Posted by Seth on November 29, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | 
So American Airlines‘ parent company AMR has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. They’re saying "business as usual" (no real surprise there) but what does the filing really mean? There have been plenty of major airline bankruptcy filings in the past couple decades and much can be learned from them. But this one is rather different than the others and there are some interesting things that might come out of it.
Miles & Tickets
Nothing is really going to change in the operations for the near future. The points aren’t going anywhere anytime soon and neither are the flight operations. At least not on most routes. There will be some additional schedule changes in the coming months but nothing that wasn’t already likely to happen. In short, there really is nothing to worry about as a customer, at least not yet.
As for the miles specifically, I did get a chuckle out of this bit in the email from AA today:
The AAdvantage miles that you’ve earned are yours and will stay yours, subject to usual policies…
The irony here is that the "usual policies" explicitly states, "Accrued mileage credit and award tickets do not constitute property of the member." Glad they cleared up that little confusion.
Big sales and promos
The past few Chapter 11 bankruptcies that have happened in the industry were accompanied by major sales and promotions to keep customers flying in the face of uncertainty. There are many suggesting that will happen again here. I’m not so convinced. Unlike most of those recent bankruptcies this one is not a debtor-in-possession filing. That means that there isn’t a major bank along for the ride pulling the purse strings. Yes, there are still major creditors anxious and working to make sure that they will get their cash, but there is no significant investment of new money right now from a party looking to insure that new investment. Plus the $4Bn+ in liquid assets offers a decent run rate for the company. In short, no need for a fire sale so one seems unlikely.
Breaking the union
Reading the quotes from the new CEO this morning it seems clear that this move is focused on breaking the unions. Management has decided that their cost structures are too high and they’re going to attack the one bit they have a way to force change on – labor. American does have some high labor costs, partly because they still have their pensions funded, but their total costs aren’t actually that far out of whack with their competitors from what I’ve seen on recent data. So even if they do manage to renegotiate the union contracts down they’re still in a pretty tough spot. There’s only so much you can cut on the cost side if you’re not actually generating revenue.
At the same time, a work slowdown or "work-to-rule" action by the unions could cause trouble. It will be interesting to see just how quickly the contract negotiations happen and how big the cuts are. That could significantly affect the passenger experience.
What about the planes?
American just placed an order for 460 new jets, a wholesale refresh of their narrow-body fleet and then some. And much of that purchase was predicated on leasing the aircraft. Leasing companies aren’t generally keen to do business with companies in bankruptcy, though at least the new aircraft will have a high enough residual value that the leaseholders will be somewhat covered. Still, this isn’t likely to make their interest rates any better.
As for the existing fleet, the company has made it clear that they reserve the right – as is granted to them under the law – to slow payments on the existing contracts as they look at renegotiating them. Reading the bankruptcy filing, however, it is not clear exactly how many of the aircraft are tied up in leases or what that liability is. These numbers are significant, but not horrible based on a reasonable revenue model:
As of September 30, 2011, maturities of long-term debt (including sinking fund requirements) for the next five years are: remainder of 2011 – $1.1 billion, 2012 – $1.7 billion, 2013 – $1.0 billion, 2014 – $1.5 billion, and 2015 – $778 million. Future minimum lease payments required under operating leases that have initial or remaining non-cancelable lease terms in excess of a year as of September 30, 2011, were: remainder of 2011 – $309 million, 2012 – $1.1 billion, 2013 – $1.0 billion, 2014 – $861 million, 2015 – $703 million, and 2016 and beyond – $6.3 billion.
There will definitely be savings that come from working some of those contracts and likely from grounding some planes, but it is hard to see that making a sufficient difference to bring the company back from the edge. There is also nearly $1Bn locked up in landing slots and routes that is mortgaged to lien-holders, something that seems unlikely to be sold off anytime soon.
Prelude to merger?
The Delta/Northwest merger was prefaced by both carriers’ bankruptcy re-orgs. The US Airways/America West was also borne out of the US bankruptcy shortly prior to that deal being announced. Is that something we could see out of this filing? There are a number of folks already suggesting that the only way for US Airways and American to survive long-term is to combine their resources.
That would be a disaster.
