver members used to be able to get for free?
I hope you start doing something with this and adjust it to make those silver medallion members are who are starting to wonder why they are loyal and are feeling a bit under-appreciated feel appreciated again.
Best,
Ryan
October 23rd, 2011 at 8:52 pm
What does 34+ mean? How much can it vary? I’m used to having 38 inches with another domestic carrier that offers a similar upgrade.
I am looking forward to trying this out for my first time returning from London on 11/5 on a 767-400.
October 29th, 2011 at 9:30 am
How wonderful to provide a couple inches of extra leg room and free beer and wine on international routes where the same beer and wine and exit / bulkhead rows are already provided at no charge! Out of curiosity, I purchased an EC seat on a recent trip to NRT thinking it would be an upgrade from the rather uncomfortable non upgradable Gold Medallion level economy seats for the discounted fee of $60. What a disappointment from the standpoint of leg room and the service of the same “squeeze bottle” wine served to customers seated in regular economy seats! This was my first and my last purchase of an EC seat when traveling internationally! I’ll stick with a no up charge exit row seat albeit further back in the economy section!
October 31st, 2011 at 8:54 am
Can’t wait to see the new seating. As a Gold Medallion, it sure will be nice not to have to only book an exit row seat now for increased leg room. Will there be any difference in the seat itself vs. other coach seats…ie more padding like first class, better head rests? I agree with the other comments on being a silver medallion though. There appears to be a regression in benefits and I think it will definetely hurt Delta in future bookings or maybe even a change over to a different loyalty program. Think about it, especially if I am a 40k miles silver, I would not be too happy. Also, for me, I plan on retiring in a few years and the leisure travel I will do will afford me silver at best. I may decide to go shopping at that time for a new loyalty carrier.
Thanks for listening!
November 9th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Thanks, banni and Jim, for agreeing with my point of view. As a Million Miler who accrued those miles through the course of 18 years of loyalty – and during Project 7.5 and bankruptcy – I’m disturbed about how the Silver benefits suite continues to erode. Do the math … Million/50 = 20 Years of Gold Status. I wish somebody in the marketing department would finally wake up … not only for the annual Silvers whose value is being diminished, but for the Million Milers whose program now pales in comparison to a VERY major competitor – United.
November 22nd, 2011 at 6:10 pm
I agreee with PHLclippermedallion and the other Silver Medallions who feel like Delta has abandoned them. As a Million Miler, I too am disappointed in how Delta seems to have cast us aside. As PHLclippermedallion mentions, United gives lifetime GOLD status to its Million Miliers. Chris, I know this isn’t your area, but could you pass these comments on to Jeff Robertson, who posted a blog in April 2010 and asked for comments on the changes to the loyalty program, and then never responded to any of them. Here’s hoping that Delta will recognize LONG TERM loyalty and match United’s Gold status for its million milers. Thanks.
December 20th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
I just flew Economy Comfort yesterday on an almost 10 hour flight from CDG to ATL. Let me start by saying that Delta’s Economy Comfort has nothing to do w/ similar products offered by other airlines. I am gold w/ Delta but have been platinum for the past few yrs. Those seats are offered at a discounted rate for Gold elites, which according to the site should be $40 but instead the airport made me pay 40Euros!!! The seats are a great great disappointment. And everything else is below average. The entertainment on board the A330 is really old technology w/ very limited only-movies option. I fly other airlines and lately Delta has been going steady and fast in the direction of let us charge for anything by renaming it and who cares about our loyal customers!!! Normal seats which were available to frequent flyer such as Gold, are now offered for a premium. Look at the Delta Skyclub, they introduced the “Luxury bar”…same thing here, it’s a way of saying you have to pay for what we used to offer our ffs. My wife and I plan on traveling every 6 months overseas to see countries which we have not visited before, I am definitely not taking delta from now on especially on Internationale routes. Looks like delta desperately needs a change in its top mgmt.
January 23rd, 2012 at 11:38 am
I just took a flight from Atlanta to Denver last Friday booked by my company. I have since instructed our travel agent to never use Delta again. The flight from Puerto Rico was great and I had plenty of leg room (I’m 6’3″) as I choose a seat in the front of economy as I did for my flight to Denver. However, on that flight, my knee’s were touching the seat in front of me. Even our key accounts manager who is almost a foot shorter than me, could not get comfortable in her seat. It’s Monday and I am still having back spasms. I understand the need to produce revenue, but not at the expense of your customers.
March 26th, 2012 at 4:49 pm
Any updates on the status of the flat bed installation for the A330-200′s?