Delta Fundraises For The DOT Secretary’s Son-In-Law — The Optics Are Brutal [Roundup]

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Delta hosted a fundraiser for DOT Secretary Sean Duffy’s son-in-law who is running for Congress.

    What possible reason could Delta have for financially backing the 25 year old Wisconsin Republican primary candidate…? Oh, wait. His dad is their regulator That looks like an obvious (albeit legal) payoff, right?

    Duffy, who has been in the midst of trying to execute an ambitious overhaul of the country’s antiquated and complicated air traffic control system, also was slated to be the “special guest” at a Dec. 3 fundraiser for Alfonso, 25, whose background is in the construction industry. That event was hosted by Delta Air Lines PAC as well as numerous BGR Group lobbyists, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by POLITICO.

  • Say you don’t want interchange regulation without saying you don’t want interchange regulation. This month Trump backed Durbin-Marshall swipe fee rules, and Visa clearly wants to get into his good graces.

  • Whoa.

  • A claim that over half of existing Bilt cardmembers have already converted to the new card “which is a little higher than they anticipated.”

  • This was similar to my experience as well, flying Southwest on both Tuesday and Wednesday (the first and second days of assigned seating). Both flights were at least a third empty, but passengers couldn’t get their bags in overhead bins near their own seats.

  • This is true.

  • Cathay Pacific first class buggies at Hong Kong and Heathrow and premium Chinese wines.

About Gary Leff

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 »

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Comments

  1. I mean, this is child’s play compared to the world’s biggest company paying the first lady $28 million for her “documentary”, or various companies/countries buying hundreds of millions in worthless Trump crypto. Why wouldn’t these people do this penny ante stuff? Who is going to stop them?

  2. Happy February, VFTW! Off topic, but quick reminder/PSA that the Capital One Lounge/Landing access has officially changed as of today:

    They made it super easy. From the Cap 1 app, go to your card account -> Account Users – Manage Access. The second dot for each AU shows their lounge access status – yellow for no access, green for access. Simply click on a user and confirm you want to buy access for them. Says $125 will be charged to your credit card within 3-5 days.

    Now let’s give it a couple weeks to let the dust settle with the new access rules, and open up the LGA Landing in mid-February, yeah?

  3. @ Gary — I’ve never seen FAs ask passengers which movie they want to watch. Granted I didn’t fly much until the late 90s.

  4. Passing over Visa’s sycophancy, would such deposits count against annual contribution limit?

    It should, and most card issuers do count deposits made into IRAs against annual limits. But Schwab claims it doesn’t count towards annual limits, although their logic seems dubious at best.

  5. goes to show that DL knows that Wisconsin is what matters in the Midwest while AA and UA fight over Illinois

  6. @Tim

    Have you asked your mother to donate 500K Skypesos to delta sponsored candidates?

    Given the general value of Skypesos is around .2 to .4 c /mile, this should remain below the annual contribution limit

  7. In a country where Citizens United has legalized bribery, I am sorry to say that this is small change.

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