StuckOnSegments

Mine was about 60% more than my current YTD, and was showing it as only travel through August.

Maybe Delta is letting us know that it's really gonna put the screws to us price-wise next year?

Deadtail

$118,000

I'm thinking I should book my LAX-SYD-LAX trips as two one ways to get past the 75K max earn.

HongKonger

It would be hilarious if they made a big error causing this email to go out to a lot of people who are actually going to earn less, and those people then realize it.

Flinders

I got "these are the 7 benefits of the new program" or somesuch bilge. I deleted it without opening it. But then again, I'll not requalify as an FO until next week when I get the MQD from my flight on Tuesday.

355F1

Hahahahahahah! I won't be getting any email.

I have spent $8,902 for 208,782 BIS MQMs.....I don't know how many RDMs I've earned this year....but I do know that if I did all this next year my RDMS would probably be 1/6 of what I've earned this year. I suck!!!

But I've had three Porsche rides this year....so at least I got that going for me...

BenA

Delta is playing with fire here with direct marketing along these lines. I'd wager the vast majority of people (certainly not all, but most) who benefit from the 2015 changes are travelling on tickets purchased by their employer.

Today, most employers have policies that allow employees to participate in frequent flier schemes and keep their miles... but with the new program structured as essentially a kickback directly correlated with spend, there's going to be an awfully tempting incentive for employees to choose a slightly higher airfare if they can still justify it as 'within policy'. Which is exactly what Delta is trying to explicitly motivate people to do with communications like this.

That'll work for a while, and I suspect forever at large consulting and law firms that passthrough billing to clients. But for your average Fortune 500 company, I guarantee travel managers are keeping a VERY close eye on the impact this change has on their overall spend, and I wouldn't be surprised to see company policies change over time to simply prohibit employees from keeping miles. It also wouldn't surprise me if the IRS starts to sniff around and consider a rule change in this area.

If that happens, Delta loses all of their access to reward corporate HVC passengers. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out...

Esltroy

I just got a survey from delta about the changes. I am one of the losers in the new system. I filled it out. It had a lot about ranking various perks. I was nervous about ranking them though because I thought, the highest one they will turn into a diamond perk.

bsagator

This is what mine would look like:

JAN-AUG 2014 2014 PROGRAM 2015 PROGRAM

DOLLARS SPENT $3,500 $3,500

MILES EARNED TOWARD
AWARD TRAVEL 105,000 MILES 31,500 MILES

CJKatl

The IRS has made it clear that they don't want to count FF as income for many reasons, not the least of which is that it would cost more to track this than it would bring in tax-wise. When Citibank issued 1099s for FF miles given to people who opened accounts a couple years ago, the IRS made it clear they weren't interested in opening that can of worms. It's a dead issue.

Hotels have tied their earnings to spend for ages, as have some airlines. This is nothing new.

Fortune 500 companies already monitor how their employees spend for travel. Those of us who travel for our jobs are responsible. We could now already do things to earn more FF miles, but we would rather keep our jobs, our integrity and our company's budgets in line.

My employer, a Fortune 100 company, did send an email out reminding us to continue to be careful on how we spend corporate dollars, and that they would be monitoring if the changes had any impact on travel, but the tone was more "we know you are careful and will continue to be careful" than "we know you will try to rip us off for a couple extra FF miles." Honestly, if they thought someone would do that, they'd already be out the door.

But thank you for letting us know what causes you to make these things up. You seem to think we can be financially imprudent and keep our jobs. You act as though we are children with a parent's credit card. That's not the real world in which we live. My bonus is tied to staying within my budget. If I spend imprudently, I will lose my job, as the company will no longer have need for me to travel if it becomes cost ineffective. Those of us who travel on the company's dime understand these realities, but those of you who don't travel on a company's dime are terribly misinformed.

dean1121

Travel snapshot

jan-aug 2014
program 2015
program

dollars spent $47,500 $47,500

miles earned toward
award travel 281,500 miles 522,500 miles

EZE

You nailed it. The nonsense produced on these blogs astounds me sometimes.

DYKWIA2014

[QUOTE=Esltroy;23868816]I just got a survey from delta about the changes. QUOTE]I feel like I got slighted here. I didn't get the e-mail, and the only surveys that I get (which are almost weekly) are the surveys of the boarding process, the SkyClub and the interior of the plane.

Renes Points

You and me brother! (well other than Porsche rides that is)

My email would say - if we remove the ability to have the FA hand units make Skymiles you will earn 300,000 less skymiles next year.

Lefleur

I got the same email.

The subject line was "Not Everyone Is Getting This Email."

This is what it said:

"Hello, Lefleur.

Customers who spend more with us will earn more. FYI, that's you. We definitely appreciate your business and the 2015 SkyMiles program is going to reflect that. Because you spend more with us, you'll be better rewarded in 2015. Scroll down to see exactly how you'll earn miles and how'll it be easier to use them.

Your travel habits pay off. Often book last minute? Buy premium seats? They can both earn you more miles in 2015. Below you'll see a snapshot of travel similar to yours and how that would translate in the 2015 program. SEE FOR YOURSELF."

<chart with 2014 spending and miles and 2015 est. spending and miles>

Lefleur

(and the chart shows I spent way more than I did this year....so I am confused!)