View From the Wing

December 2, 2007

10,000 Delta Miles for T-Mobile HotSpot

T-Mobile is offering 10,000 Delta miles over the course of your first year.

Subscribe to an Unlimited National Annual or Month to Month subscription plan and earn up to 10,000 miles over your first year of service by earning 500 miles per month of paid service and 2,000 bonus miles for every six months of paid service. This is better than the standard 5000 miles they've offered, though not worth signing up just for the miles. If you'd subscribe to T-Mobile anyway, I haven't seen a better bonus.

Posted by gleff at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)

Outstanding Delta Bonus on Flower Purchases

Through December 15th, 1-800-Flowers.com is offering 10 Delta miles per dollar spent plus a flat 2500 bonus miles on each order.with promo code DL8.

A $30 flowers order would generate 300 miles + 2500 miles, a total of 2800 miles and an astounding 93 miles per dollar.

Of course it isn't that simple, you have to pay shipping charges and those don't earn miles, but it's still an outstanding deal on flowers orders. The less expensive the item, the better a deal that it is since the 2500 bonus miles are fixed per order.

I haven't purchased from 1-800-Flowers in awhile, the better miles offers (and more reliable posting of miles) have come from FTD, but the last time I did it was possible to get airline miles (via promo code such as this one) and cashback via referral link (such as 7% back from e-bates). Not vouching that this is still true, and I'd hate to lose out on the monster bonus miles as a result of going through a referral link, but it would probably still work - interested to hear in the comments from the experiences of readers that may have used promo codes and cashback links together with 1-800-Flowers recently.

In any case, this is the best offer on flowers I've seen in four years, since 1-800-Flowers was giving away 100 miles per dollar spent. My understanding at the time was that they had pre-purchased large blocks of Delta miles and those miles were expiring at the end of their three-year validity (if not awarded). So they ran a crazy promo to generate some cash. However they didn't anticipate the power of the internet, and they wound up massively oversubscribed... Perhaps something similar is going on here.

Posted by gleff at 7:38 AM | Comments (0)

October 3, 2007

Delta Offers Elite Qualifying Miles for Eating

iDine (aka Rewards Network) has a new Delta dining for miles bonus that offers both redeemable miles and elite qualifying miles (registration required). Four qualifying dines of $25 or more in October and November earns a bonus 1000 miles that even count towards status.

Now, it's just 1000 miles. But the notable thing is that the bonus offers the opportunity to earn elite status for something other than flying.

Already increasingly common (and in some measure pioneered by Delta) is elite status through credit card spending.

And last year USAirways offered its 'Everything Counts' promo at the end of the year where most miles (credit card spending excluded) counted towards status. Some Dividend Miles members became Chairmans Preferred 100,000 mile 'flyers' by sending a whole lot of flowers.

So this is another step in that direction, one that clearly recognizes the value of frequent flyer program partners and partner revenue. We'll likely see more offers of this sort, and from more airlines, over time.

Posted by gleff at 8:02 PM | Comments (0)

Breaking the Value Proposition: a Nail in the Skymiles Coffin

Traditionally frequent flyer miles are redeemed for capacity controlled awards. Airlines offer a limited number of seats for redemption that they expect would otherwise go unsold. And some travelers are frustrated they can't find the seats.

But in general there's always been the option to spend more miles in order to get any open seat. With United, it's the "Standard" award rather than "Saver." With Delta, this higher mileage option has been known as "SkyChoice."

But Delta has announced that as of December 1, spending double the miles no longer gets you any seat. Instead, it just gets you access to more award inventory.

Now they're not the only airline to do this. They're following Northwest's lead. But they're still in the minority.

Rulebuster, Standard -- or whatever you want to call them -- awards are rarely useful (I prefer hunting and pecking for capacity controlled awards to get the most out of my miles). But when they are useful, they're very useful.

