Kempner: Why Delta gets a big fat pass for its screw up

Now, it’s more like the machine that time forgot.

How quickly the mighty fall, and how little we can do about it.

Let’s call it like it is: Delta was a bonehead and hundreds of thousands of its customers paid the price with days of mass flight cancellations and delays.

Kudos to Delta CEO Ed Bastian for eventually and repeatedly apologizing. But to hear his explanation, it sounds like the airline forgot to plug some of its computer servers into backup power.

At one of the nation’s biggest airlines.

At a company that operates in a very dicey world and, we assumed, has contingencies on top of contingencies.

And yet, Delta will get a pass for the hard-to-believe screw up.

Frustrated consumers like to talk a good game. People tell me that when they get bad service they’ve dumped cell phone providers and insurance companies, ditched restaurants and car mechanics.

But it’s hard to fire Delta in Atlanta. We pay a price for our loyalty.

For one thing, the customers Delta cares most about – those who fly a lot for business, sit in the big, soft seats at the front and don’t focus on prices – wear the airline’s golden handcuffs.

They are Diamond-Platinum-Sparkly-OohLaLa Medallion folks in a frequent flyer program designed to pamper them, keep them spending more and make it uncomfortable to leave. That’s how loyalty programs work in the travel industry.

Delta, I’m told, does a good job of making its most valuable customers feel loved. (I wouldn’t know. I’m a cheapo who shops by price, flips through virtually every airline and considers my personal comfort to be a sign of weakness.)

Delta’s special customers automatically get early boarding and special dibs on upgraded seating.

“Those little things make a big difference when you are traveling every week,” said David Mitchell, who flies nearly that often as a senior vice president with corporate travel management firm BCD Travel.

Regular flyers could switch to another carrier’s program and likely get offered comparable loyalty status, Mitchell said. (Of course, the miles or points they built up will still be back at the first carrier.)

But as Atlanta's hometown airline, Delta controls nearly three-quarters of the traffic at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Which makes the Atlanta one of the most dominated airport markets in the nation.

“You’re alternatives are what? Fly Southwest? Well they just had a meltdown three weeks before,” said Robert Mann, a former American Airlines executive who is now a consultant in the industry.

“Every carrier, some day, will fail you,” Mann said.

What’s also important to consider is how an airline has served you over time, he told me. In the last couple years, Delta has been among the most reliable airlines.

Mitchell, of BCD Travel, told me he got caught up in the Delta meltdown when he missed part of a business meeting because of a flight delay from Atlanta to Miami.

A former Delta employee who spent time as a gate agent, Mitchell said he’s probably more patient than most travelers. He was, though, frustrated by delays in getting updated travel information.

He’s since received several apology emails from Delta and surveys about his recent travel. The airline also awarded him a healthy dose of Medallion miles, apparently because of his premium status.

(That’s in addition to the wimpy $200 travel voucher Delta said it will give all customers whose flights were cancelled or delayed by more than three hours. Which means customers will have to fly Delta again to get the benefit.)

Can you feel the golden handcuffs tightening?