Delta Offers a MasterClass in In-Flight Entertainment

With passengers returning faster than airlines and their amenities can accommodate them, everyone has a lot to learn about the new travel landscape. With customer satisfaction dipping to pre-pandemic levels and elite customers asking more from their flying experience, Delta Air Lines has turned to its in-flight entertainment offerings for an answer. Starting in June, Delta will add courses from celebrity streaming service MasterClass to its Delta Studio suite of entertainment options. If passengers want to learn how to make Southern dishes from James Beard Award-winning chef Mashama Bailey or get writing tips for Malcom Gladwell and Amy Tan, they can do so in 10 to 24 lessons. Delta added Spotify playlists and Peloton stretching and meditation videos last year in an effort to give travelers more than just TV episodes and movies. As disgruntled leisure passengers lament both the rising cost of flights and the dearth of pre-Covid-19 amenities, airlines are rushing to increase cabin comforts and provide greater value. “What you learn along your journey is often as important as where you’re headed, and flying on Delta means always having something new to discover,” said Ekrem Dimbiloglu, Delta’s managing director of in-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi. “Exclusive partnerships with brands our customers love are what really set Delta Studio apart—we’re not only connecting customers to their destinations but also bringing content onboard that ensures they can be their very best when they arrive.” If You Know, They Know: Delta and American Express Ads Reward Travel Insiders Surge pricing A recent survey by KPMG suggests it’s going to be a long, busy travel season. About 40% of those questioned feel more comfortable traveling this summer than they did a year ago, thanks largely to Covid-19 vaccines. The 62% who plan to travel this summer is up significantly from last year’s 49%. Of those making the trip, 37% plan to do so by air, as opposed to 36% in 2021. Despite 59% saying that inflation has affected their travel plans—with J.D. Power noting that airfare has risen 20% since March 2021—passengers will be a bit more frugal, but undeterred. “The key this summer for companies in the travel industry will be the ability to deliver an outstanding consumer experience that is commensurate with pricing and traveler expectations,” said Braden Mark, the travel, leisure and hospitality leader at KPMG. Delta added Peloton stretching and meditation classes to its in-flight entertainment last year. In J.D. Power's Airline Customer Satisfaction Survey released earlier this month, passengers vented about rising ticket prices and lacking amenities. They weren’t pleased that airlines held on to the prepackaged food they’d used to minimize Covid-19 spread or the suspension of alcohol service that accompanied an uptick in unruly passengers. The Transportation Safety Administration counted 451 such incidents within the first four and a half months of 2021. By comparison, there weren’t that many incidents in total from 2016 through 2019. However, customers told J.D. Power they were incredibly satisfied with both Delta and JetBlue. Both airlines ranked among the top three in the country among passengers in all seating tiers. What do the two of them have in common? Stable in-flight entertainment systems mounted in the seats of nearly all of their flights. “Seatback entertainment, right now, is the best in-flight entertainment system,” said Michael Taylor, travel intelligence lead at J.D. Power. “It's easy to use, it's always there, and you don't have connectivity problems that you would have with your personal entertainment device.” Delta’s New Ad Campaign Takes Aim at Travel-Related Climate Guilt Built-in distraction As Tayor noted, “If you’re watching an episode of Emily in Paris or Game of Thrones or Queen’s Gambit or Outlander,” delays and other annoyances tend to matter a bit less. That’s good, since the Transportation Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) indicates this will be a particularly terrible year for delays. Through the first few months of 2022, there have been nearly 309,500 delayed flights. That’s the most since pre-pandemic 2019, but more than are typically delayed in an entire year. Thanks to a nationwide pilot and employee shortage, airline cancellations (nearly 64,000) and on-time arrival percentage (76.44%) are the worst they’ve been since 2014—with more than half of the year remaining. Delta’s strategy for its Studio in-flight offerings reflects that reality. When the airline added Spotify podcasts and curated playlists in September, use of audio by passengers increased 39% during the next month. It now accounts for 20% of overall in-flight entertainment usage. Since joining Delta's seatback options in late 2021, Spotify has accounted for 20% of all in-flight viewing and listening. Peloton chipped in with 45 instructor-led classes ranging from 5 to 45 minutes apiece. That adds to a collection of 300 movies, more than 500 TV episodes, and roughly 1,000 audio tracks that Delta will have available in June. That library prompted the airline to bring back an old perk: complementary earbuds on all planes with seat-back entertainment. But Delta and other airlines know entertainment is just part of the equation. Carriers are overhauling their airport clubs to increase space and comfort and decrease pressure from competitors outside the industry. They’re addressing the boarding process, loyalty programs and food offerings to bring them more in line with customer expectations. They’re even addressing in-cabin internet, which has a hard time competing with seat-back entertainment options on smaller flights with weaker Wi-Fi infrastructure. “If you remember 10 to 15 years ago, people said, ‘The internet can’t handle that much traffic and there's going to be a limitation to the World Wide Web,’” Taylor said. “Now I have YouTube TV, which comes across my internet connection, and I'm watching HD television every day. Eventually, that kind of stuff is going to roll over into the airline industry.” Airline Customer Satisfaction Is Back … to Pre-Pandemic Misery

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Delta Offers a MasterClass in In-Flight Entertainment

Airline adds new content fliers already enjoy at home ahead of a busy summer travel season

Jason Notte

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