MISSING PETS on Delta

BTW, the NYT had a picture of crews in Georgia spreading asphalt over the snow. Really?! :blink:

I'd guess cinders. Maybe the NYT should send a reporter to Alaska to see how to handle snow/ice without salt.

Jim
 
P Rez,
I couldn't agree more that travel is very stressful for animals and that often the best choice is just to leave them home. That isn't always possible, I know, but I sure want to minimize the number of times I ever have to carry my dog on a intercontinental flight.
I doubt if the network carriers make money on carrying pets as passenger baggage and only do it because it historically was done and it is very hard to no longer do something that you once did. The NW pet priority program sounds like it upped the standard but probably made it even more difficult to make money on pets. My guess is that some bean counter at DL has very detailed info on the costs of handling pets and also what the costs of those injuries and deaths cost... given that none of the reports I saw indicated negligence on the part of DL but rather severe stress on the animals, there is probably little financial incentive for DL to minimize the stress to pets.

Kev,
I couldn't agree more that several key SE cities should have DL people below wing... at times yesterday morning, there were as many DL aircraft taking off from CLT as there were US aircraft given their reduced schedule while DL was operating pretty close to their full schedule. With five hubs in the eastern US, there are alot of cities that have pretty robust schedules - and then you have some cities like RDU that have a fair number of point to point routes in addition to the flights to DL's hubs.
Yesterday was a good example of what you get without experience.... while waiting to pushback, I could see the contractors were working hard - but they clearly weren't making the best judgment calls about how to prioritize their work under obviously short staffing (every airline and the TSA had significant numbers of people who didn't come to work) as well an altered flight schedule that had too many flights to be worked at the same time - some of it caused by the CLT rampers themselves by blocking the ramp for the deicing process and thus having to catch up when the ramp was finally "unblocked"....
I wouldn't necessarily believe that DL will NEVER adopt some of NW's practices/policies.... I talked w/ some people in Flt Ops and they recognized during the merger evaluation process that there were NW things they wanted but had to pick "one side or the other" in order to quickly get the single ops certificate. They fully expect to incorporate some PMNW processes as soon as things stabilize - and in some cases there will be automation and equipment changes necessary.
I still think that DL got by with "imposing" itself on NW in a way that was greater than any other merger of comparable size in the airline industry but I do think that DL is smart enough to recognize that there are things that NW did that made alot of sense and DL would be foolish not to pick up some of those practices as soon as they can.... right now, though, the merger process has largely been more of a takeover than an integration.

I hope someone in Georgia gets real embarassed about how they handled the latest weather event. Preferably someone w/ the power to do something about it.

I also think that DL has actually done a pretty good job of keeping the operation going to the degree they have despite the disaster that has occurred outside of the ATL airport.
 
I got charged more than....it has been almost a year ...DL did lower some pet charges to be in line w/ NW's charges but not sure where my trip was relative to those changes. Brazil has all kinds of baggage exceptions - allowance is 2 free 70 pound bags.. one of the highest baggage allowances around.

That said, I'm still not sure that airlines make money... unlike skis and overweight boxes, there are special handling procedures for pets that require more people. Thankfully, my dog did not get sent down the baggage chute w/ other bagss and he did seem to have a cast of thousands around his kennel - perhaps adoring him but nonetheless there were more than the usual number of DL employees around him.

I still would guess that if given a choice, network airlines would not carry pets as baggage. As freight, the shipments are probably larger to justify extra staff but to handle one or two extra pets at most per flight does require alot of "exception" staffing or overwork of existing employees - perhaps at the exclusion of other responsibilities - or more time to do them anyway.
 
What "extra staff" are you referring to?
When I checked in in Atlanta, they had a dedicated position for pet check-in. The pet priority program w/ NW clearly involved dedicated staff. I can't tell you what dedicated people are involved w/ pets, but given that it is a specialized product, I am certain that are some dedicated people - if nothing else but a supervisor at every hub and a team of analysts at HDQ to make sure the whole program works right. :) And of course the customer relations people that have to respond to the DOT and customers about injured animals.
 
delta kills another, http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gDuHXpKppLd8kiE9SAszwwuV2eog?docId=5770496
 
delta kills another, http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gDuHXpKppLd8kiE9SAszwwuV2eog?docId=5770496
while 50 minutes seems way to long to wait to deliver a pet in any temperature, it seems potentially deadly at temps well below freezing.

But I also have to ask why an owner was shipping a hairless kitten to a city that was well below zero also and why Dl didn't just refuse the shipment.
 
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Hey,the airline that is my employer lost 6 or 7 dogs [they died] due to being left in the cargo compartment too long on a very HOT DAY on a flight from TUL -ORD.