Wrong Lesson Learned

Adopting Delta Seating?

Amtrak is looking at making train travel more like flying Delta, because, much like the major airlines, they hate their passengers.

Amtrak is missing a key fact about their situation:  Unlike the airlines sitting in their fortress hubs, they have a lot of competitors.

A bus is cheaper and only slightly slower than passenger rail:+

If there’s one thing that riding the rails has over flying, perhaps it’s comfort: Train passengers have a bit more legroom than on planes, and can get up and walk around at any time. We all may need to stretch our legs a bit more if Amtrak decides to pack in more seats.

The outgoing co-chief executive of Amtrak says the rail system — which is in need of a major financial boost — is thinking about possibly making it less comfortable in economy class by adding additional seats, Reuters reports.

He didn’t just say that Amtrak is considering adding more seats; he outright admitted that tightening up seat pitch — the distance between the seatback and the seat in front of it — is just one “creative” change under consideration that could make things worse for passengers.

“There will be some other things that just don’t make it quite as comfortable,” Wick Moorman told reporters at a National Press Club talk this week.

Cramped seating is likely nothing new for Amtrak’s recent hire, former Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson. He joined the company as president and co-CEO on Wednesday, and will be sharing the top spot until Moorman steps down on Dec. 31.

When I first read this, I hadn't realized that the new HMFIC at Amtrak was actually from Delta, I just defaulted to Delta as a standard avatar as agony in air travel.

Delta has long been the standard for poor quality in customer service in airlines, well, it was until United Airlines said, "Hold my beer."

FWIW, here is John Mulaney on Delta Airlines: