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Delta Airlines must have been watching the recent downgrades at US Airways and United and thought, “Gee, those airlines are doing such a great job pissing off their passengers! Why can’t WE frustrate our best customers like that?…”

Sure, they had tried before. They had previously declawed their SkyMiles program by watering down their “anytime” SkyChoice awards — the tickets that cost double the miles but formerly guaranteed a seat on the airline if any empty seats were available. (Versus the capacity-controlled tickets that most travelers seek out.)

At the time of that devaluation, you may remember this sidebar in my post:

As an added bonus, there’s this nugget of a policy change on the site, too: “Some airline partners impose a surcharge on Award Travel redemptions for travel on their airline. These charges will be collected at the time of booking.”

Bad enough — and yes, those fees exist, and they vary — but it’s even worse: It’s not just itineraries booked solely on partner airlines that get slapped with an obnoxious fee. If you use miles to book an itinerary that combines Delta and any partner airline, there’s a $25 surcharge. Just because you’re using one of their business partners. (Hat tip to Chris Elliott.)

What’s the point of alliances — and heck, frequent flyer mile programs — if you need to keep paying real cash on top of the miles? Delta’s miles just lost more value. Again.

And as Gary Leff pointed out a few weeks ago, actually making that reservation is worse now, too. In a gratuitous move, you can no longer put itineraries on hold over the phone. And remember, you can’t book every itinerary online using miles. Other airlines still offer a 48- or 72-hour hold, which is useful for making reservations for hotels, etc. No longer: Now you ticket immediately, or lose the itinerary.

Someone explain how we can call this a “loyalty program” any longer? And where is the SaveSkyMiles.com crowd, so vocal back in 2003, on any of this?

The sun is setting on Delta SkyMiles.

Related:
- Another stab in the back of frequent flyers
- Flight Mitosis: Delta splits your nonstops into two

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Upgraded: Frequent flyer legislation
Downgraded: The value of your miles
Frequent flyer programs can be a byzantine maze. Above all, nearly everyone is cranky about being able to cash in their frequent flyer miles. I just tried winnowing down the uncomfortably large kitty of points for some Caribbean travel in May and was given the Heisman. But I’m not cheering on Washington state legislator Chris Hurst, who’s proposing a bill that would allow consumers to cash in their miles at 0.2 cents apiece. “Cash in” literally — for cash. House Bill 2707 is probably not going to go anywhere, but it’s meant as a shot across the bow of airlines whose point redemptions are increasingly stingy. Representative Hurst, call me when you start demanding 2 cents per mile or better. (via Pointswizard)

Upgraded: Delta’s business class seats… on some of its planes
Delta is rolling out new fully-flat seats on its 767s that travel internationally. Excellent news. But only on the 767s for starters, which means that the Delta fleet will have a patchwork of seating at the front of the plane. Sure, every airline rolls new seats out one plane at a time, but it’s odd to limit the rollout explicitly to one aircraft type.

Upgraded: Delta’s flight attendants’ trepidations
With Delta and Northwest in confirmed talks regarding a possible merger, the as-yet non-unionized flight attendants at Delta are looking to organize. Delta’s attendants might be members of the AFA-CWA as of February 14. Consider it a Valentine to Delta management. The goal is to “have a seat at the table” when merger discussions take shape.

Upgraded: Competition for hourly car rentals
With the success of hourly “car-sharing” rentals like Zipcar, the big car rental players are getting in on the action. Reportedly, Enterprise is launching its own version, dubbed “WeCar,” which is being test near Washington University in St. Louis. Just be sure to walk around the car and take photos before and after the rental. If WeCar is anything like their regular operation, those Enterprise guys will try to nail you for any damages on the car, whether it happened on your watch or not.

Upgraded: Gitmo!?
Disturbing and bizarre: There actually exists scheduled service to Guantanamo Bay, ironically provided by the happy-go-lucky sounding Air Sunshine, using 9-seat Cessnas. For those wishing to plan their trip, service is only four days a week, at $250 each way. Not cheap, for such a short trip, and you’d better hope they honor the return portion of the ticket. But you may never want to leave. After all, as Dick Cheney described the conditions for detainees at the base’s prison facilities, when he spoke to CNN in 2005, “They’re living in the tropics. They’re well fed. They’ve got everything they could possibly want.”

