Surprised this hasn't been posted here but some interesting stuff...
The following award fee changes will be in effect on June 2nd.
The SkyMiles Award Ticket redemption fee will be eliminated for all members regardless of travel date. That is good news for last minute travelers.
Award redeposit and reissue fee will be waived for Platinum Medallion members.
There is no longer a limit of two waivers per year!
The award redeposit and reissue fee will increase from $100 to $150
o This will align the reissue fee for award tickets with the reissue fee for revenue tickets
o The $100 reissue fee will continue to apply for award tickets purchased on/before June 1
o The $150 redeposit fee applies beginning June 2nd regardless of the date of the original ticket purchase
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Apparently their revenue model (fleece them & they will come) didn't work out.
This is almost a year & a half too late. Fix low-award availability & cut the mumbo jumbo about a revenue-based program & we'll start to reconsider. Meanwhile, we're quite happy with CO/UA & WN.
Looks great, although not too sure how long this will last. DL used to change its mind frequently. Not long ago the close-in redemption fee was removed, only to be added back a couple days later.
And the mileage earning fare class on KLM has been changed back and forth a million times.
Since I haven't received an email notification for this change, I'm not optimistic.
Apparently their revenue model (fleece them & they will come) didn't work out.
This is almost a year & a half too late. Fix low-award availability & cut the mumbo jumbo about a revenue-based program & we'll start to reconsider.
This backtracking by DL management is indeed to be welcomed.
I'm not sure their revenue model (of fleece them and they will come) has been given up entirely by DL management. Perhaps if the likes of the award tickets priced at 25k miles for a domestic coach roundtrip show signs of not being a highly endangered species, then that will mark a whole change in DL management attitude.
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Like TSA, DL SkyMiles management treats airline customers as if they are the enemy or sheep to be fleeced and it shows.
This is almost a year & a half too late. Fix low-award availability & cut the mumbo jumbo about a revenue-based program & we'll start to reconsider. Meanwhile, we're quite happy with CO/UA & WN.
Not for those of us who have been patient. I've been redeeming dozens of low/saver awards annually, even through the transition period, and enjoying the many DL perks for upper elites that trump other programs along the way. I suspect the remaining weaknesses - the buggy calendar and related difficulties in finding low/saver availability (for elites, it's still quite good... it's just that the calendar doesn't display it readily) will be fixed/improved this summer. I'll bet they will even improve inventory for all levels and throw in some other enhancements as well (like getting rid of the silly restriction prohibiting medallion award inventory being booked for others unless the medallion member is traveling with them).
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Wow. Kudos to DL for figuring it out, perhaps for some people a bit too late, but for me I'd say its better late than never. Not to be a downer, but the ironic thing here is that I've not redeemed a ticket with the new DL (last redemption was three biz seats to Africa at 105k and three seats to Middle East at 80k with NWA) and I wonder if they've been able to tell that PMs are not booking tickets with the kind of frequency they had been. For me, now that I know I can book something at 40k and at least have a seat that I can cancel at anytime means I may be more likely to use those miles than continue letting them sit unused.
Clearly they made a value calculation somewhere and for a rare time, the FF him/herself came out on top...
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Why would the following appear under the heading "What you can expect by Fall 2010"...
A new first bag free waiver benefit for all Delta SkyMiles Gold, Platinum and Reserve Cardmembers from American Express goes into effect on June 1, 2010.
... and not in the section headed "What is happening now" ???
June 1 is two seasons away from Fall... and yesterday. How much closer to "now" can you get?