Yes, it worked for DL/NW. It worked in large part because they were more or less in lock-step on the way out of their bankruptcies and were moving in the same direction anyways. Plus their route networks were incredibly complimentary. The US Airways and America West route networks were complimentary, but that’s where the benefits stopped for them. The results of that merger are a labor relations nightmare. It is something of a miracle that the carrier is still managing to operate and even eke out profits from time to time given that burden.
A merged AA/US would have the existing US labor issues as well as the AA labor issues that have been slowly smoldering and which appear likely to boil over into a full-blown fiasco depending on just how bad the cuts are on the contract front. Nothing like slashing $7 billion in pensions liabilities to make your work force feel respected and happy about their future participation in the company. There is the chance that a merger between the two could be seen as American acquiring US Airways and thus the AA union – with its much larger workforce – could absorb the US union and force down the rules upon them. But even that wouldn’t necessarily solve the labor relations issues.
Some other have suggested that Alaska Airlines might be a ripe partner. Or possibly JetBlue. Sure, it is possible, but seems unlikely as neither of those – both of which are profitable for the most part – gets much value of picking up the mess rather than cherry-picking bits as desired in the future.
What’s really going to happen?
If you’ve read this far and think I actually know what I’m talking about then I guess I’ve got you fooled. I actually believe the stuff I’ve written here but I have no idea if it’ll actually play out that way or not. I do know that I’m not worried about the operations or the miles, at least not yet. The company is likely to pull through well enough and has the cash to run long enough that I’ve got no immediate concerns. And any long-term actions will almost certainly protect the AAdvantage program anyways, so even that isn’t much concern.
It certainly does seem like those pilots who retired recently en masse and cashed in on their retirement plan might’ve made a smart move. Oh, and the fact that the CEO retires and joins up with former Continental Airlines CEO Larry Kellner in a private equity company is certainly an entertaining development.
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Tags: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, bankruptcy, Continental, Delta, frequent flyer, JetBlue, merger, NorthWest, points, United
Posted by Seth on May 2, 2010 under News |
It has been a couple years now that Continental and United Airlines have been dancing around a potential merger. For the past couple weeks the conversations have been pretty much just about the minor details, with the transaction all but assured. And now pretty much everyone is citing “sources close to the transaction” who suggest that the deal is done. The merger will be announced on Monday as official and, with that, Continental Airlines will begin the final steps of its existence.
So what? Well, there are a couple things worth discussing with the merger.
Like any merger of reasonably like-sized partners there are issues of branding, corporate culture and workforces. This is going to be the hardest part for the new company to manage. The brand is going to be United still. Probably a smart move given the global recognition that it holds, even if much of that recognition is of who not to fly. Having a name out there and addressing the quality issue is generally easier than introducing a new name. Sure, there are plenty of folks who say they’ll never fly on brand XX but, well, that sort of attitude is delusionary for the most part. When they are the best price and best route offered, folks simply aren’t willing to avoid the product.
The people side is going to be harder. As of yet I have not heard or read anything about integration of seniority lists for pilots or flight attendants. US Airways and AmericaWest got caught in that mess with their merger and they still haven’t solved the problem. Delta and Northwest Airlines, on the other hand, had the seniority thing figured out before they made the announcement. It significantly sped up the integration process, the basis on which most of the projected cost savings comes from. How will that be addressed? Hopefully someone is smart enough to ask that at the pres conference on Monday.
Still on the people front, there is a personal element to the situation, too. I’ve met scores of Continental and United employees over the years as they are probably the two carriers I’ve put the most miles on lately. And a lot of those folks are going to be losing their jobs in the coming months. It is going to suck. I’m very much not looking forward to that at all. Hopefully the friends I’ve made make it through unscathed.
From an operations and frequent flyer perspective there are plenty of concerns to be had. The two carriers have very little overlap in their route structures. So as they stop competing with each other we can expect to see fares rise in a number of places. Probably bad for the consumer but there is also something to be said for earning points in a program that won’t be going out of business tomorrow. At least in theory. Continental is known for having much tighter controls on routing options, particularly on their most discounted fares. United is know for quite the opposite, permitting crazy routings just for fun. I expect that the Continental mentality will prevail on this front, helping to bring down costs a bit and to better streamline the operations overall.
But the United MileagePlus program is almost certainly the loyalty program that will survive the merger. The good news is that the programs were well on their way to operating under very similar rules anyways thanks to the previously announced partnerships. Upgrades were going to be pretty much the same for elite passengers from both programs, for example. Each side had things they did better than the other and those that they did worse. Unfortunately for the frequent flyer community it is likely that the quirks that favored the customer will disappear as the programs merge, just like they did with the SkyMiles program. Hopefully the new MileagePlus doesn’t go that far, but only time will tell.
