The first time I read through this article, I thought the AFA was complaining that size 18+ flight attendants didn’t want to have to wear the bright, red dresses that Delta rolled out a while back, but it seems that I misread the article. The same organization that encourages flight attendants to work well into their 80′s seems to be saying the opposite: size 18+ flight attendants are offended that they can’t wear the red uniform.

“Red is a color that attracts attention and someone, somewhere has made a decision that they don’t want to attract attention to someone in a dress that’s larger than a size 18,” said Patricia Reller, vice-chair of the grievance committee at the flight attendants union’s executive council at Northwest. “I’m very offended by it.”

I have to admit that I’ve only seen the red uniforms once or twice in the terminal here in Tampa, but I’m not sure what to think. Does it look great on Deltalina? You betcha! Does it look good on some of the more senior, plus sized flight safety professionals that are there primarily for our safety? I’ll have to think that one over….

(And yeah, please don’t take this post too seriously)

As many of you may have guessed by the title, I’m talking about aircraft with longhaul configurations that fly domestically. They can be a great way to upgrade into a premium cabin, and best of all upgrades are often easier due to the large size of the cabin. The ride isn’t necessarily bad in coach either, since many of the longhaul configured planes have TV’s in the back. Anyway, here’s a quick rundown of the widebody planes flying domestically. I’m not including Hawaii, since there’s typically a surcharge to upgrade those flights. If I’m forgetting any route, please let me know.

American: Love it or hate it, American is all over the plane when it comes to internationally configured planes. On their Flaghship route JFK-LAX and JFK-SFO, they have mostly three cabin 767-200′s, mixed with a few two cabin 767-300′s. Furthermore, they have three cabin 777 service MIA-LAX daily. Then they have ORD-SFO on 767-300′s, which are two cabin planes. Then there are those other random hub-to-hub flights which are three cabin planes, but American handles those differently. They seat elites in business class for free, although they only provide coach service. If you choose to upgrade it would be to three cabin first, which is a nice suite. Suffice it to say that upgrades are tough on those routes.

Continental: All of Continental’s 757-200′s are configured with 16 BusinessFirst seats, which they love to fly domestically. They fly them all over the place, from TPA-EWR (which is an easy upgrade), to IAH-LAX (which is a pretty tough upgrade), to EWR-LAX (which is an impossible upgrade). If you can secure one of these in a leisure market, by all means go for it. They also operate a couple of 767-200′s on EWR-IAH daily, although I’d assume those are tough upgrades given that they line up with the international bank of flights on both ends.

Delta/Northwest: I’ve been keeping my eye on the prize for a while now, namely the 777-200LR Delta is flying ATL-LAX right now as a repositioning flight for SYD. With fully flat beds it’s the nicest ride up front, although I can’t help but notice how full the BusinessElite seatmaps are, even for September and October, which means upgrades might be tough. I’m thinking it’ll be worth the gamble one of these days, though. They also have 767′s flying ATL-JFK, as well as a few other domestic hops with internationally configured 757′s, although they seem to switch those around frequently.

United: It’s pretty straightforward for United. They operate three cabin international aircraft between nearly all the hubs: IAD-ORD, IAD-LAX, IAD-SFO, IAD-DEN, ORD-LAX, ORD-SFO, ORD-DEN, and DEN-SFO. While the meal service is limited in business class on three cabin planes domestically, I’d argue it’s still a worthwhile upgrade, especially on the newly reconfigured fleet. They also have three cabin 757′s flying JFK-LAX and JFK-SFO, configured with 38 premium seats.

USAir: While the selection isn’t quite as extensive as with others, there are a couple of options for fun planes. USAir puts 767′s on CLT-PHL. While there’s no extravagant service on the 450 mile flight, it’s nonetheless nice to sit up front on an international bird (and no, I’m not talking about the birds Sully took down). They also stick the pride of their fleet (isn’t that a bit of an oxymoron for US?), the A330, on PHL-SJU. Hmmm, Ted vs. an A330 with Envoy class…. toughie.

