This year, will all the updates and “enhancements” from Delta, I feel a bit like the 3:20 mark in the clip above. Each week I wait to see what our beloved airline will “buzz” me/us with (yeah I know that makes me Cliff Claven, but so be it)! Even when we have complained back to the mothership, it’s kinda like when Cliff says – “well let’s see how you like it pal”… And I think you get the rest!

Anyway, back to today’s post. The above chart, as some most upset readers know ( right Steve ) who, thanks to working on cruise ships, does get to fly Delta, but does NOT get full credit for each flight.

Could the above chart be a message of what is to come for the rest of us soon? KLM for example, already gives you less depending on the fare class and economy tickets do not ALL earn full credit.

In fact, on my latest flight to Istanbul, one segment, that was booked in Delta “T” class, accidentally was credited to my Flying Blue account and I only got 343 elite qualifying points compared to the 1,376 Delta MQM’s I did, in the end, get credit for.

Had the fare been a consolidator fare then I would have only earned 343 Delta MQM’s for this segment (and I would not have taken the mileage run to begin with).

My question to you all is this: If Delta were to move to this kind of award chart for ALL Skymiles and MQM’s, would that be enough for you to be pushed over the edge? So far, all of Delta’s changes, have been for the most part,  just  accepted  and put up with by Delta flyers. Some have bolted to other airlines, but most just say “ah well”. Would a change like this, if it were implemented system wide, make you stand up and complain until they changed back or would you just take this too?

Now I am not saying this is about to happen tomorrow (and as we know Delta will NOT tell us but we will just find out on our own), but the expanded fare class and synchronization with the rest of Skyteam sure does set the stage for this to happen at some point in the future. Remember kids, unless you are spending money with Delta and spending big, they do not love you! I would love to have your input and thoughts and would this be the last straw?! – René

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Back in August I blogged about Dutch designer, Hella Jongerius’ plans for the new KLM seats.

Now the word is out and if you look HERE and HERE you will see some nice and high resolution photos of what is soon to be installed on KLM’s birds. Also, you can peak HERE about the design process and choice of colors and fabrics (I would have loved to have seen them go with leather like Delta does).

They will be “Full Flat” seats which is very good, but they will NOT have individual aisle access as Delta has chosen for all of it’s seat upgrades. It is unfortunate that KLM did not follow Delta’s lead in this area, but much of Skyteam is going their own way as of late.

All the upgrades are set to be completed by the end of 2014. On the plus side, by that time, both Delta and KLM should both have completed all the transatlantic birds and you will always enjoy full flat seats when you fly. What do you think? Like the new look? – René

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I have blogged before about the RTW tickets you can get with Skymiles. For this deal you will need to call the round the world desk to get this 10% discount (btw, these reps are very very good and know the partners better than most mainline reps).

That said, is this a good deal? For me the idea of a round the world trip in coach is not my idea of a dream vacation even at 10% off. It would be one thing to be on the “Amazing Race” and fly around the world in coach, but another for fun. For me, business class would be the way to go.

Another point to keep in mind of buying vs RTW award vs a std award ticket is with stopovers and open jaw tickets you can, with that many Skymiles, get a bunch of trips booked as well that are not bound to 1 ticket.

You have until the end of March to take advantage of this discount so you have some time to think and plan and see if this is for you and you can find some value – René  (also sorry about the re-do; hit publish rather than save draft in progress… some days-ugg)

PS – I found some new fun travel swag
I may just give away tomorrow on the blog!

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For a very long time, when you had a reservation with an AF or KLM included segment, booked via Delta, you had to get your AF/KLM confirmation code to see the seat map. You could ONLY see the seat map if you were in business class. So, you could ask a Delta rep for this number to use on the web site or you could go to AirFrance.com/us and put in the Delta ticket number and your name and you would then be able to see the corresponding AF/KLM confirmation number assigned to your ticket from Delta.

Well now, it would seem, that has all changed. You can simply use your Delta confirmation on both AirFrance.com and KLM.com with your last name and pull up your reservation.

