Delta/Northwest Merger

Anyone here know what will be happening with interline agreements once DL and NW merge?

I understand NW crew will be in DL uniforms soon, planes repainted this and that. Are we looking at a year plus for systems to be integrated?

I emailed our equivalent of a "pass bureau" today to check what the deal is, as we have an ID75 with DL and a ZED with NW. I asked will there be a collective agreement, will DL honour NW ZEDS etc etc, and all i got was "we have no update... keep checking online"... the idea of contacting either airline is beyond them, but i assume maybe this isn't even worked out yet?

Any info appreciated http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...DIR#>/cool.gif

Hey Nick,

I have also inquired with my airline's employee travel department in regards to the merger. We have a spectacular service charge agreement with Northwest, and Delta is a ZED partner. So far I can't seem to get a response back from them on what or when anything will happen.

Last I heard, the two airlines won't begin operating under the same certificate until late 2009, so I guess we shouldn't expect to see anything change until then. If I hear something back that might help answer your question, I'll post something here.

Thanks!
Rocks

Nick-

Word here at NW is we will have a common pass program with DL May 1, 2009. I would guess at that time the ZED vs. ID will be worked out with the other airlines.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hub & Spoke @ Jan 13 2009, 05:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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Nick-

Word here at NW is we will have a common pass program with DL May 1, 2009. I would guess at that time the ZED vs. ID will be worked out with the other airlines.[/b]

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I&#39;ve heard a similar time table. Hopefully we get the best of both(free Business Class) and hopefully our ZED agreements list doubles, no TRIPLES!!!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Nick @ Jan 13 2009, 11:41 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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I emailed our equivalent of a "pass bureau" today to check what the deal is, as we have an ID75 with DL and a ZED with NW. I asked will there be a collective agreement, will DL honour NW ZEDS etc etc, and all i got was "we have no update... keep checking online"... the idea of contacting either airline is beyond them, but i assume maybe this isn&#39;t even worked out yet?[/b]

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It really is up to DL to determine how they intend to proceed in the future and then propose new or amended agreements to the other airlines. Until DL gets its ducks in a row, anything your staff travel office does now is just a waste of time. I expect DL will be under a great deal of pressure to convert its agreements to ZED, but DL has certain requirements that NW does not, so several airlines may find it difficult to change their agreements with DL to ZED.

Thanks for the info people... hope it gets arranged before July, I want to try out DL on SYD-LAX http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...R#>/tongue.gif

My main point was that it would not have occured to our "pass bureau" that people may be curious/unsure of the situation, and to post a notice saying it hasn&#39;t been worked out but stay tuned. It&#39;s a black hole, and i get frustrated as sharing info isn&#39;t their strong point. But this is what happens when you combine a pass bureau with a benefits service - they take care of staff travel, all housing benefits for pilots, medical etc etc, so unlike other airlines who have a department who specialise in staff travel, they seem to have multiple roles and portfolios.

But enough on that one....

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Nick @ Jan 13 2009, 10:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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Thanks for the info people... hope it gets arranged before July, I want to try out DL on SYD-LAX http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...R#>/tongue.gif[/b]

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Good luck, So does every DL, NW, Comair, ASA, Skywest employee and all their eligable passriders. I&#39;m trying to figure out if I should just ZED there soon, or if I should wait until we start going their. However many open seats, I&#39;m seriously thinking the NRSA list for those flights will be 50+ for at least a month.

I wanted to take our inaugural flight JFK-CAI in June. So did about 75 other Nonrevs. The first time it actually looked good wasn&#39;t until October, so I went.

I was thinking in Jul or Aug about taking DL MDT-ATL-LAX-SYD QF SYD-JNB SA JNB-CPT-JNB DL JNB-ATL-MDT. Need to save up for that though.

I heard today that the New delta is going to instigate the NW "buddy pass&#39; rules" where our Buddies have to fly with us or what not - PLEASE tell me this isn&#39;t true!!! http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...IR#>/angry.gif The rare occasions I give out buddy passes, my companions do NOT need a BABY SITTER!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ColoAvs19 @ Jan 14 2009, 10:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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Good luck, So does every DL, NW, Comair, ASA, Skywest employee and all their eligable passriders. I&#39;m trying to figure out if I should just ZED there soon, or if I should wait until we start going their. However many open seats, I&#39;m seriously thinking the NRSA list for those flights will be 50+ for at least a month.

