DELTA COULD SOON OFFER NEW CABIN CLASS

Delta Air Lines plans to reshuffle its fare levels next year, potentially offering a cabin class below its popular and often sold out comfort plus.

Company president Glen Hauenstein unveiled this plan, still very much in experimental stages, at Delta's 2024 Investor Day.

Hauenstein said Delta will continue to introduce more subcategories to offer better value for customers, and according to him, this process will start 'from the bottom up.'

'Over the next couple of years you'll see us attempting and really testing with what consumers want in their bundles and what they're willing to pay for,' Hauenstein said. 'We're experimenting with this. I'm not announcing anything today.'

Comfort plus - the middle tier on Delta's planes and contained within the main cabin - will be where the segmenting will occur. 

Hauenstein hopes to create a 'good, better, best' dynamic in that section to lure in customers, a hint that comfort plus may become more attainable for more customers going forward.

Comfort plus seats are the best in the main cabin because they offer expedited boarding, additional leg room, and complimentary alcoholic beverages on flights at least 500 miles long.

Comfort plus is below premium select and first class, both of which have deep reclining seats, footrests and more dining options.

Basic economy is a step below comfort plus and serves as a budget option that is last to board, has assigned seating after check-in and doesn't offer ticket changes or cancellations after a certain period.

The main cabin overall offers more flexibility to travelers such as free ticket changes, increased seat selection, eligibility to purchase various upgrades and hot meals on international flights.

If Delta follows through on offering more subcategories, it's possible more customers will have access to these perks and possibly some of the premium-level extras available in comfort plus.

Hauenstein said Delta is looking 'to introduce our first good, better, best trials in Comfort+ by the end of the year.'

CEO Edward Bastian also pointed out that Delta is getting around 90 percent of its ticket sales revenue from high-income travelers, which he defines as households making $100,000 or more.

Delta's new strategy is informed by this wealthier customer base. 

Bastian also noted that Millennials are beginning to create real wealth and are increasingly willing to spend on luxury travel experiences.

And since comfort plus is often sold out, according to Hauenstein, Delta is looking to increase the number of comfort plus seats onboard their narrowbody aircrafts without changing the total number of seats.

Delta stock has outperformed other domestic airlines such as American Airlines, JetBlue and Southwest. Investors in Delta have seen a year-to-date return of 57 percent.

This new announcement from Delta comes as domestic airlines prepped for a record-breaking holiday travel weekend this Thanksgiving.

United Airlines said it expected about 6.2 million passengers between November 21 and December 3, and that nearly 480,000 travelers will fly that airline every day.

Delta anticipated 6.5 million passengers on its flights between November 22 and December 3.

These tallies mean around 540,000 passengers will fly Delta each day during the 12-day travel period.

American Airlines topped both United and Delta for the amount of expected travelers, which came out to 8.3 million.

In a CBS News exclusive, Captain Ed Evans with Southwest gave an inside look at how busy Thanksgiving week can be for a single plane. 

His Boeing 737 MAX8 took a 19-hour journey and flew nearly 4,000 miles, traveling from Baltimore to Denver, Long Beach, Reno, Las Vegas, Sacramento and back to Las Vegas.

Despite Evans' marathon day, his crew members were rotated throughout the different flights on his 19-hour time period.

Flight attendants changed twice, and Evans swapped with another pilot once the plane reached Reno, Nevada.

Baggage crews were also busy, having to deal with 578 checked bags from a total of 698 passengers throughout the day.

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2024-12-01T22:16:35Z