Have you noticed all of the fitness equipment in the sales flyers that everyone got at the 1st of year (and then never got touched)? Does that help with any of your newly self assigned goals to eat right, exercise more, take better care of yourself, or spend more time with your family (I know silly for us who fly all the time but still)?

Or maybe you’ve decided this is the year you’re going to quit smoking. As a longtime (25+ years) ex-smoker myself, I applaud your efforts, much as I did our beloved Delta’s firm stand in 1995 when they became the first airline to ban smoking on all flights. Suddenly all the FA’s had a new paragraph to learn in their safety announcements. Sure, it’s totally standard practice now, but Delta was the first. And aren’t we glad since otherwise we’d never have been able to watch Deltalina wag her finger at us!

I just never get sick of this one

So what else has Delta rolled out that we’ve seen others follow suit on? It’s also been 2 whole years since our Delta was the first airline to make our miles infinitely powerful with no expiration for us loyal Skymilers. So, each point we earn from our Delta AMEX cards, even if we cancel then at some point, are ours forever!

Our Delta was the first in the world to implement fleet wide WiFi service so that we can all get more done while we’re up in the air. Also first to add the rollover of elite MQM’s provision for future medallion earning power. Delta was an early pioneer of the hub and spoke system going all the way back to 1955.

Some things didn’t catch on, or caught on for a while but didn’t last. How do you like your steak? Delta was the first to offer passengers cooked to order steaks in-flight. Complimentary meals during the day in coach was also a first from Delta. When you watch those wonderful cooking shows they always tell you it’s best to cook with “seasonal vegetables” don’t they? Well, our Delta was the first in the industry to introduce seasonal menus nearly 20 years ago.

So what other things does our Delta have in store for us? Will they be good changes? Will they become the new standards or will they fizzle? I have a feeling we will not have to wait too much longer to find out since the 2013 Skymiles guide will be out very soon (here is the 2012 one)! – René

PS – don’t miss your chance for SWAG Saturday

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Remember when getting ready for take off pretty much meant getting rid of cups and crayons and making sure your seat belt was fastened? Now we have to power down our phones, tablets, noise canceling headphones, put the laptop away, oh, and get rid of cups and crayons and make sure the seat belt is fastened! When all goes well it’s a short wait from taxi to take-off and then we hear the tone that indicates we’ve reached 10,000 feet and now we can play games and listen to music and read and do all the things our electronic devices allow us to do.

So do you know the 5 electronic items you may NEVER use on an aircraft? Sure, everybody knows you aren’t allowed use your phone to actually make calls, but there are 5 other items, easily found if you know where to look, we are never to use on an aircraft. Do you know what they are?

Last year in December I gave you all a pop-quiz (under the then rules) to see how “Delta Smart” you really are.  Well let’s see how you are this year. I want you to check the image below of 16 electronic devices and see if you can pick out all 5 that are never permitted for use on an aircraft. If you can guess all 5 of them right (comment ON THE BLOG not via e-Mail please), you will have a chance via random.org to win a  $100  SkyMall gift card (a huge shoutout and thanks to Skymall for the generous gift to the blog btw), and if you tell me where I found all of these, and are also the winner,  you will additionally get a $25 restaurant.com gift card as a bonus prize.

Here is the last bit to the fun. I will NOT publish ANY of your comments until the very end so you will not know what others are commenting (you are Delta smart, after all, and don’t need help from other readers)! I will hold the drawing at 10-11:PM EST tonight. – Rene

EDIT: We have our winner – voting is closed!

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Delta Points readers are at all levels of knowledge. There are those Flyer Talkers who know enough to speak an entire weekend at a “DO” to those who don’t know what a Flyer Talker is or what a “DO” is. You know what, we all have to start somewhere and that is just fine by me. All of us who have been at this for a while simply tend to forget that everyone does not know as much as we do. I cringe every time someone is overly critical of a “newbee”. So in that vein, here is today’s post and request of you who have been around the block – share and share with a smile.

Let’s answer some Delta Air Lines questions I get all the time and use this as a post to refer back to now and then as well.

Q1) Does Delta allow one way award tickets?
A1) Yes. Sorta. The answer is yes because you can buy a one way award ticket. The sorta part comes in because the amount of miles you need are the same as a round trip ticket (all of us hope this will change in 2013)

Q2) Are there ever any low level award tickets on Delta.com.
A2) Yes. But there are a ton of factors that go with that yes. Our airline is just about the stingiest major when it comes to the low level awards seats in coach and business class. Also, the higher your medallion level the more likely you are to find the seats you want. Lastly, especially for international awards, searching for seats on Skyteam partners is often a better choice to find seats.

