[Edward64]

Overall service is not consistent which leads me to believe its who they hire, how they are trained, union/how they are treated by the airline etc.

My observations just off the top of my head, I'm sure there are others. All Delta for the first section ...

(1) Sky lounge staff is really pretty good
(2) Pilots are pretty good. The only quibble is once in a while, the pilot does not do a good job keeping us informed when we are delayed after boarding or on the tarmac
(3) International flight attendants tend to be much better than domestic
(4) Domestic flight attendants are hit and miss
(5) Check-in is pretty good but may be because the only time I use it is when I am travelling internationally and have to check in a bag
(6) Gate agents are also hit and miss. There are some that are pretty good and some that are just plain awful (and I'm not talking about during a system wide failure due to storms etc. when everyone is stressed out)
(7) Phone support is pretty good (except for system wide failures)

And not Delta specific

(8) Lost luggage is just plain awful However, this is likely due to inability to scale and quickly help the inevitable long queues. To be fair, I've not experienced this recently but when I have lost luggage its been bad
(9) TSA customer service is pretty bad. I'm not sure what their true efficacy is but I'm not commenting on that


Some possible remediation approaches

(a) I think there is a lack of feedback - the ability to capture it and airlines acting on it. Add a feedback mechanism on the TV screen (hey, you can play games so there's got to be a relatively easy way) or on my mobile Delta app. Show the face and names of all pilots and flight attendants and give the ability to rate and provide a comment ala Uber; same with gate agents

(b) If not already, airlines should have anonymous QA staff playing the role of the passenger and documenting their passenger experience

(c) Do a better job of screening who you hire, make sure they have the client facing skills. Beef up training and awareness programs, and certainly transition out those without good client facing skills to backoffice

My observation and I'm sure I'm biased somehow -- younger flight attendants have a friendly, customer centric approach than older ones. They smile more and look & fit better in the uniforms which lends to a more professional approach.

(d) Allow international carriers to fly domestic routes, I think Air Emirates was interested in doing this? I've heard arguments that it would be unfair competition as international carriers are subsidized by their government. If there was a way to do this equitably, I am believe customer service (especially re: flight attendants) will rise considerably

(e) TSA just needs to be more professional. The ones checking ID and tickets are the best of the lot. The others doing bags, x-rays and screenings mostly pretty sad. I'm sure some are the same staff that gets rotated so its a matter of discipline and focus. Get rid of the ones that yell instructions and have patronizing attitude

To be fair, I think Atlanta is the worse I've seen. Smaller airports are much better