The Extra Mile, Aug. 7: RIP to Delta’s ‘On-Time Machine,’ JAL’s A350 Biz Class Suites & More

🪦 RIP to the ‘On-Time Machine’ Airline?

For more than a decade now, Delta has held itself out as the country’s most reliable airline. It topped the charts for reliability for so long, it trademarked the phrase “on-time machine.”

I think we’ll look back at 2026 as the year that machine officially broke down. And July was particularly bad.

New on-time performance data analyzed by aviation analytics company Cirium shows Delta canceled a whopping 4,600 flights in July – second only to American Airlines. Get this: That’s more than 10 times the flights Delta canceled back in July 2019.

For a carrier that prided itself on going months at a time without a single cancellation, that’s positively brutal.

Now, it’s not all Delta’s fault. The usual (and inarguably worsening) string of summer storms on the East Coast absolutely hammered several of Delta’s hubs last month – and you can see that in some tough numbers for both United and especially JetBlue. Summer flying is always tough.

But unlike years past, Delta can’t bounce back from these disruptions the way it used to. It’s been trending this way for months, with Delta steadily sliding down the reliability rankings for U.S. airlines.

Running an airline is a brutal business – I’m glad it’s not my job. But a combination of issues with crew scheduling systems, quirks with how Delta assigns pilots to unstaffed flights, and bad weather have repeatedly pushed Delta past the limit.

The airline has admitted as much.

“Our reliability and recovery haven’t met consistently enough our high standards,” CEO Ed Bastian said earlier this year. “Teams are taking targeted actions to improve resilience and recovery, as well as addressing challenges that have resulted from contractual changes to our Pilot Working Agreement that came into effect over the past year.”

If you ask your average loyal Delta flyer, that recovery can’t come soon enough.

– Kyle Potter, executive editor

🤝 Deal of the Day: Frontier Fall & Winter GoWild! Pass for $199!

Heat scale (out of 3): 🔥🔥

Why we love it: Frontier’s GoWild! Pass, allowing you to book as many flights as you want for just the taxes and fees (with some caveats), just went on sale for fall and winter at just $199.

Best of all, “fall” includes almost all of August through next February, giving you close-to-free flights for the rest of this month, too.

If you can take advantage of Frontier’s route network (looking at you, Denver, Vegas, and Orlando flyers), this is a crazy deal!

Head to Frontier’s website to buy your pass!

– Gunnar Olson, Thrifty Traveler Premium deal analyst

🍻 Minneapolis: Join Us for a First Class Happy Hour!

Mark your calendars, and join the Thrifty Traveler team on Thursday, Sept. 24, from 5 – 8 p.m. at Utepils Brewing in Minneapolis for our First Class Happy Hour! at Utepils Brewing in Minneapolis for our First Class Happy Hour!

Get your tickets for a casual evening where travelers can connect, swap stories, and have some fun!

We’ll have drinks, travel-themed games and giveaways, plenty of travel talk, and a live Q&A with members of our team! Bring your questions and get to know the people behind Thrifty Traveler!

And because no happy hour is complete without one, your first drink is included with your ticket. Cheers to that!

Whether you live nearby or are making the trip to Minneapolis, we hope you’ll join us for a fun evening with fellow travelers!

Get Your Tickets Here

– Kat Erdahl, community marketing manager

🤲 Capital One’s Wildest Perk: Transfer Miles to Other Cardholders

Here’s a perk most Capital One cardholders don’t even know they have: You can send your miles to pretty much anyone … as long as they also have a Capital One card that earns the same miles.

Not just to your spouse or someone living at your address, either. Anyone with a card that earns Capital One miles. There is no relation required, no cap on how many you send, and no expiration date once they land in the other person’s account.

That’s a big deal, because every other major bank puts up walls here. Amex won’t let you combine Membership Rewards points with another member’s period. Chase limits Ultimate Rewards transfers to people at your address, and Citi just shut the door on points sharing entirely.