Here’s a promotion from Delta/Northwest that’s not targeted and is pretty unrestrictive (finally!). Those with Delta SkyMiles credit cards can earn double miles for travel between July 1 and the end of the year. Best of all, you don’t even have to pay with your Delta credit card and it’s even valid for tickets booked before July 1. Registration is required by September 30.

Both Delta and Northwest unveiled similar promotions on Friday, offering up to 5,000 or 10,000 bonus miles per roundtrip, with a maximum of ten bonuses. Unfortunately for me (and many, many others) the promotions are targeted, and I’m not one of the “chosen” ones. Based on those posting on FlyerTalk, the targeting seems pretty random. Those Northwest flyers that were targeted report seeing the following on their promotions page:

CO Campaign 10000 Bonus Miles

That seems to suggest that Northwest is trying to retain their passengers that flew Continental quite a bit, given that the relationship is ending in October.

Now, it’s time for some grade-A whining. I understand that the airlines use certain private metrics for determining who’s targeted and who isn’t (blah, blah, blah, yeah right), but why the hell am I not one of them? I mean, seriously!

I’m a Northwest Platinum that has about 15,000 EQM’s with them for the year. That means I’m not flying a whole lot with them. I flew Continental this year and credited to Northwest, so (theoretically) I’m one of the passengers they want to convince to not jump ship. Anyway, not that it’s necessarily in Northwest’s best interest, but I’d do ten roundtrips with them in a heartbeat if I had received the 10,000 bonus miles offer. Sometimes I get the feeling that some over-paid guys at WHQ throw darts to determine who’s targeted and who isn’t.

I really have to wonder whether these types of targeted promotion create goodwill in the internet age, where everything is instantly posted online. Those that weren’t targeted are pissed and those that received the 5,000 mile offer feel short changed.

By the way, I expect we’ll see similar promotions from other airlines later in the year. Maybe not quite as good, but they’re coming.

And that’s my gripe to get the week off to a great start!

At this point you’d probably think this is a blog to point out technical glitches with airline websites, no? I’m pulling an all nighter, and was about to book a Delta flight, when I saw this on the final booking page:

Given that this is both a flight in coach on Delta (pre-upgrade, of course) AND an evening flight, I think I better hold off till I’m well rested to book this, since I must be going crazy.

Through July 31, Starwood is offering 1,000 Delta/Northwest miles per stay at select properties. Registration is required. Best of all, this promotion is combinable with the Free Weekend Nights promotion. While this added bonus isn’t a reason to take a trip you otherwise wouldn’t, it’s a nice added bonus when you’re trying to decide between different hotels in a city.

I find it interesting that you can only accrue Delta miles at certain properties, while you can only accrue Northwest miles at others, considering that accounts can now be merged between the two programs.

(Tip of the hat to Loyalty Traveler)

I just got this email from Delta, and Northwest seems to have a similar offer out there at the moment:

Dear Mr. Lucky, Book Now!

You now have 500 reasons to buy your next ticket at delta.com.

Earn up to 500 bonus miles on all flights you book at delta.com between April 28 and May 31, 2009. No enrollment is required!

Here are the full terms and conditions:

