I am one of those GMs that could be PM if he/she wanted to. The last couple of years I've considered going for PM and for one reason or another have not bothered, usually because I still had SWUs. Now, the only difference I see between GM and PM is the 6 SWUs which do have their value.

That said, my travel has become more int'l in the last year and I have benefitted greatly from the fire sale BE fares which I expect to see again this year and which represent excellent MQM earning oppurtunities. If I had been PM this year, I'd probably be tossing out some SWUs because they were non-transferable and the fire sale BE fares were almost as cheap as M fares and completely available anytime I needed one. The other advantage to the "I" fares over upgraded M is that while there is a change fee, it is MUCH easier to find "I" inventory than it is to find "Z". Not to mention that going forward "I" fares give double MQM. Overall I think the program changes greatly benefit the int'l flyer. The int'l flyer who makes out the best is the europe based flyer who buys M fars at $700-900 (as they are available going EC-US-EC. That said, US int'l flyers would benefit from setting things up so that they can buy tix EC-US-EC which would involve eating a one-way US-EC tix, but that's what will make sense to do going forward.

All that said, there is no way I will stick around and pay K fares PLUS the new 500 miler vigorish--simply does not make sense--when AA offers a better coach product and now a better FF program. Not to mention a better schedule JFK-LAX which has been my primary route.

The other thing I have no intention of doing is sitting in DL Y int'l. But I will sit in AA MRTC int'l...

That said, I have 39 SMUs and 6 NAMUs and I plan on burning them before I split.

Delta will also lose my business with American Express as I no longer have any need to earn DL miles.