Ed Bastian travel tips

In the wake of a worldwide technology outage, my Sunday afternoon flight with Delta Air Lines from Boston Logan (BOS) to San Francisco (SFO) was canceled, and the next option to fly on Delta was nearly 48 hours later. I rebooked myself on United Airlines, which got me to my destination just over 12 hours later than originally scheduled—at a cost that exceeded $2,000. Thankfully, I was traveling for work and the new flight was covered as a business expense. If I was paying out of my own pocket, however, I would have submitted the new flight for reimbursement via the travel insurance coverage offered through my credit card.

Delta Air Lines has announced that its newest premium lounge will be located at its Mountain West hub, where the carrier is boosting international service over the next year.  Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) is slated to receive a Delta One lounge, as confirmed by an airline spokesperson to T+L. While the exact opening date hasn’t been shared just yet, this marks the airline's fifth Delta One lounge in the country. A step above the existing network of Delta Sky Clubs, the Delta One lounges are exclusively available to long-haul business or first-class passengers.

Despite experiencing a summer meltdown that led to thousands of flight cancellations, Delta Air Lines still came out relatively strong.

The chance to become a Delta Air Lines flight attendant proved so popular that the airline's application site appeared to crash.

It ain’t easy running a profitable airline, but listen to Delta CEO Ed Bastian and you’re left wondering why others are faltering. His laser focus on simplicity at all levels of the business has helped Delta become the kingpin of U.S. network carriers.

You might assume hosting the Olympics is great for a city's economy thanks to an influx of visitors staying in hotels, dining out, and enjoying the sights.

As earnings season draws to a close, we’re taking a closer look at the most lucrative arm of many major U.S. airlines: loyalty programs.

Delta Air Lines on Friday said that Mike Spanos, its chief operating officer, will depart the airline for a new job at the end of August.

Delta Air Lines became the official airline of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) on August 20, extending the two organizations’ partnership and the airline’s focus on supporting women’s athletics. 

The accusations continue to fly in the wake of last month’s global IT outage that impacted scores of flights.On the heels of Delta Air Lines saying it has “no choice” but to pursue damages from Microsoft and CrowdStrike in relation to the tech meltdown, Microsoft is firing back.Today, the tech giant accused Delta of not modernizing its technology in the lead up to the IT outage. Mark Cheffo, a partner at Dechert, the law firm representing Microsoft, said in a letter to Delta’s attorney today that Microsoft is wondering why American Airlines, United Airlines and other carriers were able to bounce back from the global IT meltdown more quickly than Delta. “Our preliminary review suggests that Delta, unlike its competitors, apparently has not modernized its IT infrastructure, either for the benefit of its customers or for its pilots and flight attendants,” Cheffo said in the letter, per CNBC.Delta canceled some 5,000 flights as a result of the July 19 IT issue, which was triggered by a software update from CrowdStrike. Millions of computers that use Microsoft Windows were ultimately impacted worldwide — for both airlines and businesses alike.Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian, said publicly last week that the airline is seeking about $500 million in damages for the massive disruption.The airline shot back in response to Microsoft’s new claims, pointing out that it has “a long track record of investing in safe, reliable and elevated service for our customers and employees."“Since 2016, Delta has invested billions of dollars in IT capital expenditures, in addition to the billions spent annually in IT operating costs,” Delta said in response to the Tuesday letter from Microsoft, according to a statement issued by the airline, per CNBC.Additionally, back in July, Delta lawyers told Microsoft: “We have reason to believe Microsoft has failed to comply with contractual requirements and otherwise acted in a grossly negligent, indeed willful, manner in connection with the Faulty Update” from CrowdStrike that triggered the IT issue.Cheffo rejected Delta's assertion, stating in his own letter that while Microsoft “empathizes with Delta and its customers..Delta’s public comments are incomplete, false, misleading, and damaging to Microsoft and its reputation.”Cheffo also said that Microsoft offered to provide Delta with free assistance in the wake of the July 19 tech incident. But according to Cheffo’s letter, the airline rejected the support.

It seems Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle has heard enough criticism of the U.S. ultra-low-cost airline industry — even as the carrier projects more financial losses in the coming months and plans to reduce flights on certain days of the week and push back new aircraft deliveries by years.

Delta Air Lines fired back at CrowdStrike Thursday, saying the cybersecurity firm is taking a “blame the victim” defense.

Microsoft believes Delta has not “modernized its IT infrastructure,” which resulted in a five day-long meltdown for the carrier. 

CrowdStrike has responded assertively to Delta Air Lines after the carrier’s CEO, Ed Bastian, accused the cybersecurity firm of being responsible for a service disruption that allegedly cost Delta $500 million. 

In the latest salvo of a brewing public relations war, Microsoft joined CrowdStrike in pushing back against recent criticism from Delta Air Lines, claiming that the carrier rejected technical assistance in the aftermath of an outage that eventually led it to cancel more than 5,000 flights.

Microsoft criticized Delta Air Lines on Tuesday for overstating the technology company’s role in a costly disruption that led the airline to cancel thousands of flights last month.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, August 6, and now here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today. 

CrowdStrike is striking back.

CrowdStrike said Delta did not accept its offer of onsite help during the carrier’s meltdown that led to thousands of flight cancellations and delays. 

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said the CrowdStrike outage that led it to cancel thousands of flights will cost it $500 million. 

The Olympics are big business. Alongside broadcasting rights, merchandising, and ticket sales, corporate sponsorship plays a vital revenue-generating role. However, from a travel perspective, Airbnb is the only company currently in the International Olympic Committee’s TOP – or ‘The Olympic Partners’ – Program.

They are scenes straight out of a travel nightmare: Airline passengers, including unaccompanied minors, stranded for days in strange cities amid a cascading wave of flight cancellations—with little hope of catching a plane home in a hurry.