It's nice to know that with the mileage balances I have and with just a few hours notice I can get on just about any plane in the world and only pay the taxes (and perhaps a telephone or airport ticketing fee, grrr). It's nice to know that if I really need to be somewhere, I can be. A last minute trip to a funeral, perhaps, where the tickets are prohibitively expensive.

United used to offer one of the great award values period in their higher-priced mileage chart -- until last October, any business class seat from North America to Australia (no capacity controls!) was 150,000 miles. They've raised the price of that award, but at least they still respect the idea that more miles can buy you any seat.

Delta has raised the price of its SkyChoice awards, especially international premium class awards. Now that these awards will be capacity controlled as well, you might think they'd lower the price. Alas, I'm not that naive...

Posted by gleff at 7:55 PM | Comments (0)

Breaking the Value Proposition: a Nail in the Skymiles Coffin

But Delta has announced that as of December 1, spending double the miles no longer gets you any seat. Instead, it just gets you access to more award inventory.

Now they're not the only airline to do this. They're following Northwest's lead. But they're still in the minority.

Posted by gleff at 7:55 PM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2007

1000 Miles for $20 Shutterfly Purchase

Shutterfly is offering 1000 Delta miles for spending $20 or more (not including shipping) through December 31st.

Posted by gleff at 7:04 AM | Comments (0)

May 9, 2007

4000 Mile Delta Signup Bonus

Through June 30, Delta is offering 4,000 Skymiles just for enrolling and entering your Starwood Preferred Guest number. Offer may be targeted, so your mileage may vary...

Posted by gleff at 2:38 PM | Comments (0)

May 5, 2007

Miles for Countertops

Free Frequent Flyer Miles points to an an offer of Delta miles for new countertops.

There are always miles for shopping offers, but I point this one out because I hadn't seen it before and because it's rather timely -- I'm actually pondering new countertops in my kitchen. I don't yet know the quality of the product offered here or how it compares on price, but pocketing a few thousand miles for something I'm goingt to do anyway always grabs my attention.

Details of the offer:

You must sign and submit to installer or e-counters.com a signed copy of your Install Approval Form prior to Sky Miles awards being issued. Please do not sign and submit your Install Approval Form until such time as your installation is actually complete and satisfactory.

(And yes, spelling mistakes always do raise a flag for me, though I'm looking forward to my miles being "awared" after I've made a purchase..)

Posted by gleff at 7:12 AM | Comments (0)

April 5, 2007

Up to 25,000 Bonus Miles for Partner Activity

Delta is offering up to 25,000 bonus miles for activity with their partners. Registration is required. The offer is 5000 miles for each 5 unique partners with activity during the qualifying period of April 1 - May 31 (too tight a timeline for my tastes).

Airline partners don't count. Each partner counts only once, so only one Hilton stay would count as a partner (but a Hilton stay and a Marriott stay would be two partners). Transferring points into Delta should count, and each source should be a different partner, so I may transfer points in from Starwood, American Express Membership Rewards, and Radisson Goldpoints.

Read the terms and conditions on the promo, but it should be pretty easy to rack up 5000 bonus miles -- much harder to hit a full 25,000.

Posted by gleff at 4:16 AM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2007

500 Delta Miles for Auto Insurance Quote Can Be Done Every 6 Months

Free Frequent Flyer Miles points out that you can get 500 miles for an auto insurance quote from Ameriprise, and that it works every six months. So even if you've done it before it might be time to do it again.

Posted by gleff at 3:52 AM | Comments (0)

February 9, 2007

Delta Skymiles Head Posts to Flyertalk

Jeff Robertson, who runs the Delta Skymiles program, is now participating regularly on Flyertalk. He's only made six posts so far, but they're excellent. By excellent I mean that he avoids the usual marketing speak. Explaining the change to Delta's mileage expiration policy, he actually says

[R]egardless of how “loyal” someone may be to us, anyone who hasn’t had activity with Delta in anyway in the last two years, is not all that valuable to us. Of course, I disagree harshly with Jeff's assessment (not about the value proposition of customers hurt by mileage expiration, he has better access to the numbers than I do). Making the change essentially retroactive is inherently dishonest. This is a company that years ago advertised during the superbowl that their miles would never expire.

