Rapid Travel Chai

I shared a Delta infographic on the airline’s new joint venture agreement with Korean Air.

Xeno P on twitter spotted a chip on the Delta SkyMiles card:

Is that a chip on the delta card pictured at the bottom left corner???

— Xeno P (@xperty099) June 24, 2017

Here’s the infographic:

source: news.delta.com

The Delta SkyMiles card depicted has a chip. It may simply be artistic license. More fun is to wildly speculate.

Chip Frequent Flyer Cards?

Delta has been expanding use of miles as cash equivalent for Delta purchases. IAD Gr8 on twitter earlier this week spotted the rollout of using SkyMiles for payment of fees such as ticket change fees. Perhaps the SkyMiles card becomes a payment card for at airport and in-flight purchases?

The chip could also be tied to elite benefit recognition or any number of things.

Adding new technology to frequent flyer cards when they are being phased out in favor of virtual cards at many airlines and hotels seems a counter-intuitive area for innovation.

Readers, what would an airline do with a chip frequent flyer card? What would be worth the cost of implementation?