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George Hobica reports on a nasty practice: Delta, apparently unhappy that some of their passengers had booked cheap tickets on nonstop flights, rebooked those customers onto far less convenient connecting flights. Like cell division, one flight had turned into two.

A friend of Hobica’s bought a New York-Denver nonstop around the holidays for a piddly $138, but…

…a couple of weeks ago, Delta called him and told him he was now on a flight leaving JFK around 6 AM, and he’d have to make a connection both coming and going. Worse, Davis is now flying on regional jets, instead of a big jet.

Naturally, he’s not pleased. There are still seats left on the Delta nonstop, but they’re selling for over $600 RT for Davis’ itinerary. It’s pretty clear what happened here: Delta kicked Davis off of the nonstop, and will now sell seats at a much higher fare than he paid to last minute purchasers.

Before anyone says it: Yes, the Delta contract of carriage (pdf) mentions that schedules are subject to change without notice, but that’s not what happened here. The schedule didn’t change, and the flight wasn’t canceled. Only this one ticket changed. The airline simply rebooked him onto a different itinerary at the same price.

Hobica hypothesizes that the airline is pre-bumping the cheap-seat customers to less convenient flights so they can continue to sell higher-priced tickets on the most desirable nonstop routes. And unfortunately, this is highly plausible.

Note that this isn’t the ranting of some crackpot who can’t tell Delta apart from Skybus. The author is a credible travel writer and the founder of the airfarewatchdog.com fare alert site.

And based on the comments of other readers on his site, the case wasn’t isolated. Several readers report the exact same phenomenon. (Several readers miss the point, too, and rant about schedule changes. Frustrating, too, but not the complaint at hand.)

If this ever happens to you, complain. If that doesn’t work, then escalate.

Related:
- Reader mail: The airline changed its schedule, what are my rights?
- Customer service: the nuclear option

For all those who hate regional jets, here’s another reason to dislike them: Your luggage might fall out of the cargo hold. Huh??

Berman’s garment bag—stuffed with University of Notre Dame sweaters, a vintage school jacket, Notre Dame drinking cups and other trinkets—was recovered from a Chicago-area rail yard after it slid out the open cargo door of an airliner that departed from Midway Airport on Sunday morning.
[…]
Meanwhile, the parents of a 9-year-old girl were trying to comfort their daughter over the loss of two newly purchased American Girl dolls that were inside a duffel bag that also fell out of the Delta Connection plane on Sunday. The duffel remained missing on Tuesday. “My little girl is devastated by this loss,” Patrick Telan, a litigation attorney from Orlando, said of his daughter, Abby Ann.

Thankfully, the devastating loss of her dollies wasn’t accompanied by the death of ground-based rail yard workers.

Delta, following in the footsteps of Northwest Airlines, has taken another step in the continuing devaluation of frequent flyer miles.

For some time, customers have complained that cashing in frequent flyer miles for the so-called “saver” award tickets has been getting harder and harder. The airlines have countered that there are actually two classes of frequent flyer tickets: 1) the “limited seats available” saver awards that may be harder to get, and 2) the unrestricted-inventory awards which let you cash in miles anytime there is an open seat, but at a higher price: generally double the miles. “Where’s the problem?” the airlines quip, noting that the cheapest cash fares aren’t available on every flight, so why should the discounted frequent flyer tickets be?

But that argument — which is problematic in and of itself, given the way frequent flyer programs are marketed — falls apart when you take away the “any seat” availability of awards.

Gary Leff points to Delta’s latest tweak of the rules at his blog. Delta announced the policy on its website:

Also, effective December 1, 2007, SkyChoice Award Ticket Reservations will no longer be available on every Delta flight in which a seat is available for sale. SkyChoice Award Ticket Reservations will continue to be available on most Delta flights, but seats will be limited and possibly unavailable on some flights. Our SkySaver Award Ticket Reservations will remain unchanged.

In other words, “We will now restrict availability on all tickets, but we’ll restrict some more than others.” Great.

(As an added bonus, there’s this nugget of a policy change on the site, too: “Some airline partners impose a surcharge on Award Travel redemptions for travel on their airline. These charges will be collected at the time of booking.” No word on how much, which partners, or under what conditions. I’ll inquire and report back.)

Delta isn’t the first to devalue their double-mile awards like this. They’re actually following in fellow SkyTeam alliance member Northwest’s footsteps. Northwest made their change to the WorldPerks program recently, though I admit that this one got past me when it happened. The previously unrestricted PerkPass award now “waives Saturday-night stay requirement, blackout dates and most capacity controls.” Southwest, long a holdout against capacity controls, started that monkey business recently too.