However, you still should take the step of also  joining Flying Blue  even if you never ever plan to credit one point to them. Why? Intra Europe flights. Air France is still acting in their typical way and will not let you see coach class seats. KLM, however, wants to make money off of you. To that end, look at the below:

Bingo! Delta will tell you this is airport controlled. Wrong! With a Flying Blue number you WILL be able to pick seats and use your Delta confirmation number to pull up the booking.

As you can see, you can pay for EC seats or exit row with USD or FB points if you have some. If you are a Delta Medallion I would personally not do that. I would grab the best seats FREE in coach so you at least have a “good” seat and then once you get “over there” go to the KLM crown room or AF lounge and see about getting exit or EC for free. They will give you a snaky look, but if you remind them of your Skyteam elite status and explain how you would so much appreciate it, they will most of the time help you out.

As a final note that I find very interesting is the Skyteam issue this raises. Think about this: the idyllic partnership we fly on & that KLM has found a way to upsell you, if you want, and make money off of you from a Delta purchased ticket! Also, as another fun bit, if you add your Delta itinerary to your KLM flying blue account to track, and you also have KLM in your Award Wallet account, it is a back door way to track a Delta trip (that is as long as you have one AF or KLM segment). – René

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This week Delta announced it’s 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic airlines Delta hopes to be complete by the END of 2013!  This is much more than say the partnership with Hawaiian or Alaska airlines. You can read about all the partners HERE on Delta.com.

If approved by the DOT the nice part about this, in addition to many more options to Europe and a very good business class product, there should be no worries about earning full RDM & MQM for all classes of service that one does have to worry about on other Skyteam partners like Aeroflot the Russian airline! Also, as part owners of Virgin Atlantic, award space should not be limited like it is with other Skyteam partners and any schedule changes should be fine on any DL or VA birds since they are saying the partnership will become a “metal neutral” deal. That is good news for us who love to earn and burn frequent flyer miles.

There has been a TON of discussion and speculation as to what this will mean by my fellow BoardingArea.com bloggers as you can see:

• pointsmilesandmartinis HERE
• viewfromthewing HERE
• ghettoife HERE
• onemileatatime HERE
• thewanderingaramean HERE

I am jazzed about this and see only good things for us Delta flyers. All the details are FAR from being certain at this point, we should clearly understand, and even Delta in the official release said in the Q&A part that “More details will be announced in the future“.

So what do you think? Are you looking forward to this? What are the pros & cons you see? I am no DOT expert, if you are do you see any issues for Delta that could hurt or help us? Shout out and let us know! – Rene

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I don’t know if I am the only one who gets both the KLM PNR# as well as the Delta one when I fly, but if you do you can often times pick your own seats on both KLM & Delta. This is very useful when you are departing Europe as the check-in is handed over from Delta.com to KLM.com and sometimes your seats you picked on Delta.com will not “jive” with KLM. If you pick them on KLM you can be sure you will get what you want. Also, KLM.com has upgraded their graphics as you can see above. I am getting some strange results on some Delta jets; how about you?

Tomorrow the fun begins at the Chicago Seminars!
Cannot wait – how about you. – René

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One of my many pet peeves about Delta.com is that when you go HERE to look at your current list of upcoming flights, and you have a schedule change, you will not see it. As you can see from my list of upcoming flights with Delta, I would not have known about any flight or seat changes or problems unless I click on each and every one. This is MOST frustrating.

This was one of the GREATEST things about AwardWallet, that is before Delta blocked them. AwardWallet would via email each day alert you to ANY changes like your seat or time or such. Now we must check for ourselves or wait to hope the Delta “IT” does send out a notice e-mail that your flight has changed. Truly this is unacceptable!

How often does a schedule change happen and what are the rules and can it help you? Also, do you just have to take it or do you have options once this does happen? I got into a back and forth a bit with a reader, Tyler who is a Delta Diamond, about how useful this tip is. He commented:

…”the schedule change rule, which doesn’t work as often as you say. I’d recommend putting a word of caution to users to not use that as the only way.”

he goes on to say, “Aren’t you a platinum who makes most of your MQM’s on credit card spend, and as such don’t fly too much? As a Diamond, I can assure you I’ve tried this many times before and while it can work, it is not promised and in fact is less than 50%. Also, you aren’t taking into account the chance of having your baggage delayed if you create a crazy itinerary and miss flights. If you weren’t a medallion, I would recommend against this approach altogether.”

