Originally Posted by
PMMMDL
Yes I would. Sure, I would like to have upgrades on cheaper fares, but I know that DL must make choices in order to remain an ongoing concern. For every additional benefit, something else would have to go.
The abuse (and I would term it abuse) is not only uncalled for and unseemly, but I feel it trivializes the very FTers that the posters purport to be "fighting" for.
I don't agree with you! Real SWUs are offered by AA and UA to ExP and 1k elites, and the two companies are still in business. Hence, IMHO it is economically feasible for DL to do it.
I don't know how typical my experience is, but please consider the following:
A) I rarely use my PMUs, but when I do, it is because a client/company is willing to pay an expensive fare. I, and many others I am sure, play the "good boy role" and use PMUs to save clients/companies money. Hence, costing DL money.
B) My ExP and 1k friends consider their SWUs as gold; thus they never use them for business trips and keep them for leisure trips with family/friends. If I had real SWUs , I would do exactly the same thing! Hence having real SWUs would encourage me more expensive leisure trips on DL, i.e., Europe instead of Florida. Hence, if DL had a few real SWUs I would fly/spend more on DL.
The premise that I have read here is that some of the existing PMU users would no longer pay M-fares and that would cost DL a ton of money. I doubt it! I believe most M+PMU fliers have their tickets bought by their company/client and they would keep flying as usual if you gave them enough PMUs as they would keep their real SWUs for personal travel.
I view PMUs not as a perk but as profit maker for DL. Hence, if I was DL I would give more not less PMUs, I may even make M+ fare upgradable on the D-o-D without PMUs. Hence making the 20% that use them happier.
I view not having real SWUs for DMs as an "image fiasco", since it requires more miles than UA's 1k and AA's ExP. It encourages switching alliance and discourages heavy fliers from switching to DL. Also not having real SWUs makes DL look cheap.