Originally Posted by
KOTAR1988
Bingo! You hit the nail on the head! People seem to take the L,U,T,V,X,E flyers for granted(some even refer to them as "gamer's") but when DL tells me that 65-70%of the 1st class cabins domestically are filled with "upgrades", it has to negatively affect Delta's bottom line if these tickets were never sold.
Like I mentioned before, 90%+ of my travel is out of my pocket, no reimbursement through my employer, so I enjoy when neighbors who fly/work for Delta tell me about the "brainstorming" that goes on to increase revenue's. If DL was so concerned about the swelling of the ranks, then the easiet thing to do would be to STOP the "Rollover" MQM's, Raise the "MQD" thresholds, and Raise the AMEX yearly spend limits, however, there are limits before people revolt.
I would really like to see Delta go to a system where they start charging for the upgrades at the gate(you could use mile as well) to increase revenues, however, keep the Medallions happy by giving out several upgrade certificates with no restrictions and base(who has priority on level of Medallion and fare class) That's when I think you see competition return to the airline sectors as long as the 3 legacy carriers enact the same rules as they are headed to right now. Just a thought....
I'd say the majority of flyers out there are not nearly as status obsessed as FT'ers think. Of those who are affected, some may leave, but I bet the majority will continue to fly DL because of convienence, familiarity, etc. and either accept their lower status level, or up their spend to maintain their current status.
MQD's affects both gamers and lower spend normal flyers (who I am quite sure that DL does not view as "gamers"). It's not that DL does not value low-spend flyers, it's just that they don't value them as much as higher spend ones who may abandon DL to the likes of WN, B6, et al. due to lack of upgrades or difficultly in redeeming miles, etc. I think folks here are taking this way too personally. DL would like the low spend flyers to stay, they would just not rather not reward them as generously at the expense of higher fare flyers. Obviously, you don't believe the low fare flyer upgrades, mileage redemptions, other benefits, etc. affect the higher fare flyers materially, but I'm willing to bet that DL has better metrics than you to make that judgement.