I wanted to take our inaugural flight JFK-CAI in June. So did about 75 other Nonrevs. The first time it actually looked good wasn&#39;t until October, so I went.

I was thinking in Jul or Aug about taking DL MDT-ATL-LAX-SYD QF SYD-JNB SA JNB-CPT-JNB DL JNB-ATL-MDT. Need to save up for that though.[/b]

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Haha yes but thankfully there will be dilution now... V Australia, Qantas, United and Delta means more chances as I can&#39;t see them all being able to fill up - well they probably will but at the expense of yield. Shame I have no agreement, ZED, ID90, ID75 respectively so at this stage QF it is!

How did you find CAI.. enjoyable trip? I am going there in 2 weeks (MEL-HKG-LHR-CAI). Everyone keeps being so negative and telling me I will hate it and i&#39;m getting sick of hearing it really. Going to Cairo for 4 days, Luxor or Aswan for 1, then Sharm El Sheik for 3 http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...#>/biggrin.gif

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Nick @ Jan 14 2009, 02:50 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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How did you find CAI.. enjoyable trip? I am going there in 2 weeks (MEL-HKG-LHR-CAI). Everyone keeps being so negative and telling me I will hate it and i&#39;m getting sick of hearing it really. Going to Cairo for 4 days, Luxor or Aswan for 1, then Sharm El Sheik for 3 http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...#>/biggrin.gif[/b]

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I loved it! It is a dirty city but fun.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (vulindlela @ Jan 14 2009, 10:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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I loved it! It is a dirty city but fun.[/b]

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Finally, some positivity! http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...#>/biggrin.gif

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ColoAvs19 @ Jan 14 2009, 10:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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I was thinking in Jul or Aug about taking DL MDT-ATL-LAX-SYD QF SYD-JNB SA JNB-CPT-JNB DL JNB-ATL-MDT. Need to save up for that though.[/b]

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Now that is quite a trip... SA and QF both also fly PER-JNB (i think) if you get in a bind. Something makes me remember payload restrictions around this time though?

Save your pennies...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Jumper @ Jan 14 2009, 01:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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I heard today that the New delta is going to instigate the NW "buddy pass&#39; rules" where our Buddies have to fly with us or what not - PLEASE tell me this isn&#39;t true!!! http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...IR#>/angry.gif The rare occasions I give out buddy passes, my companions do NOT need a BABY SITTER![/b]

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Oh, I hope not!! That&#39;s how DL&#39;s rules were previously. It&#39;s bad enough that we&#39;re responsible for their behavior when they&#39;re flying......I don&#39;t need to travel with them, that&#39;s for sure.

I probably wouldn&#39;t give as many away under those conditions, either. Not alot of flexibility, there.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Jumper @ Jan 14 2009, 03:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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I heard today that the New delta is going to instigate the NW "buddy pass&#39; rules" where our Buddies have to fly with us or what not - PLEASE tell me this isn&#39;t true!!! http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...IR#>/angry.gif The rare occasions I give out buddy passes, my companions do NOT need a BABY SITTER![/b]

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I&#39;m sure everything is being looked at, but trust me as an NW employee myself and others don&#39;t like some of your (DL) non-rev rules. So it will all balance out in the long run.

As far as NW and buddy passes, companion pass as we call it, they can go alone, but at a lower priority. So there still is a way.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hub & Spoke @ Jan 14 2009, 08:56 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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I&#39;m sure everything is being looked at, but trust me as an NW employee myself and others don&#39;t like some of your (DL) non-rev rules. So it will all balance out in the long run.

As far as NW and buddy passes, companion pass as we call it, they can go alone, but at a lower priority. So there still is a way.[/b]

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In our case, the buddy passes can&#39;t upgrade their priority, but we could downgrade our priority to fly with them. Kinda dumb, huh?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mayor @ Jan 14 2009, 11:51 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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In our case, the buddy passes can&#39;t upgrade their priority, but we could downgrade our priority to fly with them. Kinda dumb, huh?[/b]

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Just a little -

What I hate is the idea that with NW, with the exception of our RTC (and only if you&#39;re not married) they have to either fly with you or meet you someplace. The fares are getting prohibitively expensive (once we priced out a &#39;pass&#39; and it turned out to be more expensive than a regular CONFIRMED seat!)

