Delta-NWA merger update, and more

A few observations from my holiday travels:

• The Delta-Northwest merger is going swimmingly. My layover in Atlanta demonstrates that Delta has already adopted and integrated Northwest’s famous approach to customer service.
• By the way, the Westin Hotel near the Atlanta airport (not my final destination) has very comfortable beds.
• On the flight back from Memphis, we boarded from the ramp, which meant walking out of an abbreviated jetway and down a set of airstairs attached to it (look out the window a few seconds into this video). As I was about to go through the boarding door, a woman ahead of us turned back, a look of bewilderment on her face, and called back to the gate agent, “There’s no plane there!” She kept insisting that there was no plane until another passenger and I gently pointed out that the CRJ900 on the ramp was our aircraft and that we just had to walk down the stairs.

I hope you all enjoyed the holidays. Back with more this week!