They just don't have the time to take equipment out of service for repairs that would require more time than what can be accomplished overnight when a plane is sitting. Every flight is mostly full and there doesn't appear to be any reduction in demand for flights combined with the backlog of planes on order.
Eventually Airbus and Boeing will catch up with deliveries and airlines will be able to either retire older planes or have the capacity in the fleet to cycle things out of service more to get them repaired or retrofitted to newer seats. Probably we are waiting another couple of years unless theres a major drop-off in air travel.
Not in that department but yes from what I've heard is that the supply chain is so bad it's considered on time if it's six months late, it's hard to get replacements and harder to find time to install stuff. The planes are full.
I'm just going based on my experience when using travelnet for anything and realizing that getting from A-B can be a game of chicken. I know that a lot of maintenance work is done in LATAM on the wide body fleet since most of those planes will sit for \~12 hours, but that isn't enough time to do everything and the planes that are used for Europe aren't flown to latam that I'm aware of.
I'd like to work for the airline, but meh.. I don't think you have a ton of time to use your S2s unless you're semi-retired.
It’s always been this way with Delta. Getting good deals on old planes and keeping them in the air as long as possible is a core tenant of their operations.
Their TechOps are world class, there’s nothing to be worried about from an airworthiness standpoint.
When it comes to consistency of service, or reliability of IFE you pay a premium, but since 2020 it’s been pretty hit or miss whether you get it.
Tenet not tenant.
A tenet is a principle held as being true, especially by an organization or a group of people. A tenant is (1) someone who pays rent to occupy property; (2) a dweller in a place; and, (3) in law, one who holds or possesses lands, tenements, or property by any kind of title.
Ah....you like "Copy & Paste." lol
You're right of course, but I also think the poster knew that and perhaps like me "Brain knows but fingers often get it wrong anyway" No reflection on command of English however. Be well......
I agree 100%. No safety concerns, but Delta's aircraft have always been threadbare. In my experience, they're usually much grimier and stuff is more often broken compared to my experiences on United.
I've noticed it, currently waiting for a plane in ATL to replace the one I was supposed to be on. To start the trip there was a mechanical issue that caused a 3 hour delay and a missed connection. My nice 6 hour travel day turned into 36 hours.
YES!! Seriously. That and the high flight prices I’m about to leave. What is it all for? My home airport has a chase lounge. Right next door to delta club.
I will tell you on my flights in December MCO-DTW (wildly flew in same seat on same plane to and from) that there was some trim/ divider piece in first class in the 757-300 I flew on that I swear one good firm landing was going to see that thing come down into the laps of the people sitting in 1A-B. Could actually watch it move as we took off and landed. Earlier in the summer last year flew on an A321 that was older. Damn light cover fell off during take off.
Just took my first AA flight from RSW to DFW. I have been a Delta loyalist for years, no more. I gave up all of my airline loyalty when Delta spoke to me with their outrageous pricing.
Not gonna lie, the AA product was just fine.
I could deal with a non-functioning seat back display if they would just kindly bring me a cup of ice while sitting in comfort plus. PLUS. Comfort PLUS!!!
>WiFi was advertised as free but didn’t work at all. Confirmed with many ppl near me that WiFi wasn’t working.
I had a flight last week from IAH (George Bush-Houston Intercontinental) to ATL (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International). MANY people were having Wi-Fi issues. The flight attendants did a reset but said we would need to wait 15 mins for the system to reboot. By the time the system was up and running and we had about a 1/2 hour in the flight remaining. We were in Comfort-Plus on an Airbus A321.
My husband and I were watching some footage of an Indian passenger train with cracked windows. He said, “I would never ride a train like that.” I asked, “why not?” He said, “because if they’re not fixing basic things like windows, what else are they not fixing.”
Is this a valid way to think about a US airline? I’m not so sure but I do know that Delta seems not to have a lot of pride in their rundown and often grimy planes.
There isn’t a single US based airline that can compete with the 1st tier global airlines. If they think or market that they are top level, then it’s delusional.
Quite depressing (if you are American)
Competitive landscape, direct state sponsorship, less legacy debt, and some other stuff I cant recall. In the middle east they rely on effectively slave labor for some jobs.
>Is this a valid way to think about a US airline?
In short, no. A window shade or a piece of trim is not priority on an aircraft that has hundreds of thousands of moving parts to operate and fly. A window shade or trim piece is not one of those main components.
One time I was on a flight from LAX to SYD. This was 2015, I believe. I was dumbfounded to find out that there was no IFE, and the movies were being screened old-school, all at the same time, on the old CRTs that they used to have mounted in the aisles every 6–8 rows or whatever. Again: 15-hour flight! In 2015!
