Tag Archives for delta air lines.
Delta already bonused all travel towards elite status and made award trips count too. Now they’re throwing in the towel, more or less, and calling 2021 another wash as they don’t want to risk losing elite members who may again be valuable customers.
They’ve also figured out how to continue incentivizing elites to travel this year – at the expense of those who do not.
It used to be common for airlines to insist on seeing the credit card used to purchase a ticket, to combat fraud. With one reader, Delta insisted on seeing the credit card used to purchase a ticket that wasn’t even purchased with a credit card. That meant it was impossible to check in. And now the passenger is out real money.
Delta has offered up to lifetime Platinum status (’75k tier’), along with an annual gift, for million milers. Now they’ve introduced lifetime Diamond status at the 6 million mile level, including qualifying miles from all sources (including spend on premium credit cards).
During Delta’s earnings call on Tuesday the airline shared several fascinating statistics, for instance that corporate travel rose from 20% of 2019 levels in March to being 40% recovered in June, and the airline expects to be back to 60% of 2019 levels by September.
Perhaps even more interesting is the detail they shared on their American Express credit card relationship.
All airlines have had long hold times, but Delta’s have generally been the longest. And their website doesn’t do a lot of the things you might need, like handling schedule changes well and erroring out with simple tasks.
Delta’s CEO was asked about what they’re doing to address telephone hold times, and what customers should do for help in the meantime, during the airline’s earnings call.
Twenty three year odl Adelaide Schrowang thought she could pull off flying maskless on a Delta flight from Fort Myers. She refused to keep her mask over her nose and mouth while on the aircraft, and eventually police were brought to address it after she allegedly spit on passengers.
Video shows her interaction with police where she declares her human rights are being violated and she discovers that police officers are allowed to lie.
Even with the acquisition of more (used) Boeing aircraft, this move will make Delta less invested in aircraft from Boeing and its predecessors than before the pandemic since they’ve retired Boeing 777s, MD88s and MD90s.
I’m not sure how much value ‘fun’ safety videos actually ad. Do they get us to pay attention? Perhaps, but I’m not sure they get us to understand, internalize, and remember the safety information. Perhaps we focus on and remember the non-safety elements to the exclusion of the information that’s more important.
I love creativity in these videos anyway. They’re fun, they make me smile. Queer Eye (née Queer Eye For The Straight Guy) doesn’t do it for me per se, I’m beyond reclamation, but I applaud the attempt nonetheless.
Peter Espinosa flew first class from Minneapolis to Dallas on Delta with his 20 year old daughter who has genetic disorder Fragile X Syndrome. They were headed to visit his son – her brother – for Father’s Day.
A flight attendant saw a Hispanic man with a woman young enough to be his daughter and questioned her. The syndrome makes her nervous. So police met the aircraft and arrested him.
At the start of the pandemic airlines closed their club lounges as passenger numbers plummeted. With traveling returning lounges have been re-opening, and Delta has re-opened clubs more quickly than its major competitors.
They’ve also done more to bring back food. In fact Delta replaced pre-packaged last month in some clubs with buffet service. Last month I noted Detroit where an employee was plating food off the buffet for passengers. Well, the employee is now gone and Delta has returned to self-service petri dish buffets.
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 »
