delta – Page 9 – Traveling Tiger

Power Outages and Cancellations

Update: Georgia Power has elaborated on the problem and explained that it was equipment failure at Delta that caused the outage. Additionally, Delta has expanded their travel waiver to cover Tuesday travelers as well as those affected on Monday, though travel still needs to take place by Friday. Finally, a correction regarding the American Express Platinum protection – this protection is an added purchase, while it is complimentary with the Citi Prestige and Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Update 2: Delta is extending their waiver another day as there were more cancellations today, and more are expected for tomorrow.

As many of you are aware by now, a power outage in Atlanta resulted in Delta going dark this morning. Starting at 2:38 AM, the outage lasted for 6 hours and affected everything from displays at airports to mobile apps and the check-in kiosks. Thankfully they are issuing free travel change waivers for those affected today.

René, of RenesPoints on BoardingArea, has a helpful post outlining how to handle a situation like this. The most important things to do are to remain calm and polite when working with customer service representatives. They’ve been dealing with this problem since customers started to get affected by it this morning, and they likely won’t be done cleaning things up for a few days.

Make use of the travel change waiver, if your plans are somewhat flexible, and read up on your credit card’s travel interruption protection coverage! Some cards, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, American Express Platinum, and Citi Prestige, will cover purchases for food, hotel stays, and other essentials for delays exceeding certain periods. With the Citi Prestige, for example, any delay over 3 hours qualifies. The Chase Sapphire Preferred [affiliate link] requires a longer period: 12 hours. The Platinum card from American Express [affiliate link] is in the middle at 4 hours. Links to the documentation for these cards can be found below, and a full list of cards that cover such expenses can be found at MileCards.

Remember – stay safe and don’t panic if your flight is cancelled; Delta will make sure you get to your destination! It never hurts to send them a tweet (@Delta), but again remember that there is a person behind that screen, and they’re doing whatever they can to help everyone affected.

Domestic Delta Meals

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of flying first class on flights offering meals. Raleigh offers direct flights to Salt Lake City and Minneapolis, and based on time of day first class passengers are offered meals.

RDU-SLC: Breakfast

The flight from Raleigh to Salt Lake City departs at 7:25 AM, usually, and my flight offered a choice between cold cereal and an omelette with chicken sausage. Though the fruit was a little over-sweet, the omelette was surprisingly good.

RDU-MSP

There are flights from Raleigh to Minneapolis, and vice versa, many times a day. Though not as long as the flight to Salt Lake City, meals are still offered if you fly near breakfast, lunch, or dinner time! I opted for the bacon-egg sandwich served on a flaky pastry. As with the SLC flight, the fruit was way too sweet.

MSP-RDU

The 7:30 flight from MSP to RDU offers a satisfying dinner service; much tastier than the breakfast! The dinner options were a honey-glazed salmon on rice with vegetables, or a smoked turkey salad. I opted for the salad out of curiosity, and found it was a cross between potato salad, cubed smoked turkey, and edamame. The potato salad also had green beans and radishes. The salad was served with crostini and a cookie Overall a very nice meal for a domestic flight!

Delta’s BRCF 767-400ER: Pink Force One

This week I managed to catch a glimpse of BRCF Delta’s 767-400ER (tail N845MH, ship 1821) before it departed to Frankfurt. Known affectionately as “Pink Force One“, it was repainted in 2015, though it has been pink since 2010.

The Spirit of Atlanta

I managed to catch a glimpse of The Spirit of Atlanta while relaxing at the SkyClub on Concourse F, today! According to FlightAware, it was departing to Tokyo-Narita.

The Spirit of Atlanta is a Boeing 777-200LR that was christened in commemoration of Delta’s 70th anniversary. Watch the video below!

Refit Delta A319

Last week I was able to fly on one of Delta’s Airbus A319’s with the new interiors and it was quite nice! Though a new overhead console was in place, the vent for the Boeing 737-900 was not used!

Delta Diamond Medallion Package and A319 First Class

While I was traveling this week, I got a fun little surprise in the mail! My Diamond Medallion package arrived from Delta – complete with #BragTags. Instead of the traditional plastic luggage tag you receive with Platinum Medallion status, you get nicely machined aluminum tags at Diamond.

You also receive a handful of thank-you coupons to give particularly helpful or entertaining representatives. I wish we got more than just four, though – I frequently have excellent experiences with Delta flight attendants and phone representatives, and I wish I could acknowledge them all!

When flying this week, I managed to get upgraded for both flights on the way up to the customer site, including bulkhead on an A319. I am usually not a fan of bulkhead seats, but the A319 has a nice indentation which offers a hefty chunk of legroom!

Delta also introduced some new snacks, one of which is a fruit and nut pack by FlyFit – quite tasty!

What about you guys – come across any new snacks on your domestic flights?

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