2nd Place Already ???

The proposed UAL/Continental merger will strip Delta of its "biggest airline in the world" boast. Oh well. Not only has NWA disappeared from view, Delta is fading fast as the new "big brother" of airlines. Fine by me. I find myself less and less interested in current-day airline episodes. They seem so pedantic. So predictable. Yawn material, as it were. Where are the thrills, chills and unpredictability of yesteryear?

So Lady Skywriter will be doing a whole lot less commenting (oh, you noticed?) on today's airline antics and will henceforth take refuge in more entertaining peeks into history. After all, I had a front row seat fifty years ago! (Not to be confused with the "front seat" unless you count a brief interlude with a Beech-150 in the early '70s during which I soloed but never completed the cross-country.)

But before we leave the travails of air travel today, I have one more gripe.

Delta is making it really hard for me to continue to ignore its new Sky Miles credit card. They keep throwing incentives at me. I have resisted. Now, of course, they have issued the coup de grace of airline credit card benefits to my door. No Luggage Fees!

Never mind that luggage fees used to be charged only if one attempted to bring a very large item, like a piano, on the airplane with them. If you have read my book, you know that I moved my friend, Jean Brown, lock stock and barrel from Minneapolis to New York in the 50s. I didn't charge her a dime! But now, of course, luggage fees are a much bigger profit center than airfares used to be. We're talking gazillions, folks!

So why my big resistance? I need to refer you to an ancient (in cyberspace terms) blog of mine from April 2008 titled World Perks? Any Perks? so you will understand my reticence about acquiring the Sky Miles card. It has something to do with American Express.