Perhaps they now find they can make more money by dishonoring their commitments. Never mind the moral case here, in the long run reneging on commitments undermines confidence in the business, customers come to learn they can't trust Delta. Delta becomes modern Russia.

But at least Jeff is honest about their motives, and I appreciate his participation and candor greatly.

Posted by gleff at 4:07 PM | Comments (2)

February 4, 2007

New Delta Account Signup Bonus

Delta is offering 1000 miles for new frequent flyer account signups and 5000 miles for booking a Delta flight with an American Express business card. Offer appears valid through April 15th.

Update: Turns out to have been targeted - sorry!

Posted by gleff at 6:23 AM | Comments (1)

January 18, 2007

Delta Clamps Down on Award Routings

This is probably too inside baseball and technical for most frequent flyer program members, but Delta has implemented some nasty changes in the way they allow (or don't allow!) you to book awards. There's a current discussion of this on Flyertalk, naturally.

As of this month, awards can only have two stops each way domestically and three internationally. If you live in, say, Montana and want to get somewhere on the East Coast you already have to make two stops (in Salt Lake City and Atlanta) most of the time. No extra stops in order to find an available award, and no extra stops to utilize your allowable stopover in a non-hub city.

You can also only use 'published routings' when constructing your award itinerary. I have a United award flying DC-New York-San Francisco-Osaka-Bangkok-Phuket (with stops in New York and Osaka that are less than 24 hours so technically considered connections) and Phuket-Bangkok-Hong Kong-Seoul-Chicago-DC (with a stopover in Hong Kong) on the return. Leaving as that getting a premium cabin award to Asia in the first place is more or less a non-starter with Delta miles, this sort of routing would never be permitted. Score one for the competition!

Most folks don't book lots of connections, but take for example trying to book an award on Delta partner Continental Micronesia. I'd fly from DC to Atlanta to Los Angeles (all on Delta) to Tokyo (Continental) to Guam (Continental Micronesia). Whoops, I can't do that! It's now more than 3 flights each way. The only way to make this work would be if there's award space available on Delta's own Atlanta-Tokyo flight (good luck!). You can no longer use partner flights from the West Coast to Tokyo and travel beyond Tokyo, unless you either start in the partner's gateway city or Delta's own hub. If you have to connect you're toast. And forget about island hopping, say to fly from Tokyo to Cairns (for access to the Great Barrier Reef).

A real drawback of the current programming architecture is that Delta only has their own routings in the system, making most partner awards (other than non-stops) impermissable until this programming glitch is corrected.

Variations from all of this may be possible, but require additional miles.

On the positive side, Delta is now allowing you to combined Skysaver (the regular award chart, eg 25,000 miles for a domestic coach ticket) with Skychoice (the more expensive chart that avoids capacity controls). So you could go one way Skysaver and the other Skychoice for 35,000 miles. Under the old system unless all flights were available as Skysaver the award would price at the higher 45,000 mile level. Technically this is an improvement, but who books Skychoice to begin with?

I was not a fan of Delta miles to begin with, this makes them far less attractive to me. I sure hope to "Keep Delta My Delta" -- as I'd hate for my USAirways miles to become less valuable!

Posted by gleff at 9:13 AM | Comments (2)

October 5, 2006

Delta Amex Spend Bonus

You can earn a 25% bonus on eligible spending (which should be all purchases) on the Delta American Express card from October 1 to November 30. Registration required.

Posted by gleff at 5:02 AM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2006

Five Nights at a Priority Club Hotel Yields 10,000 Miles

If you stay 5 consecutive nights at am InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, or Holiday Inn Express in the U.S, Canada or Mexico for 5 consecutive nights or more through December 31, 2006 you can earn 10,000 bonus Delta miles.

