I also feel my miles are stranded for now. I have never had this high a balance (>1M) and while my ticket purchase patterns makes for me being less "emotionally" engaged in the current SKYCHOICE/SKYSAVER award debackle, I do notice that seats and travels that were readily available in previous years, by-and-large have been unavailable the past year (such as getting award seats for family and friends as I did much of before). I still have not adjusted my internal calculator to accept SKYCHOICE spending - but the day may come! Spending devaluated miles on hardware to the tune of < 1 cent per mile or any similar devaluation outside award seats is totally uninteresting for me.

Whatever happens in 2008, what I would like to see more of, and what would definitely get my interest in taking back some of the premium business I have taken to other airlines in the past 1-2 years are perks that differentiate more between the elite levels. The "platinum exception" 1 or 2 years ago was a wonderful reminder as to why it is important to stay with DL, the ability to book in F (if available) for, if not K+ fares, then M+ fares, (that were reasonable) were wonderful perks that tied me with super-glue to DL. Instead, we saw not only devaluation or disappearance of these perks, but "equal treatment" across FO, GM and PM which never made sense to me. Yes, you may benefit from an FO booking in "Y" and therefore treat him/her the same as a PM, but the PM will travel Xmany more than the FO, and probably has more wiggleroom in looking elsewhere - so again, I don't get why each level, except for a few things (e.g. PMU's, longer upgrade window) are receiving the same perks despite the increasing difficulty and loyalty needed to get to the higher level.

I have no problems to pay to add to the upgrade certs I get for miles flown (because that would be maintained, right?), which is a change from when I adamantly aregued against that when DL temporarily planned to do so a couple of years ago. As long as the price is within reach for salary earners flying a lot and as long as there is a marked difference in certs allocated between the different levels.

After having flown > 200,000 MQM's when the perks were the highest, I now fly half that on DL, putting many of my longer, premium travels on other carriers because I still get the upgrades for the shorter flights on DL by maintaining PM and there is nothing in it for me for the longer flights which I always fly in premium, no matter what it takes (my last trip in coach TA was in 1988!!), especially it is no longer attractive for me to hoard more miles than what I have, they have turned into - just numbers!.

DL could get all my business back, but it needs to make it worth my while. Throw some for DL relative inexpensive bones to me, and I will come back with a wagging tail, such as the ability to be confirmed in the F cabin on any Y fare (as long as there is a seat avaialble - the price difference to F/A is usually trivial anyway - but because of many large-company travel policies, it is important to be able to purchase a "coach ticket" regardless of price), confirm in F-cabin at purchase of B,M fares if V inventory is available, "Platinum exceptions" (1 for GM, 2 for PM/y) to Skysaver awards, day-passes to the CRC that are transferable, use of PMU's on Intnl. K+ fares, ability to transfer PMU's to family, to mention a few of the kind of bones that will bring all my business back to DL.

Oh, and when merging with United: Make sure RCC's serve free booze!!.

Cheers and good wishes for 2008 for DL and it's FF's.