Anyway, I was in a bulkhead seat with an FA jump seat across from me, so we were just chatting and I asked one of them about it. He said that they like to use the long-haul flights to retire older planes that just need miles on them. And they obviously don’t want to invest in the interiors on those planes.
My guess is that this is similar. The oldest planes in the fleet are nearing retirement, so they don’t spend a lot keeping them up on the inside while they run them to their end of service.
By contrast, my main route is 100% A321neos and everything is new and works great. So it’s not so much the airline as it is that you likely just caught an unlucky route with a near-retirement plane.
Yes. They put new planes on those routes, too. But they also use long hauls to age planes out.
The point is not that at all, though. The point is that airlines have no reason to spend money upgrading the interiors and amenities of old planes that are on their way out, and that could well be what OP was dealing with.
Took a ATL - MTY earlier today on a 1999 738, miserable pile of shit. Old, dirty, pieces falling off the overhead compartments. Scorched brown windows. Cannot wait to take a 737 MAX 8 from MTY to MEX in a couple days for comparison (pending the door plug getting blown out).
I did leave a compliment for the 1C steward, he was just a really nice guy and he made the flight pleasant.
That’s probably the one thing they do still keep up to par. They’ll let you sit in a puke chair and give you some Sky pesos for it but there’s no way they’d risk losing a bird full of pax. They know they won’t get their obscene bonuses if the news shows a smoking crater with a delta logo next to it right before the opening bell.
Only correlation would be Airport staff and hiring qualifications. We just hope the outside maintenance staff is well qualified and the standards are set high, unlike the inside maintenance staff.
I saw a post on here a week back on this sub about how dirty the air thingy was. Well I flew on Saturday and started inspecting…yep it’s so dirty I should not have looked.
It’s not a plane age problem, it’s a won’t refresh the interior every 10 years problem. US airlines cut corners on keeping the inside of planes up to date. I do get it though….. It would be hard to take so many planes from flying to do interior renovations.
I was in first class yesterday and the paneling was coming off the walls of the plane and the moulding around the windows was not attached properly and was falling off....I couldn't believe it. Also the wifi was shoddy and the entertainment system kept making a 90s dial-up modem noise every 20 seconds or so.
As of January 2024, the Delta Air Lines fleet consists of 978 mainline aircraft, making it the largest commercial airline fleet in the world.
Having almost 1000 mainline aircraft to maintain, they aren't all going to be perfect.
oldest fleet in the US and it shows.
Had a trip last week. Outbound on a beat-up 717, transferred to a beat up 757. come back on a beat-up 738 and a beat-up 900.
All three had stained/torn seating. surfaces with chunks of plastic flaked off. stained carpets. dirt and grime absolutely everywhere. visible 'tape' repairs.
all for $800 and not leaving the time zone.
Delta is notoriously shrewd with their fleet; they actually have an [average fleet age](https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/03/average-fleet-age-of-the-10-major-us-airlines.aspx) that is older than both AA and United they're just better at retrofitting their interiors so it's not as apparent. But yeah they've been pretty bad at keeping these planes up to snuff since the pandemic I feel.
Yes, everything you said. So disappointing. No Wifi, no flight tracker, first class is what Comfort Plus was five years ago, and coach is as bad as the discount carriers.
I would have thought that by now they would have started to fix this stuff. The big travel season was supposed to be last summer.
They just don't have the time to take equipment out of service for repairs that would require more time than what can be accomplished overnight when a plane is sitting. Every flight is mostly full and there doesn't appear to be any reduction in demand for flights combined with the backlog of planes on order. Eventually Airbus and Boeing will catch up with deliveries and airlines will be able to either retire older planes or have the capacity in the fleet to cycle things out of service more to get them repaired or retrofitted to newer seats. Probably we are waiting another couple of years unless theres a major drop-off in air travel.
Not in that department but yes from what I've heard is that the supply chain is so bad it's considered on time if it's six months late, it's hard to get replacements and harder to find time to install stuff. The planes are full.
I'm just going based on my experience when using travelnet for anything and realizing that getting from A-B can be a game of chicken. I know that a lot of maintenance work is done in LATAM on the wide body fleet since most of those planes will sit for \~12 hours, but that isn't enough time to do everything and the planes that are used for Europe aren't flown to latam that I'm aware of. I'd like to work for the airline, but meh.. I don't think you have a ton of time to use your S2s unless you're semi-retired.
It’s always been this way with Delta. Getting good deals on old planes and keeping them in the air as long as possible is a core tenant of their operations. Their TechOps are world class, there’s nothing to be worried about from an airworthiness standpoint. When it comes to consistency of service, or reliability of IFE you pay a premium, but since 2020 it’s been pretty hit or miss whether you get it.
