Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: DEN
Programs: UA 1K (MM), DL, AA, AS, HHonors, SPG, Kimpton, Hyatt, IC PC, Marriott Titanium (LT PLT), Hertz PC
Posts: 7,231
The end of "bonus" MQM during IROPS/VDB/SDC
Recent posts here seem to indicate that DL is getting smarter about awarding MQM and RDM for fare paid instead of fare flown.
My own recent experiences (below) support the idea that DL is cracking down on this former loophole which allowed members to earn bonus MQM and RDM based on being "rebooked" into full Y/J fare classes.
Personally, I welcome this change as it keeps people from playing/abusing the system, and prevents lower level elites from getting upgraded just because they switched flights.
My experiences:
- Recent return trip -- was supposed to be IAD-JFK-SFO. I took a VDB to F on IAD-JFK and was rebooked to IAD-MSP. That flight was also over, so I took another VDB and was rebooked to IAD-DTW with new paper tickets. That flight was delayed, so after quite a bit of work by one of the GAs, I was rebooked to DCA-MSP-SFO and given a taxi voucher to get to DCA. When I arrived at DCA, with a Y fare class printed on my boarding pass, I realized that my name was not on the upgrade list. Assuming that I was now a PM on a full Y fare, I inquired about getting onto that list. The GA could not get my name to show up on the list, and after trying many things including calling reservations to get it to work, he came to the conclusion that since my original fare class was U (which I did not tell him...), I was not allowed to be added to the list because I had no chance of clearing and the upgrade list was full. The system was actually preventing him from adding me to the list based on my originally (3 re-booking events ago) fare class.
- Trip from this weekend. Was traveling BOS-JFK-ATL-OAK. JFK-ATL was oversold, so I took a VDB to J on the direct JFK-SFO. Credited to my account today, posting as K/J (paid/flown), with no bonus MQM. I have taken VDBs on that route several times and have always received 50% COS bonus when rebooked into J.
I'm not saying it's completely gone, but under the circumstances above, I've always received the bonus MQM, and the last two times I did not. Like I said, I think this way is more fair and am glad that it's the direction that DL is moving in.
Any other experiences/opinions?