Originally Posted by GYEWorldTraveler

Fares have been $1000-1500 in the past two years....I have flown the route several times...right now all airfares are higher. And I was not strictly talking about MRs, I am talking about taking THAT trip. I don't think I would ever consider doing a weekend in Y with only a couple hrs in JNB....thats a bit ridiculous. I don't have the time or desire to fly an intl MR like that.......so I think you missed the point of my post. I think DL probably does worry about what I just pointed out...otherwise they wouldn't be considering a revenue based FF program.

To possibly help you better understand here is a scenario:

A:
Happy Delta Flyer buys a J class ticket LAX-LHR for $8,000. As a DM Happy Delta Flyer earns 16,066 flown miles, 8,033 Class of Service Bonus miles and 20,083 DM bonus miles for a total of 44,182 total RDMs.

B:
Happy Delta Flyers buys a T class ticket LAX-JNB for $1,500. As a DM Happy Delta Flyer earns 20,770 flown miles and 25,963 DM bonus miles for a total of 46,733 total RDMs.

In scenario B Happy Delta Flyer is getting more RDMs for a lot less spend than scenario A. You can bet the house that DL wants passenger A's enjoying more benefits than passenger B's. With the current mileage based FF program it is difficult to differentiate for DL because both passengers are DMs. A revenue based FF program would address this issue.

I wish they would transition into this by just adding a 5th tier that is revenue based and then from there they could transition the program if it was a general consensus that it was a necessary action. However, with the company doing well and appearing healthy right now it is a bit of an interesting move (in my opinion). I feel many people on this boards pain and hope that it is only a rumor but from a business standpoint I understand why a revenue based program would be attractive. I guess there really is no good time to introduce it though....