Sent today (from 10,000 plus in the air on a Delta DEN-ATL flight) via the contact us form on Delta.com.

Hello,

This has been a monumental year for me in terms of travel and I feel like i couldn't have done it without Delta. i jumped from an average of 10k miles a year to over 120k miles in 2009. All in the name of a hobby- to travel to as many places in my leisure time (mostly weekends) as I could and earn the highest Delta ff status possible. Just when I made it to Platinum, you announced Diamond, so i went about scheduling more flights, providing you more revenue and having a great experience.

Delta's customer service for the most part is top notch. When I got stuck overseas with my passport stolen, you let me reconfirm flights on a later date at no charge. No charge even though i was on a non-refundable ticket. That's phenomenal service! Your ground crew and air staff consistently put the customer first and it is appreciated as well.

Delta's planes are the best I've flown, the IFE is fantastic and the fleet is generally clean and in good operations.

Yet when Continental has come a-knockin this month to woo customers from Delta, there is a temptation to be woo'd despite all the fantastic qualities where you shine over the competition. why? Only because of the one benefit you withhold that your competitors are now giving out like candy- upgrades for elites on international segments on discount fare buckets.

There are plenty of customers like me- customers who could NEVER afford business class without using award miles, and could never afford a YBM ticket in order to use a PMU either. It has been theorized that Delta holds back offering upgrades at the gate for cash b/c they want to give customers incentive to book business or YBM ahead of time. But it's not working to your advantage because it doesn't matter how you try to encourage purchase of YBM or business outright, some of us cannot afford it as we're traveling on our own dime and not an employer's. As a customer, i could afford a couple hundred (maybe even $300?) to pay for a gate upgrade to first if there was space. Of course I'd also be thrilled if you expanded PMU usage to discount fare buckets so i could trade them in for upgrades as well. With neither of those as an offering, and with a significant uptick in international travel planned for 2010 (i want to see the world!) knowing that i can status match to continental and use upgrade coupons to fly business class on discount fare classes is a strong pull.

I know you value customer feedback and i hope you value customers like myself as well. We are not big fish in the pond compared to your high priced business travelers, but we are many, and we are vocal and have the ability to bring you new customers (i lead a travel group of 400 members, many of whom i've convinced to become delta groupies and sign up for skymiles and choose you as their carrier).

Thank you so much for all the great things you do, and for reading my email.

Best Regard,

Jenni Parks