Not bad.

Registration is required and you have to select Delta miles as your earning preference in your Priority Club profile.

Posted by gleff at 5:22 PM | Comments (0)

June 27, 2006

Big Delta iDine Offer as Well

Via Free Frequent Flyer Miles, there's also a Delta 25,000 iDine bonus on offer. Registration is required by July 25.

The deal is that you need 25 qualified dines of $25 or more by 12/31/06 for 25,000 bonus miles.

Posted by gleff at 4:17 AM | Comments (0)

May 31, 2006

Delta Amex Double Miles for June, July, and August

All purchase on the Delta American Express earn double miles from June 1 through August 31.

Items that already earn double miles such as restaurant and US Post Office charges do not receive additional miles under this promotion, and the limit on earning additional miles from this offer is 20,000.

Bonus miles should post towards the end of October.

Registration is required by August 31.

Posted by gleff at 7:04 AM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2006

25,000 Delta Miles for Internet Phone Service

Earthlink Voice is offering 25,000 Delta miles for internet phone service, a minimum commitment of six months would appear to be required to get the miles. They're also offering 10,000 miles for using their high-speed internet.

(Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)

Update: Reader Alan reports that the fine print on the offer requires a 12-month commitment. So even though miles should post within six you'll probably face a penalty for cancelling early if you want out before 12 months are up.

Posted by gleff at 5:31 AM | Comments (1)

February 23, 2006

Delta Amex Retention Bonus

Delta American Express card holders should try this link.

There's a targeted 'renewal bonus' of 7500 miles. It's not clear who or how many personal cards are eligible. I would have expected folks who are coming up on their renewal date to be the ones targeted -- get 7500 miles a couple months after your card renews -- but according to Flyertalk even someone with a brand new card was eligible.

It's a free 7500 miles if you're able to successfully register your card.

Posted by gleff at 7:26 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2006

More Bonus Miles with the Delta American Express

American Express is offering a 20% bonus (up to 10,000 bonus miles) on spending with their Delta card from March 1 through April 30, 2006. Registration is required by April 30, and bonus miles should post eight to twelve weeks after that.

Posted by gleff at 5:18 AM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2006

So how many miles do YOU have?

Randy Petersen reported some fascinating pieces of data about Delta frequent flyers:

The largest current SkyMiles balance is 21,846,145 miles....

Most miles flowm: 519,676

I have miles in my accounts. And I'm known to fly occasionally. But I'm a nobody. Nothing. A gnat. No, not even a gnat. Gnats have wings and can fly.

Posted by gleff at 7:18 PM | Comments (0)

January 3, 2006

Delta Multiple Ticket Purchase Bonus

Delta is offering bonus miles for booking multiple tickets at once online. Registration is required.

SkyMiles members can earn bonus miles on all Delta, Delta Shuttle®, Delta Connection® carrier or Song® flights, for every flown round-trip ticket purchased at delta.com using your American Express Card and flown between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2006. For transactions including 2 tickets, the purchaser will receive 1,000 bonus miles. For transactions including 3-4 tickets, the purchaser will receive 2,500 bonus miles. For transactions including 5 or more tickets, the purchaser will receive 5,000 bonus miles. To qualify, tickets must be purchased on the same itinerary.

Posted by gleff at 4:41 AM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2005

Double Delta Amex Miles

The Delta American Express is offering double miles on all purchases from November 1 through December 31. Maximum bonus is 10,000 miles and registration is required.

Posted by gleff at 1:29 PM | Comments (2)

Swan Song?

Delta is considering dissolving its "low cost carrier-within-a-carrier" called Song.

The wisdom of these operations has always been questionable at best.

Delta used to offer a similar product to and around Florida. They resurrected the idea with Song, and expanded it to cross-country flights.

USAirways used to have Metrojet.

United had "Shuttle by United" on the West Coast. There's still the occasional 737 in Shuttle by United colors (with less legroom and no ability to serve hot food) disappointing frequent travelers when they're surprised at the gate. There's the familiar joke about United's current attempt, Ted, that it represents "the end of UniTED."

