Delta Sends Private Plane for 79 Students and Teachers When Another Airline Cancelled Flight

by Gary Leff

delta plane
Oct 15 2019

A group of 79 from the Ocean City High School boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams were flying from Philadelphia to Orlando on Thursday to compete in Saturday’s Disney Cross Country Classic at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. Their Frontier flight was cancelled, and Frontier said they wouldn’t be re-accommodated for six days (four days after the race was over). And no airline had enough seats for such a large group.

They thought the trip was off, but they tweeted at Delta — and two Delta agents met them as they were about to leave the airport: Delta would offer them a plane from Phiadelphia to Orlando.

Continue Reading »

Qatar Airways Just Hosted the LATAM Board Meeting and They’re Using It to Troll Delta

by Gary Leff

qatarplane
Oct 15 2019

Delta immediately turned the tables on US-Latin America flying by announcing plans to take a 20% stake in LATAM, South America’s largest airline. Delta is pulling them out of oneworld and out of a pending joint venture with American Airlines.

One side benefit that must have been sweet for Delta, though has gone largely unremarked upon, is the extra benefit that comes from sticking it to Qatar Airways. Now Qatar is trolling Delta back.

Continue Reading »

The Very First Inflight Video – 55 Years Ago – Was a Disaster

by Gary Leff

Oct 14 2019

Moving maps, thousands of movies and TV shows, and systems that let you create playlists and favorites and even keep your favorites from flight to flight using your frequent flyer number, inflight entertainment has come a long way.

As KLM celebrates 100 years they’ve made a ton of material available from their archives. The very first inflight video screens is something I had never seen before.

Continue Reading »

Why Higher Spending Requirements Put Elite Status on a Collision Course With Itself

by Gary Leff

airline seats
Oct 14 2019

Status does a great job motivating customers who buy coach, or at least fly coach a substantial portion of the time – for instance the road warrior whose company will spring for business class internationally once or twice a year but has a rule of 6 hours or more for premium cabin so domestic trips are mostly out up front.

Status does almost nothing to motivate someone who buys all premium cabin tickets. When elite status spending requirements are so high they’re met primarily by people who buy first class, elite status is meaningless.

Continue Reading »

Booking Hotels Can Earn Southwest Companion Pass Plus New 2000 Point First-Time Bonus

by Gary Leff

southwest plane
Oct 14 2019

The best deal in travel has to be the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass.

There’s no question that a rewards card with big initial bonus offer is the easiest and fastest way to earn a Companion Pass (in addition to being really big on its own towards reward travel). However there are other fast ways to earn a Companion Pass even without a Southwest Airlines co-brand credit card. And it’s even more enticing with a new 2000 point bonus offer.

Continue Reading »