Another FORMER Delta flyer here. These changes are so wrong! To the person who posted that low fare flyers should not get the same rewards, I would like to point out that Delta's new rules punish frequent business travelers who fly short distances. I am based in Orlando and fly primarily around the state for business on Comair. Because of my short flights and lack of connections, I can generally only gain silver status each year. However, that silver status makes a big difference to me in terms of having a special check-in line so that I don't have to stand in the sometimes hour plus long line of families and all those other people who travel once a year and spend 40 mins at the counter checking in. It is also important to me because I have better seats available to me on the plane, and because I get to board the plane before the hoards of tourists on those occassions when I am flying outside of the state. The occassional opportunity I get to fly outside of the state and get an upgrade is nice, but those other perks are invaluable. Sadly, the so-called premise of Delta's new rules - that it rewards those that pay more for their tickets - is fatally flawed. I took the trouble yesterday to figure out my total cost for the year to make even silver status under the new rules on a flight I normally take for business and compared it to the dollars spent for someone who flies on a discounted coach fare [it had a mix of the .5 and the 1 multiplier] from orlando to san fran. If I pruchase the normal coach fare on the flight i take quite often, I would have to fly 25 rounds trips to the san fran flyer's 7 trips, and the money I spend is slightly double that of the person flying 7 times from MCO to San fran [under the fare I randomly picked, the total cost for earning status on the cross country flight was $4,056]. Even if I purchased the full, nonrestricted coach fare [which is almost $700 for a 20 min flight and is more than the cost of flight to san fran], I would have to fly 17 round trips, costing me $6,000 more than the san fran flyer has spent to gain the same status. So the bottom line is that without the perks of quicker check-in, etc, its now just quicker and alot cheaper for me to drive rather than fly. I would previously always choose to fly over drive, even though the costs has always been higher for me to fly [those short comair flights ARE NOT CHEAP], just to maintain my status at Delta. I would also ALWAYS chose Delta over another available airline - even if the costs at Delta was greater - to maintain my status [even for leisure travel]. NO LONGER!! People in my situation, who have been loyal to Delta for years, basically have no chance to even maintain Silver Status. The perks I generally get from the status don't cost Delta a dime - but when I can possibly avoid it, Delta will be getting no more of MY dimes.

I wrote to Delta yesterday and was wondering if anyone else did and if so, any response?



------------------
Donna D
fomerly loyal Delta flyer