# Delta - New Found "Love" of Them



## Timeshare Von (Dec 24, 2010)

I have been a pretty harsh critic of Delta since acquiring NWA, my preferred carrier for many years.  Over the past couple of weeks, however, they've gone the extra mile to help me out with "cash" back via vouchers as a customer service gesture.

1.  My flight to Anchorage in March was canceled due to consolidation of winter schedules.  The new flight they put me on was going to cause me to miss an event that evening for which I already had bought my ticket.  I called to see what else was available, especially since I was flying free on a FF ticket.  They couldn't get me in that day, so I'm flying there the night before arriving around midnight.  Now I'm incurring an added hotel night.  When I mentioned that, they offered me a $100 travel voucher.  Given that is a little more than the hotel I picked up for that single night, that works fine . . . thank you very much.

2.  Yesterday I was looking at the flight schedules and ticket prices for our upcoming flight to DC tomorrow.  I noted that the fares dropped by about $85 each.  I called and asked about it.  Because reticketing would cost $150, no benefit to doing that (sometimes it is for expensive tickets like AK and HI).  Anyway, the agent did offer to provide each of us with a $50 travel voucher, something she didn't have to do.  Again, thank you very much!

It was nice to be provided the travel vouchers for future travel, keeping me coming back to them.  Smart on their part and truly appreciated on ours.

Von


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## Talent312 (Dec 24, 2010)

*OMG.* The Christmas spirit or something must have infected them.
What will their shareholders say?


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## x3 skier (Dec 24, 2010)

*Delta is OK by me*

Contrary to many posts on this and other boards, I have had no problems with Delta including getting FF Biz Class tickets to Europe every year, including next Oct. I recently transferred 50K miles from AMEX to get 25K MQM that will make me Gold next year. 

My most recent good deal was a $200 voucher because the AV System crapped out on an overnight flight from ATL to CDG. Since I slept almost the whole flight, I never missed the AV System.

Cheers


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## dougp26364 (Dec 24, 2010)

I still can't get past the part about you flying on a FF ticket. Try as I might, I can't find anything for less than 40,000 miles.


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## Michael (Dec 25, 2010)

I was able to get 5 (yes, FIVE!) FF tickets from MSP to LAS during Thanksgiving for 25000 miles each. :whoopie:

- Michael


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## ronandjoan (Dec 25, 2010)

*we're happy*

WE only fly Delta due to schedules and have been very happy through the years. I've gotten FF. trios twice for Hawaii. .don't know why others have had a problem, and these were not shoulder times.
Yes last year,we flew the family SEA-MCO, 5 tickets at 25K each,we were really happy and had a wonderful family Disney vacation n


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## LisaRex (Dec 25, 2010)

I like Delta, too.  I've flown them almost exclusively for 20 years and have had very few issues.  

Award availability has gotten tighter, for certain, but accumulating miles is a cinch.  I've gotten a great return on my Delta AMEX gold card.


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## Passepartout (Dec 25, 2010)

Count me in as well as a 'non-Delta-basher'. We're basically stuck using them as they are the only airline that serves our town, and the only place _that_ one goes is Delta's Western hub. That said, they really went the extra mile for us when we were delayed by TSA to the point we missed our flight to Europe. Delta re-routed us and we ended up almost catching up to the flight we missed and were able to start our European vacation on time. 

Jim Ricks


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Dec 25, 2010)

I put in most of my miles on Alaska Airlines, and I figure that within three years Delta is going to buy out Alaska as well.  

In the last year the linkages between the two have become greater - almost all north-south Delta routes in the western US are now Alaska Air codeshares.  Airports where Alaska Airlines only has a couple of flights per day are now covered by Delta staff (instead of American Airlines staff, as has been the case until recently).  Alaska Airlines FF perks are now more recognized by Delta than before as well - early boarding and first class upgrades, particularly.

It seems that sometime within the last year or so Alaska and Delta entered into some more formal cooperating relationship.  Right now Alaska's route coverage largely fills a hole in Delta's system.  I expect that as soon as Delta finished digesting Northwest Alaska will be one of the next acquisitions.


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## Timeshare Von (Dec 26, 2010)

dougp26364 said:


> I still can't get past the part about you flying on a FF ticket. Try as I might, I can't find anything for less than 40,000 miles.



