Airline News
April 27th, 2010
FUEL SURCHARGE ATTEMPT IS A HARBINGER. In late April, Delta attempted a $20 roundtrip fuel surcharge—the first of which we’ve seen since November of 2008 when fuel prices were through the roof at about $150 per barrel. Oil crashed to about $50 per barrel a year ago. Now it’s approaching $85 and here come the surcharges. It’s not clear yet if Delta’s competitors will match the move. But even if they don’t and the price hike fails, you can expect Delta or another carrier to try again, and eventually succeed. Airfares are headed up and we expect a pricey peak summer season. If you plan to travel during the peak of the peak…roughly July 1-Aug 15, expect to pay significantly more than you did last year. About the only price break you can expect is if you have the flexibility to travel on Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday, or
take early morning or late night flights.
DELTA’S SKY PRIORITY: WHERE’S THE BEEF? So did you get the “introducing Delta Sky Priority” email from Delta telling you a bunch of stuff you already knew about your gold, platinum or diamond SkyMiles status? The email says that starting April 15, members get access to dedicated check in lines, expedited security lanes, priority boarding, faster bags and an exclusive reservations line. Ummm. So, didn’t you already get that stuff before April 15? Yes, you did. Delta’s just wrapped it all up in a new branding and airport signage message. They’ve even created a web site to tell you about it. Hey there Silver Medallions! Are you feeling a little left out? What do you get (or NOT get) for your 25,000 miles of loyalty? Compare here. Have you suffered the indignity of lower status on Delta due to travel cutbacks at your company? If so, please email us with your thoughts and experiences…we will include them in a future post in The TICKET. Send them to ticketatl@travelskills.com
BAG FEE FLAP. By now, everyone has heard about Spirit Airlines new $45 fee for carry-on bags that don’t fit under the seat in front of you. Our take: If the rule irks you, take your business elsewhere! However, there’s more to this story. When Spirit announced the new fee, it also cut its fares accordingly. As a result of the new low fares, CEO Ben Baldanza tells TheStreet.com its bookings have increased 50 percent. From Atlanta, Spirit flies to Ft Lauderdale and starting May 1, it will fly to Myrtle Beach.
AMERICAN BACK ON ATL-LGA. Starting this summer, American Airlines will re-enter the ATL-New York La Guardia market with 7x flights per day using Barbie Jets (CRJ-700) outfitted with both first class and coach seats. Big plus for AA: Flights depart from the quick and easy Concourse T at ATL.
American's CRJ 700 Jet (Photo: Caribb / Flickr)
DELTA ROUTE CHANGES. Delta has added summer season flights between NYC and Spain’s third largest city, Valencia, from May 28 through Oct 30. Might be an easier way to get to Europe using miles this summer… Also, Delta will terminate its new San Diego – Honolulu flights as well as Portland – Honolulu on August 10. Delta’s also asked the DOT to allow it to wait until at least September 1 to resume nonstops from ATL to Shanghai, a route it opened with much fanfare in 2008, but quickly shuttered when the economy went sour. For now, Delta’s ATL customers must connect in Detroit to get to Shanghai.
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DELTA WI-FI. We are huge fans of in-flight Wi-Fi and consistently make our airline choice based on whether or not the flight has it. Luckily, AirTran’s got it fleet wide, and it’s increasingly common on Delta, which now has over 400 planes outfitted and should have it on its entire mainline fleet by the end of this summer. (Not bad, considering Delta’s first plane got it just 18 months ago.) All Delta A319s, MD88s, MD90s, 737s and 767-300s have it now, as do nearly all 757’s. About half of its A320’s have it. Interesting stat: Since the launch of inflight Wi-Fi in December 2008, more than 1 million customers have used Wi-Fi on Delta planes.
HAND LUGGAGE RULES EASED. Travelers to the U.S. from both the UK and Canada can now carry on TWO pieces of hand luggage. Travelers from both countries had been restricted to a single carry on since the attempted bombing of the Delta jet in Detroit on Christmas
AIRTRAN UP, DELTA DOWN IN QUALITY SURVEY. We’re not usually huge fans of the Airline Quality Rating survey published by Wichita State University professors based on a weighted average derived from DOT statistics. But it always seems to get a ton of media attention, so here’s at least one interesting angle. AirTran placed second in the latest ranking for performance in 2009. Delta, on the other hand, placed 15th out of the 18 airlines ranked. Coming in at 16th and 17th place were Delta partners Comair and Atlantic Southeast. (Hawaiian was #1; American Eagle #18) Question to readers: Is Delta really that much worse than AirTran? Or is AirTran really that much better than Delta? What’s been your experience? LET US KNOW! Leave your comments below.
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Sent by reader DW
Re; Sky Priority: I agree that there’s no new benefit here. I haven’t qualified for Medallion status in years, since leaving my job and working mostly from home. But when I do travel, as I said, it’s in First or Business, so I already get all of those benefits, with the exception of the dedicated telephone line (which has an asterisk next to it explaining that we lowly paid First / Business passengers who haven’t Medallion status don’t get this Sky Priority privilege). But I must say, that annoys me – airlines used to have dedicated lines for people purchasing First Class travel and when I (rarely) have to call to adjust one of my itineraries, there’s no priority given to the class of service. If they were serious about catering to all Sky Priority passengers, they’d work this out. And they’d add something to the mix – really, it’s just bundling some of the standard perks and renaming them. I can get those on any other airline by purchasing a First Class ticket – there’s nothing here to differentiate Delta from the others.
Drury Hotels provide good service at an attractive price. Love the free breakfast and two free coupons for drinks at Happy Hour. (Not just beer and wine). Usually good locations with the entire property fenced with a heavy iron fence. At a couple hotel sites they had an attendant at the parking lot to check your hotel key or a they had a security gate that opened with your room key. Felt very secure with parking system. At a reunion of retired employees, they gave a free meeting room and allowed us to bring our own bar and snacks without any charge.
Delta has made it nearly impossible to redeem miles on flights. . .
I was elated to see they added back some of the old boarding to Sky Priority effective today. I flew AT and I don’t think it was superior to Delta or vice versa.
To the reader above, I normally fly first/business/business elite on Delta, and will be Diamond in the next 2 months. Sadly, your feelings on value is ten fold for me, I use them often and it really don’ts matter. Same program, just new marketing.
@Paula, I completely agree, the Award Calendar is horrible and such a waste of time. When I asked Delta about it, they responded with that elites get elite bonuses to offset having to pay the higher redemption tickets??! That would be like telling a customer that they have a higher income they have to pay more…. just poor on DLs part.