Sometimes I swear I get what those milage users are whinging about - &#39;what good are they&#39; ?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Jumper @ Jan 14 2009, 10:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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Just a little -

What I hate is the idea that with NW, with the exception of our RTC (and only if you&#39;re not married) they have to either fly with you or meet you someplace. The fares are getting prohibitively expensive (once we priced out a &#39;pass&#39; and it turned out to be more expensive than a regular CONFIRMED seat!)

Sometimes I swear I get what those milage users are whinging about - &#39;what good are they&#39; ?[/b]

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That&#39;s how it used to be with our vacation passes (S-2&#39;s) The person using the S-2 with you had to travel with the employee at some point. When they changed S-2&#39;s to just priority passes, usable any time of year, that was changed also. Obviously, the vacation passes were limited to the number of weeks vacation you had coming. Now, as priority passes, you get 6 per year (not retirees).

@Jumper: One other option for unaccompanied "companions" is flying to/from your home base (or an airport within 85 miles). Not as nice as Delta, from the sounds of it, but my gate agent in Toronto commented on it being generous. To each their own.

So, to you DL folks out there, I&#39;m wondering what I can hope for in terms of benefits. I come from the NW world, and know their rules pretty well. Now, I&#39;m (hopefully) going to be making a grand return to Mesaba (XJ), a regional carrier for NW. I left just before the merger was official, so I never got a chance to study DL&#39;s rules. I know they won&#39;t necessarily be passed down, but I&#39;d like to know what to expect as a best- (or worst-) case scenario. Mainly, how do Delta&#39;s companion fares work, exactly? Approximate fares? Most of my travel with others would probably be with my girlfriend.

Also, same bit (mostly about fares) goes for parents of DL employees. Any charges there? I go to school in Wisconsin, and if my parents could fly over for lunch every now and then from MSP, that&#39;d be amazing. Probably not worth the ~$80RT it was with NW, if I remember right, however.

G&#39;day Spongebue, Under DL&#39;s current pass policy, they could visit for lunch. The approximate cost would be....$0.00. Parents recieve 18 free flight days. A flight day is a calendar day. It does stink when you say, take a redeye from LAS-ATL-wherever, because you started yesterday and used 2 days when it&#39;s done. But 18 for totally free. If you have a spouse or travel companion, then parents pay a $75 service charge plus taxes/fees across an ocean. If you don&#39;t, they just pay international taxes like you. I took my mother to IST in Nov, cost about $50 total, Business Elite both ways.

Spouse is free and unlimited, and gets 6 priority flight days. Same benefits as emp. Travel companion gets the same priority and 6 priority flight days, but has to pay a yield fare. Taxes included it usually works out to about 5 Cents a mile. So JFK-ATL would be like $75 r/t. DL allows a same sex domestic partner to get spousal benefits, but not an opposite sex domestic partner.

And DL always fills every F/J seat before they put a single nonrev in Y(except W/B issues).

I really enjoy DL&#39;s benefits and hope they don&#39;t change it too much.

As of right now, buddy passes don&#39;t need accompanied, but I always do, for their first time nonreving anyway.

Impressive... hopefully that will be the prevailing policy once things get evened out. Thanks a lot. Any limits to the number of buddy passes that can be used?

Oh, and I ran into your blog, was reading that. I&#39;m pretty damn impressed, I gotta say. I was known as "the crazy guy that flies all over the place" but you... you have me beat. Best I did was HNL with the girlfriend. Which, in summer, is no small feat (baaaarely got the last seat after overnighting in SEA) but wow... you really hit those international places up.

Thanks again

Edit: Say, is there anything in place for when parents use up the 18 days? Can they still fly with a yield fare?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (spongebue @ Jan 15 2009, 12:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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@Jumper: One other option for unaccompanied "companions" is flying to/from your home base (or an airport within 85 miles). Not as nice as Delta, from the sounds of it, but my gate agent in Toronto commented on it being generous. To each their own.[/b]

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But that&#39;s ONE person. and the yield fares blow goats. As I said, to even bring my RTC over from NY cost almost as much as a confirmed ticket, and the 85 mile rule is useless when you live an additional 120 from any optionals.

Read ColoAvs19 post - 50$ to got to IST - I just did London - granted it was in WBC but it cost me close to 500$ - When my freind went last year from NY, over 650$...

