lls138

If they are working on the award calendar, then hopw come nothing hjas changed in 3+ weeks since the roll out....all the errors are the same. In addition, SMS nor India support can find seat availability on PHL-SAN flights for that round trip itin (entire months of october)......you think glitch solely online? Guess what, they don't see it, they can't book it, therefore last seat not available.....I don't want to drop $700 or use PwM.....I want to use 25K as promised (space available), which it should be for a wednesday flight (almost always is)....

FYI. These promises they make to fix things have been nothing but empty. Instead we are continually forced to call and pay $25, no matter what.

msbuz

I just tried several different dates on award calender got the following message each time "There are no flights available for the day requested. Click Start Over to try another day or to search for different cities". Glitche glitche glitche.

Carolinian

My, aren't we a trusting soul, and of an entity that has shown it cannot be trusted.

Hey, wanna buy a certain bridge I have in NYC?

Erasmus

You haven't have you? Perhaps you missed my thread where I pointed out DL zeroed out all flights LAX-ATL for everything except "high" last-seat availability in the days head of the three-tier rollout.

Some people seem simply unwilling to admit reality. SkyMiles is a shell of its former self. Perhaps you haven't been playing this game long enough to realize it. Perhaps you're happy with what it is. Great. Just don't try and preach to those of us who remember what it used to be.

yngdiego

You've got to be kidding? Their award calendar as been severely broken for years and getting worse. You seriously can't think they've tried to make the searches be more accurate. Hell, their revenue booking engine is crap too.

mooper

It has changed a bit, but even if it had not, a three week period without a tech upgrade doesn't mean it isn't being worked upon. We also know that one of their main web dev guys was on vacation recently.

It isn't trust as much as it is a lack of willingness to subscribe to conspiracy theories.

Indeed I missed your post. Do you have conclusive evidence they zeroed out the aforementioned availability *because of the additional tiers*, or could it have been for other reasons that would have happened regardless? I'm not preaching to anyone. I am simply refuting some illogical general statements such as "Skymiles have been devalued", as this is isn't the case for me - and likely isn't for some others - so a more accurate portrayal would be "Skymiles have been devalued for the particular redemptions I prefer". I am getting higher CPMs for a wide array of redemptions now than I ever used to, and this is including all fees. I haven't been flying DL for more than six or seven years, so you may be correct if CPM values *system-wide* have been reduced since the 90s... I wouldn't know it if this was the case.

In my experience, it hasn't gotten worse, but it is still far from perfect. I believe DeltaWebDev when he says he is working on the bugs, but I think DL management hasn't devoted enough resources to support him (albeit with the financial condition of the airline industry, including DL, I doubt they have much bandwidth to change that right now.)

lls138

Look they are working on it My email with response. I called, they still cannot waive the $25 fee to help book a ticket that I cannot see online....crapper.

"Hi. I have serious reservations regarding the new award calendar and
three-tier redemption system. When I do an online award calendar search
for dates in late october, specifically SAN-PHL, OCt 25-27, there is no
last seat availabilty as promised. In fact, there is no availability. I
feel cheated as I cannot use my skymiles as have been promised to me as
a loyal delta customer. It is not fair that I should have to spend a
long time on the phone and pay an aditonal $25 for phone booking, which
stil cannot find seats. Those planes are not nearly sold out for all
dates. thanks"


Dear Mr. LLS138,

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns over delta.com. We
apologize for any difficulty you may have experienced via our website.

Our delta.com team is aware of certain issues with our SkyMiles award
ticketing. As we have verified that award seats are available for your
travel, please call our 24-hour Online Customer Support Desk at
888-750-3284 if you continue to experience difficulty. One of our
representatives will be happy to help you.

Your selection of Delta is appreciated, and we will always do our best
to merit your confidence and support.

