Posted by Marshall Jackson on March 11, 2010 under Commentary / General Info, Delta Air Lines, Starwood Preferred Guest | 
Hello from the A Center Delta Sky Club in Atlanta. Arrived here just before 3PM after a really great flight aboard Delta flight 1052 from Seattle. My Medallion upgrade cleared at the gate, the 757 was equipped with on demand video, in seat power (that was a little spotty), GoGo Inflight Wi-fi, and really great First Class flight attendants. What more could one want in a flight? Alas, it wasn’t to last. My 4:20PM connection to DCA is now a 5:55PM connection and that’s a slight uptick from the 5:45PM departure that was posted when I landed.
I’ve had one of the more successful business trips of the year, and am looking forward to completing the week. I’m also anxious to complete my review of the W Seattle, which was the hotel of choice for this trip. Not only did I have a great stay, but my colleagues mostly seemed to enjoy it as well.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on March 1, 2010 under Delta Air Lines, Travel Tips |
I’m a newbie when it comes to doing the legwork to redeem and upgrade using Delta SkyMiles. I’ve been flying Delta semi-regularly for only 2 years or so, with a recent uptick that will probably see me fly enough to hit Gold Medallion this year. The test and actual bookings I’ve tried in using SkyMiles for various itineraries haven’t been all that successful. For me at least, SkyMiles seem a bit more difficult to use than AAdvantage miles. But I’m starting to pick up on tips and tricks, and I’ll pass those a long as I can.
Today, I had my first opportunity to use SkyMiles to upgrade a domestic itinerary from coach to first class. Next week, I’m flying to Seattle for a 5 day business trip. I consider anything over 3 hours a reasonable candidate for a mileage based upgrade, and this trip certainly meets that threshold. But I don’t really care about the outbound as I have good seats, and I’m connecting in MSP, basically half-way there. The return however, I care about. After a long week of working, I really don’t want to sit in 16E for my return flight which will take me from SEA to DTW to DCA, with that SEA to DTW leg being a good bit over 4 hours.
Delta is fairly restrictive on the fares it will allow you to upgrade with miles with only Y, B, and M fares eligible internationally, with the addition of Q, V H, and K fares domestically. Just so happens, my trip to Seattle is booked in K. After a quick check of ExpertFlyer, which appeared to show availability in G class (mileage upgrade class for domestic flights) I gave Delta a call at the Special Member Services (SMS) number on the back of my Medallion card. Minor rant: I was on hold for 10 minutes. When I finally got through, I explained that I would like to upgrade my flight with miles, and was then transferred to the “mileage desk.” It would be better if any representative could process the upgrade, but I guess you can’t have everything. At least I didn’t have to wait any longer as the “mileage desk” picked up the phone immediately. I again explained that I’d like to upgrade the return portion of my trip. The very polite representative handled my request in minutes, and soon I was no longer seated in dreadful 16E. The “price” in miles was 12,500 and there were no dreadful co-pays.
A few observations. It would be best if mileage upgrades could be processed at the first point of contact (or better yet, online). Perhaps I called the wrong 800 #. If any Delta experts out there have any thoughts on that, leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Delta is quite restrictive on the fares it allows you to upgrade. I think a nice enhancement would be to allow Medallion members to upgrade with miles on any fare. Otherwise, no complaints about the process, except that I think a 10 minute wait to talk to a live person is over the top for the “elite” phone line (or any phone line for that matter). I’ve tried to call Delta a couple of times recently, only to hang up when I grew tired of waiting. In any event, I think this was a pretty good spend of SkyMiles, or at least it was for me.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 27, 2010 under Airport Lounges, Delta Air Lines |
One visit isn’t a trend, but I thought it was worth sharing. The A Center Sky Club in Atlanta is usually my first stop once I get to the A Concourse at Hartsfield. It’s quieter, and well…just better in my humble opinion than the other club on A Con. So as luck and habit would have it, I found myself in the A Center Sky Club waiting for my 4:20PM departure back to DCA yesterday afternoon.
The first thing I noticed was a lot more space on the bar than usual was occupied with snacks. Cheese and crackers, the usual weird sweet and spicey nut mix, dried fruit, hummus, crudites, Nutella, Biscoffs, and some really good chocolate chunk cookies. While they still aren’t up to the old World Club standard, I’ll call this an improvement over my last several visits, and a return to what Delta was offering a couple of years ago.
Granted, this isn’t real food like many foreign carriers offer in their lounges, but it’s a step up from what it was. What are you noticing out there? Was this a one-off experience on my part, or has Delta put a little extra pocket change into the snack offerings at Sky Club?
