Friday NEWS roundup: Delta, AMEX cards, gelato & conspiring airlines!

It has been an interesting start to the month of July, I must say, with lots of little Delta bits floating around the web and blogosphere. Let’s break some of the ones that caught my attention down.

It seems a number of bloggers are going to great lengths and attempting to use charts and tools to show what works with SkyMiles (think Rub Goldberg machine). Let’s make it simple for you. I showed back in May that Delta does not play well with partner awards and how you cannot mix award levels. Then Delta updated the wording on Delta.com (never told us btw as is the SOP) about mixed awards and then later confirmed what we found. Keep in mind folks, this is the company that for a long time charged medallions MORE FOR AWARDS until we found they were doing it and they put a stop to the practice and “said” they would refund those over charged. Another little funny bit someone has registered the URL KeepDescending.com and it now re-directs you to the Delta SkyMiles page. Yes, that is really funny to me!

Let me make this simple for you – never EVER book anything but LEVEL 1 awards with Delta and partners then things will work as they should (that is what I do). If you are too frustrated to spend the time and effort to find the LEVEL 1 awards then just use ADAM. It really is that simple.

Next we have a great deal of questions about last month’s Delta AMEX promotion. First off, if you were not instantly approved, or were told NO, I would not give up just yet. Keep in mind it was the “apply by” date that mattered. If you got a rejection letter I would write them back and tell them in the body of the letter (things like this if true):

• You wish to be reconsidered
• You have perfect payment history (never missed)
• You are willing to take small credit line to be approved
• You are a frequent Delta flyer so this card is perfect
• Never been turned down before
• Happy to give AMEX more info for approval

You get the idea. You can also call the reconsideration line (877-399-3083 or 866-314-0237) and talk to a human to see why you have not yet been approved or what else they need to approve you for last application that is still pending! Either way, don’t give up too soon.

Delta this week in a big PR push tells us they are adding ice cream onboard for some flights (Honeysuckle Gelato). Nice. Not really all that amazing and we already know Delta does FOOD good but Woodford and Gelato sound nice so thanks (would rather you fix the hopelessly broken award page, but we’ll take what we can get).

If you have not noticed DAL stock price has taken a beating due to the FEDs looking into if the airlines have been conspiring to keep prices high (disclaimer: I hold NO DAL stock nor do I plan to buy any). I have no inside info but would not be shocked if it turns out they have been doing just that. After all, I posted on the blog this:

“I clearly see Delta does not care about loyalty anymore or me as a Diamond Medallion and could care less if we all went to another airline. If we do they will just park jets and still fly full. I have been told that face to face by Delta people. Seriously!” – DeltaPoints.com Feb 13th, 2015

Yep, I was smugly told at last year’s BAcon convention in Las Vegas they will, if they need to, just park jets to keep them flying full! Now this was in regard to a question of what happens with SkyMiles if they have destroyed the program and flights end up half empty, but you see the point. That is, Delta is going to do whatever it takes to keep capacity under control to keep the jets flying full even if it means parking jets. Good for Delta, but bad for consumers who want lower prices and more frequent flyer award seats. It will be “fun” to see what the FEDs do to Delta and the rest of the airlines.

So there you are. These are the bits that grabbed my attention these first 10 days of July. Any travel news that got your attention? – René

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