Q3) If I get a DELTA AMEX card do I get both Skymiles and Medallion points?
A3) Yes and No. The DELTA GOLD card gets you ONLY Skymiles (RDM = redeemable miles). The Platinum card gives you some RDM’s and some Medallion points (MQM = medallion qualifying miles). The Reserve card give you just MQM’s but 10k with your first purchase.

Q4) Who can pick an exit row seat?
A4) Any level of Medallion, and all on the same itinerary can pick exit row seats and other “preferred” seats. Now to get access to Economy Comfort you must be Gold Medallion or higher to get them free. Anyone can purchase upgraded seats if you want them.

Q5) Will I get food in 1st class?
A5) What do you call food? Just kidding. On international flights in business class the food is quite good. You get appetizers, salad, a good meal and a good desert. A breakfast or light snack pre-landing as well. Good wine and other liquer is also complimentary. Now on domestic it depends on the length of the flight. Here is an area Delta is lacking in, but seems to be aware that they are behind.

Q6) Is it worth $25/$50 to visit a Skyclub?
A6) Sky clubs are nice. I would say it is worth it under these conditions. First, it is only $25 IF you have a Delta AMEX card (gold or platinum – your visit is free if you have the reserve card). For $50 it is a big maybe! But for $25 yes if. If what? If you have a long layover. IMO if you have 2+ hrs or want to take a shower it is well worth it. For 3+ hrs it is a simple choice to have free drinks, some snacks, wifi and more. If you fly a bunch, just get the DELTA Reserve card and you can go all you want for free!

Q7) I always fly another airline, should I switch to Delta?
A7) YES! (ok maybe I am a bit biased). Why do I say this? I love my Delta. Wifi on almost all planes, the best flight attendants of any airline, regional jets going away over time, economy comfort seating, easy to earn miles and so much more.

Q8) I just made medallion. Do I need my card or need to “flash” it?
A8) No. From your status to even if you have a Delta AMEX card all will show up both in your Skymiles account and on your boarding pass. There is just about no need to ever show your card. You can use it to check in at the airport kiosks etc. if you want.

Q9) Is GOES (global entry) worth it?
A) If you fly out of the country, maybe, once a year, probably not. If every year or more than once a year, you MUST have it. Plus, for the $100 fee it is good for 5 years. If you get the AMEX Membership Rewards Platinum card they pay you back for it. Plus you get $200 in incidental fees refunded each year. Just a GREAT deal.

Q10) How do I get one of those ultra kool Delta Points luggage tags?
A10) What a great question. At the end of the day today I will give away 5 of them to a once a day e-mail subscriber to Delta Points.com!

So please feel free to keep asking any Delta question you have and have a great flight if you are up in the air today and thanks for reading the blog – René

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I have a question for you all, but first “let’s poke a bear with a stick” and see how worked up I can get everyone today! What am I talking about? Just this:

One of the biggest complaints against us, bloggers that is, is that we “kill deals” by telling them to the masses. We get an e-mail or tips from readers or see the deal crop up some place like Mile Point or Flyer Talk and then tell readers to go do it fast. Then the yelling begins that this deal would have gone on for YEARS had we not put it on the web (OK I exaggerate just a little bit, but make my point)!

My stand, as you all know, is if you want a deal to stay “secret” you had better not tell me or hope I find out about it as I will blog about it if you, the reader, can repeat or do it. I have stated that I think we should not only get the deal out there, but try to get them out EVEN faster. To use technology to spread the word so fast that we can all jump on what ever “deal” is out there before it goes away (as it always does at some point BTW).

To that end, I have an idea about doing just that. The idea is to text your phone as soon as a deal comes out so you know it is live and to go check out the blog ASAP! Take a look at this:

This software just accesses my phone to send out the texts. I would add another cell phone to my plan and then get the software for a few month test license. It would cost me no more than $25/month the way I see it (less if we like it and keep it long term).

So I want to know, at no charge, if you would be interested in signing up to get a text message from Delta Points when just such an event happens (please  DO NOT  start sending me your phone number YET ). It would NOT be every day text, or maybe even each week, and some times it may not even be every month (my guess would be around 1-3x a month). I would use the “text alert” ONLY for deals like the Hong Kong deal, an awesome mileage run opportunity or a chance to get a great deal on points. You could naturally unsubscribe anytime you want as well.