Special Note: Just in case anyone from Delta stops by to read this as I’ve seen you do from time to time, the bartender on duty in the A Center Sky Club between 3 and 4PM on February 26, 2010, was the best I’ve met at a Sky Club. Very outgoing and polite. Separate note heading Delta’s way about that.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 26, 2010 under Commentary / General Info, Delta Air Lines, Starwood Preferred Guest |
My Delta flight from Atlanta to DCA was right on time tonight. I was feeling so good, I decided to take Metro (DC’s subway system) home, and walk the half mile or so from the station to the house. Remind me not to do that again in the winter with luggage. Brrrr. I have a few things to blog about this weekend. I won’t give a full review of the W Atlanta Midtown since I recently posted one, but I will give a quick synopsis of the stay. I will also post about my Delta flights, which were fine, and offer some thoughts on my Delta Sky Club experience today. They’ve added back some better munchies. Not great, but better and they deserve a shout out. Stay tuned, I think I have more flying planned in the next 2 months than I’ve had in a number of years. My Tripit.com calendar is starting to take up multiple pages!
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 25, 2010 under Delta Air Lines |
Dear Delta Air Lines,
I like to fly you when I can. Your leather seats, nice cabin lighting and great flight attendants really are the best. But that pesky little problem with your mobile website still is not resolved. Delta, please fix your mobile website. It simply does not work. If you would like to discuss this further, you know where to find me.
Best regards,
Me
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 24, 2010 under Commentary / General Info, Delta Air Lines |
Hello from the W Atlanta Midtown “Living Room.” Good stay so far, though I’m on a slightly lower floor than previously. Oh well, I’ll survive! I’ve been up since just before 3AM. The 6AM launch to Atlanta from DCA on Delta was delayed by an hour and fifty minutes for snow that was forecast, but never really materialized. Life goes on. But I do need to check my Delta.com profile as I received a phone call and an email to advise me that my flight was delayed, a fact that I already knew the night before. But no complaints about Delta notifying me, just an observation about the irony since I already knew.
I have to wonder why Delta instituted its “proactive delay” program today, and so many hours before the actual flights to boot. Could it be the first manifestation of the unintended consequences of hard limits on that amount of time passengers can be held aboard a flight before being allowed off? Just sayin’……
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 23, 2010 under Delta Air Lines, Travel Tips |
My 6AM Delta flight from DCA to ATL on 2/24 is already delayed 1 hour 50 minutes. And the next couple of flights are delayed at least that much. Heads up.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 17, 2010 under Delta Air Lines, Travel Tips |
Frugal Travel Guy is one of my first blog reads everyday. In this post, FTG reveals the results of a recent award search from Savannah (SAV) to Kauai (LIH). Other airlines had better and cheaper availability than Delta SkyMiles. I always feel like I need to say this: I like flying Delta. I think their inflight product and service is the best of the big domestic airlines. SkyMiles on the other hand, leaves a bit to be desired on the redemption side. SkyMiles aren’t impossible to use, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that they are the most difficult. One suggestion I’d add to FTG’s comments. Call Delta. Their online award search/booking engine seems to have issues finding seats that might actually be there. That’s not an “apologist” attitude, just a suggestion that might help you get the seats you want.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 15, 2010 under Bonus Miles/Points, Delta Air Lines |
Just spotted this offer on Delta.com. Earn double flown bonus miles. Purchase and fly between February 8 and March 12, 2010. As always, various terms and conditions apply, and registration is required.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on January 25, 2010 under Delta Air Lines |
In a pretty broad product improvement announcement today, Delta Air Lines announced a $1 billion dollar investment in what it termed as customer experience and fleet efficiency through 2013. The fleet efficiency improvement involves installation of winglets on additional aircraft. But the product improvements are what I’m most interested in and they run the gamut from installation of flat-bed business class seats across its international widebody fleet to adding in-seat on demand audio video in economy class on the 747-400 and 767-300ER fleets. You can read Delta’s entire announcement here.
There are a number of other improvements in the works, including bringing NWA’s fleet interiors up to Delta standard. I’m guessing this investment was already planned, but I welcome it anyway. The press release specifically mentions improvements to NWA’s 757-200’s. Maybe it’s just me, but those are the most worn-out looking airplanes inside in the entire former NWA fleet. Probably the reason Delta specifically mentioned them! Another nice change is the addition of First Class cabins to 66 CRJ-700’s operated by SkyWest, ASA, and Comair. Don’t know if I’ll ever sit in one of those seats as a Silver Medallion, but I appreciate the enhancement. Finally, the Los Angeles Sky Club will be renovated, and new locations will be added in Seattle, Philadelphia and Indianapolis.
I’ve always been fond of Delta’s product, and I think it’s pretty clear to regular readers that overall, I like Delta. I just wish they’d make a similar investment in making Sky Miles better too. In any event, this is good news for Delta fliers, and it’s good to see another airline investing in its future.
