cazoz

Delta's own ATL routes have been a little rubbish to India, China and the like - slightly overblown demand forecasts, and moves to New York airports.

Virgin's network and name in the Middle and Far East could help them too. Their brand is terrible in the UK also.

dhuey

My big pile of crappy Delta miles is ready to be shipped off to London for some SFO-LHR seats in Upper Class!

garethmorgan

From the Daily Telegraph

"As well as sharing costs and revenues from all joint venture flights the deal will see Virgin and Delta share airport lounges and frequent flier points. "

dhuey

I still have two "next time" cards for the onboard massage from years ago. I'm so ready to use 'em.

spainflyer

It is one thing when your partner / investor is the world's top airline. It is quite another when it is Delta. When General Motors bought 49% of SAAB what we eventually got was a Chevy with SAAB branding.

sdix

Yeah - good luck with that redemption! You think DL's hard wait until you try VS

ma91pmh

The difference is Delta is proving they can make a profitable airline... which is quite impressive. Isn't Dickie's own favorite phrase that the best way to become a millionaire is to start with a billion and then form an airline? GM on the other hand has shown it's inability to make cars. And SAAB had no clue how to run a company profitability. So putting the two together had inevitable results.

I am optimistic about this. DL is aggressively expanding itself into the world's largest airline. I love flying SQ but I don't think they are realistically anything like the "world's top airline" from a business standpoint. Indeed they are bleeding money and just locked in another big loss on this investment (presumably already written down but still). In reality I think DL is more interested in the slots than the airline itself but I think they also see value in a tight JV to put pressure on the BA/AA juggernaut on LHR-JFK.

And if by some miracle I'm able to redeem SkyPesos on VX without YQ fees I'd be very happy

dhuey

It can't be any worse for me. Delta miles have earned their reputation for being the least valuable among the major USA carriers.

Firewind

First impression: O, Richard, wherefore art thou?! What's become of our favorite billionaire heroes? First, George Lucas sells out, now you.

Second thought:

+1!

Third thought: Will the spawn be lots more near-TATL 757 rides replacing Virgin widebodies?

Supersonic Swinger

As far as I'm aware, VS applied to join *A on a couple of occasions over the last decade and was always nixed by bmi (who saw VS as an LHR competitor) and Untied Airlines (who saw them as a competitor on Trans-Atlantic routes). Supposedly Lufthansa were also lukewarm when it came to them joining.

alexr_ft

As VS Gold sitting on 750K miles, I'm not happy for VS to have any association with an airline I consider so fundamentally crappy that I refuse to book them.

Am I overreacting?

Supersonic Swinger

Be thankful that it wasn't United?

bennos

Depends, why did you consider them fundamentally crappy, and when?

DL has come a long way over the past few years. While their treatment of their FF base is hit (service recovery) or miss (stealth devaluations), their onboard product is steadily improving, and the company appears to be one of the few airlines that actually seems to understand financial discipline.

tonywestsider

Well, well... What comes around, goes around. Seven years ago, DL was a partner with VS, to the extent that you could earn VS miles and tier points while flying DL. Now, the partnership is back again but on stronger terms. Congratulations!

dhuey

I would feel the same way were I in your shoes. I've been playing this game for a long time and there's only one FF program that I've thought was crap. That one is Delta's. With every other program I have been able to get reasonable value for my miles.