I’m a little late to the party on commenting about Delta Air Lines recent changes to its SkyMiles frequent flyer program. Delta has very quietly announced a change to SkyMiles on its website that in my opinion at least, does not bode well for the future of mileage plans as we know them.

You can read the changes yourself by clicking here. There was a change to fees collected, but the most disconcerting is the second paragraph announcing that effective December 1, SkyChoice awards (unrestricted award inventory usually requiring double miles) will no longer be available on every flight in which a seat is available for sale.

This is a big deal even if you’ve never used a double miles award. While I won’t predict widespread catastrophe amongst mileage plans if this gets widely adapted (it’s already in place at NWA), I don’t think this bodes well for mileage plans. I’ve long thought that these programs were going to morph into something far different than they are today, and this may be the first step in that direction. Time will tell. In the meantime, this is not a positive change for Delta flyers that like having the option of using double miles to snag an award seat if none are available at the restricted level.

I have really learned to like flying Delta as I’ve done a bit of that this year. Their customer facing technology is better than any other domestic airline in my opinion. But this change to SkyMiles certainly gives me pause when considering whether or not I will focus on building up my SkyMiles account.

From my perspective, American’s AAdvantage remains the overall best frequent flyer program in the business. We’ll see if AA follows Delta’s lead on this strategy. If they do, that’s not a good sign for mileage programs in general.

Two days ago, I phoned up Royal Caribbean to book our honeymoon cruise! We’re sailing on an 11-night repositioning cruise from Baltimore to Tampa next October 30th. We’re very excited about such a long and relaxing cruise. We may even be excited about getting married too!

In any event, on the advice of some other cruisers, I called Royal Caribbean’s Crown & Anchor Society Desk to book our cruise, rather than the usual 800 number. I had heard that the staff was much better, and given our Diamond status in the program, I expected at least the same level of cheerful service we usually receive onboard Royal Caribbean’s ships.

Don’t remember her name, but the lady that answered seemed to audibly sigh when I said that I’d like to book a cruise. She wasn’t “mean” but she surely wasn’t pleasant either. In the booking process, she asked for my Crown & Anchor number as one would expect. Then she asked if I had a wife, to which I jokingly responded that I will when we cruise because this is our honeymoon. She recorded Lady Astrojets’ number as well. The next question out of her mouth was “will you be celebrating any special occasion?” Maybe it’s just me, but I think that the honeymoon I just told her about qualifies.

In any event, we got it booked, without even a thank you for calling. Disappointing to say the least. Although I did call back later that evening to change our cabin, and this agent was much better.

I know you’re bound to get a bad apple every once in a while in any organization. But given the overwhelmingly positive experiences we’ve had with Royal Caribbean, this phone transaction did not meet my expectations.

I think it’s time to find a good travel agent to take care of things like this for me.

I know that Northwest is known as NorthWORST in many circles, but my last 2 trips have been near perfect. I’m sitting at the NWA World Club in Memphis as I type this, waiting for my flight home to DC.

I was upgraded to first class on my flight over by virtue of my Continental OnePass Silver Elite status. My upgrade has not cleared for my return, but I have a nice exit row seat so all should be well. And maybe I’ll get lucky and clear at the gate like last time.

Northwest’s first class service isn’t lavish by any means, but the seats on the Airbus A320 are big and roomy, and flight attendants have all been unfailingly polite so far.

My flight home will be my 6th flight on Northwest in 4 weeks, and so far, they’re at 100% on time performance save 1 minor maintenance delay on an Airlink flight to Fort Wayne back in September.

We’ll see if they keep it up.

Hello from the NWA World Club in Memphis. Have been here the last few days attending a conference. It’s my first visit to Memphis, and I have to say that I have enjoyed it enough to want to come back for a weekend on my own.

The conference was at the Peabody Hotel, but I was unfortunately unable to stay there due to my late booking. Instead, I was relegated to the Doubletree Downtown which is next door. No complaints about the Doubletree…it served it’s purpose, but the Peabody is such a grand old hotel, that I intend to book us there when Lady Astrojets and I return for our weekend junket at some point in the future. I did get to watch the world famous marching of the Peabody ducks on Thursday though!

The conference was all work, but I made it out on my own during the evenings. Last night I dined on barbeque and cold beer at BB Kings Club while listening to wonderful live blues. Beale Street is where it’s at, and I didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of great things to do in Memphis.

Memphis gets 2 thumbs up from me!