Delta – Michael Wiggins

December 12, 2017

Asiaversary Trip Flight Review – Delta One Flight Recap (ATL>SEA>HKG) & Experience Insights

Our outbound flights to Asia were booked as Skymiles Award tickets, costing 105k miles apiece. This seems like an outrageous sum to be sure, but when the true dollar cost of the flight is nearly $5,000, you can look past it. The flight from Atlanta to Seattle itself was a bit of a yawner, as that is a basic first class domestic experience. For the sake of time (and boring you), I’ll go ahead and put that aside and say that the ATL>SEA leg was great and met my expectations.

The buildup to the Hong Kong flight itself was fairly ordinary, although we did get a specific email asking us if we wanted to make meal selections in advance for our SEA>HKG leg. I had heard about this, and I think this particular case was one of their extended pilots, whereby they’ll take certain global travel regions (e.g. Asia) and offer specific menu options. Neither of us opted to do this because we wanted to see all the other options (which, apparently, will roll out next year). Once we got to the airport, the check-in process was fairly standard. The one nice touch Delta adds is free SkyClub access for business/first class passengers on international flights. I personally never pay since I have a Skymiles Reserve Card, but it was great to have Katy’s access free of charge (avoiding the typical $29 I pay otherwise when we go).

As far as the experience once we boarded the flight itself, I will say that I was actually very impressed. Having flowing in Delta’s top-end cabins many times previously – I doubted that this new(ish) Delta One product would be able to deliver anything extra special. Admittedly, I don’t know that it would have been that much different than business class, but I think there were a few things here and there that made the prestige a bit more grand.

After being seated, we had the customary offer (for business/first class at least) of champagne, which we were definitely not going to refuse since this was the start of our trip of a lifetime. Beyond that, the flight had a proper dinner course, with all sorts of accompaniments, snacks, and beverage choices (even including careful touches like offering Port wine with the dessert). Just before arrival into Hong Kong.

Til Next Time,

Michael

December 10, 2017

Our Asiaversary Trip Overview

For our one year anniversary, my wife decided that we should go on a “real” honeymoon. I use quotation marks because, by all accounts, we did go on a proper honeymoon the first time around (see posts on Tulum – we spent 6 days there and had a blast!). However, since we were nearly out of paid time off at the end of 2016 when we got married, we didn’t get to do a lengthier couple week trip to really relax. So – this is why I refer to it as our “Anniversamoon”, or as you’ll see in upcoming posts – our “Asiaversary”.

Here is a brief overview of our itinerary, and I will be sure to add all the details in upcoming posts (from things like flight, hotel, food, activity, and entertainment perspectives):

As you can see, we had quite a diverse range of stops, as well as carriers (and lodging types). Our major stops were Hong Kong, Chiang Mai, Phuket (well, the islands near Phuket really), and Bangkok. We learned a lot, had a blast, and can’t wait to share more.

Hope you enjoy!

Til Next Time,

Michael

November 14, 2014

Delta Assist

I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll mention it again – I really appreciate the recent migration of major companies towards giving users a seamless/preferred contact method to inquire about, make updates to, or generally assist with any existing orders (be it in a retail/sales environment, with your hotels/airlines, etc). My latest success story is another with Delta’s twitter @deltaassist.

In a few short minutes (as you can tell from the graphic – actually 9 minutes from first contact to be exact, of which 90% of my time was spent elsewhere multitasking as I awaited their response) I was able to have them add a traveling companion’s itinerary to mine and have them placed in the seat next to me. Traditionally, I would have either had to call in (and wait) or get to the airport early to check in (and wait). This removed all of the waiting and allowed me to quickly and painlessly manage the situation. I know this is a costly thing for these companies to build and manage, but the ultimate reward in customer experience/satisfaction is truly invaluable.

Cheers to you, Delta!

Til Next Time,

Michael