• Bloomberg, Monday, July 26, 2010 10:38 AM

Mary Jane Credeur and Mary Schlangenstein report that there's a new player in the contentious New York-Chicago shuttle game. Delta shifted operations to O'Hare airport from Midway in June, putting it in a head-to-head matchup with American and United for businesspeople flying the popular route. It is operating hourly flights between the cities and is offering three times the usual number of frequent-flier miles.

Delta offered the triple-points promotion to "increase awareness" of the new Chicago service, says spokesman Kent Landers. Fliers can earn 4,400 miles for a New York-Chicago round trip through August. United matched the offer, and American began a similar promotion 16 days later.

"Delta's primary target is to steal people from American," says consultant Brett Snyder, a former United and America West Airlines manager who runs the CrankyFlier blog. "American responded with the triple points because they don't want even one single flier to switch to Delta."

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