I don't see how this makes for any better chances for anyone than before.

I have followed this forum on basically a weekly basis over the last year, and until now I have never felt the need to voice my opinion, until now.

First, before I write the rest of my remarks, I will state that by no means do I think I am a large contributor to Delta's revenues. Many on this board seem to think they are golden eggs, and that's fine, but I know I am not one of them, yet. I do believe I am representative of the general biz/personal traveler. I've paid for a Crown Room membership, and intend to renew. I try to maintain Gold status every year since I first received it, BECAUSE of the benefits. I travel for both personal and business several times a month, and will continue to, economic conditions good or bad. I have never been surveyed by Delta, except for the concerns about the Crown Room. Given such, I am not sure Delta is even hearing their flyers' voices.

As a going on 3 year Gold flyer, I'm especially going to miss the NAMU, as they provided me a way to occasionally beat out Platinum flyers. As a regular business and personal flyer, I was happy to stay loyal to Delta given that I generally never had a problem getting an upgrade on my K and up level tickets. I'd even pay the difference on the business flights just to get an upgradeable ticket. Now with the switch from 800 MSU to 500MSU, you've gone from giving a reward of 6400 miles to your regular GOLD flyers to a measly 2000 miles, AND on top of that you've made them more expensive. Well, you can bet your bottom dollar I'm not going to pay for these upgrades, my loyalty should be good enough. Apparently our loyalty isn't enough to compensate for bad management of money in general within Delta.

Given the recent changes, I will begin to find alternate carriers to work with. If I'm going to sit in coach regularly, it's going to be with a carrier that offers more than Delta (read: most everyone). Delta, with one slight of hand you've just given JetBlue, and several others a larger customer base. Before yesterday, I hadn't even contemplated switching carriers, but these recent decisions prove to me the lack of loyalty on your part, and as such, I will show mine now.

I've always felt Delta was wrong in their decision to allow only certain class tickets to be upgraded by it's Medallion flyers, but I lived with it, paying the extra expense just to know I would probably get an upgrade for my personal flights. Well, you wised up to that at the exact perfect time for you to: when the days are gone when a ULT coach seat will likely ever get an upgrade. Don't expect me to congratulate your staff on finding an empty reward.

As a gold member, I've now been relegated to being a silver member with 100% miles bonus (which I couldn't really care less about) and a 3 day upgrade window (the only real advantage now). I guess 2003 will mean the begin of the end to my relationship with Delta.

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Gold Medallion, 2+ years