September 27, 2011
Detroit Free Press
Letter to the editor-
Delta is not only taking advantage of business travelers to Europe and Asia. Delta’s hub premium applies to domestic flights, as well. Where Detroit is the hub and no other carrier –let alone low cost–flies non stop to a city in the U.S. fliers for any reason will feel the pain.
I fly my child from Detroit to Boston every month and have for the past twelve years. First Northwest and now Delta, remain the only airline carrier to fly non-stop to Boston. We have always paid a higher fare due to the one-stop flying shop, but how does Delta explain the dramatic increase in fares since acquiring Northwest? They don’t have to.
Try calling Delta Corporate in Atlanta and getting a real person, director or decision-maker to answer the phone or accept a call. You won’t. All calls to Delta corporate are rerouted to their reservation number. Trust me. I am tenacious as a pit bull and have tried.
Delta reflects the worst of what cold-hearted Corporate America has become over the past twenty five years.
There is no “mystery” to Delta airfares. Whoever these corporate bean-counters are, perched high in their phone-less tower in Atlanta, they are coldly and calculatingly creating airfares based upon the power of having Detroit as a hub and knowing exactly which cities, states and countries have little to zero competition.
I could pay virtually 1/3 to 1/2 the cost in airfare flying my child for medical to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver and every other city where carriers compete for travelers. I pay for an extra day in a hotel because the airfare savings Delta offers with a Saturday night stay is less than flying on a Sunday.
I would say shame on Delta for taking advantage of Michiganders held hostage be an airline carrier in a hub city but clearly no one is listening.
Marcie Lipsitt