So there you are. This is not a done deal and I have not done anything yet. This is just an idea and I want some feedback. Do you like the idea? Please let me know what you think and keep it civil.  – René

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Talk about a win-win-win for our airline! Not only are a ton of CRJ’s 100/200 going away, but SW Air will be paying for the conversion of the 717′s to Delta specifications according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Delta shareholders sure should be proud of all the recent choices Delta is making to improve the bottom line.

I also applaud Delta for not just making these an “upgraded” CRJ fleet of 88 jets, but fully integrating these birds with 1st class, EC seats, better galleys and wifi. It will be interesting to see just how many seats they do put in, but we can compare to the old arrangement with AirTran at SeatGuru.

The range on these is comparable to the CRJ’s but will offer much more comfort for longer flights should Delta want to use them in this roll on certain routes similar to the CRJ 700/900.

I like the MD’s as for just Lisa & me we can pick the 2 seat side rather than the 3 either side configuration of the 737 & 757′s. The leg room is nice in the back exit row and I will be sitting a bunch in this same seat on my coming mileage runs.

What do you think. Are you looking forward to the “new and improved” Delta 717′s? – Rene

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I am very sympathetic to those with allergies. I love cats. I don’t have any right now, but had the most adorable one ever on the planet for 18 years!

But I have had friends over who are so cat allergic that they, after a very short time, can not breath or see as their “breathing parts” (can you tell I am not an MD) just go crazy even when the adorable fuzzy one was no where near them!

Thanks to a tip from blog reader Steve, I reached out to Delta to confirm that the policy regarding peanuts on Delta flights has changed as of July 1st. You can see using the way back machine what the old policy was

So, if you requested it, 3 rows front and back of you got no nuts. They could naturally still get pretzels and Biscoff cookies if they were catered on that flight.

But now the new policy is this:

“Peanut Allergies

When you notify us that you have a peanut allergy, we’ll refrain from serving peanuts and peanut products onboard your flight. We’ll also advise cabin service to board additional non-peanut snacks, which will allow our flight attendants to serve these snack items to everyone within this area.

Gate agents will be notified in case you’d like to pre-board and cleanse the immediate seating area. We’ll do everything we can, but unfortunately we still can’t guarantee that the flight will be completely peanut-free.”

So there you are. If you are on a flight and get no nuts, don’t get upset and just know you are helping a fellow traveler not suffer on the flight.

But I have a question if this is going to work. I would love to know from readers who either have, or have known someone who has, severe peanut allergies. Will blocking nuts on the current flight work? What if this is a CRJ, with many times almost instant off and back on again loading, and the previous flight served nuts? So chime in and tell me what you think! – René

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One of the nice perks from Delta when you are a GOLD Medallion or higher flyer is that you get free upgrades on award tickets. Now most of us are aware that if we do not get the upgrade, Delta will give us a “HOOU” coupon. But are you missing out on yours to save some ink or toner in your printer? What am I going on about?

Well check this out (TIP USE IE over other browser if you can). When you go to print your boarding pass, you have the chance to choose all the “FUN” stuff like weather, sudoku etc. You may say, “I am a Medallion, I don’t need all that junk!” Ah, but yes you do!

This is because if you simply select the skip all these and pick print boarding pass ONLY, that is just what you will get – boarding pass ONLY!

You will then miss out on the free drink coupon, the HOOU or “have one on us”, that would have been printed had you selected print all the junk stuff

“So do I have to trash the planet and use extra paper, ink & toner?” No you don’t! But this is a good step for many reasons as you will see. Do this; first install PDF Creator on your computer. This will add a “virtual printer” that lets you print ANYTHING to a PDF. You can then print to a PDF your Delta full boarding pass and send that PDF to your email (always good to have a copy sitting in email inbox). Last step is open the email on your phone, save the PDF and have a copy of all your stuff with you. You can then pull up the bar code in the PDF and use it to board your flight or to get into the Skyclubs. You could even have Delta scan or manually enter the code from your phone to spend the HOOU inflight! (a tech tip, turn your “brightness” on your phone on high and lock screen rotation for best results).

So there you are. Not only do you do the smart thing by having an electronic backup of all your boarding passes in your phone, that are not internet access reliant, but you will also enjoy your free drink on Delta when stuck back in coach ! – René

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Syd-Koster outside Strömstad

I try to never too much shamelessly plug the “old country” Sweden but since I run a blog, ah, this one time, why not!

