Originally Posted by
Adelphos
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
I probably would have booked one or two stays too, but only if I were near a threshold…but I (like many other bus travelers I’m sure) would rather use the rewards from another one of our CCs that has better earning/redemption rates when traveling on personal time. (Actually I would prefer their booking engine over DLs for paid travel too, because the rewards are much better).
I will say, a few weeks ago, I was out the door, but they brought me back in with the rollbacks. DL is my airline of choice. Not my travel agent wannabe/credit card company of choice. It’s too bad they can’t just make enough money by flying airplanes….