Tag Archives for austin.
Delta is adding another flight to Austin that seemingly makes no sense. They’re going to fly to Harlingen, Texas with a once-daily SkyWest regional jet. It’s a 45 minute drive from McAllen, Texas where they’re also flying three times a day.
Delta is growing their ‘we don’t actually care’ Austin presence even more: daily SkyWest regional jet Austin – Harlingen service starting in October.
The Southwest Airlines check-in line didn’t just extend out the terminal, and down the road, it reached all the way down to the freeway.
After flying from Austin to Amsterdam for the last week of holiday break and spending six nights at the Hyatt Regency Amsterdam last month, it was time to head home.
You may not think of the start of the year as the right time to travel to Europe, but I’ve always loved Paris in December and Amsterdam in January is nice as well. The weather may not be, but it’s cold in the States too! People are home from work and the streets aren’t busy. The place isn’t overrun with American teenagers!
And Amsterdam seems like an odd place to go with a five year old, but the city is a lot more than the red light district. There are great museums for kids, there’s great food, and it was something different. Plus there’s a non-stop flight from Austin, and there were three business class saver award seats on our preferred dates. The perfect trip!
Delta decided they needed to plant their flag in Austin, realized they needed a place to send planes in order to do so, and as an afterthought told Midland, Texas they’d be coming – only just before announcing it to the public.
On Tuesday a Delta Air Lines passenger was arrested in Austin “for allegedly making a terroristic threat.”
The man was onboard a flight headed for Atlanta. A flight attendant “asked him to move his briefcase,” and she reported to the captain that he said the briefcase might contain one of three things: “money, a bomb or a gun.”
While American shed highly unprofitable flying, they had been using pretty much all available windows for swing gates, gates that could be used for flying by any carrier. And that blocked others from significant expansion.
With their recent moves opening up the field I speculated that could mean Delta making good on its promise to create a focus city in Austin. They’ve been willing to stick by unprofitable flying like Seattle, buoyed by strong performance of their interior hubs and their lucrative American Express deal, making a bet on long-term performance.
The last segment of our trip was a flight home from London Heathrow to Austin on British Airways in business class. They use an Airbus A350 on the route, with no first class but with the airline’s Club Suites – essentially a bespoke version of the current American Airlines seat with doors added. It is a very good but not great seat.
This was the flight I already told one story off of: being refused water as a predeparture beverage, with the crewmember snapping that I already had a bottle at my seat.
British Airways business class is very serviceable. The new seat (which won’t be completely installed in their fleet until 2026, despite already being four years into the roll-out) is quite good. The bedding and amenity kits are good. Their main meals are ok, snacks chintzy, and breakfast worth skipping.
Cabin crew are friendly enough, though a bit overwhelmed in the Airbus A350 in particular.
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 »
