Originally Posted by
HDQDD
So DL is giving up their travel agent ambitions. I’m 0% surprised.
Like I said in the huge thread when the first announcement came out, this was very poorly thought out by DL. People are not going to give up their hotel/rental status just to earn more points in DL’s program that devalues status every chance they get. Furthermore, many (most?) business travelers have to use company booking tools for travel anyway, so this wouldn’t have even been an option.
Let’s not forget, it was Delta’s “loyalty” team that came up with these changes. I cannot fathom how they didn’t know that was going to fail. This is exactly why you have customer focus groups and voice of the customer activities.
This can go up there with “New Coke” as a text book case in how not to go to market.
1) Business travelers also book a lot of personal travel outside of company portals (including booking direct, using OTAs, etc). Remember that most business travelers also have to use a company card to book travel - yet many still have Delta cards (or other airline cards) for personal spend
2) American Airlines had a lot of success with Rocketmiles and BookAAHotels in terms of getting people to book hotels and earn Loyalty Points
Delta linked lower thresholds with the removal of the hotel option - if that was truly the link, it is a positive. However, in a vacuum, any loss of an ability to earn MQD is a loss. I would have booked a stay or two a year via Delta Stays, now I am not