riddler: I agree with you almost completely, and perhaps was not clear enough. I believe Delta's previous program rewarded discretionary, incremental flyers (who already flew Delta but could be motivated to buy more, and more expensive, tickets); and that their new program more strongly rewards established, already higher-fare flyers (whose behavior is not likely to be changed much by those rewards).

Based on conversations I have had with front cabin seatmates, I would say that Delta already has a quiet and fairly effective Y-UP program... those of you who buy last minute astronomical fares should usually go upfront. That's why even us plats who buy way ahead of time on K's or Q's occasionally get waitlisted.

GG almost always made me buy at least K fares, and we buy plenty of time in advance so could have bought L's and U's. We represented big incremental extra income to Delta, predicated on the platinum time of booking upgrade program -- but why should we bother now?. We also bought 20,000 or more miles a year more than we needed to buy our platinum status. Now that it is devalued, why bother?

The new Delta program is EXPLICITLY advertised as a reward to those who buy higher fare tickets anyway.... and just as clearly throws away those of us discretionary ticket purchasers who HIGHLY VALUED the ability to repeatedly upgrade K's.

Throwing away DISCRETIONARY buyers to reward CAPTIVE ones.... hunh?

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