Colleen Barrett is retiring as President of Southwest. Ed Bastian is becoming President of Delta. Two airlines at turning points.
I am a fan of both execs - written about Colleen here, Ed here. Southwest has done well by our family for a while now. Delta has been extremely friendly recently, thanks to Ed. Have been upgraded on several international flights (ok, so not quite flat beds, but I have a hard time sleeping on flights and appreciate the larger work space) . Earlier in the year, I swore it would take me to 2018 to get to the 3 million life time milestone. Now, I will get there in a few more months.
Recently, both have done even better. Colleen (well, her staff) sent my daughter a book on role model Texas women, once she found out Rita flies Southwest to most of her chess tournaments. I recently made Platinum on Delta (after several years) and Delta sent me 6 complimentary international upgrades.
The airline industry gets a bad rap and when things go bad, they really go bad. But when they do go bad, I try and remember Da Vinci is looking down in awe.
