Tag Archives for delta.
IHG Rewards Club has issued an update to its terms and conditions. And there’s only one change, repeated a few times in a few different ways. They want to make very sure you know that Taiwan is part of ‘Greater China’.
China’s civil aviation authority demanded a public apology from Delta and changes to its website for listing Tibet and Taiwan as countries.
American Airlines status challenges cost money to sign up for and include a minimum spend requirement although the airline also occasionally will directly status match a United or Delta top tier elite member.
In a rare instance of Delta following American (although to be fair Delta was first with minimum spend for elite status) their elite status challenge program requires minimum spend not just minimum travel. And there’s on other change as well.
Delta is running a sale on coach awards between the U.S. 48 Continental states and the Caribbean and Central America. They say prices start at 16,000 miles but awards are available for less.
They claim Boston – Cincinnati and Nashville – Seattle are on sale at 27,000 miles roundtrip for a saver award. Raleigh – Seattle and Salt Lake City – Seattle are on sale at 28,000 miles roundtrip. So much for the 25,000 mile domestic roundtrip saver award.
Delta Airlines is being sued for discrimination against Jewish employees and nonrev passengers flying to Israel.
Flight attendants claim to have been fired, denied advancement, or suspended because of their Jewish faith or over friendships with Jews. Delta vigorously denies the claim. It’s not the first time Delta has been accused of anti-semitism.
Regus has furnished offices all over the world. You can rent an office for a day, a week, whatever you need. They also have ‘business lounges’ which are open lounges in their offices, with wireless internet and coffee and tea. Some people like to use them, but I’ve never found it all that much more appealing than going to Starbucks or a similar venue. Even business lounges can be expensive to use, I suppose there are people who pay for it (you can even earn American Airlines miles if you do). But they’ve long given away free access to use their business lounges, which can’t cost them much to do. I have a ‘Gold’ membership from them, which I think was marketed to me in an email from American AAdvantage. Gold ‘sells for‘ $600 per…
Delta will no longer allow Skymiles members (at least those members in the U.S.) to hold awards over the phone. If you book by phone, you have to ticket immediately. And booking over the phone just became more limited, as non-elites can only make telephone award reservations between 8am and 10pm Eastern. Holding awards for 48 hours is still possible online. Awards on Delta as well as parter airlines Hawaiian, Alaska, Continental, and Northwest are bookable online.. sort of, sometimes, when the website works and prices out awards correctly. Of course, that means that awards on other partners like Air France, Aeroflot, and Korean cannot be held at all. This is a really annoying change. Finding awards can be challenging at times. Sometimes it takes humans because the online technology is lacking. You find flights…
One Mile at a Time points to a Wall Street Journal piece on the coming three-tiered structure of the Delta Skymiles redemption program. Earlier in the month I wrote that the coming three-tiered structure would be bringing back ‘last seat availability’ to the Skymiles program; that the highest third tier would mean more miles but at least true redemption for any seat, as offered by most other frequent flyer programs. Delta’s earlier removal of this option was a real affront, but the hope was that this was temporary. The Wall Street Journal piece, though, either misrepresents the coming change or suggests that Delta won’t be bringing back last seat availability. Delta also plans to increase the number of “tiers” in its SkyMiles plan this spring. Instead of offering domestic tickets for either 25,000 or 50,000…
Tim Winship makes a point about Delta’s new miles as money option for award tickets that I neglected to mention: that the tickets you ‘buy’ at one cent per point are treated as award, rather than paid, tickets. In other words, they don’t earn miles and they can’t be upgraded. Still, Winship concludes [T]he increased flexibility, transparency, and convenience provided by Pay with Miles will be welcomed by many SkyMiles members and sets a new industry standard for award availability. Now, as I mentioned previously, United already offers Choices — a similar program for Mileage Plus members with a co-branded Visa credit card. So it’s hardly a new industry standard being pioneered by Delta. Of course, holders of the Delta American Express card can use all their miles in this program, rather than just the…
Delta is offering double miles to Mexico (in coach, triple miles in business) for travel through April 15. Registration required. Eligible routes: Atlanta (ATL) Guadalajara (GDL) Atlanta (ATL) Leon (BJX) Atlanta (ATL) Queretaro (QRO) Los Angeles (LAX) Guadalajara (GDL) Los Angeles (LAX) Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo (ZIH) Los Angeles (LAX) Loreto (LTO) Los Angeles (LAX) Mazatlan (MZT) New York (JFK) Mexico City (MEX)
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 »
