jiburi

First shoe to drop is Delta with their announcement today July 27 that all status extended for another year to 2022. Will AS do so?
Also curious how AA and UA respond.

An interesting twist, effective February 2022, any member who requalify for DL status within 2021 will be prioritized for upgrade ahead of those receiving complimentary extension.
Jiburi

delpiero223

In case anyone's looking for more information about the Delta extension, here we go:

News post at Delta.com:
https://news.delta.com/delta-extends...dallion-status

Flyertalk discussion regarding this topic:
Delta extends medallion status through '22 Medallion year

anteater

I truly hope not. Those upgrade lists continue to grow and exercising SDC’s is increasingly difficult. 🤙🏻

ab2013

Another question: Will Alaska allow changes on Saver fares (aka Basic Economy) through end of year to match Delta's offer there? (from Ed's update here: https://news.delta.com/we-know-you-e...your-update-ed)

Eastbay1K

This is like comparing Ptarmigan and Peaches.

I would be DL Platinum right now for 2022 on international travel that has not happened, and now won't this year. I've got almost enough for 2022 DL Gold in the MQMs but not even enough for silver in the MQD department (which did not carry forward), with bleak prospects for the remainder of the year.

AS doesn't have the dynamic of people with carryover from last year not having spent enough this year. I expect that there are tens of thousands in my same DL shoes.

On the other hand, I'm getting comfortably close to AS 75K for 2022, and I didn't fly a bunch this year.

notquiteaff

I already renewed my MVPG status, and if I fly what I already have booked, I will reach MVPG75k status. So selfishly I hope they don’t. But I understand that others will feel different if they or family would benefit from it.

TravelingZoomer

If earned status is prioritized over carried over status then I’m indifferent

anteater

I would support this! 👌🏻

PDXPremier

I would too....especially since the 50% EQM bonus and some great mileage running opportunities (mostly during the first half of the year) made it EXTREMELY easy to maintain status or, as in my case, move up a level. My kids earned MVP status this year from two round-trips. If there was ever a year to earn elite status, this was it.

safari ari

Personal opinion (like this entire forum), without delving too much into the business case, AS could wait until ~October to announce extension. This would incentives people to continue to fly them to obtain status with the risk of it not being extended. This way people continue booking summer on AS, maybe some later holiday (Thanksgiving), then give it as a goodwill gesture to extend another year the last quarter.

simonsuo

DL is seriously messed up this year. On the other hand, AS has exceptional phone lines, plenty of staff/crew on the ground and in the air, a fast lounge open, and keeps the real food and bar open in the air. Everyone is scheduling changes like crazy, yet AS rarely has issues for all scheduled flights. I'm also curious to see if AA/UA/WN will follow. But I doubt AS will be the first to follow if ever at all.

rune87

Having done the special status match promo to DL last fall, I will definitely say they had to do something. DL hands down fell flat on its face this year. I did a couple flights and was less than impressed. Everytime I had to call in it was a 2-3 hour wait...as a DM. In the same frame I was easily able to hammer out AS 75K again this year. AS has definitely weathered this past year way better than others, though I for one will be happy to see some slowdown in the stupid antics of leisure flyers. The bad behavior has been nuts.

Sky Dreamer

Seeing the comments on other posts here- I think a lot of Elites absolutely do not want it to happen. I think if they have that elites who actually re-qualified on their earned EQMs have priority over elites who got the free extension that would be a fair. The question is could AS' antiquated IT system handle that? I think not, they can't even getting upgrading right, let alone implement sub-tiers in the elite groups and then add in upgraded programing for the new 100k level. The system would melt down.

RAD_PDX

Noooooooo!!! If they do, 100K needs to be a thing for those of us who actually flew this year. A targeted "get back your status" type challenge in early 2022 might make sense, but a blanket extension is absurd.

chrisl137

DL and the rest of the US3 depend on people who fly a lot internationally to fill their high mileage elite status buckets, and most of those people have been unable to fly this year. AS is primarily a domestic carrier, with a few international routes that are domestic length flights. While AS will lose some people who were flying primarily partners and banking miles on AS, they seem to have been working to reduce that population a little anyway by adding the minimum AS metal segments. Given the carry-over from 2020 and the extended 1.5x bonus, I suspect they'll do sufficiently well filling elite ranks. And it's not about raw numbers, it's about influencing future flying behavior. They've been generous with points and have been better than most others about bringing back on board service, so they may be doing enough that they think they're going to keep people flying AS when things pick back up. I suppose we'll find out in October when they might start doing loyalty promotions that people can take advantage of in their holiday travel.

I flew DL on one RT this year. Our travel office had my FF number wrong so I didn't get credit for the flight. It would have been enough points that I could get status with two more of the same trip this year, on a route that AS doesn't serve, and that I'll probably have to do once a month or so til March. The flight was fine, but when I submitted the request to get the mileage credit, they did add the flight to my history but said it somehow didn't earn miles. It's not worth the trouble to sit on the phone with them - I'll fly AA next time and take advantage of my AS status. At the same time I also submitted a ticket to get my secure flight data updated - they have the short version of my first name because it's an account that I established with NWA long before secureflight existed and was absorbed when DL bought them (that's how little I fly DL, I still see too much NWA...). It was submitted months ago and they still haven't updated my data. So yeah, they have CS problems. I've never waited more than 10 minutes for AS, and usually much less.