This is part one of this weekend’s Catching Up on Travel News (part 2 comes tomorrow)
AIRLINES
Delta keeps making moves to improve the ride for it’s customers with deepest pockets. (Photo: Jim Glab)
Delta tightens SkyMiles rules — again. Will United? In the latest tweak to its ever-changing SkyMiles program, Delta is increasing by 20 percent the minimum spend required during 2015 to achieve 2016 Medallion status — e.g., Medallion Qualifying Dollar requirements go from $2,500 to $3,000 for Silver status and so on, up to $15,000 for Diamond from the current $12,500. Delta says it is upping the ante to increase exclusivity of higher status– much like it’s done with more restrictions on guests allowed in Sky Clubs to control crowding. And keep an eye on United, which in keeping with it’s WWDD (What Would Delta Do) policy of mimicking every Delta move, could impose similar higher spending requirements. Is it working to make the experience more exclusive? We frequently hear from both sides of this issue, so please leave your comments below.
Another Delta squeeze. In another change, Delta will downgrade its Basic Economy fares (E fares). Effective February 15, passengers on those low-cost fares (typically on fares where the carrier competes with the likes of Spirit or Frontier) will not be able to get free Medallion upgrades, paid upgrades or advance seat selection; no refunds, changes or same-day standbys are allowed; and Preferred and Economy Comfort seats are off-limits.
Delta gets more time at DAL. Instead of being forced out of Dallas Love Field on October 13 as reported earlier, Delta will now get a reprieve at least until January 6 to keep operating its five daily DAL-ATL flights. What changed? Southwest Airlines — which controls 16 of DAL’s 20 gates — agreed to let Delta use one of them for a few months, and United anted up ticket counter space as well. Delta has been subleasing two gates from American Airlines, but those will be transferred to Virgin America this week.
An American Airlines B737-800 will soon fly ATL-LAX (Photo: BriYYZ / Flickr)
American adds another key ATL route. A week ago, American revealed plans to revive LaGuardia-Atlanta service on January 6. And now AA announced another stab at the heart of Delta’s network: It will begin three flights a day between Atlanta and its Los Angeles International hub on March 5, and is already taking reservations. LAX-ATL will be a mainline AA route, operated with 737-800s. So for those of you who say you are ready to dump Delta for a carrier that (so far) has not made the move toward revenue-based frequent flyer rewards, you now have more options.
Ebola fears in check. Based on our recent Ebola Fear Poll and post, it sounds like frequent travelers are not too alarmed about the possibility of contracting Ebola. With nearly 500 votes from TravelSkills readers in so far, 68% say that they are not fearful about Ebola, 22% say they are somewhat fearful and just 10% say that they are very fearful. Have you participated in the poll? In case you missed it, here’s one of the most viral travel videos this week showing hazmat crews entering a plane where a passenger joked about having ebola. VIDEO
Loading ...(click on the vote button or the clear looking button to cast your vote)
Speaking of germs, we got a kick out of this email from TravelSkills reader MM about a recent flight where she was seated next to one of the 10% who are very fearful of Ebola: Dear Chris: I had to share an inflight experience I had tonight traveling from DFW to the ATL. So I am seated on a three seat row, when a passenger seated beside me (I was stuck in the middle seat) gets to her aisle seat to settle in. I said a quick hello and continued looking at my phone. She then began to pluck what I appeared to be antibacterial wipes from a container…they were ALCOHOL wipes—big ones!! She proceeded to stand up and wipe down her entire seat…every inch…seat belt included..straps too. Then she wiped down her tray table, light and ac controls, arm rests…the whole kit-kat and caboodle! By this time, I am having flashbacks to having my ears pierced in seventh grade at Rich’s department store where they doused you in alcohol. Then she neatly sat down. There were so many fumes that I felt like I needed the pull down the oxygen mask before take off! This is what happens when the fear of germs affects the quality of flight I thought to myself. Then I smiled and thought…I couldn’t wait to email TravelSkills about this! I am anti-germy myself but keep my hand sanitizer neatly tucked away. This woman was ready to do battle with bacteria! Oh, the stories that will emerge from all this…”
HOTELS
Marriott’s new Kube wireless charger
Marriott tries a new tech amenity. if you see an odd black box in a Marriott lobby, don’t hesitate to put your phone on it — that’s what it’s for. Marriott installed Kube Systems wireless charging stations in the lobbies of 29 hotels, acting on a suggestion from customers at its idea website, www.TravelBrilliantly.com. Besides the wireless charging surface, the boxes have built-in connectors to power up to six devices.
