Swan song?

My first reaction to Delta to Eliminate Discount Carrier Song was, "of course it failed." It failed because they didn't burn their bridges, didn't really commit, didn't do anything but a pale imitation of Jet Blue.

But then I realized that Song wasn't a failure on at least one level... it allowed a stodgy brown company to move fairly quickly and to discover the power of story telling. Everything from the organic food to the paint job was about telling passengers a different story. Song had trouble keeping that promise, but at least they tried.

So maybe Delta learned a lesson about flexibility and speed and risk. Failure is rarely fatal.