Originally Posted by CJKatl

OP, suppose you sold apples and oranges. Historically, you made $0.01/apple, but $1.00/orange. It's barely worth selling apples, but you continue doing so in order to get people in the door to buy oranges. People that buy oranges are people you really want to get in the door, so that's who your primary marketing aims to bring in the door.

Years go by. You continue to market oranges. One day you realize the apples are actually now the moneymakers. You do the math and find that you are now making $1.00/apple and only $0.01/orange. Would you continue your marketing program aimed at people that buy oranges? No. Would you change to marketing to people that buy apples? Yes. Would you be expected to keep marketing primarily to orange buyers because that's what you've always done? Of course not.

DL used to make more profit on long haul routes. Short hops were just a means to get people onto long haul planes. Sure, there were customers who used the short hops, but the marketing was aimed at the more profitable customers, who flew internationally.

The market has changed. international fares are no longer the primary profit center. There is money to be made from those who purchase domestic, as fares have risen. The business traveler who purchases tickets later and for specific times appears to now be the more profitable customer, so DL has adjusted its marketing tool to encourage those customers. Just because a different customer was more profitable in the past does not mean the present DL has to target them. Business plans need to change with the time. (Exhibit A: K-Mart and JCP vs. Walmart and Target. Exhibit B: Newspapers vs. new media like Drudge or HuffPo. Exhibit C: Blackberry vs iPhone and Android.)

For those who purchase expensive domestic tickets frequently, the new system actually works much, much better. These people earn about 1/3 more points per year than they did under the old system. DL has used its marketing tool to encourage those people to fly DL.

If there is another airline that is courting your type of business with better offers, take them up on the offer, but don't expect DL to expend marketing capital on you now just because your type of business used to be more profitable. When international flights start being more profitable again, which will mean higher fares, DL will start courting you again, but something tells me most passengers would rather have the lower fares. I know when it comes to domestic flights, I'd be happy to go back to the lower fares of a few years ago.