All you have to do is call the number on the back of your card and let the agent know you want to transfer any number of miles to another account. You’ll need the other account member’s name and card number, but the entire process only takes about five minutes.

No other bank’s points-sharing policy comes close, and that flexibility alone is a real argument for keeping a Capital One card in the mix.

Read our full story here

– Nick Serati, Thrifty Traveler co-founder

📡 On Our Radar

Welcome to On Our Radar – a weekly look at the news and trends we’re watching lately!

🚌 What’s Happening with the Bus Boom?

“Wait … this guy’s seriously about to write about buses in his airline routes newsletter column?”

Yes. Hang with me. Because this is about airlines, operations, and new routes. Buses are playing an increasingly interesting role in airline network planning, although I can’t quite predict what direction we’re heading in next.

You may have heard of Landline, a company that works with airlines to connect travelers from smaller cities to major hubs via coach buses. For shorter rides, this model has worked pretty well. Airlines like American, Air Canada, and Sun Country have successfully been using coach connections for years.

Then, earlier this year, Boston Logan Airport (BOS) debuted its Logan Express Remote Terminal in Framingham, Massachusetts – allowing travelers there to check in, clear TSA security screening, board a coach bus, and arrive straight at the terminal without going through the hoopla again at Logan.

While the industry patiently waits for a future full of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (here’s more on those if you’re not familiar), it seems bus connections are on the rise and filling an important need in airline networks.

This week, however, American cut one of its Landline routes from South Bend, Indiana (SBN) to Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) and replaced it with … get this … an airplane! American will now operate three daily CRJ-700 flights on the super-short route instead of buses. (Fun fact: Because this flight is so short and crosses a time zone, it’s often a time travel flight – landing before it takes off!)

While it’s just one route, it’s interesting that American would go back to planes after using the Landline service. My guess is AA had travelers showing up at SBN expecting a flight and getting on a bus – an experience that would certainly be jarring if you paid for a flight only to get a bus. They also face competition from United on that route, which only operates planes.

I don’t have a grand proclamation of what’s going on with bus routes and airlines, but I’m certainly interested in where it’s going. OK … back to airplanes.

🪖 Alaska Quietly Out-Flanks Delta in the Battle for Seattle

I’ve spilled lots of ink talking about the so-called “Battle for Seattle” between Delta and Alaska, because I think it’s going to lead to amazing flight deals for flyers in the PNW.

This week, one of those airlines did something small that I think could end up being big. Alaska extended its new Seattle (SEA) to Rome (FCO) route into March and April.

You might be thinking, “Big whoop, it’s one more month.” But I assure you, Delta thinks this is a big whoop.

Delta’s SEA-FCO flight is operated just 4x weekly, May through October. At the same time, Alaska operated the flight daily during those months and is now scheduled to operate it uncontested in March and April of next year before Delta’s seasonal route kicks in.

The irony here is that this is exactly what Delta does to competitors in other markets. When airlines come into Delta’s turf, they try to drown their competition in capacity – running more flights and offering lower fares to squeeze out other airlines. (Sorry about the aggressive imagery, I’ve got some scars from being a Minneapolis hub captive …)

So Alaska is using Delta’s own playbook against them. Will Delta ramp up service or concede the important Rome market to hometown Alaska? For PNW travelers’ sake, I hope they compete, and you get to fly to Rome for next to nothing next spring!

– Gunnar Olson, flight deal analyst & travel reporter

🎙️ On the Pod: How to Travel to Japan & a SkyMiles Hot Take

✈️ Kyle joins the podcast live from the Park Hyatt Tokyo during his quick trip to Japan, so we dig into al the best strategies for Japan travel. But first, get your pitchforks ready, because Kyle unleashes his SkyMiles hot take.

Tune in now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

🇯🇵 Japan Airlines’ A350 Biz Class Suites Lived up to the Hype!

I waited almost three years to fly Japan Airlines’ new business class on its Airbus A350-1000s … and I’m thrilled to say it was worth the wait.