Continental had Continental Lite.

It's very hard to market two distinct products under the same brand. It's hard to offer operational independence. And with different pay scales and work rules (the real appeal to the carriers themselves), they breed resentment within the workforce.

Southwest has a simple business model and it sticks to it. JetBlue, though with some trouble on the horizon, has been successful with its own simple business model.

Major carriers have a hard enough time figuring out how to make a single model work. Two at the same time has proven impossible, time and again.

Posted by gleff at 8:50 AM | Comments (1)

October 6, 2005

30% Bonus for Transferring Membership Rewards to Delta

Following up on last month's 35% bonus, American Express is offering a 30% bonus for transfers of Membership Rewards points into Delta miles through November 30. Registration is required.

Posted by gleff at 5:17 AM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2005

Double Miles Flying Delta in September and October

In September and October 2005 Delta is offering double miles on flights booked at Delta.com and paid for with an American Express. Registration required.

Posted by gleff at 6:06 PM | Comments (0)

August 3, 2005

35% Bonus on Transfers from Membership Rewards to Delta

Through September 15th Delta is offering a 35% bonus on transfers from American Express Membership Rewards. Registration is required.

Bonus points likely won't show up until mid-November.

Posted by gleff at 5:48 PM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2005

Double miles on Delta

Register to receive double miles on Delta for flights in September and October that are booked on Delta.com and paid for with an American Express card.

Posted by gleff at 4:36 AM | Comments (0)

May 3, 2005

25 Delta Miles per Dollar at FTD

While my favorite miles-for-flowers offer is FTD's ongoing 30 United miles per dollar spent, it's worth noting that FTD is also offering 25 Delta miles per dollar spent.

The Delta offer is a Mother's Day promotion. The e-mail from Delta announcing the offer says it will expire May 15, but the webpage itself doesn't seem to mention a deadline -- and if experience is any guide, the offer may still work past the stated deadline.

Posted by gleff at 5:26 PM | TrackBack

Earn Delta Silver Medallion Status With a Single Flight

Delta is offering Silver status for a single paid flight from any one of 14 cities:

Binghamton, NY, Burlington, VT, Buffalo, NY, Charlotte, NC, Erie, PA, Wilmington, NC, Harrisburg/Middleton, PA, Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA, Providence, RI, Richmond, VA, Rochester, NY, State College, PA, Syracuse, NYRegister and fly by July 15.

Posted by gleff at 4:50 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

April 9, 2005

Delta to Give Passenger Data to CDC

Via Tripso Daily, Delta is going to start turning over passenger data to the government. This time it's not for security. They're sending the information to the Centers for Disease Control so the government can track the whereabouts of passengers who have been exposed to illnesses.

Says one airline representative, "there are privacy concerns." Gee, ya think?

Posted by gleff at 7:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 11, 2005

Delta Bonus for Amex Transfers

Delta is offering a 15-20% bonus for transfers from American Express Membership Rewards between April 1 and May 15. Registration required.

(Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)

Posted by gleff at 4:42 AM | Comments (0)

March 2, 2005

Delta American Express Signup Offers

American Express is offering 15,000 bonus miles with first purchase and first year free for taking their Delta card.

The page has a live link to an offer for the Delta Business American Express, first year free with 12,500 bonus miles -- though the page says the offer expired February 28th. You could try to apply for it and my experience is you'll likely get those miles. Or you could play it safe and go for the first year free offer with 10,000 bonus miles.

Note that you could also wait for a direct mail piece, which gets sent out pretty regularly to Skymiles members (though I don't know which ones) offering the business card with 15,000 bonus miles at signup plus 5,000 miles for each of two additional fee-free cardholders.

Posted by gleff at 7:23 AM | Comments (0)

March 1, 2005

Double Miles with Delta Amex

Register to earn double miles on all purchases with the Delta American Express from March 15 to April 15 (up to 10,000 bonus miles).

