Tag Archives for delta air lines.
David Leavitt is worth tens of millions of dollars. He’s the County Attorney for Utah County, Utah (they ran out of names, Utah County includes Provo) and is currently running for Utah Attorney General.
Leavitt is also the brother of Mike Leavitt, former Utah Governor and Secretaries of the EPA and Health and Social Services. And he’s a Delta ramper. He didn’t have time to do everything so he gave up singing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to take the job.
The airline industry makes for strange bedfellows.
Delta is rushing to save a key American Airlines partner, because that keeps it from being on the hook to repay the loan they guaranteed. However if they fail they will take partial ownership in Gol’s frequent flyer program, a key American Airlines partnership.
Harrell’s cello was naturally a valuable item and he used to purchase an extra seat on the plane for the cello when he traveled. He was a Delta frequent flyer, and he thought that if the cello had a seat that the instrument should also be a member of SkyMiles accruing points for the ticket purchases. Delta warned him in 2001 that SkyMiles membership was limited to people, but Harrell persisted. He continued earning miles for his cello successfully for many years and then eventually in 2012 was banned from the SkyMiles program.
His story was featured on The Colbert Report where I appeared in defense of Delta.
Delta’s CFO acknowledges SkyMiles members taking “a little hiatus when people aren’t going to travel,” but that the program still continues to motivate spend because it gives people “something to look forward to [the] prospect of saving up for something.” Then he offers insight into how the Delta portfolio is performing relative to American Express’s other products.
Delta is capping all flights at 60% of capacity through June 30. To maintain that commitment they’re adding flights “to give confidence” to customers. Even if Delta is able to sell 60% and eventually 75% of seats on planes, we can expect them to then add flights and seats which will continue to put downward pressure on prices. And of course as other airlines as seats that’ll push pricing down even further.
More than 650 of Delta’s planes are parked, but in another sign that airlines believe their future is going to be smaller than their past – at least for the foreseeable future – the airline has decided to retire its fleet of 18 Boeing 777s.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian sent a memo to the airline’s employees about the decision, and the internal document was shared with me by a source.
Delta is going to cap the number of seats they sell in each cabin of their aircraft through June 30, to promote social distancing. Delta will also require customers to wear face masks starting May 4.
Delta lawyers submitted a filing to the Department of Transportation in which they make the case that travel is unsafe and flights should be limited if at all possible.
That’s not the position Delta takes in public or emphasizes with employees. But it’s a convenient argument to make when they’re trying to reduce their service obligations under the federal airline bailout.
The Wall Street Journal had reported that both Delta and United were in talks to do this again with their credit card partners, but Ed Bastian appears to deny this is the case. There was some reference during the airline’s earnings call that the government could take part of SkyMiles as collateral for a subsidized CARES Act loan although nothing was definitive.
Delta Air Lines is losing $60 million a day and not paying over a third of its employees who took leaves. It has parked the majority of its fleet. And i’s preparing to accept billions of dollars in government bail out cash.
Yet last week it appears to have placed an order for 10 Airbus A350s. Airbus announced the order, but refused to confirm the airline involved.
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 »