In Case You Missed It…
>Looks like a major renovation is in store for New York’s iconic Waldorf-Astoria following its sale by Hilton to a Chinese insurance company for nearly $2 billion.
>Airline lounge memberships: Why they’re not for everyone.
>Try these tips for catching some Zs in your hotel room.
>Eight essential tips for business trips to San Francisco.
>>Take a peek at what you may have missed on TravelSkills.com this week! <<
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Sorry to say it’s not only Delta, but also United and American. As I have said in other posts, these airlines are now so big that the folks that don’t fly over 50,000 miles are getting screwed. The bottom line is not to complain about it (nothing we can do, we are at their mercy) but do the best we can, flying Jet Blue, Virgin and Southwest is always a better experience. So if we get stuck on delta or the others, the best thing to do on any flight over 4 hours is just pay the extra fee for comfort/Economy plus and try to figure out ways on really long flights of over 6 hours how we afford to fly business. Of course those greedy SOB’s that are making these changes are sitting back while reading this with a big smile on their faces, smoking their big cigars and saying, “see I got another sucker to convert, guess I am worth my million dollar salary.”
Fair enough, I know that my company (i own it) has to pay for everything, the cost are passed on to the people we do the job for. I personally will only fly business class on flights to Europe or anything over six hours, that is the only perk I have given myself. Most of the time I can get the client to pay most of these costs. So that is the whole reason for the discussion, airlines are in a search for those willing to pay more and get more. I no longer fly over 50,000 miles a year so I am not terribly well rewarded, compared to the way it was a decade ago.
So flying has become a terrible experience and one that I dread every time I have to fly someplace. The sad thing, it’s only going to get worst as the airlines squeeze us ever more. I understand it’s a tough business for them, but without the competition we will only get more screwed by the airlines.
I fly occasionally for business, but not enough to hit Delta’s high hurdles. When I would fly on a cheaper fair, I would often pay out of pocket to upgrade to Economy Comfort. Now I will be doing almost all my flying on Southwest and/or USAir/American. The mid-range business traveler is going to dump Delta. I think this will backfire unless there are really enough huge flyers to keep them in business.
I’m not trying to be argumentative, and don’t’ take this the wrong way, but I used to have the same reaction to flying. It could be somewhat mental (i.e. if I don’t wipe this down, I’ll get sick, if I do, I won’t.). There are so many other sources of germs on a plane that wiping down your area may prevent sickness in some instances, but the fact that you never get sick when you do this means it could be something else (in your head. you can actually get sick thinking about getting sick).
I pay for 60–70% of my travel and personally paid for my SkyClub membership.
Kirk, I was once like you. Flew 150,000 miles a year, my company flew me either first class or business class, the world was wonderful. I know longer work for that company and have to fly like the common person. The first two years after I left the company was ok because of my past status, always got upgraded and the world was wonderful.
Now that I am like 99% of the poor, bitter folks that have to fly regularly in coach and have to watch every penny, it’s quite a fall. One that I can only hope you don’t experience because you would feel just like me when you cram yourself into a small seat for a six hour flight. Now if you had to pay premium of thousands of dollars for what you described, you too would be just like the rest of us scramble for anything nice.