The number of people directly affected by this will be slim at first. Most people try to cash in their miles for the “discounted” miles-fares (e.g., the industry standard of 25,000 miles for a domestic U.S. coach ticket, 35,000 from the lower 48 to Hawaii, or 50,000 between Europe and North America). They don’t even consider the “standard” or “choice” awards that cost double. These “full fare” miles-tickets are really only useful when you’ve got lots of miles to burn and you HAVE to go. But as Gary points out, this has been a valuable insurance policy to have on hand, should tragedy strike.

Even worse, this dumbing-down of the once-unrestricted awards gives the airlines leeway to add even more restrictions to their saver awards. After all, as long as the alternative still has better features, you can mess with the saver award as much as you like.

It’s probably a matter of time before other airlines follow suit. But thumbs down to Delta and Northwest for being ahead of the curve on this one.

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Foodie tourist traps, highbrow and low
Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed… museum campus? The Big Mac Museum is open for business. Not your speed? How about the uber-bombastic Napa Wine Castle? Sounds like the supersizing of wineries. (Thanks, Dr. Vino!)

“Secrets From the Tower”
Fox News Chicago has a short “tell-all” report featuring a former Chicago O’Hare air traffic controller. My favorite snippet: “ORD controllers still use slips of paper to control traffic.” But take heart, the controllers take delays “as personally as you do.” (Thanks, Steve!)

Delta starts a blog
Corporate blogs are actually remarkably rare in the travel business. (Of the biggies, Bill Marriott has a blog, and Southwest has their blog.) Delta Airlines now joins the fray. Welcome to the blogosphere!

The re-mystification of myths
The TSA keeps trying to play “Mythbusters,” which I’m sure has the folks at the Discovery Channel doing cartwheels of excitement, seeing their brand name attached to the TSA. The problem is, the myths aren’t really busted. Here’s their attempt to refute the ban on liquids. But as Chris Elliott busts the supposedly busted myth, you can’t just say that liquids are dangerous “because we said so.” There are plenty of others who disagree, after all, and who come back with science-based arguments. (More here, for example; or read most anything Bruce Schneier has written in the last six years.) The TSA simply has lost its credibility, and it’ll take more than a few decontextualized videos of stuff going “Boom!” to make me feel water is dangerous. Their mythbusting efforts? Busted.

Down the memory hole
A China Airlines plane recently blew up (no one was injured) but what does the airline do to manage their image? They white out their name and logo from the plane. China Airlines explosion? What China Airlines explosion? Full story and before-and-after photos here.

When free drinks aren’t welcome
Why would there be an uproar over an airline giving a customer a free bottle of wine? When that customer is a celebrity who just left rehab for alcoholism. A well-meaning Qantas flight attendant gave a bottle of red to singer Keith Urban, who apparently declined. But come on: give the flight attendant a break! Unless the airline is giving CIA-style background briefings about the passengers in the cabin, you can’t be expected to know the ins and outs of every celebrity’s (or every passenger’s) personal life. In fact, I was quite content to be blissfully unaware of Mr. Urban’s specific addiction before this imbroglio. (Thanks Dr. Vino!)

Group hug: Mergers and partnerships
JetBlue merging with Delta? Rumored, but unlikely. Brazil’s TAM and Germany’s Lufthansa? Not a merger, but a codesharing partnership. United is getting in on the hot codesharing action with TAM, too. Lufthansa also joined up with El Salvador’s TACA, already a United partner. Are the Star Alliance invitations far off? And keepin’ it Star, is Singapore Airlines buying China Eastern? They’re buying a piece, but how big will that piece be?…

Can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?
British Airways, apparently in a response to the all-business class service from startups like Eos, Silverjet, and Maxjet, is considering rolling out all-premium service between unnamed European and American cities. Premium economy in the back, business in the front. No straight-up economy, and no first. (Thanks, Benet!)

Countdown to 7/8/07
Boeing has started assembling its first 787 Dreamliner, a plane manufactured in prefab pieces around the world and bolted together at the Everett factory. The debut is scheduled for July 8. 7/8/07… 787… har har har.

