The news, so to speak, is inevitable, as last night’s news and this morning’s press conference are confirming: Delta and Northwest Airlines are to merge. Together they will form the world’s largest airline capable of moving more passengers to more corners of the globe in fewer steps — so they say.
What does this mean for the current passenger of each respective airline? As far as routes and operations, not much will immediately change. It will take 6-8 months to iron out the details of the operation, during which the airlines will continue to operate independently. Afterwards, corporate says they’ll be keeping all of the hubs between the two cities, keeping all of the small local routes and maintaining all of the operations that you now hold dear.
Whether or not that is true is another question — the two airlines would have seven hubs in North America with six east of the Mississippi and five in a pretty straight line between Atlanta and Minneapolis. That doesn’t seem like a great way to geographically approach a hub and spoke system.
Regardless, all routes and schedules are guaranteed, so if you have or want to book a ticket now, go ahead — you’re in no danger of losing it. Indeed there are only a few overlapping routes between the two airlines, so it’s pretty unlikely that they’ll mess with any of your flights; if they do, they’ll rebook you on Delta and you’ll be fine.
For now, both carriers claim that their mileage programs and miles will remain in tact. Multiple press releases, corporate words and their new special website repeat this and I believe this true to the point that your miles won’t be erased. What they could do, however, is screw with the quality of the miles — after all, each mileage program is set up with different milestones and redemption levels — one is going to have to adopt the other’s policy.
Naturally, the airlines want you to believe that Your Favorite Hub and Your Special Miles are going to be safe in the merger. If you cash in your miles that’s money out of the bank and if you lose faith in your hub your business is going to go elsewhere. So don’t plan on them telling you anything that’s really going to happen any time soon.
If you want to play it safe, I would use some of those miles right now and start shopping around for tickets. It’s not too difficult to redeposit your miles if you decide you want to keep them and in the mean time they’re in a safe place (invested in your vacation). And if you really really don’t know what to do with your miles, leave a comment below and I’ll tell you how to get rid of them. Trust me, you don’t want to waste your 100k miles on 70 years of Newsweek subscriptions yet.