Tag Archives for delta air lines.
The Asiana-Korean Air merger is set to consolidate the two major Korean airlines, potentially affecting competition on key international routes, despite concerns from US and European regulators. Virgin Atlantic’s proposed Seoul route hinges on the deal’s approval, underscoring the complex interplay between airline alliances and market competition.
Delta Air Lines co-pilot, Jonathan Dunn, part of the Federal Flight Deck Officer program, pulled a gun on his flight’s captain, threatening him multiple times against diverting the plane for a passenger with a medical emergency.
Delta Air Lines has announced several changes to its frequent flyer program for 2024, to replace the changes they had announced to its frequent flyer program for 2024. In the midst of all of the rancor and chaos, there’s a change to who gets upgrades going forward.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian says that SkyMiles changes have only been rolled back temporarily, and his explanation to customers for why they’re making changes is not consistent with what his airline has been telling investors.
Delta Air Lines overbooked a flight, so as is common they offered passengers gift cards to give up their seat and take a later flight. One passenger who had already boarded the flight in Atlanta accepted their offer of $700 but when he got off the aircraft the airline would not pay.
After Delta’s evisceration of elite qualification rules for next year, announcing the end of earning status by miles and flights flown; moving entirely to dollars spent; and increasing the amount of spending required for status substantially, as well as severely restricting access by premium credit card customers to its lounges, Delta acknowledged that they had moved ‘too quickly’ by ‘pulling the band aid off all at once’ and promised to moderate their changes for the coming year.
The airline used to brag about its involvement with the Kariba project in Zimbabwe. Bloomberg‘s Matt Levine calls the folks involved “ESG Consultant[s] But Evil.”
I thought Delta would have a good chance keeping the slot if it proposed a New York JFK flight (a new competitor on the route in an important market, and ironically one with much better connectivity now that the Department of Justice forced American and JetBlue to break up their partnership). I also thought that the best shot of winning would be new service from a market that currently lacks a non-stop to Tokyo, such as Miami (or Orlando).
However Delta is telling its employees that the slot will go to American or to United.
Will Mandis posts video of a Delta Air Lines plane appear to pause in mid-air, and it’s striking. Some are calling the phenomenon a “glitch in the matrix.” The video is not altered.
CEO Ed Bastian reported that they are “getting good feedback” from customers and that they “had too many changes rolled out at the same time” and that’s why they needed to go back and “reassess” the planned rollout for new elite qualification levels.
He contends that the vitriol from SkyMiles members simply shows their “intense loyalty to Delta” and that “most everyone agrees” Delta needed to make changes because they have more premium customers than they have premium assets to offer.
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 »