When flying to Alaska, I've been pretty fortunate to score 25k mile tickets.  I flew DFW to ANC to MKE last winter for 25k.  Our Fairbanks trip in Aug/Sept was like 42,500 each but that was coach/FC combo.

I have tried to look at other flights in the lower 48 and you're right, 25k coach tickets are tough to come by.


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## dougp26364 (Dec 26, 2010)

With all these posts about finding super saver FF seats, I thought I'd look again. Nope, still 40,000 for a Nov. Sat-Sat flight BUT, at least the outbound leg is showing low for FF mile requirements. It's the return leg that's hurting us. Maybe if I keep watching on a daily basis I'll catch both the outbound and return segements on the low requirement and finally get to use up some of those miles. Still, this is a LOT more work than I've had to do with Frontier, United or UAL in the past five years. We have over 60,000 miles on UAL that I could easily use but, I'm trying to get up to 80,000 miles to pay for flights to Hawaii. I'd hate to burn those miles on a flight that typically can be found for less than $300 RT.


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## x3 skier (Dec 26, 2010)

dougp26364 said:


> With all these posts about finding super saver FF seats, I thought I'd look again. Nope, still 40,000 for a Nov. Sat-Sat flight BUT, at least the outbound leg is showing low for FF mile requirements. It's the return leg that's hurting us. Maybe if I keep watching on a daily basis I'll catch both the outbound and return segements on the low requirement and finally get to use up some of those miles. Still, this is a LOT more work than I've had to do with Frontier, United or UAL in the past five years. We have over 60,000 miles on UAL that I could easily use but, I'm trying to get up to 80,000 miles to pay for flights to Hawaii. I'd hate to burn those miles on a flight that typically can be found for less than $300 RT.



I have never used more than 100K miles for Biz Class to Europe in all the years I have been going. It does take some work but I haven't missed yet. If all else fails to get direct to London, I sometimes go elsewhere like AMS, BRU, MAN, etc. and visit there before heading to The Allen House. This Oct, I went and spent a couple of days in Paris and then took the Eurostar. Between saving the UK Taxes and paying for the Eurostar tickets, I broke even.

That has worked not only with Delta but also Useless Air where I have basically exhausted my miles.

BTW, DO NOT believe the Delta Award Calendar which is notorious for being almost totally useless.  I suggest if you found a low miles one way, call the Customer Service line and see if a) it is true and b) if so, see if you can get the low miles return. That also has worked for me. 

Cheers


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## dougp26364 (Dec 26, 2010)

I see what you mean about their online calendar. I adjusted our dates for their "low" requirement times and still got the 40,000 miles required. I guess that's just one more reason I'm not fond of Delta. I don't have this issue with the other carriers I've used for FF seats.


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## yoohoo (Dec 26, 2010)

I used to fly to China with NWA.  I have not been on them since the merger with Delta.  I now fly with Asiaia; service is much better.  Having been with NWA, we have FF flyer accounts; we now get American Express cards offers tied to our Delta FF accounts on the average of one every two weeks or so.  Try as we can, we could not get them to stop sending these card offers.  We finally convinced American Express to stop.  What makes Delta and/or American Express think that if we do not take their card offer today that we would take their offer two weeks later?  We are trying our best to stay away from Delta.


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## Carolinian (Dec 26, 2010)

The biggest problem with DL is award ticket availibility at the base milage level.  There are national surveys that put them way at the bottom, along with USAir, on that, with the other US majors much better.  That problem is even worse on international flights.  The nicknames for DL miles over at FlyerTalk are ''Sky Pesos'' or "Zimbabwe dollars of the Sky".  Their 3-tier (in reality about 6+ tier) award chart, unique among US-based carriers is the culprit here.

If you are based overseas, as I am, DL is the only US major to have a particularly nasty trick, the "foreign origin surcharge'' which adds a massive $200+ fee to an award ticket.  That alone makes them a real rotter.

I have more DL miles, that were originally NW miles that were milejacked at the DL takeover, than I care to think about, and it is darned difficult to find award tickets at reasonable miles on the routes I am interested in, mostly TATL.  I am depleting my more useful mles like CO, UA, and AA because they have the availibility that DL usually lacks at basic award levels.