The airlines are making great strides for folks like you who have earn the privilege to get more than the average folks, but all I am saying is for Joe pro 35,000 mile a year guy, life sucks big time.
Such bitterness! We’ll clearly have to agree to disagree. DL has added lie-flat direct aisle access in BE across the entire fleet. They’ve added wifi and economy comfort and in-flight streaming across the entire fleet. These are things I enjoy. There’s no way DL would have made these investments if they were still losing money. I think we’re in a better place now than 7 years ago when the industry was in shambles
One question for you, are you paying for this or is your company paying???
It’s much easier to write this if someone else is paying for this, also your the type of person the airlines are trying to make happy, someone that spends a quarter of their year on a airplane. For us poor suckers that only fly 40 to 50,000 miles a year, we have to suffer through this.
Sorry I don’t buy it. The reason they were losing money was competition, nothing else. So by eliminating the competition, you have fixed it??? Most of the airlines had unrealistic labor costs and they were pissing away money on a lot of things. We were forced to suffer over the last ten years with higher fees on baggage, limited space and perks that went away. With this the airlines were controlling cost and returning to profitability. Now they are racking in the cash with lower fuel cost and higher fares, while the consumer has to be cattle prodded into tight planes.
Gosh, I would of rather taken my chances on the airlines going broke, bet you that Southwest and Jet Blue would of still been flying.
Delta’s change seems so small, I doubt it will make a big diference. Of course, they have the numbers so maybe the numbers do tell them that it will matter. I have Diamond status and earn about 200,000 MQMs per year and about $25K MQDs. I am delighted with many of the changes Delta has made to the flying experience (e.g., flat bed seats, Delta Studio) but I find it harder and harder to get an upgrade even as a Diamond Medallion. Maybe my home airport has too many Diamonds but it surprises me that I only get upgraded about 50% of the time. Maybe these changes will help a small amount. I have a purchased LIfetime SkyClub Executive membership. I have not yet noticed less of a crowd. At common business travel times, it is still difficult most of the time to get to the bar for a Diet Coke and can be challenging to find seats together for 2 or 3 people. However, I hope this will get better as less people have Executive SkyClub status. As a paid member, I do believe that the clubs are more crowded because of the free access for Diamond members but I do think that is a nice perk to offer to Diamond members.
I routinely wipe my armrest & tray table down with a sanitizing wipe. I, too, have observed way too many passengers putting their feet up, using the tray table to change a diaper, blowing/wiping their nose on the airline blanket, etc, sigh.
Before the mergers, the airlines were all losing money every year. All of them. Sure, fares were cheaper, but it wasn’t sustainable. You seem to think the airlines would have continued giving away their money forever, just so that you could fly to California for cheap. You’re wrong. Something had to give.
Next time I’ll put a TL;DR in for you!
I’ll admit, I got bored and didn’t read your whole post, but allow me to resolve the riddle in one sentence: Delta is in business to make money, so they’ve decided to reward (with Elite benefits) those customers who give them more money.
I flew home Tuesday night and was awakened Wednesday to that awful roiling stomach followed by several trips to the loo. I lost two days in the transition back to health.
I realize the poster connected the cleaning behavior to Ebola, but I’m all for keeping it clean. I’ve had too many flights with sticky tray tables and armrests. It would be interesting to know how often the airlines really disinfect them. If it takes my fellow passengers to do what the airline should be doing, well, so be it.
On this recent flight home, I took the hot towel I was given and used it to wipe the tray table and armrest after using it on my hands. I felt slightly sheepish until I noticed everyone in my row did the same thing. Guess it wasn’t enough to keep the germs at bay. Next time I’ll be the one with sanitizing wipes.
Until Marriott repents of jamming user Wifi hotspots to screw them into three or four figure WIFi conference access passes, don’t do business with them.
