Kill rollover now
 

Thought I would revive this old thread of mine. Rollover miles just posted to my account. With 130K rolled over and a trip to SYD in J I now stand at just under 150K MQM's on Jan 15th.

Again, my rational is set out below and I am not sure DM is going to be the exclusive benefit I was hoping for when it was announced.

With EP on the way out (not that I was one) it seems that for really FF we will be fighting it out with all the rolled-over inflated elites for domestic upgrades with is the main benefit of the DL program IMHO.

Now all we need is some ridiculous double/tripple promo to inflate even more.

Just ranting


Origional Post.
I personally hate Rollover. It inflates the upper tiers and takes away the benefit if being an "elite flyer". Just when they bring DM DL brings in rollover to inflate the DM ranks in 2011. Not nice for guys like me who fly BIS 250K+.

It's happened in PM this year, 60 names on UG list, 30-40 PM's on flights, ridiculous.

Am at 99 segs for the year with about 50% UG, I do the Elite heavy ATL-LAX most weeks so allowing the DM tier to artificially inflate will hurt guys like me. When I fly other routs I get upgraded most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I love DL and they do a great job from my perspective, just keep DM for really frequent flyers.

KILL ROLLOVER NOW

Take it easy Dean.

I feel your pain with the PM overpopulation.

I think the 125K threshold for DM will eliminate 90% of the current PMs, even with roll over next year.

It will be 3 or 4 DMs on your flights, and your upgrade will once again be available.

If it does not turn out this way, DL can always institute another higher level in 2011 to cover.

There was no rollover this year and I suspect ranks swelled due to the merger more than the promos. DM should help your cause next year, already many are stopping short of 125k to stay PM next year. Rollover should help the FO get to GM and a few GM make PM. Fewer PM will get to DM on rollover.

I'm with you on removing rollover but it is purely a self interest thing. I know that I'll always hit 150K+ miles in a given year so there is no incentive in it for me. That said, Delta has to find a way to make things more attractive to people that fly less because there just aren't enough people that fly ridiculous amounts of miles. I get why they are doing it but don't find it particularly attractive as I'll start the year near Platinum. This is driving me to use Continental after re-obtain DM early in the year. That way I will easily be able to maintain the highest status on both. I'm pretty sure that this was not the intent but based on discussions with colleagues it may be pretty common.

Sadly true. The 2011 DM ranks will be bloated with flyers who come nowhere CLOSE to actually logging 125K MQMs in 2010, apart from rollovers.

I somehow doubt we'll see any bonus MQM offerings next year.

hope you are right mate. There is so much I like about DL, it's just this issue gets me going a bit. Too much flying in early years in Asia spoiled me, SIA and Cath PAc were awesome :)

Balancing this out, the 2010 elite ranks will probably be significantly reduced from the size of the 2008 ranks (factoring in, of course, combined DL/NW totals) due to the decrease in business and personal travel in 2009.

Any inflation effect won't really start showing up till 2012 or later.

The ranks have swelled this year due to the merger. Give it a year and you will start to see them re-balance as people's travel is down for 2009 and a lot of people (like me) who are jumping ship from DL/NW because of the changes.

WOW! It's not even been done yet and the OP "hates it" and KNOWS that it's ruining Skymiles.

(And is this of case of "if it would have been GOOD for me then I would LOVE it, but since I am not going to roll over much it's time to whine"?)

I will roll over some miles and segments. I fly the same basic route OP complains about. Even with roll over I don't expect to make Diamond next year either. Much ado about nothing!

I think the rollover idea is kinda cool and innovative on Delta's part to attract more flyers. However I do agree with you that there should be an "elite" tier of some kind for the most frequent of flyers.

I think it's definitely a case of the lower tiers becoming more inflated with little to no affect at DM. Yes, there are a few people that will hit DM from rollover, but just as many will do what others in this thread have stated - stop flying DL once achieving DM to get status somewhere else. It's really going to affect SM and GM as they don't fly enough to hit status in any one year. If someone carries over 25k MQM to hit DM, they still flew 100k that year - vastly different from the 10k carryover to hit SM for an infrequent traveller. If anything this really just means the Zone 2 boarding line will be that much longer with more elite members at the lower tiers.

It baffles me why people don't understand this point. Have many FTers never opened a newspaper? Have they not read any of the press releases from the airlines detailing huge drops in revenues and yields, all of which mention sizeable decreases in business travel? Are they so completely clueless that they couldn't figure out that all the double EQM/MQM promos or things like UA's fly now, get a discount in 2010 likely reflect a drop-off in elite ranks being seen by the airlines?

I don't want to make this about the OP, but this topic is simply tiring. It, frankly, comes across as little more than an opportunity for some folks to a) whine about a missed upgrade, or b) to somehow paint themselves as better than the guy sitting next to them or higher up on the upgrade list.

Given the MQMs you get from the targeted Amex promos and other non-flight activities I wouldn't count on nearly as huge of a decline in ranks next year. I think the best thing DL could do is get rid of all the non-flight MQM promos. Heck, even the flight promos are getting to be a bit much.

So, not only did the rollover MQM's make some people decide to stop short of attaining DM, but it is also making some people, once they reach DM, fly other airlines.

This rollover MQM feature might rank right up there with "new Coke" as the biggest marketing blunder. But I will play the game while it lasts.

I'm sorry, but I just don't get this one. The OP will now sit squarely at the top of pecking order. Every other year, he'll be joined by the 100,000 to 124,999 flyer and every third year by the 75,000 to 99,999 flyer. As opposed to now where they're all lumped together, which is preferable because??