Sponge: After the 18 free days, parents can fly unlimited but pay the same yield fare as a travel companion. We get 8 buddy passes, they pay a slightly higher fare(like 10% higher). And I love flying around the world. Besides what&#39;s in the blog, I&#39;ve been to BCN, AMS, CAI, UIO, and PUJ, plus a few domestic cities.

Jumper: 500 Bucks??? I know london is expensive for taxes, but 500 is insane.

The 50USD I payed r/t to IST, that covered BOTH my mother and I, AND we got BusinessElite both ways.

I hope to continue flying cheaply and in J whenever possible.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ColoAvs19 @ Jan 18 2009, 01:12 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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Jumper: 500 Bucks??? I know london is expensive for taxes, but 500 is insane.[/b]

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Yep - took three paycheques to pay it all off. The first took out my outbound (125$) the second wiped out my Christmas paycheque (a few days and 300$) and the last came out of last weeks.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ColoAvs19 @ Jan 18 2009, 01:12 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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500 Bucks??? I know london is expensive for taxes, but 500 is insane.
The 50USD I payed r/t to IST, that covered BOTH my mother and I, AND we got BusinessElite both ways.
I hope to continue flying cheaply and in J whenever possible.[/b]

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Here at NW, we have to pay to upgrade. Y class is free plus taxes on international.
Jumper flew business class which is roughly $433. Coach would have only been $115.
A flight to NRT would only cost us $36 in coach but $273 in WBC.
It blows and I hope this changes with the merger!

I see the taxes for LHR are up to about $150--that&#39;s w/out yield fare or zed!

LON airports have probably the highest taxes of any other country. You have to pay more taxes if you ride in F/J as well. Thats one reason why I haven&#39;t been to that country yet.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (stuck in a hotel room @ Jan 19 2009, 11:33 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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LON airports have probably the highest taxes of any other country. You have to pay more taxes if you ride in F/J as well. Thats one reason why I haven&#39;t been to that country yet.[/b]

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Yes and as far as I remember, they have just increased them again, and plan to again next year. I try to avoid LHR at all costs!

While i&#39;m here... any NW employees know what y&#39;all are like at re routes on tickets? Say I had a LAX-MSP ZED, can i use SFO-MSP? Both in zone 3, but i know some airlines don&#39;t like this...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Nick @ Jan 20 2009, 10:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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While i&#39;m here... any NW employees know what y&#39;all are like at re routes on tickets? Say I had a LAX-MSP ZED, can i use SFO-MSP? Both in zone 3, but i know some airlines don&#39;t like this...[/b]

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Per the rules, you will be able to use it but not everyone knows the rules.
I have used ZED tickets for over 10 years and many times on city pairs that were not on the ticket. There has never been a problem, not even a second glance.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Nick @ Jan 19 2009, 01:50 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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I try to avoid LHR at all costs![/b]

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Agree.
It is good I have been there eleven times because I am not going back! Same with AMS. I went to AMS last year for around $60 in tax and now it is $140. Yikes!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (vulindlela @ Jan 21 2009, 10:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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Agree.
It is good I have been there eleven times because I am not going back! Same with AMS. I went to AMS last year for around $60 in tax and now it is $140. Yikes![/b]

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Yeah i thought of going to AMS iso LHR but it was just as ridiculous

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (vulindlela @ Jan 21 2009, 10:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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Per the rules, you will be able to use it but not everyone knows the rules.
I have used ZED tickets for over 10 years and many times on city pairs that were not on the ticket. There has never been a problem, not even a second glance.[/b]

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Yeah but for example BA does not allow this, even if ZED rules do!

I checked with an AA agent once and she said it was OK, but to pick a young gate agent. I called them once to check as well and the lady was very shirty and told me it would be an exception to the rule to allow different routings, even in same zone.

Regardless, i usually try to make sure one city is correct - either departure or origin.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Nick @ Jan 21 2009, 09:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

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Yeah but for example BA does not allow this, even if ZED rules do![/b]

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The first time I ever used Zed was for an SFO-CDG on AF. The flight was full so we took the tickets to BA and they were prepared to accept them but they were full too. KL and AY were full also but we finally had a winner with VS, who accepted them on their SFO-LHR flight and even put us in Upper Class.

I know there will always exceptions and also that pass travel is the last thing the airlines are concerned about.
Like you said, it does help to be prepared.