The Gamble Family (.Net)

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.

Tao Te Ching

This past week, two colleagues and I had the misfortune of making flights on Delta Airlines. All three of us flew from Nashville, TN to Orlando, FL and back. Two of us flew down on Sunday afternoon and the other flew down on Monday morning. We all returned the following Friday evening. A good time was not had by all…

For the sake of this discussion, let’s call our three unlucky travellers persons A, B and C:

Persons A and B were scheduled to depart from Nashville on Sunday at 2:13 PM. We should have known that something was up when we arrived at curb-side check-in at 12 noon, only to be informed that the flight departure had been delayed until 3 PM. After a brief stay in the waiting area, we then were told that the departure had been delayed until 4 PM. To make a long story short, we finally departed Nashville at 9:10 PM.

Person C was scheduled to depart from Nashville on Monday at 7 AM, with a scheduled arrival in Orlando at 9:55 AM. His flight was cancelled and he was re-routed through Atlanta. He arrived in Orlando at 3 PM, forcing him to miss an entire day at a week-long $2,800 conference (which was the reason for these flights in the first place).

Now, fast-forward to our return trip on Friday evening. The return trip for all three persons was scheduled to depart Orlando at 7:25 PM. Our departure was delayed until 8:10 PM. While sitting in Orlando Airport watching the departure board, I noticed that out of the 23 remaining Delta departures scheduled for Friday evening, 8 of them were delayed between 30 minutes and 3 1/2 hours! All of the delays that our three travelers experienced resulted from what Delta described as “equipment malfunctions”. Adding further insult to injury, the Delta counter agents “barely” offered anything that resembled an apology.

When you add it all up, these three travellers were delayed a total of 20.5 man-hours, not to mention the $560 loss in one day at the conference for person C. Is this any way to run an airline? It’s no wonder that Delta recently filed for Chapter 11.