Most of all, I am rather glad that I don’t really have a huge bank of miles that are about to change dramatically in value. Yes, I have some loyalty, but not so much that I cannot shift it if the new carrier and programs are not customer-friendly. The airlines have been very good about getting folks hooked on the points game to the extent that rational thought disappears. But they are companies, not people. The relationships are keyed on them making profits from their customers. Or, as one friend recently put it, loving a brand or a company is like loving a brick. The brick does not love you back.
Mergers like this are a great reminder to reset, so to speak, and to evaluate that loyalty.
I know I will be.
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Posted by Seth on December 8, 2009 under News |
Back when Delta acquired Northwest Airlines one of the interesting discussions was about their fleet. Specifically they had very little fleet commonality. On the plus side, such an arrangement allowed them to integrate their pilots pretty easily since no one was too much at risk of losing a job to someone from the other side. On the down side, however, it raised all sorts of questions about the future of the fleet, which planes would be retired and which new planes would be joining the fleet.
Northwest was to be the North American launch customer for the 787 Dreamliner. I even saw one on the assembly line back in March with the Northwest logo on the bit of the tail that was already painted. And officially they still are such. But since the acquisition closed earlier this summer those plans have been put into a bit of limbo.
That was magnified this week when the carrier’s CFO, Hank Halter, suggested that the carrier is not interested in adding any more new aircraft orders to their fleet plans. That might not be huge news or even count the 18 pending 787 deliveries out, but there are some other bits that suggest the Dreamliner may not fly anytime soon with a widget on the tail.
In a recent regulatory filing Delta didn’t include the 787s in their fleet plan through 2012. Even the most pessimistic folks I know don’t think that the 787 delays will stretch that long. Executives have also repeatedly stated that the current 777 fleet can meet the carrier’s needs and also that they have not allocated capital for the acquisition of the Dreamliners previously ordered by Northwest.
Those orders supposedly can be converted to 777 orders so maybe that’s the way Delta will go. With all the delays and then the consolidation it isn’t too surprising that Delta is willing to walk away from those aircraft right now. What will Boeing do with the delivery slots? Hard to say. I’m sure there are some customers who are quite anxious to get a few now planes in their fleet sooner than not so they’ll most likely find a home. But not with Delta. At least that doesn’t seem likely right now.
Posted by Seth on November 17, 2009 under points |
Since the original partnership announcement between Continental and United Airlines almost 18 months ago there has been plenty of speculation about the exact details and which elites would see which benefits. When United announced the wholesale changes to their elite upgrade upgrade scheme the writing was on the wall rather clearly. And now the writing is on the Internet in the form of multiple press releases (and here) and other announcements.
So now that most of the details are out, what does it all mean? For starters, all elites from both are eligible for upgrades on flights operated by either carrier. There are some notable exceptions (p.s. service is still not eligible, for example) and some notable inclusions (Continental elites can now get free upgrades to Hawaii on United service). The hierarchy for the upgrades depends on which carrier you are flying on – each is pretty much taking care of their own elites first for the most part – and it breaks down like this:
| On Continental Metal |
On United Metal |
- Continental Platinum Elite
- United Global Services
- United 1K
- Continental Gold Elite
- United Premier Executive
- Continental Silver Elite
- United Premier
|
- United Global Services
- United 1K
- United Premier Executive
- Continental Platinum Elite
- Continental Gold Elite
- United Premier
- Continental Silver Elite
|
One of the biggest quirks is that United’s second tier – for folks who fly 50,000-99,999 miles – get prioritized over Continental’s 75,000+ customers on United metal. But on Continental metal they’re below the comparable tier so not all that crazy.
Probably the most significant change is that all Continental elites will have access to United’s Economy Plus seating. United’s customers get access to Continental’s “premium” seats which are the exact same seats and pitch, just at the front of the plane. That is definitely a rather lopsided win in favor of Continental’s elites. Of course, Continental might decide to implement E+ at some point and even things out, but I’m not holding my breath.