For intra-Europe, DL miles are really laughable.  Over at Flyer Talk there have been posts about those "award" tickets where thanks to the foreign origin surcharge the fees and taxes add up to more than the all-in price to buy a ticket on another legacy airline.  That is just plain absurd.


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## Superchief (Dec 28, 2010)

I agree with Doug that I am only able to find Delta award ticket availability to cost 40k miles or more. Due to their cutback at CVG, I haven't flown them enough to qualify for Medallion status for the past few years, so I expect status has impact on award availability. Friends who are Gold or Platinum have been able to book tickets for 25k. 

I find AA to have much better availabilty for award travel at 25k, even without 'status'.


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## Bourne (Dec 28, 2010)

Nothing ever can get me on Delta!

After a bunch of flights from hell back in '98, I gave up on them. 

Had to fly one leg after an AA flight got cancelled. It was an uneventful two hrs flight in '04 but was still mad that I got on that plane and "broke" my resolve.


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## amyhwang (Jan 20, 2011)

I've been quite happy too.  Got 4 business/first (what do you really call it?) from BWI to HNL for summer 2009 for my family for 75,000 miles each (saving us $2000 each in tickets) and the same this summer for 85,000 miles each (going through ATL so we get the almost lie flat seats).  When we used transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards, it worked out well for us.

I just started checking daily starting 330 days out (had booked our Ko Olina already) and it popped up after about a month.

I really can't complain about them.  Now, if I were trying to book those summer tickets now in January, I'd not be happy, as they are twice the miles.  But, I also couldn't get our week at Ko Olina either (they do have rooms for cash stays though)!  So planning ahead paid off.


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## scotlass (Jan 21, 2011)

We are going to be looking for FF first class from BOS to Hawaii in Feb 2012.  Years ago we flew first and, although it wasn't great, it was better than the cramped coach seats.  I had read on TUG that Delta's first to Hawaii wasn't as good as other airlines, but it worked.  My question is, is Delta's first still substandard flying to Hawaii?

Any tips on how to get them for 90k miles?


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## Holly (Jan 21, 2011)

I gotta tell you, my mom fell and broke her hip memorial day weekend and died August 2.   In between I made three or four emergency runs down to New Orleans, one straight from a business trip in Geneva.  Then when she died I was in Montana, and had to get my husband, daughter and myself from Bozeman to NY then the next day from NY to New Orleans.

Through it ALL, the Delta folks could not have been nicer.  They even sent me to a special desk where they average the fares over the past 12 months and that's what you pay.  They waved fees...the whole thing.  

So, I travel a lot and had Silver status at the time (which is no biggie).  I never expected the nice treatment that they gave me.  

When I have a choice I now pick Delta.


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## Twinkstarr (Jan 22, 2011)

scotlass said:


> We are going to be looking for FF first class from BOS to Hawaii in Feb 2012.  Years ago we flew first and, although it wasn't great, it was better than the cramped coach seats.  I had read on TUG that Delta's first to Hawaii wasn't as good as other airlines, but it worked.  My question is, is Delta's first still substandard flying to Hawaii?
> 
> Any tips on how to get them for 90k miles?



We flew Delta FC to HNL this past summer, upgraded with miles for the 4 of us. Went with DL, since they had a direct flight out of Detroit, only 8.5 hrs.

We were on A330's both ways, had the reclining seats and in seat entertainment systems. You get the little FC bag with slippers, eye cover, a really good lip balm, toothbrush and paste and a few other things.

Food, what can you say it's airplane food but better than coach. Bowls of ice cream with various toppings for dessert. Kids thought that was great.


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## LisaRex (Jan 26, 2011)

Well, after the umpteenth change to my existing reservation to Phoenix in late April (the original reservation had me arriving at 9pm, the last one had me arriving at 11:15), I called and said that the newest itinerary was unaccepable.  The reservationist had me pick my outgoing and return flights and then said, "I'll take care of it."

Had I booked the flight I'm now on back when I first made the reservation, I'd have had to pay $100 more pp.  

This is the second time that I've had Delta change my flights around to the point where I could be re-booked for free...and ended up on much better (and more expensive) flights. 

I'd better go play the lottery now!


