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Old Apr 25, 2019, 3:58 pm
  #34  
ethernal
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Programs: DL DM, UA Gold, Alaska MVP, Bonvoy (lol) Ambassador
Posts: 2,991
Originally Posted by HDQDD
FTFY

Why give top tier status away? You want to encourage your customers to continuing trying to attain status (i.e. spend money). Delta is a business.
Originally Posted by lakid

That is not correct as with United it can only be earned on United metal and not on partners even from star alliance and also class of service miles although it counts towards elite status miles it does not count 4 million miler program as such 4MM miles is actual BIS miles Think of it a person flying in business class 4MM which in their program gets 2x elite qualifying miles in essence only gets 2MM Counted towards million miles
I don't view this as that big of a deal.. agree that 4MM on United is harder than 4MM on Delta, but Delta's fare class bonuses aren't as generous as United's (UA business class fares = 200% bonus and 300% for full fare, Delta's business class bonus = 150% and 200% for full fare).

I may have a warped perception as I do about 300K BIS miles a year which is probably higher than most. Roughly 200K on Delta (netting maybe 230K MQM due to fare bonuses - almost all of my Delta flying is domestic economy, I avoid them for international J due to the 767 plague) and 100K spread across United and Alaska.

Case in point on the fare class bonus - I will probably fly United only maybe 50-60K miles this year but will probably make 1K due to a number of international J trips given the generous bonuses they have. This would be very tough/expensive on Delta without credit cards (which I don't use).

Agree it could be tougher if you fly partners a lot - Delta is far more generous in that regard - but I've always found it silly (JV partners aside) why Delta gives either MQM on non-DL ticket stock for partner flights.
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