American updates website, makes it more like Southwest
American Airlines revamped their website, giving you an overview of the different fares you can book. The layout will be familiar, if you’ve ever booked on Southwest. Or Air Canada. Or Qantas. Or Ted. (Does anyone ever actually book tickets at the Ted site?)

Yapta comes alive!
Yapta, the service that tracks fares after you’ve bought, mentioned here last week, is now live.

Alaska Airlines downgrades their upgrades
If you used miles to upgrade flights on Alaska Airlines, you’ll have to buy far more expensive tickets in order to do so. Thumbs down. Gary Leff has the full scoop.

Last week, Delta emerged from bankruptcy to much fanfare, including a new paint job for its planes and yet another iteration of its corporate logo. Many in the media are reporting this as wonderful news, and describing the celebrations of hopeful employees with words like “jubilee.”

Northwest will also soon emerge from chapter 11 protection, having obtained approval for their post-bankruptcy plan from 97% of their creditors.

But should passengers be celebrating?
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Northwest axes its standby program
While yesterday’s guest blogger Tyler Colman couldn’t hop on the earlier flight of his choice on American Airlines, he should thank his lucky stars that American still actually has free standby as an option.

Today, with a press release that trumpets the good news and buries the sad reality, Northwest proudly proclaimed the expansion of its “FlyNow option,” which allows travelers to confirm flight changes on the day of travel for a $25 fee. But here’s the real nitty-gritty:

Northwest WorldPerks Elite customers will still maintain the ability to stand by for alternate flights throughout the entire day of departure and will not incur a fee if a seat becomes available. Beginning April 24, all other customers traveling on non-refundable tickets will be charged a $25 fee for same day flight changes, whether boarding via standby status or confirming through the FlyNow option. The $25 fee for boarding via standby status replaces the current option that allows non-Elite customers traveling on non-refundable tickets to stand by for eligible flights at no cost.

Bottom line: Free standby is gone at Northwest, much like it’s no longer available at US Airways. You’ll pay $25 to confirm, or to standby. Why isn’t there a discount for the non-guaranteed standby option?? (Hat tip to reader Sarah in the comments!)

United kills Silver Wings Plus and Ameniti
United has pulled the plug on its two travel clubs. Silver Wings Plus, aimed at seniors, and Ameniti, targeting paying business and first class flyers, are closing shop at the end of June 2007. Ameniti was fairly short-lived, but Silver Wings Plus was around forever. The clubs each cost money to join and provided discounts for certain tickets. (Ameniti gave free companion tickets on full-fare tickets.) But therein was the problem. Much like learning the rules of a frequent flyer program seems to require an advanced degree, the rules for getting the benefit of these clubs weren’t always obvious. Members will receive prorated membership fee refunds. (Thanks to reader Richard!)

Delta to offer carbon offsets
Travelers feeling guilty about the carbon emissions spewing out of their plane’s jet engines will be able to buy carbon offsets through the Delta website beginning June 1. It won’t be mandatory, like all-business class Silverjet requires. It’s more like Expedia and Travelocity’s optional offsets.

Some seat changes on American cost $15
Bought your American Airlines ticket from a travel agent or website other than aa.com? Then you’ll pay $15 to change your seat assignment over the phone with the airline. Seat changes via the American website are still free.

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Three offers that might help you if you’re looking to beef up your frequent flyer account.

(Don’t forget to spend some of those miles, too, you know… They don’t earn interest!)

1) Delta
Airlines have a bajillion partners through whom you can earn miles, and Delta is adding an incentive for you to spend your cash with Delta partners. Register here. Then, through May 31, you’ll get 5000 bonus miles for every set of 5 Delta SkyMiles partners you transact with, up to a 25,000-mile bonus.

2) US Airways
Reader Matthew points to this promo from online bank Netbank for new customers opening accounts:

4000 Dividend miles for opening a netbank checking account and keeping a minimum average daily balance of $500 USD for 1 month. Miles arrive 4-6 weeks after this. They have a similar promotion for their CD and money market products, but each requires more cash. Offers CAN be used in combination for a total of up to 13,000 miles. Not sure if miles arrive in lump sum or if they’re given over time.

Miles are not elite-qualifying, so you won’t hit Gold or Chairman’s Preferred any faster this way. But they’re still redeemable miles. (Thanks Matthew!)