Posted by gleff at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2005

American Express Transfer Bonus to Delta, with a Kicker

Delta is offering a 10-15% bonus on transfers from American Express Membership Rewards through February 28, plus complimentary Crown Room Club membership with large transfers. Registration is required.

Membership Rewards Points Transferred	SkyMiles Bonus	Crown Room Membership
50,000 to 199,000	10%	Not applicable
Between 200,000 and 399,000	15%	6-month membership
400,000 or more	15%	12-month membership

Posted by gleff at 6:02 PM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2004

Bonus miles for filing taxes

American Express OnlineTax is offering 1000 Delta miles for using their online tax filing service from January 1 to April 15.

$34.95 buys filing of your federal and state returns, which is somewhat higher than other online services I've seen and likely higher than the after-rebate price of some software packages.

Posted by gleff at 1:15 PM | Comments (0)

December 24, 2004

Are Delta's Frequent Flyer Changes Their Death Knell?

Joel Widzer (whose book I reviewed over the summer) doesn't like the changes to the Delta Skymiles program that I reported on last week.

He sees Delta as [c]aving to the protests of its stingiest customers and believes that the changes will "accelerat[e] Delta's path toward bankruptcy."

I usually start by giving an airline, or any company, the benefit of the doubt - concluding that they know a lot more about their business than I do as a simple armchair observer. Certainly they have more data at their disposal and knowledge of their specific circumstances. It's hard to do that in the case of a company on the verge of bankruptcy with losses in the 10 figures.

But I could have made that same negative assumption about Delta before the announced changes so the simple argument that Delta is losing lots of money says little about their specific strategy.

And if there's one part that they're likely approaching wisely, it must be their frequent flyer program. That's not confidence in their leadership, but in the outside judgment of American Express which recently pre-paid over half a billion dollars for frequent flyer miles.

There are several changes wrapped up in Delta's 2005 elite program. One change is reducing the number of qualifying miles necessary for Platinum status from 100,000 to 75,000. This aligns the Skymiles program with partners Northwest and Continental. On the one hand this likely means more Platinums and greater competition for upgrades. On the other hand the alignment may be necessary if reciprocal upgrades (and hence additional value for the program) are to follow. Otherwise Continental 75,000 mile flyers would trump Delta 90,000 mile flyers on Delta aircraft. And travelers would have an incentive to participate in the OnePass or Worldperks programs over Skymiles -- a disaster considering the value of the Skymiles program (as evidenced by American Express' cash infusion).

Another change is to award full qualifying miles to the least expensive fares, as they used to and most US carriers continue to do. While Widzer believes this rewards less profitable customers as much as more profitable customers, the fact that other airlines didn't universally follow suit put Delta at a competitive disadvantage.

Marginal passengers matter when marginal costs are low (as they are in air travel) and Delta likely believed they were losing passengers.

Furthermore, Widzer mistakenly believes there are profitable high-paying passengers and unprofitable low-paying passengers, and that these are different people.

The reality of business travel is that those passengers are often one and the same, especially as low fares are increasingly available at the last minute, not to mention that business travelers also travel on their own dime for leisure. So the person buying business class to Paris may also buy advance purchase coach to Rome, and that passenger was disadvantaged by the old Delta system.

Entirely separately, the Delta "MQM" system was complicated. Customers can't be expected to adjust their behavior to fit a reward system if they can't follow the system or understand its logic easily. And complicated systems breed not only resentment but customer service costs.

Finally, I predict that as Delta lowers the threshold required for Platinum and awards full qualifying mileage to low fares, the ranks of Platinums will swell -- and Delta will react by offering an unpublished 'higher level' to their program specifically designed to cater to high revenue customers, much like United has done with the United Global Services (aka UGS) program. At United those customers are given priority over top-level elites and their upgrades clear earlier. You can't earn the status based on mileage flown. Instead it is 'by invitation only' and United offers it to customers it deems highly profitable, either from their own flying or the travel they book or the large corporate contracts they sign. Delta will likely follow suit.