Stay tuned for the next installment from this week’s whirlwind trip to Japan: A look inside the renovated Park Hyatt Tokyo!

– Kyle Potter, executive editor

Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Seats: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Service & Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Amenities & More: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

What I liked: I’ve said for years that Japan Airlines (JAL) is the best way to get to Tokyo, period. These new business class suites make that case even stronger.

The suites themselves are even more private and spacious than they look, with a surprising amount of shoulder room and footwells that give you plenty of space to stretch out. Unlike many airlines that slap doors on a business class pod and call it good, the walls on these suites are high enough to make it truly private.

The tech at each seat is second to none, from the ultra-crisp 24-inch 4K screens to the built-in Bluetooth pairing for your headphones to wireless charging for your phone … that actually works!

And the storage situation is supreme: You can fit a full-size backpack underneath your ottoman, there’s a full-on closet to stow a coat or sweater, and two other substantial cubbies to stow everything you need inside your suite.

All that just elevated JAL’s already sterling service and dining. Other airlines – like ANA’s famed The Room business class – might have better seats. But overall, I’d give this flight much higher marks.

OK, but: You won’t find these new seats on every JAL route to and from North America. Not even close.

These days, JAL’s A350 is only flying to Tokyo-Haneda from New York City (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX), and – my choice – Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW). On other routes, you’ll find far older (though still lovely, if you ask me) lie-flat seats.

A soft mattress pad transforms each suite into an incredibly comfortable bed – I slept for almost seven hours (!!) on the way to Tokyo. But without that extra padding, I found the seats to be incredibly stiff.

JAL’s amenity kits are … just fine. There were some novel items like a multi-purpose USB-A/USB-C cable and a small plastic stand for a smartphone, but it’s otherwise very basic.

How I booked it: While we regularly send Thrifty Traveler Premium alerts to book JAL business class for 60,000 American AAdvantage miles, it’s been years since we’ve seen award space on this A350 bookable via partners like AA or Alaska.

So it was Japan Airlines’ own Mileage Bank program to the rescue! While rates start as low as 55,000 miles each way in business class, JAL also offers up its own members more award space at slightly higher rates: 70,000 to 100,000 miles apiece.

I booked from Dallas to Tokyo for 75,000 miles (plus $384 in taxes and fees), transferring a few more Capital One miles during a previous transfer bonus that brought it to a near-1:1 transfer.

Just beware of two things:

• Booking via JAL, taxes and fees are now up to about $475 for a one-way from the U.S.
• As JAL’s popularity has grown, finding even some of these higher-priced awards for business class has gotten harder. You’ll need to be extremely flexible to lock in something like this.

– Kyle Potter, executive editor

✈️ Other Travel Tidbits

• 🇺🇸 American Airlines is overhauling its AAdvantage program. The biggest change: elites on main cabin fares will only move up one cabin at a time on 9 transcon and Hawaii routes, instead of jumping straight to business. AA’s also adding cash-and-miles bookings and expanding free Wi-Fi.
• 🛑 The FAA issued a ground stop at Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) yesterday – reportedly due to a cut fiber optic line – that led to multi-hour delays and eerily open airspace in the Northern Plains. (@kpottermn)
• 💳 The no-annual-fee Capital One Savor Card has a $250 cash back bonus after spending $500 in three months, ending Monday, Aug. 10. It earns 3% back on dining and groceries, and pairs well with a Venture card since that cash back can convert to 25,000 Capital One miles.
• 🇯🇵 After a seven-year absence, Delta will return to Tokyo-Narita (NRT) next spring with new non-stop service from Seattle (SEA). This new route complements Delta’s daily flight to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) and puts added pressure on hometown airline Alaska’s new(ish) nonstop to Narita. (The Seattle Times)
• 🛂 The CLEAR+ line might soon get a little busier. CLEAR just launched Corporate Memberships, bundling CLEAR+, TSA PreCheck enrollment, and a dedicated Concierge escort service into an enterprise package that companies can offer employees. (CLEAR)