Originally Posted by
gaugeguy
Exactly. I have shown years and years of loyalty. A soft landing for someone who was out of work for a while costs them nothing. My only problem is trying to find the right person to contact to ask the question.
To play devil's advocate, it doesn't "cost them nothing". Of course there's the argument they'd get more revenue by you buying more fares by having status (the reason for the programs) but yes, it cost them something if you utilize benefits. If you check bags that you now get the baggage fee waived versus would have had to pay due to being a lower status with less baggage allowance, that cost DL money. If you are given C+ at booking and get it for free, that prevents someone else from "buying" that seat otherwise. If they give you RUCs, that's a time you may not buy-up to FC. If you access a lounge (rather than pay an entry fee) and consume resources (food and drinks) in the lounge, that cost DL something. These costs might well be rounding errors in DL's accounting and expenses but it still technically cost them something, not "nothing".
Plus, if you've already booked 5 trips on DL without getting this soft-landing, you've already told DL you're willing to fly them and rebuild towards status without them even giving you a soft-landing. DL might well also say your "soft-landing" for years of loyalty is the "complimentary annual" FO status for 1MM, which guarantees you at least Silver Medallion status even if you never step foot on the plane. Yea, I realize compared to GM, PM, or DM, that FO status is can seem pretty meager but even FO status is enough to take traveling/flying from miserable to bearable with access to preferred seats, priority check-in, better protection in IROPS, etc.