jsmith50

Feel free to dispute, disagree, argue, etc. but my friend is high enough in DL ops that he has historically been very accurate with the things he has shared about directions the company was moving in. With a son who is gifted FO and a wife that is gifted GM and myself as a DM, I try to keep an ear to the ground (or to the DL employees) when it comes to the SM program. I have posted about this extensively in other threads. He has been very explicit about the fact that they have had bundles of complaints about medallion status being overtaken by CC holders and were looking for a way to restore value in the program to make it truly a beneft to be a FO (and separation from CC-based benes). Specifically (as I have mentioned elsewhere), he mentioned possibilities of zone 1 boarding, STE+ status, priority security, etc. While these would represent huge improvements to FO, it would, in some ways, devalue GM but he assured me that they had plans to "re-grade" those ranks as well. He also suggested, though, that DL upper management were split on which direction to move with this. I have to assume with this announcement, and knowing that I won't see my friend again until church on Sunday morning for discussion, that this represents a move in the opposite direction than what he believed was coming.

fti

Obviously Richard and Jeff won out!!

jsmith50

The OP clearly stated that he did not want an AmEx CC which leads me to believe that he earned his FO status through BIS mileage. Obviously to do that, you have to put up at least 25K. I would think that DL would want to protect that customer's loyalty (and the possibility that they become tomorrow's DM) more than they would want the loyalty of someone who earns their FO status through a AmEx card and only flies one flight per year but takes the same benefits out of the program as the OP who pumped real money into DL's coffers for the tickets that he/she purchased. (Yes, I'm aware that AmEx gives plenty of money to DL too, but I doubt they're losing money on individual customers and even at Reserve level, DL likely makes $450 or more per customer per year, i.e. more than what AmEx contributes per customer to DL per year). The cost to DL of throwing one more 50 or 70 pound bag in the cargo hold costs them NOTHING for the FO who flies 5-10 times per year (or slightly more) but might cost that customer's loyalty!

Stripe

It is pretty stingy. It's one thing to hose those who have the status gifted, but I would be very angry if I was a 25-49K flyer. That's not a small amount of flying.

I would note, however, that if the the silver gets upgraded prior to check-in the allowance remains at three pieces x 70 lbs. It also doesn't affect the benefit on international flights. Silvers (and all other elites for that matter) traveling in Y still get an extra free bag over the normal free allowance.

nukchebi0

Yeah, I have 32000 BIS, mostly domestic, and I'm infuriated. This is an absolute travesty of a decision by a company that keeps trying to find ways to drive customers away.

This is not on par with other airlines in the industry. Both AA and US Airways allow two free checked bags for their lowest tier elites. Stop lying to us, stop pretending we are stupid, and reverse this moronic policy change.

howtofreetravel

I suggest everyone complain on the website and see what happens

Stripe

It already has.

Pharaoh

Well first, I did not say anything about booking away from Delta. I still prefer their product but they need to be more competitive now to offset the perceived value in "loyalty."

And yes, if they include customer loyalty as a significant component in their business model the reduction of that factor certainly is detrimental.

Basically no longer will I blindly book DL for a flight but will take a closer look at all of the purchase considerations and decide objectively, not emotionally.

Anaom

So explain how this isn't sneaky. I'm pretty sure every other carrier has there 2012 program posted. We still don't have ours at least not completely. They offer people to buy miles to maintain status (by december 15th), which some do, and then tell them the benefits have changed. Nooooo not sneaky at all. FYI I think we'll see the changes december 15th after they are counting all the $$ from the people that bought the MQMs to get their FO,GM,PM,DM status.

I'm Diamond but it bothers me to see this. If you think this is it I think you are sorely mistaken. Delta starts taking a little from FO and soon it will be GM, PM, DM. They'll see how it affects the lower ranks and then will move it up the chain.

javabytes

What? FOs get upgrades?

starflyer

Is this the same Jeff who claimed Delta was implementing a "best in class" frequent flyer program? How is this anywhere close to best in class?

mAAine_flyer

The change doesn't affect me personally (unless it's a sign of other "enhancements" about to be announced program-wide), but it's tacky and appallingly-badly implemented. Definitely not in line with Dickie Anderson's on-board video speech about loyalty and integrity being a two-way street.

And as much as Michelle_DeltaSkyMiles likes to think her post was an example of the company communicating with loyal customers first, she hasn't been MIA for 84 posts. I don't care for this style of "drive-by announcements"

starflyer

I think this is sneaky, but it's just how Delta normally operates. They repeat the same behavior over and over again. If you are expecting otherwise, I think you are in the wrong frequent flyer program. I saw the writing on the wall and left a long time ago.; took my 100,000+ miles of annual business travel elsewhere.

mersk862

To be fair, she (a) posted this before it was announced on Delta.com and (b) posted it at 4:30 p.m. Atlanta time, when it's likely near the end of her day. I tend to think she has better things to do than sit at home (on her own time) reading and responding to FlyerTalk at 8:45 p.m. on a Monday night.

TheMadBrewer

To paraphrase (and cause an invokation of Godwin's Law )

"First they came for the FO's but I didn't speak out because I was a DM..."