jsmith50

So, I'll bite on this...I have been told several times by DL that I am a HVC. I flew 300K+ miles BIS in 2011, spent over $100K (mostly through full J tpacs, and refundable Y bought last minute) in 2011 and I have banked millions, literally millions of SMs (DL dining, AmEx promotions, DL promotions, Hilton double dip bonuses, etc.) that I have virtually never redeemed in the 11 years now that I have been flying DL. Why, then, would I care negatively about a revenue-based program? Simple...further devaluation of the SMs that I have accumulated. I figure that at some point, my days of heavy flying and long hours with entire months some times spent on the road will eventually come to an end. The accumulation of FF miles is a spoil of living such a life in business. When I walk away, I want to be able to use those miles for my wife and I to travel and fly whatever class of service we want to sit in and never have to worry about giving DL a credit card number ever again to purchase a ticket.

If DL goes to a strictly fare-based program, then those miles I have accumulated with plans on using them in retirement have zero value or very limited value. For those reasons, if this is the future direction of the program, it stinks! It screws over every one of us that has been loyal to this airline for so many years when we could have been flying a competitor for less money. It is precisely because of loyalty that I have stuck around with DL now for the last decade through all the bad business decisions and through the current and ongoing devaluation of the SM program. It will also be precisely because of the feeling of being stabbed in the back that I would seriously consider the chance to status match to another airline and see what the grass is like on the other side!