Fly business, pay less with Delta Air Lines - How has the carrier done since 2019

Fly business, pay less with Delta Air Lines - How has the carrier done since 2019

Lesley Simeon - November 14th, 2024

Months after reports first surfaced around Delta Air Lines toying with the idea of offering cheaper, unbundled business class options, the American airline is finally expected to make formal announcements on its Investor Day later this month. Although no specifics have been made known by the carrier, the new offering could perhaps offer business class upgrades - like lounge access or priority boarding - at premium economy fares. 

In this piece, we explore YouGov data to see how Delta Air Lines has fared in recent years.

According to YouGov BrandIndex, which tracks consumer sentiment towards thousands of brands daily, Delta Air Line’s Value, Quality, Recommend and Satisfaction scores have improved since January 2019.

The carrier’s Value metric score, which measures whether the brand represents poor or good value for customers’ money, doubled from a net score of 6 in January 2019 to 12 in October 2024. 

Similarly, its Quality score, which measures whether the brand represents poor or good quality, climbed nearly ten points from 20 to 29 in the observation period .

Delta Air Lines’ Recommend metric, which identifies brands that consumers tell their friends and colleagues to avoid and those they recommend to them, improved from a net score of 19 to 28.

Free wi-fi isn’t the only perk (or the bare minimum these days?) Delta Air Lines is offering its customers - the company even inaugurated the largest of all its airport lounges this year, complete with a high-end restaurant, shower suites and complementary spa treatments.

Finally, Satisfaction, which measures whether customers are satisfied or dissatisfied with the brand, rose from 21 to 27 in the observation period. Notably, Delta Air Lines landed itself in a federal investigation earlier this year courtesy flight cancellations caused by the CrowdStrike tech outage

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Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. Delta Air Lines’ Value metric score is based on the question: Which of the following airlines do you think represents good value/poor value for money? and delivered as a net score between -100 and +100. The Satisfaction metric is based on the question: Of which of the following airlines would you say that you are a satisfied/dissatisfied customers of? And delivered as a net score between -100 and +100. The Recommend metric is based on the question: Which of the following airlines would you recommend to a friend or colleague? And delivered as a net score between -100 and +100. The Quality metric is based on the question: Which of the following airlines do you think represents good quality/poor quality? And delivered as a net score between -100 and +100. Scores are based on an average daily sample size of 23472 US adults between January 2019 and October 2024. Figures are based on a 52-week moving average. Learn more about BrandIndex.

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