What does the NWA & Delta merger mean for passengers?

by Grant Martin on

The news, so to speak, is inevitable, as last night’s news and this morning’s press conference are confirming: Delta and Northwest Airlines are to merge. Together they will form the world’s largest airline capable of moving more passengers to more corners of the globe in fewer steps — so they say.

What does this mean for the current passenger of each respective airline? As far as routes and operations, not much will immediately change. It will take 6-8 months to iron out the details of the operation, during which the airlines will continue to operate independently. Afterwards, corporate says they’ll be keeping all of the hubs between the two cities, keeping all of the small local routes and maintaining all of the operations that you now hold dear.

Whether or not that is true is another question — the two airlines would have seven hubs in North America with six east of the Mississippi and five in a pretty straight line between Atlanta and Minneapolis. That doesn’t seem like a great way to geographically approach a hub and spoke system.

Regardless, all routes and schedules are guaranteed, so if you have or want to book a ticket now, go ahead — you’re in no danger of losing it. Indeed there are only a few overlapping routes between the two airlines, so it’s pretty unlikely that they’ll mess with any of your flights; if they do, they’ll rebook you on Delta and you’ll be fine.

For now, both carriers claim that their mileage programs and miles will remain in tact. Multiple press releases, corporate words and their new special website repeat this and I believe this true to the point that your miles won’t be erased. What they could do, however, is screw with the quality of the miles — after all, each mileage program is set up with different milestones and redemption levels — one is going to have to adopt the other’s policy.

Naturally, the airlines want you to believe that Your Favorite Hub and Your Special Miles are going to be safe in the merger. If you cash in your miles that’s money out of the bank and if you lose faith in your hub your business is going to go elsewhere. So don’t plan on them telling you anything that’s really going to happen any time soon.

If you want to play it safe, I would use some of those miles right now and start shopping around for tickets. It’s not too difficult to redeposit your miles if you decide you want to keep them and in the mean time they’re in a safe place (invested in your vacation). And if you really really don’t know what to do with your miles, leave a comment below and I’ll tell you how to get rid of them. Trust me, you don’t want to waste your 100k miles on 70 years of Newsweek subscriptions yet.

It’s official: Delta and Northwest to merge

by Kent Wien on

According to a report by CNN tonight, Delta has announced it’s long rumored merger with Northwest has been approved by both airlines. This merger was supposed to happen months ago, but the airlines were holding out on an announcement until the pilot groups at each company could come to a seniority agreement. The pilots, both represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, were unable to negotiate a mutually agreeable seniority list. The airlines were trying to avoid the acrimonious situation that currently exists between the USAirways and former America West pilots that is threatening the combined airline.

The Delta name and Atlanta headquarters will be kept, and Delta will become the world’s largest airline, a position held previously by American Airlines. Delta is hoping that a quick resolution to their pilot contract, which would eventually apply to both pilot groups, might make the merger a success.

Northwest Airlines hold a ‘golden share’ in Continental Airlines which has prevented Continental from seeking their own merger. Any deal involving Northwest would allow Continental to be freed from any veto power that Northwest has. Look for a possible Continental and United announcement shortly.

Update: Delta and Northwest have already launched a site with details of their plan for world domination.

Will a pretty face help save your life? Delta hopes so

by Catherine Bodry on

What makes you pay attention to the safety instructions at the beginning of a flight? For me, it’s having a flight attendant right in front of me — I feel rude if I put my head down and dig in to the Sky Mall while someone is giving a presentation. But if it’s a video presentation, I’m all my over in-flight shopping.

Evidently, I’m not alone in my blatant disregard for the safety demonstration: airlines have begun creating what they hope are attention-grabbing videos in the hopes that passengers might start paying attention. Delta Airlines is the most recent airline to do so, joining Virgin Airlines in addition to others. While Virgin took the animated approach, Delta’s strategy is a bit different: put a pretty woman on screen.

Already, the flight attendant Katherine Lee, or “Deltalina” (nicknamed so by viewers because of her similarity to Angelina Jolie), is making headlines with her finger-wagging and pretty smile. Will she make you a safer flier? Watch the video and let us know.


Wild women on planes:

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Delta Airlines cuts jobs; who’s to blame?

by Grant Martin on

Atlanta based Delta Airlines announced Tuesday that they were cutting 2,000 jobs, their second cutback in six months. Citing rising fuel costs, the airline also says that it will cut back capacity and park 45 airplanes.

As the airline despondently pointed out, fuel prices have risen 20% in the last three months while market prices and competition have stayed tight. Under those conditions, how can an airline not be forced to cut back?

The problem, as a function of the egregious gouging by oil companies, is that airline prices have not appreciated correctly with crude and inflation. Increased internal competition and external pressures from passengers to produce the cheapest fares possible have forced carriers to underbid one another to the point of taking losses on many of their flights while operating costs skyrocket. Sure, airlines could enact a unilateral increase in fares across the country, but then some carriers (those perhaps, who locked in their oil prices years ago) could unfairly take advantage of the market.

Besides, are we as Americans going to stand by while airline prices assume their normal level? I guarantee you congress and passengers would be in an uproar and we would have three particular senators crying murder.

But until something drastic happens, we’re bound to ride the imploding American skies. Bankruptcies will continue, mergers will haunt our shareholders and the unions will continue to battle management over labor costs. We’ll blame a CEO for taking a million dollar bonus and politicians will form committees against the backdrop of your favorite airline stock inching closer to the floor. Through it all, the oil companies will step back and let us fight amongst ourselves, and as we slowly work our way towards collapse they’ll silently take our money — and laugh themselves all of the way to the bank.

Time to start burning those Northwest Airlines miles

by Grant Martin on

All of the buzz in the underground is that Delta and Northwest Airlines are seconds away from a merger. As speculation swirls around who’s going to come out on top, who’s going to be laid off and whose aircraft are going to be rebadged, an interesting conversation about frequent flyer miles has emerged.

What happens to the frequent flyer programs when two airlines merge? The worst case scenario is that the airline on top squishes the smaller carrier and that those miles turn to zero. In this case, that would be Delta usurping Northwest’s program. And that’s got passengers scared pink about the future of their accounts. Some have been hoarding miles for years in a 401k nest-egg type of fashion, thinking they’ll travel the globe for free as they hit their golden years. What will they do if their balance turns to dust?

The notion of total-loss to many frequent flyers has them scrambling to put the miles to use. Since award tickets are refundable, many are booking tickets far into the future that they may refund after the merger. Others are buying tickets for friends, family and strangers, while expunging the remaining balance on piles of magazine subscriptions.

What am I going to do with mine? I’m currently sitting on top of enough miles to book a ticket to Europe. Part of me wants to sponsor a contest on Gadling for a free ticket, while another part wants to just book a ticket to Munich for Oktoberfest. Either way, I’m not hopeful about the future of Northwest’s Worldperks program.