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## Carolinian (Jan 26, 2011)

scotlass said:


> We are going to be looking for FF first class from BOS to Hawaii in Feb 2012.  Years ago we flew first and, although it wasn't great, it was better than the cramped coach seats.  I had read on TUG that Delta's first to Hawaii wasn't as good as other airlines, but it worked.  My question is, is Delta's first still substandard flying to Hawaii?
> 
> Any tips on how to get them for 90k miles?



According to another post, they are now flying NW birds (A330s) to Hawaii, after stripping those from former NW TATL routes.  I used to fly them TATL on NW frequently and they are great planes.  Now some of those TATL routes formerly served by NW A330s are being serving by crappy DL metal.

One of the big reasons DL took over NW was that NW was a cash cow.  It had both a better pile of unrestricted cash and a better fleet of modern long haul aircraft than DL.

From what I read on FlyerTalk, the Hawaii route is one of your best bets of actually being able to use DL miles at somewhere near the low value on their awful three tier award chart.  Also from what I read on FlyerTalk, to get seats at the low milage level it helps a lot to be at least mid-tier elite.


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## Carolinian (Jan 26, 2011)

As to Delta's award ticket availibility at a reasonable level, there have been many threads at FlyerTalk.  Here is one of the more recent ones:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mile...-justify-award-tickets-2x-other-airlines.html

and BTW Delta apologist Mooper on those boards has acknowledged in another thread that he is a large Delta shareholder, so it is obvious where he is coming from.


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## Twinkstarr (Jan 26, 2011)

Carolinian said:


> According to another post, they are now flying NW birds (A330s) to Hawaii, after stripping those from former NW TATL routes.  I used to fly them TATL on NW frequently and they are great planes.  Now some of those TATL routes formerly served by NW A330s are being serving by crappy DL metal.
> 
> One of the big reasons DL took over NW was that NW was a cash cow.  It had both a better pile of unrestricted cash and a better fleet of modern long haul aircraft than DL.
> 
> From what I read on FlyerTalk, the Hawaii route is one of your best bets of actually being able to use DL miles at somewhere near the low value on their awful three tier award chart.  Also from what I read on FlyerTalk, to get seats at the low milage level it helps a lot to be at least mid-tier elite.



Okay this is from buying tickets a year ago, the A330's were flying to HNL out of DTW, MSP and ATL.


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## LisaRex (Jan 27, 2011)

The last Delta planes we flew to Hawaii (June 2010) were certainly better than the planes they used to use.  They had much more leg room in coach!  In year's past, I was so cramped, I couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep.  This past time I slept like a baby.


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## Carolinian (Jan 27, 2011)

Twinkstarr said:


> Okay this is from buying tickets a year ago, the A330's were flying to HNL out of DTW, MSP and ATL.



Before its takeover of NW, DL was all Boeing.  It had no Airbus planes.  Every A330 that DL is now flying is one they got from NW.  NW flew them on TATL and TPAC (international) routes.


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## Carolinian (Jan 27, 2011)

LisaRex said:


> The last Delta planes we flew to Hawaii (June 2010) were certainly better than the planes they used to use.  They had much more leg room in coach!  In year's past, I was so cramped, I couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep.  This past time I slept like a baby.



Just don't take DL to Europe from a former NW hub.  That's where the planes you didn't like are now flying.


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## LisaRex (Jan 27, 2011)

Carolinian said:


> Just don't take DL to Europe from a former NW hub.  That's where the planes you didn't like are now flying.



Former NW hubs: Detroit and Memphis and Dallas?


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## Twinkstarr (Jan 27, 2011)

LisaRex said:


> Former NW hubs: Detroit and Memphis and Dallas?



Yep the 767, I see is flying DTW to FRA. I think that's why I didn't book via LAX/SFO/SEA, the 767 on one of the legs.


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## x3 skier (Jan 27, 2011)

LisaRex said:


> Former NW hubs: Detroit and Memphis and Dallas?



Detroit, Minneapolis and Memphis were the main NW hubs. Delta used to have a DFW hub but not any more.

I took a DL 777 last trip and Biz Class lie flat seats were nice. The 767's without true lie flat seats are less than desirable as is the Airbus 330, at least in Biz Class. As I always manage to get low miles Biz Class tix, I cannot comment on Coach class but it would not surprise me if the Airbus Equipment is better than the old Boeing Equipment.

Cheers


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