From their website:
"Rediscover what you love about Delta—and get a special gift of 1,000 bonus miles. Register today, then book your round-trip ticket and fly by November 15, 2008."
Plus, if you book at delta.com you’ll earn an additional 500 bonus miles. You’ll always find our best fares at delta.com—guaranteed—and you’ll also enjoy:
- Easy and flexible search options for flights
- Zero booking fees (that’s up to a $25 savings)
- Fast online check-in
Earning up to 1,500 bonus miles will get you closer to an Award Ticket. We’ve added new nonstop international destinations to choose from:
- Atlanta (ATL)—London (LHR)
- Atlanta (ATL)—Shanghai (PVG)
- Atlanta (ATL)—Stockholm (ARN)
- New York (JFK)—Cairo (CAI)
- New York (JFK)—Cape Town (CPT)
- New York (JFK)—Dakar (DKR)
- New York (JFK)—London (LHR)
- New York (JFK)—Lyon (LYS)
- New York (JFK)—Malaga (AGP)
Delta Airlines is seriously out of touch with their best customers. 1000 bonus miles is a "special gift" ? With the fees and usage limitations on frequent flyer miles, 1000 bonus points is not much of an incentive to fly Delta Airlines.
Short and sweet. Click here to sign-up. If you’re already flying, its more points for little effort. Given all the point devaluation events these days, you’ll need as many points as possible if you want to redeem them for flights. The following details are listed for your convenience, but also included in linked page.
Ticketing dates: October 1, 2008 - December 15, 2008
Travel dates: October 1, 2008 - December 15, 2008
“Selected Mileage Plus members can earn up to 40,000 redeemable bonus miles from United when they fly between October 1 and December 15, 2008. Register, and then complete up to six roundtrips (three domestic and three international) in one of the qualifying booking classes on United® or United Express® between October 1 and December 15, 2008."
You can earn between 2,000 miles and 40,000 miles total - the more roundtrips you fly, the more miles you can earn.
Domestic Offer (MPD618) (qualifying booking classes: F, A, P, C, D, Z, Y, B, M, E, U, H)
| One completed roundtrip | 2,000 bonus miles |
| Two completed roundtrips | 5,000 bonus miles |
| Three completed roundtrips | 15,000 bonus miles |
International Offer (MPD628) (qualifying booking classes: F, A, P, C, D, Z)
| One completed roundtrip | 5,000 bonus miles |
| Two completed roundtrips | 10,000 bonus miles |
| Three completed roundtrips | 25,000 bonus miles |
Happy Tuesday, road warriors.
USA Today has a good summary article highlighting some of the recent changes impacting frequent fliers of the major carriers.
A Few Choice Highlights
- Continental Airlines said Friday that it is reducing the number of miles it awards fliers on many short flights and lowering the bonus miles it gives to many of its most-frequent fliers.
- Last month, US Airways ended bonus miles for its most-frequent fliers.
- In August, Delta Air Lines began an "award travel fuel surcharge." SkyMiles members redeeming trips online now pay $25 for a domestic ticket; $50 for an international one.
- Starting Sept. 15, Northwest will begin charging $25 to redeem a domestic frequent-flier ticket, $50 for a trans-Atlantic ticket and $100 for a trans-Pacific ticket.
- Continental says that on March 1 bonus mileage will drop from 125% to 100% for Platinum Elite members and from 50% to 25% for Silver Elite members. Fliers who annually earn 75,000 miles achieve platinum status, and those who earn 25,000 miles reach silver status.
- Beginning Jan. 1, for tickets bought on or after Nov. 15, Continental will stop giving a minimum of 500 points on flights shorter than 500 miles. Fliers will instead earn the number of miles flown.
- Denver-based Frontier Airlines, too, will stop awarding a minimum 250 miles on most short routes on Sept. 15. Fliers will earn the number of miles flown. Exceptions: Flights between Denver and four Colorado cities — Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, Durango and Aspen — will earn 250 miles.
- United Airlines also stopped giving a minimum of 500 miles in July, and US Airways eliminated its mileage minimum last year.
Airlines need to go back to business school and re-learn the concept of building customer loyalty and how it affects profitability.
The DOT has released some figures regarding air travel delays during the busy summer travel season.
- John F Kennedy International (JFK) in New York was worst among North America’s 40 busiest airports, with les than 55% of flights arriving on-time
- LaGuardia (LGA), also in New York, was the 2nd worst with 58% on-time arrival rate
- Rounding out the NY trio was Newark International (EWR) with a 60% on-time arrival rate
- For reference, the average at all other major airports was 74%
- JetBlue was the worst performing airline in July with less than 70% on-time arrival rate
- American Airlines was worst in June, with only 58% on-time arrivals
So, if you plan your travel around avoiding delays, then next year consider flying to Salt Lake City (on Southwest Airlines). SLC had nearly an 86% on-time performance, and as usual Southwest was the major carrier with the best on-time performance. Here is the full report
Delta, following the lead of its competitors, has announced plans to rollout wireless broadband internet access on all its domestic mainline fleet by mid-2009.
"Delta is joining with Aircell®, a 17-year leader in airborne communications for business and commercial aviation, to install the company’s Mobile Broadband Network on the carrier’s domestic fleet. The system, Gogo™, will enable Delta customers traveling with Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, to access the Internet, corporate VPNs, corporate and personal e-mail accounts, as well as SMS texting and instant messaging services. Gogo will be available to customers for a flat fee of $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours.
“Delta remains committed to providing a travel experience that maximizes the time our customers spend with us onboard by offering them even more productivity options,” said Richard Anderson, Delta’s chief executive officer. ”Our customers asked for in-flight connectivity, and we’re responding by rolling out the most extensive Wi-Fi network in the sky. Beginning this fall, our passengers will have the ability to stay connected when they travel with us throughout the continental U.S.”Gogo will be offered initially on Delta’s fleet of 133 MD88/90 aircraft and will rapidly expand to the remaining domestic fleet of more than 200 Boeing 737, 757 and 767-300 aircraft throughout the first half of 2009. The airline expects to have more than 330 aircraft complete by summer 2009. The full fleet agreement between Aircell and Delta will provide a consistent, convenient experience for customers traveling on the airline who wish to use the Gogo Internet service."
Here is the original article from Delta’s News Room. By the way, American has already started this service on their 767-200 fleet; here is a review of the service by WSJ reporter Walt Mossberg.