I’m a bit late to the game on this one since Delta announced its promotion last week, but I guess it was worth it since American just matched. Delta has been saying recently how much they want to “win” New York. Part of that strategy has included an aggressive move with transcontinental service that I think is very smart. The airline decided to bring some ETOPS 757s that were going across the Atlantic to domestic service. Instead of just using them along with regular domestic 757s, the company took advantage of the superior international product onboard these aircraft and branded it as Transcontinental BuisnesElite with service to Los Angeles and United
But of course, it takes effort to gain market share in this market. American has its Flagship Service 767s while United operates its p.s. 757s here, both of which are in a three-class configuration and offer services that are closer to international service than domestic. And of course Virgin America and JetBlue are also competitors out of JFK, and Continental out of Newark, though I’d argue American, United, and Delta are the airlines mostly competing for premium traffic.
So last week, Delta announced a nice promotion for these route – 50,000 bonus miles for a roundtrip in BusinessElite, and 25,000 miles for a roundtrip in “premium” economy, though not for the most discounted fare buckets. Personally, I don’t like how Delta is calling their service premium economy. I mean, it’s a good product but, well, whatever. You can find more details about the Delta offer here.
Meanwhile, yesterday American matched the promotion – 50,000 bonus miles in first or business, and 25,000 bonus miles for the highest coach fares. You can catch all the details here.
So, if you were planning to fly this route anyway…this seems like a good deal.
By “premium economy” Delta means Y/B/M fare-class. They aren’t referencing the quality of service, but rather the quantity they charge!
Premium-cost or Premium-fare should have been used.
I’ll continue to purchase my T-fare’s thank you.