Instant upgrades will also be available for all elites. Elites on Y or B fares (and CO Platinum, UA 1K and UA GS on M fares) will access to the front cabin (B and M fares are capacity-controlled; Y has last-seat availability) on Continental flights. And access to the exit row seats on Continental will be extended to United’s 1K and GS customers.
So that’s the bulk of the details…but what does it all mean? At the end of the day the arrangement is remarkably similar to what Continental and Northwest Airlines had prior to Delta buying out NW. It is pretty much full reciprocity as much as there can be given the minor differences in the two carriers’ products. There are some cases where Continental elites will do better (mostly in E+ seating) and some where they will not (upgrade hierarchy on UA metal). Similarly, United’s customers get access to upgrades and, for the top tiers, exit row seats. I don’t really see the new policy causing a sudden swing in the number of folks choosing to fly on the partner’s metal or otherwise skewing the upgrade ratios all that badly. Yes, there will be some CO elites now flying on UA, but there will also be the same in reverse.
In the end, this is what partnerships and alliances are for. The provide the customer with a reasonably consistent experience and benefits across multiple carriers. More options and more destinations and better connections while not sacrificing the benefits of elite status earned on the home carrier. It makes a ton of sense and the CO/UA version of such a deal isn’t such a bad one at all.
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Posted by Seth on May 12, 2009 under Uncategorized |
What do $15 here and $25 there add up to in the US airline industry? Over one BILLION dollars in 2008. That’s right. A billion. With a B. The carriers do not break out the revenue from checked baggage in their individual annual reports, but the Department of Transportation does require that they report it so we finally got a glimpse into the real numbers there with the release of the Fourth-Quarter 2008 System Airline Financial Data report yesterday.
The numbers overall are rather depressing. The carriers mostly lost money. A lot of it. But in that sea of data there were some bright spots for the carriers. Like the fact that they collected, as a whole, $498.6MM dollars in baggage fees in Q4 2008. Because the fees didn’t really start to show up until Q2 2008 we don’t know what the full year impact will really be year over year, but it isn’t too far fetched to think that the $1.1 Billion that we saw in 2008 is soft. Then again, the whole industry is soft right now so maybe not.
And so, thanks to the fine folks at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the numbers are available for our perusal. The data are available to be broken down by just about any variable out there. Want to know which carrier had the highest excess baggage revenue in Q3 2008 in the Pacific region? That data is available (Northwest, by far). Here’s the summary for the full year system wide:
| Airline |
Excess Baggage Fees ($000) |
| American Airlines Inc. |
$ 277,991.00 |
| US Airways Inc. |
$ 187,081.94 |
| Delta Air Lines Inc. |
$ 177,063.00 |
| United Air Lines Inc. |
$ 132,994.00 |
| Northwest Airlines Inc. |
$ 121,599.00 |
| Continental Air Lines Inc. |
$ 99,315.00 |
| JetBlue Airways |
$ 35,307.65 |
| AirTran Airways Corporation |
$ 29,400.96 |
| Southwest Airlines Co. |
$ 25,226.00 |
| Alaska Airlines Inc. |
$ 24,773.00 |
| Frontier Airlines Inc. |
$ 15,155.82 |
| Hawaiian Airlines Inc. |
$ 11,627.18 |
| Midwest Airline, Inc. |
$ 3,977.84 |
| Virgin America |
$ 2,568.56 |
| Sun Country Airlines |
$ 1,304.90 |
Those numbers are in thousands of dollars so American Airlines’s number represents almost $278 Million that they realized all on their own, about 25% of the total in the nation. If you combine Delta and Northwest’s numbers they actually represent a slightly larger piece of the pie (~$298.6MM) than AA does. Southwest Airlines, famous for their “no fees” approach to fares managed to pull in about $25MM in fees, thanks to folks paying for overweight or additional bags beyond the first two. jetBlue seems to be pulling in more money for their Even More Legroom seat up-charges than they are for their baggage fees (first bag is still free on jetBlue), but combined the two do make a pretty reasonable contribution (~$70MM) to the carrier’s bottom line.
For an industry that lost billions of dollars last year these revenue numbers are a bit of silver lining. The money being taken in is very real and, for some carriers, quite substantial.
Posted by Seth on January 26, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Delta has rarely tried to hide the fact that they are fleecing their SkyMiles members these days. Reward requirements are going up, benefits are going down, and SkyMiles members are going crazy.
