One of the perks of having a frequent flyer number used to be earning enough miles for a free ticket. Free being a relative term, because we still had to pay some taxes. Domestically, this was about five dollars, while internationally this could be up to fifty or a hundred. No big deal, I always had a few empty cans to return.

Not any more on Delta. Citing fuel costs, the Atlanta-based airline is now going to charge a 25$ fuel surcharge for domestic award bookings and 50$ for international itineraries.

"But Grant," you say, isn't an award ticket supposed to be FREE?

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

These sort of shenanigans are what we in the community call "devaluation of miles" and are indirectly a product of downsizing in the industry. Airlines want you to use fewer of miles, so they make them harder and more frustrating to spend. Fewer award tickets = more revenue tickets = more cash on hand.

Devaluation is another reason that many passengers in the Delta/Northwest merger are a little concerned. While both CEOs claim that our miles and status are secure, neither will profess to if they're secure in value as well. Sure, you have 100,000 miles, but our new Deltwest airline charges 150,000 miles per award ticket. With a 200$ fuel surcharge.

Expect more of the same petty fees to show up across other carriers as they scramble to raise extra cash -- my guess is that this will be picked up by the other legacies pretty quick.

Delta's fuel surcharges go into effect August 15th, so book your award travel before then.

Continental just issued a press release saying that they're entering a cooperative agreement with United Airlines, saying the two airlines will "cooperate extensively, linking their networks and services worldwide to the benefit of customers, and creating revenue opportunities and cost savings and other efficiencies." This means that Continental will also join United in the Star Alliance.

For those of you who follow airline alliances, this means that CO will be dropping Skyteam, whose partners include Delta, KLM and Northwest, and picking up partners such as Lufthansa and US Airways.

Basically, Continental Onepass members won't be able to accrue or spend miles on Skyteam anymore (similarly, partner airlines can't spend miles on CO), but they can on Star.

It does not, however, mean that the airlines are merging -- only that they'll be collaborating on many routes, codeshares and other logistics.

In the current airline industry, this change was almost inevitable. Carriers are looking at ways to collaborate on operations and cut costs, just like Northwest and Delta announced earlier this year. With the two airlines' combined routes and networks, a stronger entity will now exist that can better compete with the soon to be uber Delta Airlines.

No word yet on when exactly the alliance changes will take place and a schedule for the official divorce from Skyteam airlines. But if you were thinking about booking a ticket with your Skyteam miles on CO, now might be a good time to do it.

A few weeks ago I asked, in relation to a man's $2 million lawsuit against JetBlue for being forced to sit three hours in the toilet, whether that wasn't a wee too much money to be seeking.

Now, from the New York Post, comes a report that a Manhatten man is suing Delta Airlines for $1 million for...ruining his mother's 80th birthday.

Richard Roth's suit claims that a Delta worker caused him and his immediate family to miss a flight to Buenos Aires, leaving them stranded in Atlanta and forcing the family -- Roth's wife, two children and 80-year-old mother -- to drive to Miami to pick up another flight, the Post says. Then Roth alleges Delta lost the group's baggage.

The story, reported here in full in the Post, sounds like a real nightmare. Roth had arranged to fly a good portion of his family, including some cousins, to BA this past December. After arriving for their connecting flight in Atlanta, Roth says his party was barred from boarding the flight as the gate had just closed. Scrambling, Roth found another flight on an Argentine airline, leaving out of Miami, but Delta did not deliver the party's bags until after Christmas.

Roth sought $21,000 in reimbursement from Delta, which, perhaps not surprisingly, refused to pay. "I tried so hard not to sue," Roth told the newspaper.

No word yet on how $21,000 turned into $1 million, though Roth -- an attorney -- is claiming, among other things, that Delta caused his mother emotional distress.

In another effort to cut costs, Delta Airlines says it is closing down nearly a dozen of its exclusive airport lounges worldwide.

These are places that you, loyal Delta travelers, pay as much as $600 a year to have access to. And it seems that some significant hubs will be affected: Delta says lounges in Boston, Phoenix, London, Denver, Kansas City and Seattle will close in the next few weeks, according to the Boston Globe.

An airline spokesman says that Delta intends to focus more on reciprocal lounge privileges available through agreements with Continental and Northwest, the latter being the airline Delta merged with last month.

No word on how much money Delta hopes to save by doing this.

Delta has a total of 42 lounges in airports worldwide.

As we've reported before, Delta will begin charging a fee for checking more than one piece of luggage starting on May 5.

But the twist at Delta is that the fee, $25 per additional piece of luggage, is being applied retroactively. Delta is waving the fee for passengers who booked their tickets between February 4 and April 4, but if you booked on Delta before then -- as many have -- be prepared to pony up some cash at the check-in counter.

Though it remained quiet on the fee a little more than a month ago, Delta is now finally announcing the fee on its Web site. Not surprisingly, however, it doesn't mention that it will be retroactively applied.

Traveler "Jason" is angry about this. He tells the Consumerist that he and his wife booked on Delta in January and are planning on checking two bags each. They now face paying an additional $100 for those extra bags on the round trip flight.

