I think DL is counting on AA and UA to match. But you can lay this one directly at the feet of consolidation and lack of competition. With 3 major legacies you've got hub captives being divided up and much less competition. It's easy to see the old NW being a holdout on this if DL had tried it with 5 or 6 carriers, but we know what happened there.

I think the unintended consequences could be serious. Companies and travel managers already hate FF programs and see them as a form of kickback incentivizing bad behavior (like waiting until the last minute to request your trip). This draws an even straighter line there and throws down the gauntlet.

If you're in back on a leisure trip and not getting the mileage bonus (or only getting 25%), and are regularly #70 on the upgrade list or not there at all, other stuff like bag fees start to annoy if you can fly WN without them. Or what about Spirit, which is awful with the nickel and diming but might be $60 RT on a sale where DL would be $200.

For that segment it could accelerate the trend toward price being everything and LCCs and ULCCs getting most of the new market share. In my own case, rather than flying to cities like SEA so I can take DL to Asia, maybe I take the cheapest option and bank miles in that program.

You'll also have more people giving up on trying to get status earlier. DL is counting on many of them to fly anyway because they're probably captives.