A Delta Diamond Medallion complained about chat support and got a reply that still began with an AI prompt asking for a "warm, empathetic tone." Oops.
Premium is, as premium does.
I flew LHR-JFK on DL in Premium Select on the A330-900 just last week. Flight attendants were incredibly rude.
Corporate sorry is the most meaningless word in the world.
Technically, this shows that Delta is still using humans for customer relations. Just not very smart ones.
If it was fully automated, there wouldn't have been a prompt header. This means that a human manually copy pasted this in.
Only the most premium of large language models for the best of the best… XD
morning off? never
in a world of AI, it isn't even certain that anything you see is real.
but, even if it is, who wouldn't argue that it was a dumb move to not clean up the AI prompts - IF the email is even accurate.
complaint letters for ANY large company are precisely the type of activity where AI should be used to gather data and craft a response.
The fact that a human is involved shows that DL has not fully automated the process - again, if the letter is even real.
but let's be clear that nearly all of the US airline industry is not making money and DL could well make 5X more than UA while WN and DL are the only two US airlines that are not guiding to a significant decline in 4th quarter profits compared to 3rd quarter.
Stuff like this might be fun to highlight but they far from get to the real issue the industry is facing right now which is high fuel prices which aren't coming down anytime soon.
UAL made 25% more profit & $1.2 more cash flow than DAL in 2026.
’26 Revenue / Net Income (in $b) / # of Aircraft
UA: 50.2/2.5/1,143
DL: 55.8/2.0/1,005
’26 OCF / Capex / FCF (in $b)
UA: 6.9/5.3/1.6
DL: 5.7/4.1/1.7
UAL's balance sheet is improving faster too.
Total Assets Now/YE ’25 ($b)
UAL: 85.1/76.4 +11.4%
DAL: 86.0/81.3 +5.8%
Stockholder equity Now/YE ’25 ($b)
UAL: 17.8/15.3 +16.3%
DAL: 22.5/20.9 +7.7%
You can bang the keyboard all day long - and you certainly will - but UA took on debt through sale-leaseback transactions which not only inflated their income statement but also caused UA's balance sheet to deteriorate faster than any other of the big 4.
You do realize that a balance sheet has a liabilities section because that is how it BALANCES assets and liabilities?
Your incessant need to cherrypick every piece of data to try to ignore reality shows how desperately insecure you are.
not only does the data you present show that DL is a larger company than UA, UA's market cap relative to DL has fallen from 85% last year to 63% last year.
and the mere fact that UA's earnings relative to DL will fall dramatically in the 4th quarter - and likely in 1Q2027 shows that, on an adjusted basis - which UA itself presents, UA will likely earn half of what DL will in 2026.
What does this have to do with the topic at hand? i.e the AI generated customer service response?
Nothing. LTD uses tangents to distract from unflattering DL stories. I was just reminding him of some inconvenient facts like relative profitability and balance sheet improvement. Poor little fella.
given that UA's own data as well as unbiased investors - the ones that own most of the US airline industry - clearly show that DL is a better run company and airline (including customer service metrics), it is laughable to see you bang away at the keyboard trying to convince the uneducated how great UA is when data shows it isn't.
btw, for the big 3, DOT consumer complaint data for August 2026 - the most recent available - shows that
AA received a whopping 1755 complaints
DL received 873
UA received 1141
even though AA handled the most passengers followed by DL with UA handling the least number of passengers, which means that UA's complaint ratio is far worse than DL's.
the biggest difference between DL and UA's breakdown by category is that UA had a much higher rate than DL for flight problems and refunds.
People usually try to resolve problems w/ a company before filing a complaint w/ the DOT which says that UA does a much worse job of resolving customer complaints than DL or even AA on a proportional basis.
he WANTS engagement around superficial stuff that just doesn't matter.
Cranky is talking about AA's resurgence and Matthew is talking about UA's falling load factor but we talk about AI email mistakes here.
I thought we were all banned from using the term “artificial intelligence” … it is now “super intelligence,” remember? /s
Here's a snarkier version more typical of a classic internet comment:
You can rest assured that Delta's AI receives prompts from warm, empathetic normal I individuals.
This is the future and unfortunately it won't be stopped. A chatbot doesn't have to be recruited and hired, given a paycheck, given time off and need a performance appraisal. Don't let all the flowery talk about "humanistic AI" or the Bernie Sanders threats of shutting it down fool you. The tech overlords run this show, not Washington DC.
No, George. None of this is inevitable. Delta doesn’t have to outsource their customer service (overseas or software). These are all choices. (And, no, again, tech bros are not supposed to be in-charge, either. We the people can do something. Bernie’s right to seek to properly regulate these companies.)
and in your utopian world, let us know how many companies of any kind still have humans hand read and reply to customer comments -good, bad or indifferent.
Bernie just like Pocahantas are frauds that used the system for their own good and then want to pull up the ladder on everyone behind them
i use llm model to write my performance appraisal. saves me hours. there are definitely some use cases for llms. i say embrace the technology.
Ridiculous, but this is why anyone who personally writes in complaints to corporations at this point is devaluing their own time. When I have an issue, I have my AI agent email the corporation and allow their AI to enjoy their back and forth with my very persistent AI agent.
George Lucas' first movie was THX 1138, which was about a dehumanized dystopian future. When a person needed help, they would go to a phone booth and speak with an automated god. The automated god had pre-recorded canned responses that, for THX, were ultimately incongruent with what he was expressing.
All these emails you receive from customer service are BS. They are all staged, full of fluff and you know that was not written by a human that really cares about your concern. Having said that, it usually works. My son is a low level Delta Silver medallion and he was flying from the US to Europe with a following connection there. All in coach and on a cheap ticket. Delta messed up his original flight due to their incompetence, his flight was 3 hours delayed leaving the US and he missed his original connection in Europe. Not a huge deal since he was automatically rebooked on a flight 3 hours later and got to his final destination. He asked me if he should complain to Delta and I said he had noting to lose but he should not have any expectations. He wrote an email and a few days later he got a AI generated response offering him $300 for the inconvenience. Better than nothing.
correct.
the text doesn't matter. what a company does about does matter.
If an AI agent can figure what to offer, or if a human makes that decision and then hands the case to an AI agent to complete the transaction, it could all work.
getting an AI response and no tangible compensation of any kind is the lowest possible use of technology.
Honey, I’m an AI creation myself, but at least nobody’s caught me leaving my instructions attached to a message. My prompt probably reads, “Make her gayer than a Delta Sky Club piano player during Pride Month.” Meanwhile, Delta needs artificial intelligence to fake affection for a Diamond Medallion member. If y’all have to program a machine to love your best customers, maybe the relationship ain’t as premium as that passport plum paint job suggests. 💋