Will This Blog Still Write About Delta? Are We Becoming Haters? (Editor’s Rant)

Delta Air Lines and SkyMiles are two topics generally in this blog’s main orbit.

But based on some of our recent posts, one may get the impression we’re hopping off the Delta train. (Or plane, as it where.)

René wrote a scathing piece about why he is not pursuing Delta Diamond Medallion status for 2024. That followed a post last year about disappointing First Class experiences. (To be fair, he also wrote about a particularly pleasant experience, too.)

He’s writing about flying American Airlines more and more — although the food isn’t quite up to his standard. (I’ve shared — and even prepared — many meals with René. He’s a true foodie. Don’t feel toobad, AA. 🙂 ).

But I sense sort of a panic from some of our readers that:

• we’re going to abandon Delta content
• we hate Delta
• we haven’t published any SkyTeam mileage runs in a while

The thing is, we call ‘em as we see ‘em. Some people disagree with us — and that’s fine! (René isn’t completely done with Delta. He’s just not actively pursuing Diamond status anymore because it doesn’t work for him. He’ll probably be Platinum for a few years or something.)

It’s been a minute since I traveled on United. But I flew American last year. I took trips on Southwest. Many of my flights were aboard Delta, though. And of those airlines, I still feel Delta’s actual product (planes, food and beverage, onboard and in airport service, etc.) is the best.

I agree with René that Delta’s First Class food isn’t quite as good as it used to be. He hates canned wine — and I’ve never tried it. Remarkably, the canned Tip Top Old Fashioned are, I think, delicious. (Though wine and bourbon, of course, worlds apart — especially when it comes to bottling, canning, and storage.)

Delta’s new Sky Clubs — as I’ve written before — are great. The problem, of course, lies with the overcrowding problem. But other lounges (Amex Centurion, The Club, etc.) aren’t exactly immune.

So, no: we don’t hate Delta. We’ll still write about Delta. Don’t worry.

(That said, not every Delta-related subject or bit of news gets covered. Some of it just isn’t that important or interesting. We’re sometimes crazy busy, too. Maybe someday we’ll have a full staff like some other blogs do! )

But where Delta is starting to lose favor with me (and others) is the SkyMiles program.

SkyMiles award prices on many international travel redemptions are downright absurd. I appreciate the 15% discount for SkyMiles credit card members. But I’ve already heard stories about Delta raising SkyMiles award prices by — you guessed it — about 15%.

The MQD hikes Delta announced late last year felt slightly shocking. Clearly, though, Delta is targeting corporate flyers whose deep-pocketed employers pay almost anything for an airline ticket. And that’s nothing surprising. (Side note: I always get a kick out of the trolls who complain about people earning Medallion status by taking MQD runs. Yet, these same folks rarely pay anything for their Delta tickets — their employers pick up the tabs.)

Speaking of MQD runs: we simply haven’t found any that get us excited. Most are in the 2.75X range. We like to start in the 3X area and go up. We’re searching, though! (You can always get in touch with point.me — their actual job is creating mileage runs.)

So, that’s my off-the-cuff rant. Delta is here to stay — but we’ll continue to write about other topics we hope you enjoy and find helpful.