Sincerely,

Lyn Thomas
Medallion Desk
www.delta.com

MikeMpls

No conspiracy theory -- Delta has a track record going back years for screwing its elites and devaluing its frequent flyer program. Unless, of course, you're convinced that all 8,684 participants (including 7K Medallions) in Save SkyMiles were actually pulling off a conspiracy theory.

You can deny history all you want, but it won't change anything.

mooper

Once again: As I am getting higher CPM values (fees included) for a wide variety of redemptions, they are not "screwing me" nor devaluing *my* miles. Therefore, a blanket statement asserting that the entire program and all elites are being screwed and devalued is logically inaccurate. I can't speak for others, but I assume that I'm not the only one getting better value now.

Gandhi90s

You certainly seem to be the only participant in this thread who is getting better value now than before.

Getiton

Let us know when your LUCK changes.Care to share (examples) some of your success.

MikeMpls

And the subject of this thread is the new three-tiered redemption program, which -- judging from the feedback here and in Delta's own blog -- is a significant devaluation & a colossal failure. On top of that, they've implemented a lame calender that can't find the optimal award availability for many/most posters here. When people call, Delta extracts additional call service fees out of the pockets of its elites.

If they had any integrity at all (seriously in doubt given history of SkyMiles in this decade and the disingenuous manner in which some of the changes have been passed off onto this community) they'd at least wave the phone booking fees. They don't.

Nobody is saying that the "entire program" or "all elites" are being screwed; those are your words. With any program of this size a few winners are inevitable. Overall, however, the direction of SkyMiles is downwards, inexorably downwards, and the program has been heading that way for years.

I'm glad to you hear you think you think your getting better value than ever. You appear to be in a very small minority.

yngdiego

Of course they are devaluing your miles...their redemption levels have gone significantly up. Maybe you are finding ways to get more SkyMiles, but you are still a looser in the overall scheme. Why? If it now takes 60,000 miles for last seat, that's 10K more than before. Even if you get 10K miles from Delta offers, you would have gotten more award tickets using the lower redemption scale.

mooper

I may be, however as you know very well, online forums tend to attract many more unhappy/complaining customers than they do pleased/content ones. My company releases products that are well-loved by their user base, but if you looked solely at related discussion/support forums, you'd think otherwise. The nature of consumers is to smile and take it for granted when they are happy with a product, but to find every possible avenue to complain loudly when the slightest thing isn't perfect.

There are too many to list, but a concise way of viewing it would be to take the following airports: PHX, DCA, BZN, SLC, SAN, ATL, STT and connect them in as many combinations as possible That would represent the majority of my DL travel. I have been a flexible traveler - not restricted to Fri/Sun or Mon/Tue or same-day or anything of the sort. I typically book 3+ weeks in advance. Coach tickets over most of this decade have run me $200-$300, but with airlines commanding higher prices now, the range has been more like $300-$500 over the past year. I'd say that my ability to redeem miles for coach and first over these routes for saver/low (25K, 45K) awards has decreased through the years, but not by much. Fees are substantially higher now. All included, if I take my redemption outcomes for each attempt and calculate my CPM, it is higher now usually around 2.0 CPM for coach). In past years, it hovered around 1.5 to 2.0 CPM.

I don't *think* I am; I know I am. Therefore, there has been no devaluation for me. Sounds like most others posting here have had a different experience, but that doesn't mean they represent the majority (nor am I convinced people are complaining on a CPM devaluation basis nor that they are looking carefully to be sure that when low/saver isn't available, that it differs substantially from how available it had been in the past, before the three-tier system).

I agree with you on the phone booking fee waiver. If someone claims believably to have used the online calendar and it failed to book an itinerary available by phone, I think it would be good business practice to waive the fee.

Factually untrue. I redeem only saver/low, and always have limited to that. Availability hasn't changed much for my routes. Even *if* I redeemed at the "last seat" level, the additional miles required under the new tiers might still result in a higher CPM value, as ticket prices have gone up substantially.

lls138

Mooper, are you Jeff Robertson incognito? busted