With flights I have booked (and paid for since I am one of those scum who spend $10K+ a year of my own money on LUT fares) I will be within spitting distance of requalifying for DM. If there is no news one way or the other by June or so I will look elsewhere (since a match/challenge then will generally take one thru Feb 2014).
Dear Old Mom lives in ATL so a couple of visits there on DL would put me over -- but then again I used to fly LAX-MSP-ATL with no problem so LAX-DEN/IAH-ATL or LAX-DFW-ATL or even LAX-PHX-LAX would be a piece of cake.
With my pattern, being LAX based, my only non-stop it to ATL --or AMS on the KLM codeshare. On AA or UA I could do direct to LHR (which I do once a year) or on the UA/LH codeshare to FRA (multiple times a year). I also fly to ZHR once or twice a year so LX (*A) works there as well. Oh, and occasions flights to the Great White North to visit relatives so AX (also *A) works -- some of them wonder why I haven't visited in the past couple years as DL canceled some of the NW flights I used to take...
It is a shame because I have come to like the on-board Delta service (outside of JFK based international crews) -- it's the website (where I was twice charged $300+ more from the fare I accepted when I clicked "purchase") and the untrustworthiness of the corporation in general.
I know you Delta die hards don't want to hear this, but in all the years of NW I never got a response from a TTU that was non-sensical. With DL I never have gotten a response that made sense -- until at least the 2nd try and mostly the 3rd. I'm sure I'm towards the low end of the DM "value score" but I would still think that rates a human reading my questions/complaints. I average about one non-praise TTU a year -- and I never have received any miles or vouchers due to a complaint in 25+ years of NW/DL flying. I did get 2500 miles for helping a FA verify that GoGo wasn't working on a JFK-LAX flight last year -- unsolicited on my part, I was happy to help and the only "service recovery" I can remember. I'm including this only to rebut those who will say I'm one of the complainers who are causing mileage inflation.
If I don't see a clear statement from Delta by the end of June that status earned in 2012 will be honored in 2013 -- under the current rules -- then I will be gone. Yes, it's only $10K or so a year but it is all money that I earn (no expense account for me) and I will not give it to a company that I cannot trust -- and recent history has used up any benefit of the doubt they may have.
I'm sure my self-inflated worth comes from a conversation with a NW exec many years ago -- those based in MSP/DTW/MEM had little choice -- somebody not hub captive was valued because it was an explicit choice on my part.
</rant off> too many excellent Franconian beers this evening
Added: I usually don't wear tin foil hats but as one who occasionally as redeemed SM for AF J (and once used an SWU to upgrade to J) this "IT glitch" is disconcerting.
If it really was an "IT glitch" that wouldn't preclude a DL agent of a certain level calling an AF agent to get it done -- especially for a member of the nominal top one or two tiers of elites. This says to be that either AF is unwilling to accept what DL is offering or DL is unwilling to pay what AF requires. I don't have a problem with that but we should be told.