Tag Archives for delta air lines.
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 reader flew Delta business class from New York to Europe where he had a run-in with a flight attendant at the end of the trip – and now he’s worried about being banned from the airline. Yet he says he’s the one that was mistreated!
On last week’s Delta Air Lines earnings call, executives “drum[med] up excitement for premium product announcements in November.” That’s when the airline is holding its Investor Day, and they’ve already told us what to expect: ‘basic business class,’ doing to the premium cabin what they’ve already done to coach.
I don’t think we have enough to really pin the blame here on Delta, but their customer wasn’t safe on their plane and 4,000 SkyMiles is an insult, since the currency is so low value and the number itself is so de minimis. They should do better here.
In 2011 Delta was accused of antisemitism for its partnership with Saudia. Delta argued at the time that it wasn’t really partnering with Saudia – and that it would not do so.
The passenger didn’t even give his ex a 5-star rating in the follow-on survey after the call, he says, because “she didn’t resolve my issue!”
After Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called Ed Bastian, ‘reminding him about his airline’s responsibilities to passengers’, the airline became more reasonable covering costs for stranded passengers. Delta had previously refused to pay for tickets that travelers were stuck buying on other airlines.
However, CEO Bastian has put Buttigieg on blast over this.
Delta opened its first dedicated Delta One business class lounge at New York JFK back in June. Their second one, in Los Angeles, opens October 10th.
Italy is hot. It was a focus of limit summer 2025 Europe additions by American Airlines. And it’s a focus of Delta’s latest route network changes as well.
Delta’s President views SkyMiles as a ‘giveaway program’ rather than something his customers invest in and can expect a return from. So it’s no surprise that Delta can charge more than 4 times as many miles for the same Delta seat that their partners will charge to their own customers. The Vice President running SkyMiles even admits they’re not trying to compete over offering value to customers.
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 »