The latest changes that Delta tried to implement were reducing the number of miles earned on the most expensive coach tickets and removing the best benefit that top-tier elites get – free changes on reward tickets. There was much outrage amongst the frequent fliers, and now it seems that Delta is going to relent on some of those changes.
They’ve backed off the change on the miles credit for the expensive tickets completely. They just walked away from that change. And they’ve “compromised” on the Platinum’s change fee rule. They’re going to offer each platinum medallion two free changes each year, and then only charge half price for the rest of the changes.
That’s not too bad, but it is still a huge hit against their top members. They still claim that they are making the change because of the significant number (10%) of seats that are booked and never flown and not canceled until after the trip. Simply make changes free until the time of departure and that problem would go away. But then Delta would have to admit that they aren’t just doing this as a cash grab, and I doubt they would be willing to do that.
Here’s a copy of the email sent to some Delta elites tonight about the givebacks:
We’re working hard to bring together the frequent flyer programs of Delta and Northwest Airlines®. As a part of this effort, we are aligning the SkyMiles® and WorldPerks® programs with the goal of creating a single, best-in-class loyalty program for our combined members by the end of 2009.
What does this mean for our Gold Medallion® members in 2009?
We will continue to offer several core benefits that you have told us are important to you including:
- Unlimited Elite Complimentary Upgrades on all Delta and Northwest operated flights – Delta continues to be the only top three carrier to offer complimentary upgrades for all elite customers
- Preferred security access, priority boarding, preferred seating and select baggage fee waivers
- Same day confirmed fee waivers and the ability to stand by for alternate flights
- A 50% Medallion Qualification Mileage and base mileage bonus in Y, B and M booking classes – you may have noticed in your credentials packages a change to this policy – however we can confirm this bonus will remain
Remember, you can now re-qualify for Gold Medallion status by earning 50,000 Medallion Qualification Miles or 60 Medallion Qualification Segments. And coming soon:
- Platinum and Gold members will receive Elite Complimentary Upgrades on Award Tickets
- You will be able to link and transfer your miles between your SkyMiles and WorldPerks accounts in early February
Thank you for your loyalty and this summer we will share more details of our 2010 Medallion program, which will offer more choices, benefits and access.
You’re the reason we fly,
J. W. Robertson
Vice President – Loyalty Programs
It is certainly a roller coaster ride for the folks collecting SkyMiles (and Northwest’s WorldPerks members, as they are subject to the same rules changes now, too) these days. Good luck out there.
Posted by Seth on January 10, 2009 under Uncategorized |
For those of you at home asking when the gutting of the airline loyalty programs is going to end, don’t look to Delta for any short term relief. They have announced that as of March 1, 2009 they are removing the free reward change benefit for all elites.
The ability to freely change and redeposit reward reservations is one of my absolute favorites that the airlines offer. I was pretty annoyed when Continental announced that they were jacking the fee up for such changes to $150 for everyone but their platinum elites. But Delta has upped the challenge, choosing to remove the benefit for ALL their customers, including their elites. Even worse, this will affect all the NorthWest elites, too, as their program is now pretty much run by the same rules that govern the Delta program.
Delta’s justification? Well it isn’t particularly a good one, but at least it is grammatically correct:
Thank you for contacting Delta Air Lines.
Industry-wide capacity reductions have resulted in fewer seats available for award travel. In an effort to preserve award seat availability for the entire SkyMiles membership, we made the difficult decision to no longer allow free-of-charge redeposits and reissues of award tickets by Platinum members effective March 1, 2009. While we recognize this benefit is important to our Platinum members, we have found that many of these award seat bookings were being held to the last minute and in some cases never flown. Many members including our most-valued Platinum Medallions, were deprived of the opportunity to use those seats. Please also note that Platinum Medallion members are not charged the Award Ticket Fee for reservations ticketed less than three weeks before travel.
Your selection of Delta is appreciated, and we will always do our best to merit your confidence and support.
Sorry, Delta, but I’m not buying the excuse. See, reward inventory is made available when the airlines don’t think that they can sell the seats. Plus, if the seats are not occupied at the time of departure someone gets the upgrade instead. I’m just not buying that Delta is really losing money with the existing policy. Of course, they’ll make a lot more money as they start charging all their customers more to use their miles, but it isn’t like they were really losing much prior to this.
