I figured if I sent a compliment to Delta and requested no email response that it would just get autorouted to imaginary land.  Instead, they responded anyway and the response actually matches my compliment.

I flew in First class on Christmas and the male flight
attendant with the beard provided excellent service. My first beverage
choice was not catered in first class but even after I said I was fine
with another choice he explored the coach carts and found my beverage
for me. It really made my Christmas.

Their reply:

Thank you for sharing your kind and thoughtful comments about the
service provided by our flight attendant while traveling with us.  On
behalf of Delta Air Lines, your positive feedback is greatly
appreciated.

Delta places a high priority on customer satisfaction and we are
fortunate to have employees who strive for excellence and
professionalism in every area of responsibility.  The fine work by our
flight attendant, which earned your positive comments, reaffirms our
belief that our company is only as good as its people.  We believe our
team members are our most important assets, and I am happy to learn our
flight attendant exceeded your expectations.  Please know I will be
sharing your comments with our Inflight leadership team so this employee
receives appropriate recognition on your behalf.

, thank you again for writing.  I am so glad that our
employee has made your flight experience so enjoyable.  As a Gold
Medallion member we appreciate your loyalty to Delta and are always
interested in your feedback.  We deeply value your continued business
and look forward to serving you in the near future.

Still fairly boilerplate, but at least the person chose the right boilerplate template!  This year I resolve to send positive comments when appropriate to make sure good staff members are appreciated.

It is nothing spectacular,

Make every night you stay count for more. With the More Points promotion from Hilton HHonors™ you’ll earn 1,000 Bonus Points for every night plus an additional 5,000 Bonus Points for every weekend* stay of two nights or more at participating hotels and resorts through March 31, 2012. And with ten distinct brands worldwide, you’ll have thousands of places to make thousands of new memories.

but if you are staying at the Hiltons anyway might as well get more points.

The story began on Flyertalk actually by the perspective of another passenger and the Charlotte Observer also picked it up.

If you read through the Flyertalk post what it really comes down to is that a family of 6 (Father, Mother, 3-year old, 18-month twins, 7-month old) bought tickets under the premise that children under 2 fly free*.  The thing is that they only had 3 paid tickets and wanted to put 6 people in a row.  That leads me to remind people about oxygen masks.

I’m not aware of any aircraft (but please correct me in the comments if I’m wrong) that will allow more than x+1 on side/row of an aircraft, and some it’s really just row since only one side may be +1  Many of the mainline planes do tend to have +1 on each side so if there are 3 seats there are 3+1 on each side, but other planes such as regional jets may only have the extra on the CD (or DF) side and not the AB or (AC) side.

This means that if you are a family traveling with more than 1 lap child you will not be able to sit in the same side of the same row because in case oxygen masks are needed, you will need to choose who is your favorite child (because remember, always put yours on before assisting others or else you pass out and are useless to all your children!) because you will be a mask short.

Was this situation handled poorly, yes!  Is there an abundance of information about choosing seats for a family with lap children?  I just checked SeatGuru and didn’t see anything under the US Airways A321 page.  Was I told I could not have 2 adults and 3 lap children when I attempted to book this ticket on US’s website?  Yes.  Is it easy to learn about oxygen masks and how that affects seating with a lap child?  No.   I just don’t understand how parents who think the laws to keep kids in booster seats in cars until they are 18 make sense, but that having a seat on a plane is not necessary…and while we’re talking about booster seats…don’t bring them on the plane.  There is no point!

some of the comics are NSFW: Language

Isn’t it sad how low the bar for service is now?

I’ve also fulfilled all my familial obligations for Christmas so I figure what better day than a day when most other people don’t want to fly.  I’m sure I could have found a cheaper flight, but since I know BWI is typically very cheap from CLT and it was pricing out cheaper than some other destinations I was trying I managed to get a r/t to BWI for $265.  I’ll get 4 segments out of it so I’m good to go.

I still need over 8,000 miles with Star Alliance to stay at my current tier of Premier Executive which is becoming Gold whatever on the new United but I just can’t justify spending much more money on mileage runs with a looming home purchase.  Maybe if I can find  a 9,000 mile run for less than $300, but I doubt it so I’ll just acquiesce to dropping a tier.

StarTribune

“The cheaper they make it for somebody to go in, the more it’s like the regular concourse,” said Rick King, a technology executive at Thomson Reuters. “If it’s like the regular concourse, the benefits for me go down.”

Well I don’t even know where to start.  Unless he was sitting at the counter tracking how everyone was gaining their admission how would he know that it was one-day passes?  During peak times there are a lot of business travelers.  Business travelers are likely to either have their membership compensated by their company or they have diamond status and get in for free.  They may even have one of the credit cards that extends membership.  If we get rid of anyone, it would be the AMEX Platinum people.

Regardless of that, there are a lot of people wanting to enter the lounges and if there aren’t enough seats, then what is the point?  When I enter I mainly expect a seat with an outlet.  Anything less than that and I’m unhappy.  A couple times at B9 in ATL there were no seats available so I did just leave and went to the less crowded boarding area.  I also don’t like if someone takes all of my chocolate chip cookies. I paid $350 for the right to eat as many chocolate chip cookies as I can and if they aren’t there and I’m stuck with the other varieties I feel cheated! (sarcasm)

The key is that some businesses may be buying these passes for their members instead of full lounge membership because some people really just need ~6 passes instead of a full membership.

so: Delta better start increasing capacity to match these sales or things are going to get worse.  I don’t know if ATL has room for many more lounges, but I’ve always had problems with crowding the couple times I’ve been to MSP.  DTW is fine as long as a lounge isn’t under construction.  I’m not familiar enough with other lounges to comment.

The one thing that it does get right is that although many airports have been proactive about outlets and wifi, Delta and Southwest have been very good about putting outlets in their areas.  Although I rarely fly Southwest, when I’m in an airport with Southwest I will often leach off their many power stations and comfy chairs with desks.

I’m also surprised that MCI made the list.  Although each airline is their own little world in the airport due to its unique layout, at least one of the gate areas had a power bench that required paying for electricity.  It has been over 2 years since I’ve flown out of there so maybe things have changed.

…Now if only CLT and ORD would shape up!

I haven’t looked at the schedule yet, but I will update this when I know approximately how long the waits are for the interview.

I was starting to get worried that my initial approval was taking so long, but Flyertalk did mention about 6 weeks is typical right now.