Delta Air Lines on Jan. 5 eliminated its group and meeting sales products along with its announcement of a new fare simplification strategy, but industry consultants expect the carrier to come back soon with an offer to address group corporate travel.
As a result of the new fare strategy, Delta announced it would no longer offer the Delta Meeting Network product and that the 5 percent, 10 percent and zone fare discounts had been eliminated. Tickets under active contracts are allowed to be purchased through February 28, according to the company Web site.
The move to discontinue the meetings program came as a surprise to some consultants. Terry Egger, regional director of Des Moines, Iowa-based Air Fulfillment Services, a third-party firm that manages group and meeting air travel for meetings management and incentive companies, said he expected some type of group sales program to be put back in place at Delta
.
"It sounds like they're going to have something for meetings, we just haven't heard what that will be," Egger said. "I'm sure there is going to be something," Egger said. "They can't just totally eliminate a whole market segment. Or, maybe they can. Delta's not known to do anything too rapidly without thinking it through so maybe they've run some numbers that make sense for them and aren't going to make sense to the rest of us."
Delta spokesperson Andy McDill declined to confirm a restructured group and meeting product is in the works, but left the option of group sales open. "In regards to meetings and groups, right now we are taking those on a case-by-case basis," he said.
Delta also has eliminated Saturday night stay requirements as part of its fare simplification strategy
(BTNonline, Jan. 5), but Egger said the impact of that move on the group sales side would be minimal.
"To be perfectly honest, the Saturday night stay thing wasn't a real huge event in a lot of markets. Saturday night stay has been gone everywhere that America West flies for a long time," Egger said. "It was only a big deal in some of the major business markets."
American Airlines, which broadly matched Delta's pricing strategy
(BTNonline, Jan. 7), has made no moves toward changing their group and meetings product and continues to accept new group sales contracts.