3) United
This isn’t a new offer. In fact, it dates back to October. But I get asked about this semi-regularly, and the fact that it’s still ongoing amazes me. Chase is still offering the United Mileage Plus Visa with no annual fee for the first year, and with a whopping 25,000 bonus miles. If you’re looking for a Visa for your business, they have a 1-year no-fee card with 25,000 bonus miles for commercial accounts, too. See here for the latter card. Previously posted here in slightly greater detail.

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Downgraded: Lavender
Update: The controversial and lame American Airlines website for women got a minor redesign, as Meg at the Consumerist noticed. See the before-and-after screenshots above. The criticism must have gotten to them. Gone is the lavender flight search box, though it’s still a dumbed-down version with fewer options than the main search page. Is this progress?

Upgraded: US Airways, Downgraded: Southwestern temperance
The booze is back in the Land of Enchantment! US Airways is once again serving alcoholic drinks on flights to and from New Mexico. Recall that they got busted for serving liquor without a license. Tipple with impunity.

Downgraded: Late night arrivals at Detroit; Upgraded: Odds of a PBOR
It happened again. Passengers were stuck on a plane for hours, bathrooms had no water, etc. A late-arriving Spirit Airlines flight from Cancun couldn’t be processed after landing (at 11 p.m.), because Homeland Security’s Customs/Immigration agents had gone home for the night. It took until 4 a.m. the next day for passengers to be let out. Update: Or the plane landed early! And Customs’ computers were down. And passengers left the plane at 12:30 a.m., if you believe Customs. Or later, depending on who’s telling the story.

Upgraded: Lufthansa first class seating
No preview images yet, but Lufthansa is upgrading their first class cabins, beginning with winter 2008. The new seats were meant to debut with the A380, but given the delivery delays, they’re just rolling them out anyway.

Upgraded, potentially: Baggage screening
Assuming the bill survives a veto threat from President Bush, airports across America could receive new equipment that supposedly screens baggage faster and more accurately than previous versions. Why the veto threat? The bill also contains a provision permitting TSA agents to unionize.

Downgraded: Flights from LAX
United Airlines and Los Angeles World Airports are having a spat about the rent. United says the rent hike is a violation of the lease agreement, but until the dust settles, they’re charging passengers who board a flight at LAX an extra $10 to cover the difference, even though the actual costs to the airline are allegedly a lot less. Now Delta and US Airways have followed suit and raised fares out of LAX by the same $10. Lovely.

Upgraded: Baltimore!
Layover at BWI? Grab a glass of wine at the newest branch of Vino Volo, the chain of in-airport wine bars. Other locations include Washington Dulles, Sacramento, and Seattle. (Via Jaunted)

Maybe US Airways does have a liquor problem…
Maybe New Mexico’s recent restrictions on US Airways’ serving liquor on flights to and from the state had something to do with company CEO Doug Parker. The executive has apparently been busted for driving under the influence, perhaps after downing one too many mini-bottles from the drink cart. Maybe he should have had a cup of the God-awful “Ma Parker’s roast” coffee that his airline served instead. (Then again, that swill will drive anyone to drink.)

Delta looks the other way
What does Delta owe you if you PROVE that one of their baggage handlers stole a camera out of your suitcase? Nothing! The Consumerist has the story of a sleuthing passenger who tracked down his stolen camera on eBay, got the seller (a Delta employee) arrested (and fired!), and even got his camera back. But he didn’t get an apology voucher from Delta. The airline argues that they’re even. He got his camera back, and they got him from point A to point B, and so he’s due nothing. No mention of the fact that their own staff ripped him off, causing him countless hours of hassle and endless frustration. Jeez, throw the guy a bone! Apologize and give him a coupon!

Oh sure, blame the volcano
Flashback to 1982: A British Airways 747 loses power in all four of its engines, and starts going down. Miraculously, it doesn’t crash and everyone survives. The culprit: volcano ash. It’s a fascinating tale, and a good way to start the weekend. (via David Rowell)

Pilots packing heat: Captain Bernard Goetz wishes you a pleasant flight
The U.S. State Department and Homeland Security are trying to get more countries to allow American pilots to carry guns when they fly internationally. ( “Who’s Bernard Goetz?” See here.)

Reminder: Travvies Nominations close Monday morning, bright and early
Just a short reminder that nominations for the Travvies — the awards for the best travel blogs — end Monday. Then the nominations will be sent off to the judges, who will pick the finalists. Public voting starts just over a week later. Thanks to everyone for all the great nominations so far! Click here for the nomination start page, or click on the award categories in the sidebar.