Delta gets tag-teamed by Microsoft and Crowdstrike, Capital One may finally be shaking up its card portfolio and reports of widespread United elite status fraud. All that and more in this week’s Saturday Selection, our weekly round-up of interesting tidbits from around the interwebs (links to the original articles are embedded in the titles).
Microsoft and Crowdstrike take turns piledriving Delta
Delta has had a rough month. At the end of the July, there was the now widely-known global IT outage that was traced back to a faulty Crowdstrike security software update which caused chaos for many airlines, including Delta. American and United Airlines were also affected, but recovered fairly quickly. Delta’s operations, on the other hand, wheezed and coughed over a several-day period that ended with over 7,000 flights having been cancelled. Delta didn’t respond well, to say the least, initially refusing to book stranded passengers on other airlines or pay for additional expenses until the Department of Transportation announced an investigation. Since then, the company has been trying to blame everyone else but themselves, publicly threatening legal action against both Crowdstrike and Microsoft, who didn’t take kindly to the suggestion. Last week, lawyers for both companies released public responses that effectively amounted to a scathing, “oh no, you didn’t!” Each company says that Delta repeatedly refused offers for help, that e-mails from the respective CEOs to Delta boss Ed Bastion went unanswered and that the primary reason that Delta was such a mess was because of outdated crew-scheduling software (I see you, Southwest) that runs on IBM platforms, so was unaffected by Crowdstrike or Microsoft. I’m no legal scholar, but I know when it’s time to pop some corn and watch the show.
Are new Capital One cards on the way?
Capital One is something of a sore subject at Frequent Miler HQ. I can’t name names, but let’s say that our friend “Egg the Recent Flyer” has had a rough history with C1, having been shutdown not once, but twice...each time for no reason and with a forced cash out of his miles at a paltry 0.5 cents each. So, we try out best not to mention the old “c-word” when we can avoid it. Luckily, Capital One has made it easy on us, by not really doing anything exciting since it launched the (admittedly exciting) Venture X in 2021. Last year, it haphazardly released a business card over several months, first calling it the Spark Travel Elite, then renaming it the Venture X Business, the whole time making the initial application process a Rubik’s Cube-like puzzle that went through so-called “relationship managers” that no one in the company seemed to know how to reach. Things might be changing, though. Last month, C1 discontinued the Savor card and now rumors are flying around the interwebs that a couple of new products and increased welcome bonuses are headed our way. If so, we’ll all be thrilled to see what they have up their sleeve. Well, everyone except for my friend “Egg,” anyway.
Widespread United Airlines elite status fraud
Status-matching is fun a sub-genre within the world of points and miles. Many travel companies want the chance to woo elite members from other programs and one way to accomplish that is by “matching” their status so that those members don’t have to start from zero when flying/staying/boating with someone new. Greg used JetBlue and Alaska’s come-hither appeals to dissatisfied Delta elites to leverage some magnificent benefits for he and his wife – including a free helicopter taxi across Manhattan. Nick has spent much of the last two years boating around the world with his family by matching casino and cruise line statuses. Earlier this year, United decided to streamline its own status matching system and you can now submit your current elite status online and have it checked automatically, resulting in an immediate match. Slick, right? It is…and evidently also very easy to trick.
While the system is very good at making sure that the submitted elite status “card” is in the right format, it’s not so good at making sure that it’s actually real. Evidently, scammers have quickly developed templates from multiple airlines around the world and have been busily matching folks to United Gold, Platinum or 1K status. Although the linked Loyalty Lobby post shares a letter that mentions this being a widespread problem in China, it seems to be an issue worldwide as well. In fact, a reader at View for the Wing was recently able to use this to trick to generate Gold status – for the VFTW website itself.
“Life hacks” to use when flying Southwest
Most folks that are into points and miles are into “hacks;” ie when someone figures out a shortcut or trick that enables them to rock life like a hurricane. I mean, the whole idea of using credit card funny money to fly around the world in lie-flat planes and stay in fancy-pants hotels feels like a hack in and of itself. Last week, in an attempt to wring out a few more drops of revenue into its sagging coffers, Southwest Airlines announced that it was going to embark on a series of changes that broadly appeal to the general public, but seemingly irritate the majority of the general public that actually flies Southwest, not to mention putting a serious crimp in style of all those “Jetway Jesuses” out there (when someone pretends to need a wheelchair in order to get early boarding). In the roiling sea of discontent that’s followed Southwest’s announcement, Your Mileage May Vary gave us a temporary lifeboat: a list of 7 “life hacks” that make flying Southwest a better experience. Now, most of these hacks will probably go the way of the dodo when all the rules change, but there’s some good ones there. And if after reading them, you’re left hungry for more, check out Carrie Yoder’s trick for getting free airfare for a companion on almost any airline…maybe my favorite travel hack ever.
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Reports suggest that Capital One has a 4/24 rule. While active hobbyists might be out of luck, newbies who haven’t throttled up yet might have a shot. Gitter dun.