Delta's move is a rational one, and in my estimation the changes aren't done. However, the changes certainly will not spell the death knell for the airline. That is in the hands of Delta's labor contracts.

Shame on Joel Widzer for chastising Delta for making possible precisely what he purports to tell readers of his book -- how to travel in style inexpensively. Performative contradictions are simply poor form.

Posted by gleff at 11:41 AM | Comments (1)

December 17, 2004

Delta American Express Bonus Offers

The Delta Amex is offering a 20.05% bonus on purchases in January, up to 10,000 bonus miles. Registration required.

You can also earn triple miles for Delta purchases of $265 or more from February 15 to March 15, 2005. Registration required.

These bonuses are in addition to double miles on retail purchases in February and the "always double miles" offered on certain purchases.

Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.

Posted by gleff at 4:13 AM | Comments (0)

December 15, 2004

Save Skymiles: Total Victory

The latest NotiFlyer brings news of total victory for the Save Skymiles movement.

The threshold for Platinum Medallion qualification reduces from 100,000 miles to 75,000 miles - in line with partners Continental and Northwest.
All discount fares will earn a full qualifying mile for each mile flown. First and business class as well as Y, B, and M coach fares will earn 1.5 qualifying miles per mile flown. The minimum miles per segment will be reduced from 750 to 500.

Full information on the changes, which go into effect January 1, can be found here.

I'm really glad to see all fares earning a full qualifying mile per mile flown. That's good business and it's a much simpler system than the craziness that had been spreading across some parts of the airline industry.

My one concern is the reduced qualifying threshold for Platinum. While good for current Golds -- it's easier to make the top elite level -- it's going to mean a whole lot more competition for upgrades at the top level. And that also means greater difficulty for mid-level elites to get those upgrades.

Posted by gleff at 5:47 PM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2004

Ya Gotta Jump On These Offers Right Away

Looks like Delta pulled the amazing "Dash to the Gate" offer of 10,000 miles for a simple game.

The page now says, "So sorry you've missed your chance to Dash to the Gate. If you haven't already played, you'll have an opportunity in the near future..."

Posted by gleff at 1:59 PM | Comments (2)

December 9, 2004

10,000 Delta Miles Free

The easiest Delta miles ever. Just play the Delta Dash to the Gate game for up to 10,000 miles. It's a multiple choice game with obvious answers.

You're almost certain to earn the full mileage since (a) the questions are easy and (b) if you don't earn the points they give you a chance to play the game again for a better score until you do.

At first I was skeptical about the offer, but the website is an actual Delta site and it's quite professionally done. Seems too easy to work. But it should.

Update: I've already received a confirmation email after playing the game, verifying that I'll be receiving 10,000 miles. The terms and conditions say the following two useful things:

All SkyMiles members worldwide are eligible for this promotion....

Miles will appear automatically on your SkyMiles statement up to 8 weeks after promotion ends.

Posted by gleff at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2004

Double miles on retail with Delta Amex

The Delta American Express is offering double miles on retail purchases from February 1 through February 28, 2005, capped at 10,000 bonus miles. Registration is required.

Note that if you pull up the full offer in order to register, the enroll graphic doesn't seem to be working but the text link (which says 'enroll') does.

Posted by gleff at 5:11 PM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2004

Biscoff Cookies

One of the things I love about flying Skywest, a regional carrier in the Western U.S. for both United and Delta, is that they've long served Biscoff cookies.

The Gourmet Center in San Francisco (which sells these wonderful treats) is now offering one Delta mile per dollar spent at their online store, plus 250 miles for each order (500 miles on orders of $75 or more).

This isn't the most lucrative offer on its own terms, but for folks like me who have long considered ordering the cookies anyway this gives me a pretty good excuse.

Posted by gleff at 4:48 AM | Comments (0)