Month: September 2017

Delta adds free messaging to flights

Currently, you can buy wifi on nearly all Delta flights. It’s usually slow and expensive. Many of their newer planes are getting 2Ku, which is much faster. Older planes are being retrofitted. That’s great news if you want to work on the plane, but you’ll still pay a pretty penny.

What about if you just want to communicate with the ground but you don’t need to work on your laptop?

Beginning Oct. 1, Delta will become the first U.S. airline to offer free mobile messaging, providing more customers access to free messaging than any other airline.

According to Delta, “this new, complimentary capability will enable customers to stay fully connected with those on the ground and exchange real time messages in flight with friends, families, colleagues, and clients via iMessage, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.”

Powered by Gogo’s 2Ku Wi-Fi technology, Delta offers technology that provides consistent, uninterrupted coverage anywhere in the world, including over oceans. The airline has the largest current fleet of Gogo 2Ku aircraft –  by 2018 over 600 aircraft will have High-Speed Wi-Fi for domestic and international flights.  2Ku Wi-Fi gives customers an at-home experience, including the ability to stream video and use work-related networks, such as VPN, globally. It can also be used gate-to-gate, unlike current Gogo wifi.

For those Delta elite, what are your thoughts on this for the 2019 Medallion year?

While I can understand wanting to make the top-tier Diamond level more exclusive, this is extremely high. American offers a way to get extra MQDs with spend. I think the only incentive with Delta was that you could reach this status without spending $15,000 on actual tickets. Diamond will now be available only for those who travel internationally for work (i.e. not spending their own money) and for those few who have come up with manufactured-spend-quasi-scams.

Another point – for those who DO make it to Diamond status, are there added rewards? I feel like if you either spend $250K on your Amex, Delta should give you something more valuable then what it previously offered, and Amex should also essentially love you forever. No word on that yet.

Should be interesting to see the results of this. It could mean more upgrades for certain tiers, or that there will be so many Platinums that no one will ever get upgrades.

Time to start planning travel without Delta. This was a big FU.