Triangle Trip

So I’m on this United flight sitting in an aisle seat reading a book when a flight attendant comes by with a coffee tray.

“Sir, he wants coffee.” I look up and he’s clearly talking to me. I’m thoroughly puzzled. “Excuse me?” I ask. I don’t even drink coffee.

“The gentleman next to you wants coffee.” I’m still confused. Does he want me serve the guy next to me coffee? I give the flight attendant a puzzled look.

“Can you please take a cup and hold it while I pour coffee for the gentleman next to you?” Wait, what? The guy next to me has no hands or what? I look over at the guy next to me; he has all his hands and his arms are long enough to reach over the length of my narrow seat.

Grudgingly I pick up a cup from the tray and hold it while the flight attendant pours coffee for the guy next to me. Once he is done I give it to the guy next to me.

I’ve always complained about service or rather the non-existence of it on United. Now it has hit an all-time low.

Or maybe I’m just a jerk.

Delta introduced two major changes to the 2010 SkyMiles program: 1) Rollover Medallion Qualifying Miles (Rollover MQM) which lets you build status toward the following year; and 2) a new Medallion class: Diamond which requires you to have 125,000 MQM. We are extremely pleased to see this change as it is definitely ground breaking for the airline industry.

I have been traveling coast to coast on United and Delta for the past six months. The Rollover MQM along with the free/complementary upgrades clearly made Delta my carrier of choice for the rest of the year (see previous post regarding Delta as the best for coast to coast travel). I would be surprised if United or American follows this promotion as they have most of the corporate customers locked into corporate travel plans/accounts such as 25 to 30% discount plan.

Marriott launched their Elite Rollover Nights program in late spring and none of the major hotel chains followed. Marriott’s move to offer Elite Rollover Nights doesn’t surprise me since they require 75 actual nights to obtain Platinum status which means Elite rollover doesn’t begin until your 76th night. With 50 to 60 nights at other hotels like SPG, Hilton respectively, you’d be at their highest level.

Delta is extremely generous with its rollover plan. You can practically begin rolling over miles after making silver – or your 25,001st medallion mile. For example, if you earned 45 MQMs this year – 20,000 MQM more than the Silver Medallion requirement – the 20,000 MQMs will automatically roll over to next year’s balance. This means for 2010, you will only need to get 5,000 MQM to get Silver Medallion. This is actually a great perk as Delta didn’t devalue its mileage program with the Double/Triple MQM scam (see previous post) – I only earned 1 double MQM from all my trips.

Captain G will go on record to endorse Delta despite the fact that Delta JFK’s customer service should all be overhauled (see previous post).

United is trying to win back more and more customers like us… I just got an email from United telling me that they will be removing the last minute (“close-in”) award processing fees effective July 30, 2009.  The award travel processing fees were $100 if you booked an award ticket within seven days of departure, and $75 for 7 to 21 days prior to departure.

Here’s the link to the official press release:  United Puts the Easy Back Into Using Frequent Flyer Miles, Eliminates Fee

This is United’s attempt to get its customers to use up their miles and so United can clear its balance sheet of people holding onto airline miles.  We should take advantage of this opportunity and burn up some miles.  This new policy does not eliminate the co-pay for upgrade (see previous post).  Delta need to follow suit as they are notorious with award booking fees.