Terms & Conditions
Eligibility: Promotional enrollment is not required. To participate in this offer, eligible members must have a SkyMiles® account with a U.S. address. Bonus Offer: Earn 500 bonus miles for each flown round-trip qualifying ticket (250 bonus miles for each one way ticket) purchased at delta.com. A qualifying ticket includes any Delta or Northwest coded flight purchased at delta.com. Flights must be sold under the DL or NW code. Bonus miles do not count toward Medallion® or Million Miler™ status. Bonus applies only to the SkyMiles member flying and purchasing the qualifying ticket at delta.com. Purchase Period: Tickets must be purchased between April 28, 2009 and May 31, 2009 for travel anytime. Best Fare Guarantee: Best Fare Guarantee is valid for electronic tickets purchased by credit card with a United States billing address at delta.com for travel originating in the 50 United States. Voucher offer only applies for lower published Delta fares found that same day for the exact same itinerary including the exact same Delta flight, cabin, booking class and flight time of the itinerary purchased at delta.com. Difference in total fares (including third party booking fees) must be equal to or greater than $10. Cancellation/refund request must be made by midnight the first day of travel or midnight the day after purchase is made, whichever comes first. For a voucher claim to be valid, it must satisfy all terms and conditions and be submitted in compliance with the claims processing procedures. Fares, offers and rules are subject to change without notice. Additional restrictions apply. Visit delta.com/bestfare for additional details Additional Restrictions: Bonus miles will post to the SkyMiles account of the qualifying member 4-6 weeks following the end of the promotion (May 31, 2009). Taxes and fees for Award Travel are the responsibility of the passenger and must be paid at the time the ticket is booked. Award Travel seats are limited and may not be available on all flights or in all markets. All SkyMiles program rules apply. To review the rules, please visit Membership Guide & Program Rules. Offer void where prohibited by law. Other restrictions may apply. Offer subject to change. Please refer Delta customer service representative to 970639.  

While it’s not a big enough incentive to book Delta if you otherwise wouldn’t have, it’s a nice bonus.

Delta has a pretty cool promotion from April 22 to June 22, whereby you can earn thousands of bonus miles for partner activity. The best reward is 25,000 bonus miles for 25 partner transactions, with the low end being 4,000 bonus miles for four partner transactions. Not surprisingly, Northwest has the same promotion.

While I like this promotion in theory, I just don’t see how I’ll benefit from this from a practical standpoint. Yes, it’s easy to deal with a few of their partners, but is it really worth the hassle? Beyond that, is it even a good deal at times? For example, one of Delta’s partners is Hilton. Yes, I’d essentially be earning 1,000 bonus miles, but Delta usually only offers 500 miles per stay, for a total of 1,500 miles. British Midland, on the other hand, has a promotion for 3,000 miles per night at Hilton properties.

Does anyone know of easier ways to bank some serious miles with this promotion?

…. Tel Aviv at the end of next month!

This will be a long post, so let me say in advance that you’re not missing out if you stop reading here.

OK, I warned you. Well, as many of you know, I matched to Northwest Platinum last year, and since have accrued about 67,000 redeemable miles with them. My mom also has about 25,000 Delta miles. As I’ve blogged about, for premium cabin bookings made for travel through June 15 and booked by April 20 (my birthday!), Delta is offering a 25% discount. Frankly I don’t see myself accruing that many more Northwest miles, not because I have anything against the airline, but rather because they’re not all that mileage run friendly in terms of their routing rules and also their miles aren’t as valuable as OneWorld or Star Alliance miles.

I have some free time in late May and early June, so I decided I would take advantage of this offer in one form or another. First I figured Dublin would be a cool place to go. There was tons of availability on Delta, and at 75,000 miles for business class, it was hard to turn down. We just had to transfer the difference in miles from American Express Membership Rewards.

Yesterday afternoon I thought about how often there were cheap fares to Dublin, so it probably wasn’t the best destination to use miles for, so instead considered Buenos Aires since it’s high on my list of places to see. Shockingly enough there was availability for two people (yes, I realize it’s low season, but still), so I was tempted to book. Unfortunately that was on the 767-300ER which has a measly 18″ of seat width even in BusinessElite, so I was much more excited about the destination than the journey.

I spoke to my friend Steven about it, and he told me to stay the hell away from Buenos Aires in May, not because it was awful but rather because there are better times of year to go there. Being the constructive guy he is, he told me to go to Tel Aviv. Hmmm, interesting. I’ve always wanted to visit Israel as I’m a culture/history fan, and there are not many places in the world that have more of that than Israel. It has also been a dream of my mom’s to go there, so it seemed like the perfect destination, especially since the weather is nice there that time of year. 

