I give Delta a hard time frequently on this blog. I’m pretty transparent about my travel patterns and choices, and how I go about making those. Delta hasn’t been my choice and I think I’m justified in that. I’m not going to rehash all of the reasons here. Instead I thought I’d take a contrary position for this post, and offer up five good reasons why someone would want to choose Delta and/or Skymiles as their primary air carrier/loyalty program. See what you think, and whether any of these reasons apply to you. You’re a super frequent flyer. American and United both have top tiers at the 100,000 mile level. Delta, like United, requires minimum spend for elite status. If you’re flying more than 125,000 miles a year and spending more than $15,000 on airline…
General
Category Archives for General.
Here’s Something Travel Providers Don’t Seem to Understand: Coffee Fuels Business Travel
I’ve written before about the monumental importance of hotel coffee. A business hotel needs to be able to provide coffee 24 hours a day. There are lots of ways to do this: in-room machines, club lounge, lobby, and even room service. The coffee needs to be drinkable, and that includes making it possible to get the real milk or creamer of your choice. That’s just basics. Hotels without in-room coffee, and a lobby option, and that do not offer 24 hour room service are a complete and total #fail. Claiming to be an upscale or full service property, and aiming at business travelers, they’re completely missing the point. I’ve been to too many properties where there’s no coffee before 6 a.m. That’s great, until: You’re coming in from another time zone, and getting up at…
Hacking the Long Lines at One of the Best Barbecue Spots in the World
For this post to be useful or interesting to you, you need to like barbecue and be planning to visit one of the best barbecue places out there (Black’s in Lockhart, Texas). And it’s really only useful to review right before your visit. In other words, most of you can ignore this post and a few of you just want to bookmark it for later. I’ve written about world famous Franklin Barbecue and about my favorite barbecue with sit down service, a full bar, and live music. You can’t avoid the lines at Franklin unless you’re President Obama. But you can make reservations for Lambert’s Downtown Barbecue. Most of the best barbecue places, though, are going to involve lines — especially on the weekends, and especially early (when you want to go, when the meat…
Major US Airline Planning to Reduce First Class Legroom Plus an Easy Free $10
News and notes from around the interweb: Runway Girl Network thinks a major US airline is going to reduce seat pitch in domestic first class and introduce similar seats as an international premium economy. Much of the piece sounds like implausible speculation, but one or both of these basic ideas seem plausible. Passenger charged over $1000 for inflight internet. This was on one flight! Bank of America credit and debit card holders get $10 free when they enroll in Visa checkout. Asiana faces a 45 day suspension of their Seoul – San Francisco route over the crash of Asiana 214. $50 off Emirates flights from the US. Me, I’ll just redeem my Alaska Airlines miles for Emirates’ A380 first class suites. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day…
Why I Left United Airlines: Not all Reasons are Equally Valid
There’s a new New Yorker article that’s getting lots of play, “Why I Left United Airlines” Most of the complaints in the piece are complaints about the airline industry generally which are then used as a general indictment of mergers. And while I think that mergers generally fail to deliver on their promises to shareholders or customers, I’m not sure that United-Continental alone proves that and throwing in mergers in other industries anecdotally in a short piece serves to make the case either. For the most part, how you feel about the article will track your general mood affiliation with United and with airlines writ large. Nonetheless, this is a claim that I do believe: The United merger is a grand example of a consumer sinkhole—a merger that proves to be not just a onetime…
The Card That Earns 2 Delta Miles Per Dollar on All Spending
There’s actually a card that earns 2 Delta miles per dollar on all spending. I never knew this card even existed. It’s the Canadian co-brand Delta card issued by Capital One. Usually I think of our Neighbors to the North as being at a relative miles and points disadvantage. They don’t have as much competition in their loyalty programs as we do in the U.S. That’s why it didn”t surprise me that I considered Air Canada’s Aeroplan the most devalued airline frequent flyer program in North America, even before their most recent devaluations. I suppose though if you’re focusing your marketing on Canadians, and want them to accrue Delta Skymiles, that you’re going to have to be pretty aggressive with rewards. And the interesting thing here is that the card is offered by Capital One.…
A Moment of Brutal Honesty: United Thinks Their Problem is Too Many Customers
After what I thought was the most blunt explanation from an airline I’ve ever seen for a devaluation, it seems the trend towards revealing honesty in the industry continues. Usually devaluations are called ‘enhancements’ and benefits are removed ‘based on customer feedback’. Instead, we have United — which has long believed their customers are the problem — admitting as much on Twitter. United this week announced that the minimum revenue for elite status would go up 20% next year. Now United admits they’re doing it because they have too many frequent flyers that buy their tickets enough to earn elite status.
Uber’s $30 First Time Rider Credit Ends November 23
Readers know that I’m a big fan of Uber, the on-demand car service. You download an app to your phone, request a pickup with the press of a button. You watch your vehicle on a map as it drives to you and shows you how many minutes away the car is. You can stay inside at home or at a restaurant until it shows up. Your payment details are on file, so when the trip is over you just get out and you’re emailed a receipt. There are several options in different markets — like black cars, UberX which is individuals with their own cars that drive you, and in some cities even UberTaxi where you’re just requesting a cab through the app. For several months they have offered first-time users a free ride up…
United Devalues… Checked Baggage
Via Hans Mast United has copied another customer-unfriendly policy developed elsewhere at other carriers. They’re going to stop checking baggage through to your final destination when you’re traveling on separate tickets and your connection is on an airline outside the Star Alliance. Here instead of immediately following what Delta does by doing the exact same thing, they waited awhile and saw that American is doing it before moving forward themselves. One of the things I liked about United was that they’re still willing to check bags onto other airlines even when you’re traveling on separate tickets. Starting on or about March 1, that will only be true when you’re connecting to a Star Alliance airline.
The Guy With the Most Credit Cards Wins, Plus Stay Once and Get a Free Night
News and notes from around the interweb: Every important American airport, ranked by its food and drink. (Meanwhile, here are the Worst Airports in the United States.) ATC Zero: Inside the Chicago Center Fire (HT: L.B.) Stay once get a free night (HT: S.) The guy that has the most credit cards. I’ve rarely felt inadequate in my pursuit of miles and points before. Pilot makes a flight late waiting for passenger to apologize for criticizing their being late (HT: Alan H.) The meal service improvements at American I shared early last month (which are really just bringing back part of what was cut in September) have now been announced to customers: You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just…
