Ed Bastian travel tips

Demand was up, but so were fuel prices. And there were some downs.

Airlines have new bragging rights ahead of the busy summer travel season.  For the third year in a row, Southwest Airlines was ranked as the top airline for customer satisfaction for economy or basic economy, according to JD Power's 2024 North America Airline Satisfaction Study published on Wednesday.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, April 23. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Delta announced Monday that it plans to give its employees 5% raises and increase the minimum starting wage for frontline employees to $19 an hour.

Delta Air Lines said Monday that it will give most of its employees a 5% raise and will increase the minimum starting salary that it offers in some positions.

Delta Air Lines is forecasting another busy summer travel season, buoyed by a sustained demand for leisure travel — not to mention a far more robust business travel sector that's been slow to improve in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

As the airline industry grapples with delayed aircraft orders and rising operating costs, Delta Air Lines has stayed above the fray. 

Customers may soon feel the impact of the Boeing 737 Max blowout as airlines face uncertainty about their future fleets.

CEOs of both Alaska Airlines and United Airlines have expressed frustrations with Boeing weeks after a mid-air blowout forced the airline to ground dozens of its planes.

Delta frequent flyers take note – there’s a brand-new flagship coming your way. The Atlanta-based carrier has confirmed that the Airbus A350-1000 is joining its long-haul flying roster. While specific details are still to be announced, expect this new jet to instantly become Delta’s biggest and best aircraft.

In the next few years, a new aircraft will take the mantle as the largest in Delta Air Lines' fleet.

Nearly every peak travel period in 2023 brought air travel records, and airports are again bracing for large crowds as the end-of-year holidays approach.

The spotlight is on Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. But Delta Air Lines had some interesting things to say last week as well.

Delta Air Lines is already bringing artificial intelligence into its operations. At an investor conference Wednesday, Delta executives said that they started experimenting with AI in the past month for its reservations team and to determine pricing. 

Delta Air Lines wants to help you get your holiday shopping on — and give elite status hunters another way to start racking up those Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) for 2025.

How much do travelers care about their rewards points?

In mid-September, Delta announced an overhaul to its SkyMiles loyalty program and proprietary Sky Club lounge access policies that would take effect in 2024. The anticipated changes—which made obtaining elite frequent flier status and accessing its airport lounges much harder—resulted in significant backlash, such that Delta’s chief executive Ed Bastian said the airline would backpedal and make “modifications” to the changes.

It should be the best of times for U.S. airlines with a travel boom still going strong, but investors are nervous demand may soften as the economy falters, making it harder to protect profits from soaring costs.

Delta has revised the changes to its Skymiles loyalty program that sparked a backlash when they were announced in September. Those changes shifted the key metric to build loyalty: The new emphasis would be on money spent.

In an email to consumers Wednesday afternoon, Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian shared an update to the drastic changes made to the SkyMiles program last month. They included limiting Sky Club access for many American Express cardmembers to a few times a year and raising the requirements to achieve elite status (while dropping the ability to earn it on segments). Following much speculation, Bastian said that the overwhelming email response of disappointment led to a slight “walk back” of these changes. Taking effect in 2024 for the 2025 Medallion status year, these are some of the anticipated updates for members.

Southwest Airlines will make it easier to earn status on its Rapid Rewards loyalty program for next year and introduce new perks for current status holders.