Originally Posted by
Psyduck1
A couple of things to unpack here. Yes there was no one else if I was upgraded, but I consume more and am more expensive in first class than in coach. Airline margins are really different/hard to analyze but when I get upgraded I'm not hurting hard product costs but I am hurting soft product costs(depending on how I behave).
Many times, your getting an upgrade creates a seat DL can sell to a walkup Y in a higher fare bucket, who would not pay for F directly (not allowed to book in F due to company policy is one reason). Because if they paid for F, you would not have received the upgrade into that seat.
Your rank within the Platinums really doesn't matter. What do they call the person who graduates 96th out of 100 in his medical school class? "Doctor". You are also "comfortably above the average Gold" or "way above the average Silver". You do show brand loyalty compared to those other classes. Delta also realizes that many people who qualify as you might for PM, also could have significant status with another airline as well and need to compete for your business. The next slippery slope would be lower qualification thresholds for people living outside a DL hub city, like they do now with the MQD waiver for people living outside the US. Doubt that will happen. They already charge the hub captives higher fares so this would be a double hit. I see them raising the card spend for PM or MQD for PM if they really want to reduce the number of PM's.