<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Kubla:
Korean's Skypass program is different in that elite levels are based on cumulative base miles, not yearly. Their lowest level kicks in at 50,000 miles, which of course would get you to GM status with Delta if flown in one year. However, you retain this status without having to requalify every year.
KE's Morning Calm Premium starts at 500,000 cumulative miles. That gets you SkyTeam Elite Plus status.
KE's top level is the Million Miler Club.
For a frequent flier doing 100,000 miles a year, that means it takes 5 years to get to SkyTeam Elite Plus in KE's program - when you would have already been an Elite Plus for 4 years as a Delta PM. I know which program I'd rather be in.
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I was thinking about what would happen if Delta had a similar policy:
1. If it took 500,000 base miles to reach Platinum status, would more or less people fly Delta? My feeling is a lot less, I think that's a huge goal to try to achieve. (I don't know the Korean market, it's possible KE doesn't have as much competition, and thus doesn't have to offer benefits as quickly).
2. A variation - suppose Delta still has their 100k m/yr Platinum qualification, but after flying 500k total base miles, offered lifetime Platinum (effectively what KE does). No more yearly requalification would be required. Do you think those people would be more or less likely to fly Delta? Here I'm not sure.
On the one hand people who otherwise would be trying to requalify wouldn't have to fly Delta, they could fly someone else (ie. split their miles to get status on another airline).
On the other hand, you could have some people, who maybe because they aren't travelling as much, may not want/need to fly Delta, because they know they won't qualify for any significant status. Now, these people might fly Delta, because they will have status.
Comments?
Jeff