Originally Posted by
monitor
Even though DL follows what is being discussed here, I do not think that they at all care about cultivating the crowd that gathers here. They have little respect for the LUT flyers (as the recent DEQM promo shows) and have no interest in putting these people into its premium international cabins.
That being said, I believe that no airline takes better care of its domestic business travelers. This opinion comes from one who has been top tier in three different programs over the past 6 years and has settled on DL as the best deal for his travel patterns.
It is true that when it comes time to travel internationally on leisure, it requires quite a bit of finesse and the use of lots of miles. But it can, and is done that way. Of course I would like the PMUs to be easier to use but that is far from crucial.
I think the flaw in what many here are assuming is that LUT customers are ONLY LUT customers. As a business traveller who flys 250kish MQM's a year I do try and find the lowest DOM flights I can...it is the right thing to do in business. That said; I buy FC many times as that is my only choice. I also will pay a premium to upgrade internationally. I cannot however justify the prices I have to pay on DL to sit up front internationally when there are much cheaper options. The key here is if DL gave out 4 or 6 REAL SWU's that were good from any fare I would look at it as lowering my INT Biz travel expense but NOT replacing it. I fly far more than 2 or 3 times a year which means I will be paying for Discount biz or M fares for the other 20 INT flights I take. The "freebies" just lower the average I pay for the year. That is what DL is missing with this strategy. If I go to CO I will focus everything there and get cheap biz across the board. If DL had limited SWU's I would stay at DL...bottom ,line is for every SWU from any fare they give me I will end up flying 3 discount biz or M fares. I am really bumming and hope DL counters but I think they too muddled in integration issues to mess with this.