One of the great joys of Delta.com is being able, much of the time, to find low level award space on either Air France or KLM flights to Europe and beyond. But for now the only way to find space on Alitalia has been to call Delta. Will that change? A Delta company spokesman told me this:
“Delta is always reviewing various aspects of its business as we constantly strive to improve our customers’ experience.”
So the official answer does not give us much to go on. We all know Delta has been trying to upgrade their “IT” this year and had some major issues with AF space not showing up for about a week, so my guess is we should not hold our breath for online Alitalia award booking any time soon. Let’s just hope some improvements to our Delta.com are on the way before year end!
My next question came from a reader who has always wanted to know what is faster, logging in as a member or a guest at the Skyclubs. I have never been a member since I always have my Delta AMEX Reserve card to get me in, but have been told by members there is no difference in speed and they just use guest as it is a faster way to get online. Are they missing out on performance? According to the product manager for the Delta SkyClubs we get this:
“There is no difference in speed for customers if they log in with their SkyMiles number or if they select Guest.”
So there is no reason for members to do anything but keep logging in as a guest of the Skyclubs. I do see an opportunity here for Delta to offer a higher level to members who actually “pay” for a membership. Sure it would take some tech upgrades, but it could be a way to differentiate the brand. Add a few more goodies like a couple of coupons for premium drinks and show the “bundle” as value and you have a way to push more sales of the Skyclub memberships. Just my take on it anyway.
If you need a month of GoGo internet, you can get it at a GREAT price thanks to a hat tip from blog reader Michael! Check out and use THIS LINK to save yourself $10 on a monthly pass for GoGo access in the air! Thanks Michael for sharing.
Two more bits! These are not breaking news, but in case you missed it ANYONE in Wisconsin can change over their Frontier points to Delta for FREE and even match up to Silver medallion status. SW Air I kinda like as an airline, and I know readers like them too, but a chance to upgrade from Frontier to Delta – this is a no brainer in my book!
Also, as I am sure you have seen from other BA Bloggers, the British Airways Avios Point Chase card will be “officially” ending on July 18th. For domestic short haul redemption’s this is a GREAT value. I have booked my dad to fly up from MIA to PHL for just 15,000+$5.00 non-stop round trip! That is just UNREAL savings. If you have a round coming up, you should look at this card even if you only get 50,000 points after $1000 in spend! I do have a round on the way on or before the July 18th date but have had this card already in the past or I would add this to my list I will be going for.
BTW, if you are not yet a daily e-mail subscriber to Delta Points, you may want to sign up. Not only to get the blog sent to your in-box each day so you never miss out, but also because there may be some goodies on the way before the end of the month for some of you. – René
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To me, it seems like DL never bothered to purchase more bandwidth for the former Crown Room Clubs after they made wi-fi free. Speed in many of the old DL clubs is really slow when compared to their ex-NW cousins (who always had it free pre-DL). JFK T2 is positively glacial, although that may be also due to the fact that the signal carries outside the club to the gates below (this problem is easily solved by requiring a login password that you give to everyone who enters the lounge).
Unfortunately, this is a common problem that I’ve seen with hotels, restaurants, etc. when they move from a chargeable wi-fi model to free. Too often the suits who make the decisions forget to consult the IT guy to calculate the impact of more users to the service experience. Or they just don’t care and are more interested in that all important ‘free’ in their marketing material.