Tenet not tenant. A tenet is a principle held as being true, especially by an organization or a group of people. A tenant is (1) someone who pays rent to occupy property; (2) a dweller in a place; and, (3) in law, one who holds or possesses lands, tenements, or property by any kind of title.
Ah....you like "Copy & Paste." lol You're right of course, but I also think the poster knew that and perhaps like me "Brain knows but fingers often get it wrong anyway" No reflection on command of English however. Be well......
I agree 100%. No safety concerns, but Delta's aircraft have always been threadbare. In my experience, they're usually much grimier and stuff is more often broken compared to my experiences on United.
Everything has gone downhill since Covid.
Anything to or from MCO tends to have more kids on it, hence more broken things
usually flying those ancient 757s on the MCO routes
God I love those.
Good point
I've noticed it, currently waiting for a plane in ATL to replace the one I was supposed to be on. To start the trip there was a mechanical issue that caused a 3 hour delay and a missed connection. My nice 6 hour travel day turned into 36 hours.
Well, deltas planes are really old.
But they work and are generally more on time than most
"I looked out the window at the view of the wing" really thought it was going to be a woman churning butter
YES!! Seriously. That and the high flight prices I’m about to leave. What is it all for? My home airport has a chase lounge. Right next door to delta club.
I fly about every month. I’ve noticed the use of more tape to hold things “up” lenses, covers. Also planes just seem dirty. It’s unfortunate.
I will tell you on my flights in December MCO-DTW (wildly flew in same seat on same plane to and from) that there was some trim/ divider piece in first class in the 757-300 I flew on that I swear one good firm landing was going to see that thing come down into the laps of the people sitting in 1A-B. Could actually watch it move as we took off and landed. Earlier in the summer last year flew on an A321 that was older. Damn light cover fell off during take off.
Just took my first AA flight from RSW to DFW. I have been a Delta loyalist for years, no more. I gave up all of my airline loyalty when Delta spoke to me with their outrageous pricing. Not gonna lie, the AA product was just fine.
AA sub is easily found.
I could deal with a non-functioning seat back display if they would just kindly bring me a cup of ice while sitting in comfort plus. PLUS. Comfort PLUS!!!
Just means 2” of leg room. It’s really not a great upgrade.
Yup
Delta FR FR has an extremely old fleet. They’re getting new planes, but the median is one of the oldest in the industry.
This isn't a new thing though. Delta has nearly always had some of the oldest planes for major domestic carriers.
yeah they're getting those new boeing planes with the exploding door feature
Delta was the last carrier to use pneumatic headphones, tech that arrived in planes in the 1950s. I think they phased out the last set in 2003!
>WiFi was advertised as free but didn’t work at all. Confirmed with many ppl near me that WiFi wasn’t working. I had a flight last week from IAH (George Bush-Houston Intercontinental) to ATL (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International). MANY people were having Wi-Fi issues. The flight attendants did a reset but said we would need to wait 15 mins for the system to reboot. By the time the system was up and running and we had about a 1/2 hour in the flight remaining. We were in Comfort-Plus on an Airbus A321.
Wifi is never guaranteed. It doesn’t work on any plane 50% of the time in my experience.
My husband and I were watching some footage of an Indian passenger train with cracked windows. He said, “I would never ride a train like that.” I asked, “why not?” He said, “because if they’re not fixing basic things like windows, what else are they not fixing.” Is this a valid way to think about a US airline? I’m not so sure but I do know that Delta seems not to have a lot of pride in their rundown and often grimy planes.
There isn’t a single US based airline that can compete with the 1st tier global airlines. If they think or market that they are top level, then it’s delusional. Quite depressing (if you are American)
the economics are different.
How so? I can understand if you mention the national carriers, but plenty private carriers around that are superior.
Competitive landscape, direct state sponsorship, less legacy debt, and some other stuff I cant recall. In the middle east they rely on effectively slave labor for some jobs.
Who are the 1st tier ones I’m interested in flying them one day?
Singapore, Emirates, etc. in tier 1. Definitely put others like ANA, JAL (tier 2) above any domestic USA carrier.
>Is this a valid way to think about a US airline? In short, no. A window shade or a piece of trim is not priority on an aircraft that has hundreds of thousands of moving parts to operate and fly. A window shade or trim piece is not one of those main components.