Well I do fly a little now and then on Delta (as you can see above) and I do find this tip very useful for adjusting low level frequent flyer seats you were able to grab. I also find this especially useful if you are NOT a medallion and want FREE changes (Platinum or Diamond Medallion get free changes on points tickets all they want up to 72hrs before flight). But he does make a valid point that I needed to add more info abut this on the blog. Also, there are some very important things to keep in mind if you are going to try to utilize this little gem and I thank Tyler for reminding me to highlight this. So here we go with these important things to keep in mind:

1) Book as far out as you can, 300+ days
2) Add as many regional connections as you can
3) Know the rules of what is allowed
4) Check for other flights before you call
5) Know you may have to fly crazy routes

Let’s hit these one by one.

1) Delta schedules change all the time. Logic dictates that the farther out you can book the more likely you are to have a change and thus the reason to book as far out as you can stand.

2) Mainline jets don’t change times as much so watch out! Let’s take for example:

DL 252 daily flight nonstop 7h 55m
DEPARTS 4:00PM from Detroit-Wayne County, MI(DTW)
ARRIVES 5:55AM in Amsterdam, Netherlands(AMS)

This is a bus. One of the only real changes seasonally is that summer is often an A330-300 and winter the smaller A330-200. This flight almost never changes. If it does change, it is a few minutes here and there. However, regionals change all the time and the changes can be dramatic like 1 or 2 or even 3 hours. This takes us to the next point!

3) Just what is the rule for a schedule change. You can see it HERE and it says:

If a Delta schedule or routing change has delayed your departure or arrival by more than one hour, you may be eligible to select an alternate flight at no additional charge. Note that the below conditions may apply:

Your origin, destination and travel date must remain the same. Alternate flights must be available, and you can only modify once as subsequent changes may result in additional fees. Voluntary changes to other flights not impacted by a Delta schedule change may result in additional fees

So if more than 1 hour departure or landing and you are  GOLDEN!  Also keep in mind the total it is cumulative. That is, say from your ORIGINAL booking you have two 30+ min changes, you are now up to the 1 hour rule! But there is more to it that just this. For a domestic connection, you must have 30 min to make your flight. If you are in a wheelchair it is 60 min to make your flight. If it is “close” to this time most phone reps, when you explain to them that say 33 min to make a connection in ATL is never going to work, will work with you to change it at no charge! Also, internationally you need a 60 min connection to clear customs. Same thing, you can explain 63 min is in no way enough time to both wait for your luggage, wait in line at customs and make your connection flight! So use this to get the change you want!

4) This next one is a BIG ONE. Please, do your homework BEFORE you call Delta. Make it easy for the reps. This WILL help you so much if when you call you have checked to see what DELTA METAL flights you want to be on. With frequent flyer seats, on say AF or KLM, Delta cannot FORCE seats so even with a schedule change there must be low level seats open in whatever class of service you have picked. But, on Delta, they can do what they want and availability no longer matters. So, you have picked your flights, and your call will go something like this:

Hello (insert reps name). I have had a schedule change to my itinerary # (insert number) and it will not work for me. Could I please change the flights on (insert date) to DLxxxx and connection to Dlxxxx?

And you should be good to go. If they say things like, “I can not do that” or “this is outside the rules” or “you do not meet the min. time for a free change”, say, “OK I will leave it as is” and call back and try another rep. Or, ask for a supervisor to allow the change with the info above. Or, ask for the international reissue desk (when you are travailing internationally) as they often understand what will and will not work and can do it for you.

5) This is the one you must understand clearly. There is the slight chance you can get stuck with the crazy flights and seats you have picked (I am 100% successful to date but I always load up with regional fights) . While I am most upset by the current state of the ETV bump voucher rules, with a ton of connections you can have many chances for “bumpertunities” that is, to give up your seat for “delta dollars” giving you credit toward a later flight and then they can put you on much more direct flights!

