Renés Points

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Once in a while I like to share some Delta & Aviation related stuff that I had to click on or I think you would enjoy as well. Let’s dive in.

• Mike Rowe has a loose wire. Well, to be clear, not Mike himself, but his FA call button had one on Delta. It is a fun read from his Facebook page and try to read it with Mike’s voice, pace and tenor in your head and it will be even more funny.

• Life as a Delta Flight Attendant. A great read about what #CrewLife really is like and what it takes to land a job as a Delta FA. Good stuff.

• Delta jets always fly. Well, mostly and from the Delta FaceBook page, sorry NewsHub, we get bragging about a new record of non-canceled flights. The are doing a great job and should be commended. Now could we get a new record of days without an “enhancement” to SkyMiles and that would be something also to crow about (to me)!

• No more AA tickets from Delta! That is for non extreme weather etc events. I have a bigger post on this in my head but trying to work out some details. Either way, if you need to be rerouted due to Delta issues, don’t expect to be put on an AA flight instead.

• Just how many SkyMiles you ask? More and more of the mainstream press is publishing that “How many SkyMiles does it take to get that free flight on Delta? The sky is the limit.” Yeah, not just that, they may charge you for two tickets too. We all know this, but others are finding out too. Good. But Delta does not seem to care as long as they keep flying on time and completing flights. Sigh.

• Delta SkySpa for workers. Delta never does anything without a dollar motive. Maybe I am cynical but I think Delta is doing these worker spas to stop or head off the next union effort. Time will tell.

• DAL stock price is up! Way up I should say. Delta is done, for now, with stupid oil futures hedges and some are saying oil is heading to $20 per barrel. That is amazing good news for Delta and DAL. The negatives could be pilots new contracts, if FAs form a union, the economy and other events that could affect earnings. Just as an FYI, I do not hold any DAL stock or plan to buy any.

• Last site for 2k AX GCs? One of the best ways of lowering your cost to meet the spend on so many cards is buying 2k gift cards with your name on them and then using those to buy VDGCs that you can load to BlueBird. But, most of the cash back sites have gone to $200 cards max for cash back making them worthless. There seems to be one site still offering 1% back (yeah not much but still) on 2k cards. I have an order in but have not been paid. Call this one #Developing.

• Delta Mileage Runs are HOT! OK maybe not really “news” worthy but just sharing that it IS that time of year and I am shocked we are finding 3-4 cent per MQM mile range prices and some of them are even on weekends. I plan to post as many deals as I can find so keep a close watch on the “run tab” on the blog if you need more. Or, just get a Delta Reserve card and pick up 10,000 MQMs from home (hint: much simpler but less fun)!

So that is my list for this month. Any other neat aviation news bits you think we should know about please comment below and share a link so we too can enjoy it as well! – René

PS – One month from TODAY I will be at the Chicago Seminars. Will you be?

We see from the Delta PR news hub site that Delta will soon offer a shot for medallions to sit in a “real” 1st class seat that is, on a Delta PVT jet. Bloomberg apparently had a scoop on the news and shared a bunch more details than the Delta PR page. Here is what fascinates me about this. First off, since we all spend our time flying PVT jets (no, not really), we all … Continue reading →

It is hard to believe Q1 of 2015 is almost over. As always it has been interesting to see what news Delta has made and others have said about the airline. Let’s look at a few you may or may not have seen. Perhaps after my publicly shaming Delta’s PR folks, they have once again started using Flyertalk after a long hiatus. They posted about the expanded airlines we can now can book on the … Continue reading →

It is hard to keep up with all the Delta and partner changes going on this month but my fellow BA bloggers have done a great job covering a bunch of them. The first interesting one is that Korean Air, a founding Skyteam member who has just about as good of a relationship with Delta as Delta has with Alaska as of late, has big news. How about code-share flights with American Air. Oh boy. … Continue reading →

I VOTE YES! I have, for a long time, been a huge fan of Chris Elliott. He is the little guy & travelers’ friend. He calls out even our dear Delta when they do really dumb things (hey, I do that too ya know). He has a great team of folks that help him reach out to companies to get resolution when things go wrong and shame the companies when they don’t do “what’s right”! … Continue reading →

Time to get caught up with some of the latest Delta and aviation news that has caught my eye. Traditionally August has seen some major nasty news about Delta come out like the T-72 rule or the consolidator fare change rule and on and on. All we really got last month was the updates to the Skyclub “grub” and sadly many of the best test bits did not make the final cut. So on to … Continue reading →

Delta has just posted on Delta.com the following travel warning and alert: “Delta has suspended service until further notice to and from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv and its New York-JFK hub. Delta, in coordination with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, is doing so to ensure the safety and security of our customers and employees. Delta flight 468, a Boeing 747 from JFK with 273 passengers and 17 crew, diverted to Paris-Charles de … Continue reading →

Gosh, it has been a long time since I had a Delta news update post (like two months). So it is time to do some catch-up from May and June and this time I will share my insightful commentary on each piece! Let’s see what caught my eye this round: It seems for YEARS some crooks “unloaded” $22 million from Delta with fake invoices going all the way back to the NWA days. Yes, $22 … Continue reading →

  I hate to start the weekend on a down note and yes I get these kinds of improvements to our local regional airport to change it over to an “international” airport will be good for our local economy – yada yada yada! How about taking just a little bit of that Pot-O-Irish-Gold (per this WNDU report) and try to talk Delta into bringing something other than barbie 50 seat jets to my beloved SBN … Continue reading →

  Today Delta announced it is again flying the direct route between NYC & Sweden’s capital city Stockholm. But I would avoid this one and you can read more about the announcement HERE on Delta.com. The details are: DL0203 Departs Stockholm (ARN) 13:15 & arrives New York (JFK) 15:47 June – Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Sat July – Mon, Tue, Thu, Sat DL0202 Departs New York (JFK) 21.39 & arrives Stockholm (ARN) 11:45am (+1 day) … Continue reading →

I just realized that my last monthly recap of the latest Delta & aviation news headlines was back in February (I feel like such a slacker)! So how about we catch up real quick on some of the latest news that has been going on in Delta-land. Also, I will be out this morning buying some Vanilla Reloads at a few of my local CVSs and will report back how it goes. Now to the … Continue reading →

February, for being a short month, has been packed after January’s news update! The new “goodies” in the Skyclubs have been well recieved by those who have tested them so far; I look forward to a sample myself soon too. I am done with my MQD exempt spending (ahead of my goal btw) now and can turn to focus on building up my MQMs and maybe a mileage run or two soon – gotta build … Continue reading →

I really like the forward facing Delta full flat seats. The space is good, the tray table is good, sleeping is good, the screen is good – it is just good. The herring bone design, not so much. It feels cramped and strange. Depending on the seat your view is bad and looking out the window all but a neck breaker. But that is what apparently fits in the A320-200’s as you can see from … Continue reading →