Free Wi-Fi on Delta through the end of the year

From The Ticket: to get FREE Wi-Fi on Delta Air Lines (thru Dec 31)– just use the code DELTATRYGOGO when you log on.

Airtran: use the code AIRTRANTRYGOGO when you log on.
American: use the code AATRYGOGO when you log on from the plane.

Smelly, hot plane coming in from Tulsa last night

Tip to Delta--when the plane smells of vomit, having working air conditioning makes life better. The wimpy flow coming out of the air vent didn't have a chance of competing with the stained carpet under our feet on the 3:05 flight (delayed about an hour) out of Tulsa.

Geez.

Two points for a quick rebooking

Checked in at Toronto to fly to Tulsa via Minneapolis. One leg delayed, one cancelled. But Delta immediately rebooked by on American, without even being asked. That was an exceptional and good experience.

Delta vs Air Canada to the UK

That headline's not fair--it summarizes two separate flights in the last week.

I took Air Canada and found friendly skies and a great aircraft. Unlike the jets that Delta flies to London, coach seats had

• A 7" (diagonal) screen on the back of each seat with a slew of movies. (Delta shows 2 movies, 1 at a time, on old screens that hang from the ceiling. Films such as "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past".)
• A power plug in the back of the seat in front of you for every seat in coach. (Delta usually has it for a few of the front rows, inconveniently located under your seat.)
• A USB port in the seat in front of you to power the screen from your laptop.

Now, I still couldn't work when the seat in front of me reclined. But, if you are sitting down, my solution was easy and not uncomfortable: I traded seats with the guy in the middle seat and worked for about 6 1/2 hours sitting there. And it was wide enough to be OK. This was a FAR better experience than any Delta flight I've been on to the UK and many other EU destinations.

Upshot: I've got the miles to be Diamond next year. If Air Canada flew from ATL to LON, I'd be on it every time.

Passenger advocate claims Delta hacked her e-mails | ajc.com

This one surprises me - I consider Delta a much more honest company that is portrayed. I hope it is a groundless accusation (but if true, Delta should gets it ass kicked)>
"A passenger rights advocate accused Delta Air Lines Inc. in a federal lawsuit Tuesday of conspiring with a Virginia company to obtain hacked e-mails from her computer to help them derail her efforts to protect air travelers from lengthy tarmac delays and other inconveniences." Passenger advocate claims Delta hacked her e-mails | ajc.com:

Delta Inconsistency Frustrating

Let's add another basic problem that Delta has: consistency.*

Suit bag. Carried it on many times. Including yesterday, ATL -> O'hare.
Today? Nossir, that bag's too big; gotta check it.
(Who enforced it? TSA. Huhhhhhhh?)
(As a person walks past me with a waiver signed by Julie, a Delta employee, to tell TSA her non-sizewise bag was OK to carry through security.)
Delta counter: No. Don't care if it fits. No. Don't care if you are flying first and there is a lot more 50% more overhead space per passenger in first. No. Don't care if Atlanta let's you carry it on.

So, having time to kill, I pick up my cell and call Delta corporate, asking for an exec assist in the CEO's office. I start to explain my situation, complaining how frustrating the inconsistency was. An agent hears me and escorts me through TSA. With my bag.

*Biggest other bad character traits DL has as a company?
1. Running an airline as if s__t never happens--tightly scheduling gates, running airports to capacity, etc. And then when s__t happens, they have no flexibility to compensate and a little s__t turns into a cascading series of service failures.
2. Communicating, especially about delays.
3. Consistency.

Our gate was ready, but...

Getting in from Chicago today (delayed because loading baggage took longer than it should (huh?)), we waited on the tarmac not because our gate was occupied but because another plane was pulling away from an adjacent gate. I'm somewhere north of 800k miles as a Delta flier but that's a new on on me.

Woman sues Delta; was kicked off plane for breast feeding | ajc.com

Woman sues Delta; was kicked off plane for breast feeding | ajc.com: "Gillette was ordered off a Delta Connections plane by a flight attendant after twice refusing an order to cover up while she breast fed her baby prior to takeoff."

Atlanta-Miami nation's third busiest air route | ajc.com

Atlanta-Miami nation's third busiest air route | ajc.com: "The air travel corridor between Atlanta and the greater Miami area is now the 3rd busiest in the nation, and the corridor from Atlanta to the New York area is not far behind at 5th, according to a report from the Brookings Institution."

Cupholders?

Why do we have cupholder in cars (more cupholders than seats, it seems) but no cupholders in aircraft?

No cute folding/sliding/popping up ways to hold a drink securely? Surely there are some rockets scientists out there who could figure out how to do this!

We're early but we'll blow it!

Coming back from Hartford last night, the good news was that we ere an hour early. The bad news? Of course, no gate was ready and we were going to sit for 10 minutes for another plane to push back.

I assume that Delta keeps track of its planes that are in the air and their ETAs. (At least, I think I asumme that. Maybe they don't. Maybe it is a surprise to on-the-ground operations at Hartsfield when they get a radio call, "Hi! We're here!".) Why on earth can't they do any sort of semi-real-time management of arrival gates?

For that matter, why don't they tell the incoming pilot to slow down? Delta should realize that the experience of arriving 15 minutes early is very different than the experience of arriving 30 minutes early and sitting on the tarmac for 15 minutes.

The worse news? The towbar broke on another just that was being towed past us, leaving it blocking the gate. We got in 30 minutes early (cheers). We deplaned 0 minutes early.

Georgia man charged in ND airport vandalism

Bismarck Police Sgt. Dwight Offerman said the 40-year-old Wright is accused of striking and breaking the kiosk shortly before 5 a.m., Thursday. Offerman said Wright arrived 30 minutes before to his flight and was frustrated when the kiosk failed to work. (Should medallion fliers set up a defense fund for the guy?) Details: Georgia man charged in ND airport vandalism | ajc.com