Delta Air Lines has announced an interior cabin refresh. They’re tying this to their 100 year anniversary, presenting a new more modern image. The palette is darker. They won’t swap out seats, just add memory foam padding to some seats. And they’re adding new lighting. Naturally this is pitched as being “premium” and a new interior, to most passengers, feels like new planes.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
This is a strong rewards credit card. Points-earning for your spend is fine, not top of market, but what makes the card great is how well it plays with the Hyatt loyalty program, contributes to status, and how well that program rewards customers for incremental activity.
When it first launched, I told a room full of the heads of travel brands issuing rewards cards that was convened by one of the payment networks that this was one of the two best products at the time which really “rides on the rails of” its loyalty program. And that remains true today. I have and have used this card for years.
The Department of Transportation and Lufthansa have entered a consent order addressing the airline’s discrimination based on religion, impacting 128 Jewish passengers on May 4, 2022 who were traveling from New York JFK to Budapest via Frankfurt and who were denied boarding on their connecting flight due to the misconduct of some passengers on the first leg of the journey.
In the 60’s and 70’s the original Diplomat was frequented by Rat Pack types. The hotel closed in 1991 and was acquired by the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters in 1998, torn down, and rebuilt at a cost of ~ $800 million in construction costs and $40 million for the property. That’s about what it was sold for last year – without adjusting for inflation.
Delta has stopped serving hot meals out of Detroit. Aviation watchdog JonNYC confirms what I expected, that the issue is listeria.
While Delta downplays the significance, suggesting a ‘food safety issue’ was discovered during an inspection, reportedly the crew of a Detroit – Amsterdam flight got sick suggesting the explanation from the airline is misleading even if technically accurate.
Bear in mind though that after gutting awards on Delta and devaluing ANA business class awards up to 26% without notice, Virgin Atlantic plans to move to dynamic award pricing in just two weeks. You know it’s bad when the change is about to happen and they won’t give concrete details for what to expect.
Throughout 2023, American Airlines was promising that anything you wanted to do with the airline could be done digitally – with the few remaining features to be delivered by the end of the year. I kept asking, just as a glaring example of what was missing, what about upgrades?
In some ways I wanted something more revolutionary, rather than modest changes and a rebrand of Premier. But the effort behind this card says they’re still interested in investing in marketing a travel card with transferable points and that’s really great.
Boeing’s 777X widebody program won’t see commercial service until (at least) 2026. And Tim Clark is on a warpath over what’s now a six year delay. He offered, “I fail to see how Boeing can make any meaningful forecasts of delivery dates” at this point. Just last year he increased the carrier’s order book to 256 777X widebodies – adding 55 -9s and 35 -8s at the Dubai Air Show.
Now, he says, unless the aircraft manufacturer can raise the $10 billion it’s seeking in new equity, “I see an imminent investment downgrade with Chapter 11 looming on the horizon.”
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
