[QUOTE=avidflyer;13161519][QUOTE=3534ad;13161339][QUOTE=DLGrkItalNY;13160321]I spend $200-$300K per year on DL....I'm guessing that's 15-20X the average Platinum. When I need something from DL, it's not typically a "favor," it's usually that I need to help them help me spend more money
If you are spending $2-300k per year on yourself then you should be po'ed and I would not book another dime on DL for lumping me into the rest of the (40k BTW) DM's. However, if you are saying you are responsible for $200-300K then I got you beat. My company books $6-700k with DL. I probably only make up $30-50K on any given year but they book NW/DL directly because of me. I have never tried to get additional benefits from it or force them to use my AMEX etc but there is a big difference. My hat is off to you and if this is your own dime then, like I said, you should find an AL that will recognize that and reward you. I would point out that you could own a share of a Corp Jet (If you have a limited # of destinations) for that kind of cake.
Unfortunately, that's my spend. I'm not "PO'd." I think it's unfortunate that the largest airline in the world doesn't think it's worth recognizing "extraordinarily" profitable customers. As I mentioned, I'm not interested in "perks." I'm interested in having DL employees recognize that customers like me are rare, and, in the very, very unusual circumstance that I need something (I never check bags, never eat, never require anything from an employee, and, generally, never complain), go out of its way to help. Again, in most cases, this "help" involves helping me spend money on DL. Before EP, I'd had gate-agents give away my seat bc I'm not "at the gate" 20 mins prior; I'd had OCC rebook me on "Tomorrow's flight" when I was only going to be at my destination for 4 hrs; I'd had gate agents tell me that I can't "stand-by" for the earlier flight when I had a fully flexible ticket....etc etc. EP changed that....for a while.
And the suggestion of a Jet-Card? Let's do the math. My 200-300K on DL this year was 470 MQM, or ~300K BIS miles...that's ~70 international J-class segments, at $3K/segment....$210K (this was a slow year on DL). At an average of 9.5 hrs per segment (about right for me), that's 665 hrs. Jet-cards//fractional programs run $5-6K per hour "all-in" for light jets, $10K+ for heavy jets (e.g. GIV). So even if the light jets could do international, you're still looking at $3-$4M to repeat that level of flying. So...all desire for vengeance aside, I think I'll stick with DL : )