Have you ever thought about visiting Sweden? Many of my fellow BoardingArea bloggers have and can attest to the fact it is a beautiful county to visit. Not just that, but did you know that seasonally Delta flies a direct flight, DL202, from JFK-ARN (New York to Stockholm)? So what are you doing over the 4th of July weekend? Oh look, there are 100k Skymiles business class seats available on DL202 on the 4th!

You could even have some time in London on the return trip (OK so the return is not as great as the direct flight but it is still at low level miles )

For me, one of the most amazing and breathtaking things about Sweden is the sunshine. For sunset to be near midnight and sunrise just a few hours later is just stunning as you can see by the photo at my family’s summer place.

I always wake up with a smile there! There is so much to see, eat and do. Most of the people in Sweden speak better English than we do btw so you will have no problems there.  Here is a link to the visit Sweden tourist info page and you can check out Google about Sweden here.

I love this place. I start to count the days each time I leave and can come back again. Have you ever been to Sweden or any part of Scandinavia? I would love to know. Give me a shout out and tell me what you think of today’s shameless plug of the land of the Vikings! – Rene

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I hate spiders. I admit I have an almost unbalanced fear of them that could use psychiatric help. Yes, it is that bad. I get that spiders need to live for the balance of the ecology, but I would take more gnats, flies, bugs or you name it if all spiders became extinct.

Slightly lower on my list than spiders comes cell phone calls on an airplane. I also freely admit I have a problem I try to work on each day and that is being a “loud talker” on cell phones. I fight it, I am aware of it, and do try not to be so loud. I cannot imagine how bad I would be on an airplane. I bet the cabin crew could hear me from coach if I ever made a call in-flight.

I weighed in on my fellow BoardingArea.com blogger Kevin’s (aka ghettoife.com) post “about Virgin Atlantic introducing full Mobile Communications on-board” and voted the “only in an emergency” option.

Thankfully our Delta CEO seems to have no plans to allow cell phone use on our Delta jets any time soon as you can see at the end of the interview from THIS post about the opening of the ATL airport the other day. And in case you missed it in the news a few weeks back, there was an incident on a Delta flight where a customer, who btw develops voip apps, got in deep trouble for trying an in-flight call as you can see HERE.

Brian Williams video about VA calls

I can tell you, and I am betting many readers will agree, that many of our fellow flyers are over the top loud on their phones in the Delta Skyclubs! One of the reasons I go to the Skyclub is for peace and quiet from the “din” in and around the gate area. Think  about the idea of one of these types of people going from loud there to loud on the plane for hours! That would make me completely over the top nuts. So just to be clear, I am 100% against even the idea of allowing calls in-flight! We are tightly packed together in an already loud environment. We do not need to add to the noise and I hope Delta keeps the ban in place. Do you agree? – Rene

☺☺☺☺☺ ☺☺☺☺☺ ☺☺☺☺☺ ☺☺☺☺☺

Don’t forget that later today I will do the drawing for today’s qualifier to win the new NOOK 7″ Tablet so be sure to sign up for the once a day e-Mail for a chance to win it this Sunday!

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I have said how much I love living where I do. The middle is just nice. I have EZ access to the “Windy City” for Stay-cations whenever a point breaks room is found. I can fly out of SBN, AZO, FWA, GRR, IND, MDW, ORD & DTW all within a 3 hr drive. I could go on and on, but you can not all move here to the great Midwest!

But if you live in MSP, you may be starting to miss the glory days of MSP. Let me ask you a few questions.

• First, what has been going on since 2010? Look HERE.
•  And what has Delta been doing since then about the size of the jets going in and out of MSP since 2010? Look HERE.
•  And since Delta has not been buying any new planes for a while, can you tell me what type of plane Delta is buying right now? Look HERE.
• Last question. If a plane is small, noisy and very old, then our airline would like to keep this as quiet as possible right? Look HERE on the Delta blog.

Of course, you celebrate the bird. Now I do like the MD’s as long as I am not in the back. I like the 3+2 seating so neither my wife or I have to have the middle seat. They are running this ship from ATL-MYR where my mom-in-law lives and I love it over a CRJ (and never again an ATR)!

But back to MSP. Like real-estate you are location location location. Unless you are going to Europe, Asia, Hawaii or Mexico, you had better get used to more MD’s and CRJ’s! Just be happy you have birds at all as readers in CVG would love to have the size issues you now have to deal with.

At least you have one of the best airports in the world to enjoy before you fly! (does that help?) – Rene

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