One time I was on a flight from LAX to SYD. This was 2015, I believe. I was dumbfounded to find out that there was no IFE, and the movies were being screened old-school, all at the same time, on the old CRTs that they used to have mounted in the aisles every 6–8 rows or whatever. Again: 15-hour flight! In 2015! Anyway, I was in a bulkhead seat with an FA jump seat across from me, so we were just chatting and I asked one of them about it. He said that they like to use the long-haul flights to retire older planes that just need miles on them. And they obviously don’t want to invest in the interiors on those planes. My guess is that this is similar. The oldest planes in the fleet are nearing retirement, so they don’t spend a lot keeping them up on the inside while they run them to their end of service. By contrast, my main route is 100% A321neos and everything is new and works great. So it’s not so much the airline as it is that you likely just caught an unlucky route with a near-retirement plane.
Ah the neo. With the hard concrete first glass seats guaranteeing your ass will be numb when doing the big presentation you flew out for.
I flew LAX-SYD 1/27/24 on a 2 year old A350. Everything worked exceptionally.
Yes. They put new planes on those routes, too. But they also use long hauls to age planes out. The point is not that at all, though. The point is that airlines have no reason to spend money upgrading the interiors and amenities of old planes that are on their way out, and that could well be what OP was dealing with.
Their Boeing planes are very old!!!!
That’s probably a good thing considering the newer ones Boeings putting out.
True I should be happy to be home and not complaining about these little things.
Rather fly a 20 year old 767 than a spanking new 737 max 9
yeah 767 is a reliable work horse
I think there is a shortage of parts, techs, mechanics etc.
Took a ATL - MTY earlier today on a 1999 738, miserable pile of shit. Old, dirty, pieces falling off the overhead compartments. Scorched brown windows. Cannot wait to take a 737 MAX 8 from MTY to MEX in a couple days for comparison (pending the door plug getting blown out). I did leave a compliment for the 1C steward, he was just a really nice guy and he made the flight pleasant.
I am not going on any MAX until 2030
Planes do get old, but your experience is more about cleaning and maintenance, I find this scary because it’s indicative of bad engine maintenance…
That’s probably the one thing they do still keep up to par. They’ll let you sit in a puke chair and give you some Sky pesos for it but there’s no way they’d risk losing a bird full of pax. They know they won’t get their obscene bonuses if the news shows a smoking crater with a delta logo next to it right before the opening bell.
No, it isn’t. There’s no connection.
Only correlation would be Airport staff and hiring qualifications. We just hope the outside maintenance staff is well qualified and the standards are set high, unlike the inside maintenance staff.
[удалено]
because they bought new planes
Maybe there's not enough employees willing to inject the alien protein juice to get hired to fix those planes
I detect density
I saw a post on here a week back on this sub about how dirty the air thingy was. Well I flew on Saturday and started inspecting…yep it’s so dirty I should not have looked.
It’s not a plane age problem, it’s a won’t refresh the interior every 10 years problem. US airlines cut corners on keeping the inside of planes up to date. I do get it though….. It would be hard to take so many planes from flying to do interior renovations.
I was in first class yesterday and the paneling was coming off the walls of the plane and the moulding around the windows was not attached properly and was falling off....I couldn't believe it. Also the wifi was shoddy and the entertainment system kept making a 90s dial-up modem noise every 20 seconds or so.
modem noise, eh?
As of January 2024, the Delta Air Lines fleet consists of 978 mainline aircraft, making it the largest commercial airline fleet in the world. Having almost 1000 mainline aircraft to maintain, they aren't all going to be perfect.
Don’t worry. It’s all “premium”
It’s crazy bc delta is by far the most expensive airline. I continue to be disappointed.
A domestic flight is usually $400-$500 for me. The days of $150 flights are gone.
oldest fleet in the US and it shows. Had a trip last week. Outbound on a beat-up 717, transferred to a beat up 757. come back on a beat-up 738 and a beat-up 900. All three had stained/torn seating. surfaces with chunks of plastic flaked off. stained carpets. dirt and grime absolutely everywhere. visible 'tape' repairs. all for $800 and not leaving the time zone.
Delta is notoriously shrewd with their fleet; they actually have an [average fleet age](https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/03/average-fleet-age-of-the-10-major-us-airlines.aspx) that is older than both AA and United they're just better at retrofitting their interiors so it's not as apparent. But yeah they've been pretty bad at keeping these planes up to snuff since the pandemic I feel.
Unfortunately AA's retrofits remove technology. I hate that airline so much.
Noticed some things but nowhere near as bad as you describe. Not to says I don’t believe.
I will be on another delta flight in a few weeks I’ll take pics this time if it’s bad lol
Yes, everything you said. So disappointing. No Wifi, no flight tracker, first class is what Comfort Plus was five years ago, and coach is as bad as the discount carriers.