"If I would have known that when I booked, I may have thought twice about Delta," he tells the Web site.

Funny, I'd think whether I really needed four suitcases for a vacation. But hey, that's just me.

You're probably tired of me yammering on about elite status and how useful it is and how I wear my collar popped every time I go through airport security. I apologize. But there are a lot of benefits to keeping loyalty in an airline that you just don't realize until you've reached greener pastures.

If you think that you can't get to the minimum 25,000 mile threshold to reach status and you fly on Delta Airlines though, this could be your lucky break: the Atlanta-based airline just started a promotion giving passengers double Medallion Qualifying Miles for any flights booked before April 30 and flown before June 30. Those are miles that specifically count towards your exalted status.

This means that if you only need to travel 12.5k miles in order to achieve elite status, which is a pretty fantastic deal. Even if you've got only a few trips planned before June 30, these miles will give you that extra boost to hopefully get up to 25k by the end of the year.

Clarification before you register though: this is for double Medallion Qualifying Miles, not Skymiles. So you won't technically earn more miles with which you can fly places, proper. You'll earn more miles with which you can accrue status. Follow? Think of them as points towards a goal that you can use to fly places. Kind of silly, I know, but all airlines do it. It's a crafty way to divide earned and status-gaining miles so that you get the least amount of benefit. I can get to that in a later post of you guys want.

Register on Delta's promo website and make sure you have your frequent flyer number attached to your reservation before you travel -- otherwise you'll have a hard time getting your miles -- and double miles -- credited retroactively.

Flying Delta in the coming months? Checking a second bag is going to cost you an additional $25.

But Delta hasn't felt the need so far to tell you that.

A glance at the baggage guidelines on Delta's Web site still shows that you're allowed to check two bags to your destination. Luckily, the Washington Post, presumably acting on a tip, called Delta and a spokeswoman confirmed that beginning May 1, the fee will go into effect.

And get this: It doesn't matter whether you booked your flight well before that date, the Post notes. If you're flying after May 1, you're paying for that second piece of luggage.

The fee affects both domestic and international flights (though business- and first-class and SkyMiles holders won't have to pay).

United also plans to start a $25 fee for a second piece of checked luggage, beginning on May 5.

My question: Why doesn't Delta feel the need to bring its baggage information current on its Web site?

Atlanta based Delta Airlines announced Tuesday that they were cutting 2,000 jobs, their second cutback in six months. Citing rising fuel costs, the airline also says that it will cut back capacity and park 45 airplanes.

As the airline despondently pointed out, fuel prices have risen 20% in the last three months while market prices and competition have stayed tight. Under those conditions, how can an airline not be forced to cut back?

The problem, as a function of the egregious gouging by oil companies, is that airline prices have not appreciated correctly with crude and inflation. Increased internal competition and external pressures from passengers to produce the cheapest fares possible have forced carriers to underbid one another to the point of taking losses on many of their flights while operating costs skyrocket. Sure, airlines could enact a unilateral increase in fares across the country, but then some carriers (those perhaps, who locked in their oil prices years ago) could unfairly take advantage of the market.

Besides, are we as Americans going to stand by while airline prices assume their normal level? I guarantee you congress and passengers would be in an uproar and we would have three particular senators crying murder.

But until something drastic happens, we're bound to ride the imploding American skies. Bankruptcies will continue, mergers will haunt our shareholders and the unions will continue to battle management over labor costs. We'll blame a CEO for taking a million dollar bonus and politicians will form committees against the backdrop of your favorite airline stock inching closer to the floor. Through it all, the oil companies will step back and let us fight amongst ourselves, and as we slowly work our way towards collapse they'll silently take our money -- and laugh themselves all of the way to the bank.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released dramatic animation of two runway near-collisions, in order to promote the need for improvements in runway safety. The re-creation was based on radar and flight data recorder information from the planes involved.

The video includes audio from an air traffic controller yelling "stop! stop! stop!" to a United plane as it begins to taxi onto a runway where a Delta flight is landing. The planes came within 230 feet of each other. In another situation, one plane lands while another is taking off on a perpendicular runway. The leaving flight is able to lift off early while the landing flight hit the breaks and stops in the middle of the runway. The planes avoided a collision by as little as 30 feet.

The animations were presented at the annual NTSB board meeting, where the agency reviews its most transportation safety concerns.

Read the full article and watch the video on CNN.com.

I've bought new cars and I've bought used. My last used car smelled lovely. The friend of mine who sold it too me must have either used wonderful soap daily ---or wore a light, fabulous perfume. New cars don't have to work hard to smell special. Smelling new like the grown up version of a fresh, just taken out of the box vinyl toy is enough--unless it's brand new leather shoes, and then double yum.

A brand new airplane must really smell fantastic. I have no idea, though, since I've never been on a brand new airplane that I can recall. According to the latest news on U.S. carriers, it might be awhile before anyone will get the experience--at least if one is getting from here to there on an airplane from an American company.