Originally Posted by
DLASflyer
No need to extend status. Reward those of us who are travelling now, not those who used to travel. The entire economy has changed. The old business travel scene is dead. Many of those folks will never come back.
True, but I doubt Delta wants to risk losing frequent flyers. It doesn't cost them much to maintain people's status. The most "expensive" thing for them is if someone just selects 20K SkyMiles / 3x25K SkyMiles for choice benefits. Everything else doesn't really cost them anything. And if people aren't flying, they aren't consuming the non-cost items (upgrades, SkyClub access, etc).
If people are going to "return to travel", it will happen in H2 2021. I agree that a straight extension doesn't make sense (if you're not doing a good bit of travel by the back side of H2 2021, you're probably not ever going back into the air like the old days) - but if people start flying at pace in late Q3/Q4, I doubt Delta won't come up with a creative way to extend their status. It may not even be published and they'll do "private" extension offers. I'm sure they'll make a decision when they have more data.