Don’t see an issue with wiping down the seat and I’m not a germaphobe in my day to day life. For me, it’s not about Ebola but about me being “that” person who always comes down with a cold or some such thing on a trip. If I’m going to be away for longer than the weekend, the armrests, etc. get wiped down. I feel like a schmuck when doing it. But, the last two times on a long trip when I’ve forgotten to do it or decided it wasn’t worth it, either my husband or I have come down with a cold. Not making a causal argument, but it’s enough to make one wonder.
I certainly agree that the airline industry needs more competition. I have heard from people in the know that many large U.S. airports are forced by the government to accept a certain number of commuter flights with tiny airplanes, which uses up a lot of slots and makes it harder for new airlines to break into new markets. If I had my way, I’d replace many commuter flights with very tightly integrated plane-to-bus systems, open up airports to the biggest planes, set a cap on the percentage of flights that any one carrier can own at a single airport, and tighten the rules for inter-carrier plane changes so the hub-and-spoke system isn’t impaired.
I would be a lot madder if this change were going to affect me, I imagine. But at the moment my flying patterns leave me comfortably clear of the higher hurdle. So assume that affects my analysis…
The problem, as I see it, is that there’s no transparency in what Delta’s trying to achieve. Of course they’re trying to make more $, but how does this do it? On one hand, you have a bunch of people who are unhappy with Delta and thinking about switching loyalty, especially if other airlines don’t match this. That can’t be good for the bottom line. But on the other hand, I really can’t imagine enough people stretching for higher fares or making “Dollar Runs” to make up for people who leave. Maybe I’m naive about that.
Perhaps Delta is trying to make sure that the people who fly on higher priced tickets get upgrades more often and therefore discover that Delta delivers more value for the extra cost than the competitors. Perhaps Delta has received criticism that there’s no benefits to being lower-level elite other than getting on the plane first and now want to make sure that even a SM can get upgrades often enough to feel special. Perhaps Delta just has a target for what percentage of flyers should be at each elite level and they’re adjusting the metrics to hit those levels and this seems the right way to do it. Any of these could be true, and are simply about giving out benefits more carefully with a long term goal of making customers want to fly Delta more often.
Regardless, it seems like it’s a very indirect or long term route to raise $ from a small subset of the customer base, but perhaps that’s the only customer subset that they feel they can get more $ out of. With the expected introduction of more flights with an E-fare class that will allow Delta to sell lower price tickets in competition with Spirit et al, it sure seems like Delta is trying to remain competitive overall as many bargain seeking customers still want to fly for a Song.
Just another case of greed, greed and more greed. You know who you have to blame for all of this? The U.S. Government in allowing all of these airlines to merge, they no longer have to complete. If you live in cities like Washington (like I do), Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco you no longer have any choices. You have to fly either American, United or Delta.
Yes in Washington Dulles I have United as the main carrier, with Southwest, Jet Blue and Virgin as choices. I love these three airlines, but if I fly United 25,000 miles I don’t have to pay luggage fees the next year. But it’s becoming a struggle, in just the last two years since American, United and Delta merged flying to California and Florida is now up between 25% to 40%, again because of lack of competition.
So get use to all of this, it’s becoming the norm in America that their is becoming a lack of competition because big companies are getting away with murder, they are also getting so big that you can no longer compete against them. Perfect example, Virgin. It’s a great airlines that has been around for seven years but to this day it has never made a penny in profits, all because they got beaten down by the big airlines who compete against them and have a big advantage.
So the next time you see a big merger, like the AT&T and Direct TV merger ask yourself on why the U.S. Government is allowing a merger of two giants that together will screw us all.
You know, my wife and I have long brought foil packets of anti-bacterial (not alcohol) wipes and rubbed down the tray table, arm rests, edge of the seat backs, pockets, etc. And this was long before the Ebola scare. Too many people with colds and flu on board, coughing and sneezing into their hands, changing babies on the tray table (yes, I’ve seen it!), and doing other things destined to make others sick. And when you travel by air often it’s silly not to take a few precautions.