I looked at award availability and found it to be decent, although finding the perfect outbound and return flights was frustrating. With some itineraries we would have to fly coach domestically, which is a huge no-no for premium award redemptions. Steven, being the pro he is, found perfect dates. This award normally costs 120,000 miles, but with 25% off was a mere 90,000 miles and under $50 in taxes, which is an amazing deal in my mind. Best of all, the outbound JFK to TLV flight would be on a brand new Delta 777-200LR, featuring flat beds in business class! The timing couldn’t have been better, because I only found a handful of dates where Delta was operating this aircraft to TLV. Unfortunately we couldn’t work that for the return, so got a 777-200ER instead, which is still nice.

What a happy story, right? Unfortunately this isn’t the end.

So the time finally came to book this afternoon. My plan was somewhat complicated: Have approximately 65,000 American Express Membership Rewards points transferred to my mom’s Delta account to give her an even 90,000 miles, and have approximately 23,000 Membership Rewards points transferred to my Delta account. Then I planned on transferring those 23,000 miles to my Northwest account to combine them with my current 67,000 Northwest miles, enough for this ticket. I wanted to book via Northwest because I’m Platinum with them, which means I could make free changes if need be.

Unfortunately it wasn’t that simple. To refer to my experience with Northwest’s call center as a crime against humanity would be an understatement, in my mind. The agent was able to find all the flights, but then told me the award would be 120,000 miles. I pointed her to the promotion, and she mentioned that it only applied to certain routes, which is NOT true (that was the case for economy awards, but not business class awards). Eventually she put me on hold, and after about 15 minutes she came back and said I was right, and that she would get the rate desk to manually adjust the cost of my ticket. Fine.

After waiting for another 15 minutes, she told me that there was nothing they could do and that they could send an email to the rate desk, but it would take one or two days. Well that doesn’t really help me since I was scared the availability would disappear and I had a separate hold on my mom’s ticket which expired at midnight. Since she insisted there was nothing she could do I asked to be transferred to a supervisor.

The supervisor was extremely professional at first and put me on hold and said she’d see what she could do, only to come back ten minutes later and say there’s nothing she can do. She claimed that for both Delta and Northwest this promotion only applied to flights from hub cities. HUH? I first pointed out that it said that nowhere in the terms and conditions, and then pointed out that I held the award just fine with Delta miles at the discounted price for my mom.

She explained that it was in the terms and conditions, and I asked her to tell me where in the terms it said that. She said she didn’t have to do that. I asked her to take a look nonetheless, because Northwest is obviously falsely advertising with this promotion. She said that wasn’t her problem and that I should contact customer care if I wasn’t happy. Let’s just say it all went downhill from there, and while I stayed calm the whole call, I ended by telling her just how unprofessional the whole transaction was.

You know what’s really annoying? Delta and Northwest love to tout how they’re “one” when it’s convenient, but as soon as there’s a problem I always hear the “well we’re still operating separately” excuse. I actually think they’ve done a great job overall with the merger, but come on, this is ridiculous.

Anyway, I’m excited about this award. For the past five years I’ve traveled almost exclusively to Asia, and I’m excited to explore something new. We’ll be spending about eight days in Israel, which I can’t wait to visit, and I think the flights worked out well. While Delta probably isn’t as good as Singapore first class, it’s a product I’ve always wanted to try, and I get to experience the best of Delta (at least in theory) thanks to the 777-200LR with flat beds on the outbound flight. As far as the domestic segments go, we’ll be flying TPA-ATL on a 757 and ATL-JFK on a 767-300ER on the outbound, and JFK-TPA nonstop on an MD-88 on the return.

So for a total cost of 88,000 transferred American Express points and under $100 in taxes we’re looking at two BusinessElite tickets to Israel. We’ll probably use points for the hotel stays, since the rates I’ve seen so far are crazy expensive.

So, did I make a good or bad decision? Any suggestions? Anyone surprised I’m flying Delta?

You can bet I’ll write a trip report….

And oh, what an adventure it is. Stay tuned for the details. I’m still on the phone.

Forget I ever said that Delta miles are worthless.