So there you are! I will be adding this to my Essentials tab and apologize that I did not put this post up sooner than today! Like in golf, you must understand the rules if you want to play this game. If you know them, you can use them to your advantage! – René

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If you are looking to visit Europe from NYC or Boston, KLM is having a nice sale going on that could earn you Delta MQM’s to make it to your next medallion level without living on a Delta jet like I will be in November. You can see more about the KLM business class product HERE.

It looks like (you will want to confirm the fare class is correct before you buy it) KLM is selling these in “Z” class bucket and if you enter in your Skymiles number into the record you should earn 150% RDM’s & MQM’s.

While this is not a rock bottom price, there are many places you can go that are on sale! – René
 

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It is good to have points in many programs. It affords you the ability to do all sorts of creative things when it comes to trips. Mommy Points was kind enough to text me about a fare out of SFO-OGG, that is San Francisco to Maui Hawaii, for about $300 all-in. That sounds nice, but how does one get to SFO when I am in the corn fields of the midwest? Well look what we can do. I have a ton of British Airlines Avios points that I have yet to spend to go to Sweden or Europe due to the tax that the British government charges to land/depart on their island. But, we know you can use them with their partner, American Airlines, at good rates. To fly all the way from ORD-OGG will cost 45k round trip in coach on BA via AA and dates are somewhat hard to find. But, to fly from ORD-SFO is just 20k round trip and dates are not very hard to find. So check this out:

I could use my BA Avios as you can see above to fly to SFO. Spend a few days in this beautiful city. Check out fisherman’s wharf and maybe do a helicopter tour over Alcatraz (I have done both btw). Or, I could use 25k Delta to fly as well since it is very hard to find seats to Hawaii and it would cost at least 40k each round trip at low level!

Then, look what Delta has to offer if we want to go ahead and buy a ticket the rest of the way from the west coast to earn some RDM’s & MQM’s:

I could grab a triple connect on the way out to earn max MQM’s, and double on the way back, and for just about $300 all in visit Maui! Earning almost 7000 MQM’s and 14,000 RDM’s with Delta is possible on this trip and you can too if you have GM+ status! To me, that is worth at the very least $140! So can we see the value here?

This also requires us to think outside of the box a bit and I am finding similar  prices even in Jan and Feb 2013!  We need to think: OK, I see A-B is offered, but how do I get to A when I live in C? To be flexible in our vacations and say, why just go to one city when we can have fun in two. To collect air, hotel and car points in every program so we can put together a fun dream trip that would cost maybe $5000 for almost nothing. This is the real power of points if we are willing to do the work. Never think the frequent flyer game we play is simple and easy or everyone would do it. Learn, earn and enjoy! – René
 

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I have not been to CDG for a few years. The last time made me so mad I never wanted to go back (it had to do with my mom and handicapped service that went very wrong). But to be fair there have been a ton of changes going on there.

Air France has new and glitzy advertising on their web site you can see HERE. I would love to get some feedback from readers who have been there recently. I have been told you can now walk from “pod to pod” and not have to be re-screened again. That would be nice (just being connected would be a big plus).

Now more Skyteam news. We know our Delta is getting ever closer (now 40% done) to replacing all its intercontinental long haul birds with “full flat” seats. According to the KLM web site, they are going to follow suit and upgrade to “full flat” seats starting with the 747′s!

KLM’s World Business Class will soon benefit from a redesign by renowned Dutch designer, Hella Jongerius. This update will help to revitalize and transform the KLM World Business Class cabin to fit the new KLM brand values, while emphasizing a sense of pride in the airline’s Dutch heritage.

With a focus on maximizing passenger comfort, the redesign will create an entirely new Business Class look and feel. You can look forward to updated cabin interiors with a range of improvements including:

Full-flat seats
Seat covers
Carpets
Cabin dividers
Curtains
Cushions
Blankets

KLM will begin revitalizing the first aircraft in June 2013.
The Boeing 747-400s will be converted first; a total of 22 aircraft. Further details of the design and the new seat will be revealed later this year.

It will be fun to see what kind of seat KLM chooses to use and if they use the same kind in the 747′s and the 777′s etc. Delta chose different seats due to cabin shape and cost and configuration. KLM may do the same. All this is just GREAT news for me as AMS is like a second home for me on the way to Sweden each year. I love this news – how about you? – René

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