I’m actually pretty shocked that they are going this far against their top tier elites. I think that the fallout is going to be pretty ugly. Sure, they have some markets where they are too dominant, but even the folks in Atlanta have options (Airtran) for a lot of routes, and Minneapolis will in March, with Southwest coming to town. It is early enough in the year that there is still time to jump ship and start qualifying for elite status in a different program. I’d strongly consider it were I a Delta customer.
Posted by Seth on November 6, 2008 under Uncategorized |
With the distractions of their merger with Northwest behind them, Delta is now moving forward in actually operating the airline. They are announcing two new routes from Paris planned to start next spring. Service will run between Paris and Pittsburgh and Raleigh-Durham, operating on 757 aircraft. The flight to Raleigh-Durham is pretty much at the edge of the operating range of a 757-200, so that will be interesting to watch over the winter to see if they are forced to block seats to reduce weight or divert for fuel stops.
Happy flying!
Posted by Seth on November 5, 2008 under Uncategorized |
They cut a very significant one, in fact – the fuel surcharge on many reward flights.
As part of aligning the various policies between Northwest and Delta changes to a variety of fees have been announced. Some have gone down (calling to book a ticket costs $20 now) or been removed completely (no more paying $3 for each bag checked with a skycap). Checked baggage fees have come down for Delta customers, going to $15 for the first and $50 for the second across the board for the carrier. Some fees have gone up or been added, with Delta adopting the “SkyChoice” program that charges an incremental ($5-25) amount for the “good seats” on a flight.
And then there is the fuel surcharge on reward flights.
Effective immediately, Delta will eliminate the $25-$100 fuel surcharges assessed for SkyMiles and WorldPerks award ticket travel originating from the U.S. and Canada. The surcharges were instituted earlier this year by both airlines in response to unprecedented fuel costs.
This fuel surcharge was also causing taxes to be applied to tickets, so this change will likely save passengers much, much more than the $25-100 that they were seeing. This is a HUGE improvement for the SkyMiles program. Kudos to Delta for taking this step.
Posted by Seth on October 29, 2008 under Uncategorized |
The planned Delta buyout of Northwest cleared a significant hurdle this afternoon, with the US Department of Justice announcing that they had approved the plans. The government has found that the merger “is likely to produce substantial and credible efficiencies that will benefit U.S. consumers and is not likely to substantially lessen competition,” according to the statement issued on the topic. I think that they’re crazy if they really think that this is going to be a great thing for either consumers or the airlines’ employees, but this was the expected result from them so no major surprises.
The carriers still have to overcome a lawsuit filed by passengers who feel that the merger will stifle competition and violate antitrust law, but today’s ruling suggests that the suit has very very slim chances of going much of anywhere. Still, it will be heard in San Francisco starting next week. Shareholders have already approved the deal so at this point the lawsuit is the last hurdle to the carriers closing the deal.
Once that happens there will be a domino effect of moves in the industry. First off, Continental will be able to start their nine month countdown clock on their planned move out of SkyTeam and into Star Alliance. In addition Delta and Northwest will immediately begin shifting their fleets and routes around to maximize profit while taking advantage of their new status as the largest carrier in the world by passenger volume. They also expect to be operating on a single certificate, which will further streamline their operations, in 12-18 months. They already have a general agreement from their pilot unions to make that move which is a good thing. And they’ve already started aligning their frequent flyer programs, so that’s moving along pretty well, too.
This was inevitable and I’m actually glad it has finally happened. Now we can move on with all the various other things that come out of this move. Let’s get rolling…
Update: Apparently the lawsuit in California has settled, though no details have been released. If so that puts the two even closer to finally closing the deal.
Posted by Seth on October 28, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Delta and Northwest took a pretty big step forward in the integration of the carriers’ frequent flyer programs today, offering upgrades to elites traveling on the other carrier’s flights. The program works very similar to the current system that Northwest and Continental have, where being a Continental elite on a Northwest flight effectively give you the same status in their system as a Northwest elite of the same tier would have.
Delta has posted a few details about the new plan on their website. I can’t find anything authoritative on the NWA site yet. And the implementation seems to be a bit kludgey on the customer-facing systems, but it does seem that the systems are processing the upgrades correctly.
With Northwest elites getting upgrades on three carriers now it seems to be the best program in the USA, though it will very soon be subsumed into Delta’s SkyMiles program, which should do a pretty good job of knocking that claim down a couple rungs.
