TurtleSVS

I primarily fly back and forth NYC-FL on my own money.

Over the course of my FL flying I averaged a fare of ~$250 RT and received approximately 4k RDM per trip. Valuing those at 0.01 cpm I have a net cost of $210. My new net cost will be more on the order of 1800 RDM (9 * 200 MQD) per trip at 0.01 cpm for net cost of $232. I view this as the equivalent of a 10% across the board price increase for me which really stinks but if they make the miles more valuable its not as bad.

For me, its still worthwhile to fly Delta due to operational efficiency, schedule and the fact they operate out of LGA which makes access easier and cheaper for me but I'm not happy about it.

mapletree

I'll gain tremendously, I think.

Lots of small hops but tickets bought at the last minute so high value. LGA-RIC is often $800 each way. 500 miles today. That's 7200 under the new system, right? (800*9 for a Plat flyer).

chrisj85

As a HNL-based GM who flies mostly LUT and some V and X my RDMs will be decimated by this.

Breakeven HNL-ATL will be $2250
Breakeven HNL-LAX will be $1000

Those are 100-120% higher than the typical coach fares on those routes.

Just waiting for the inevitable other shoe to drop - when DL announces that "in response to our feedback" they are implementing a purely dollar based Medallion Qualification program as well for 2016. Their SOP would be to wait until about July 2015 to announce that, when it's too late for many folks to jump ship easily.

mmichael453

This is my fear, and it seems like it only makes sense. Or I suppose they could maintain the appearance of miles based qualification and fall into line with other airlines by awarding 25% MQMs for EVLUT fares, 50% for B or M, 100% for Y, etc.

yessams

This affects me greatly...in a positive way! My RDMs will double...and if only 1/4 of the people "abandon ship", then there will be less folks to compete with for upgrades.

Donahj

Since I do mostly last-minute, high-fare, relatively short segments, this will help me. Doing the math now based on 2014 YTD activity.

edh101985

I only fly Delta when I use miles. Last year I racked up 180,000 miles with asu trust debit card. (Don't have it now). So its good for me with better availability and one way awards.

MAMOHT

I usually get Q and up. I guess if I happen to get LUT then I will be impacted. But I see very few of those.

Ysitincoach

I'm at a disadvantage of never really knowing what corporate discount my company will be able to book me on, so I'll ride this out in 2015, and if at the end UA & AA haven't adopted similar programs, and DL doesn't deliver the status I earned then I'll bolt, or go back to just booking whatever's most convenient regardless of carrier.

Dieuwer

Still confused I see.

THERE WILL NOT BE ANY UPGRADES THANKS TO FCM in overdrive!!

regoarrarr

Wont' really affect me. I earn almost all of my miles through CC spending / bonuses.

monitor

For the first two months of 2014, I earned about 35KRDM and 20K MQM on a mix of fares generally Q and up. A tally using the 2015 method would, of course, not change the 20K MQM but would net roughly 42K RDMs, an increase of about 20%.

Now, if they only increase the cost of the awards 20%, I break even.

@:-) ETA: When they raise the price of the tickets as they will do, those who need to fly will earn even more RDMs.

Fred 3

Here is how I see it -- If you are buying a TPAC or TATL business class ticket-- I paid about $7000 last year for one - I received about 30k in miles, and now I would receive more than 70k. That is a big win.

If you fly short routes domestically -- lets say JFK-RIC or MSP-ORD, where it would only be a 500 mile each way, and the cost of your ticket is $400 or more -- then that is a big win.

If you are flying domestically long distance, and you live in a smaller non hub city like EUG ene or FAT, and you connect through LAX/PDX/SEA on the way to atlanta, where you would have received the 500 minimum, plus the 2000+ on the long leg, (x2 for Gold/Plat/Dia), then you would have to have a ticket worth more than $1000 for this to be made whole. That is the biggest loss, and will affect people in the small cities.

cubachao

still flying DL.....

Junior Varsity

And this will be the case for me. While I can book as needed, I do have to live within my travel budget. This is going to cut down my earning by about 30% as I fly out of STL and therefore connect via ATL/MSP/DTW most of the time. I'm also going to see a hit due to the fact I generally book my tickets 2-3 weeks out when fares are lower.

Oh well, at the end of the day, DL's customer service and hard product will most likely keep me here... That is unless AA get's their act together.