Plat Medallion Upgrade = PMU
System wide Upgrade = SWU

The difference is a SWU is typically usable from most Y fare classes and the PMU is typically only usable from the most expensive Y fare classes.

Pretty Much Unsuable

Except that in Delta terminology, the new SWU starting from the 2010 program will still require expensive Y/B/M fares.

I wouldn't call them useless. Anything that can get you upgraded to BE without paying for BE is not TOTALLY useless, are they less usable than the AA, UA and now CO product, absolutely.

What will make me say they ARE useless is not so much the fare restriction as how Z inventory is not being opened up, they could be free and not useable if all flights have Z0 when you try to book.

I did discover one interesting anomily over the summer, was looking at M fare using PMU from JFK-CDG and was surprised to find out the I product on the AF website for the same flight was the same price.

+1. During the last 4 years, while PMs were complaining about PMUs, what did DL do in response:

1. Raise M-fares by $1k+ on TATL and $2k+ on TPAC
2. Introduce "choice" so that you could choose something else
3. Introduce "at the gate" use on M+ fares
4. Introduce a DM level at 125k without real SWU

That is a pathetic response!

It is not surprising that PMU usage went down from ~50% (a year ago) to ~20% (this summer).

I think it bears noting that a lot of threads lately (including this one, and one that I started a few weeks back) are asking "What will DL's response be to X...?"

Unfortunately, the problem is in the question. DL is playing catch-up to just about everything right now. SWUs, IT issues, fare-bucket pricing, etc etc etc... DL is no longer driving the market, which is a really unenviable situation to be in when you're the largest player in that market. They're being forced to respond (or we believe that they SHOULD respond) to just about everything. They've become that lumbering, hard-to-steer whale that can throw a lot of weight around, but that smart enterprise businesses have learned to fear.

Clearly DL mgmt believes that keeping your head down and staying the course is the successful strategy here. Don't engage, don't respond. Let everyone else bleed to death while you go slow-and-steady and hopefully come out on top.

That might be a successful strategy for the general flying public. I wish them luck. But I believe it's proving to be a death-knell for DL's top-tier FFs, whom (I sense) have little but a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the status-quo, and the complete lack of meaningful communication on the issues. Sure, it's easy to buy a ticket to visit grandma in Palm Beach... but it's very very hard right now to deal with DL on complex Int'l itineraries, and even harder to receive no meaningful recognition or benefit on them for 100k+ of business when other airlines are lining up to show how much they'll love you...

I status-matched to CO last week and they've already got my 1Q 2010 business. I'm in CLE, so it's no big deal for me. I'm just sad that it's come to this.

For which traveler exactly is DL better than CO/UA? CO/UA allow unlimited changes to award tickets if routing doesn't change; unlimited domestic upgrades; any-fare SWUs for 100k+ flyers; E+ on UA even if you aren't upgraded. Each of these features alone blows DL out of the water.

Is there a single feature of the FFP in which SkyMiles is better than OnePass? especially when partnered with UA's MP?

This is starting to get fun.
 

I just recently got matched to CO Plat so I am set for a switch if need be. I have some flights in early 2010 that I could move to CO - one an award flight on DL which I will most certainly have to pay to have redeposited.

At this time, DL has some real issues to contend with regarding my business.

1) Milking PMs for fees stinks. I hate the redeposit/change award fees. HATE THEM!

2) The M+ fare PMU has gotten so bad (not necessarily the PMU, the M fare). Limiting PMUs from 6 to 4 is one thing. Letting the M fare hit $2500 is shameful.

From my point of view, they broke it. What's left is a pretty good domestic upgrade percentage but with DMs coming, that could change (I pay K+ so as a PM have good odds beating out other PMs on LUT..... until of course come up I come up against a DM.

I would expect Delta will have to respond with something similar. With their major advertising drive into NYC trying to gain market share and corporate contracts, they will need to do something just to get back on par with CO if they expect to lure in elites in NYC and northeast area.

Why wouldn't you call them useless if you have evidence thay can buy a BE seat for the same price without using PMUs?
This year I haven't used any PMUs because they would have saved me <$200per trip. I prefered to pay the extra $170, buy I fare and have a guaranteed BE seat. The PMUs ended up being Pretty Much Useless in my case.
The second time I found myself in this situation I spent my hard earned dollars with CO (those are my vacation flights and I am paying with my hard earned dollars).

I have no plans to tell DL management how to run their company, It's their business, but they can't expect me to spend my money on a progarm that doesn't benefit me, it's my business.

Happy Travels
DLP

I think you meant Unusable.

SHIB didn't say "useless" but "unusable." There is a difference. But in reality in this context, not much.

I would agree with you. There are some markets where M is VERY close to I. However, my travel this year using PMU's (2x MCO-EZE & MCO-PRG/TXL-MCO) saved me between $750 & $1,000 over the I fare and had Z available at booking.

Looking at FCO-MCO/LHR-MCO for next year for my parents. The FCO-MCO savings of M versus I is $1,200 per person r/t (total savings of using PMU or miles is $1,200 since this is a 1-way trip).

MJV1 DL M Round-Trip 1743.00(USD)
MEEWB DL M Round-Trip 2072.00(USD)
IRAPJV DL I Round-Trip 2961.00(USD)

However LHR-MCO is not a significant savings (actually, the M fare was lowered today so it was cheaper than the I).

MRUKWB DL M Round-Trip 2147.00(USD)
H2GBWB DL H Round-Trip 2183.00(USD)
IRAPUK DL I Round-Trip 2313.00(USD)



When I look at ex-US prices, I find that the base is almsot $1K more than if I started in the EU....
MCO-FCO
MAB2 DL M Round-Trip 2762.00(USD)
BAP1 DL B Round-Trip 2846.00(USD)
BEERT9 DL B Round-Trip 3053.00(USD)
BEERT DL B Round-Trip 3054.00(USD)
IRLEIS DL I Round-Trip 3304.00(USD)

MCO-LON
BEERT9 DL B Round-Trip 2350.00(USD)
BEERT DL B Round-Trip 2351.00(USD)
M7AP2 DL M Round-Trip 2379.00(USD)
B7AP1 DL B Round-Trip 2568.00(USD)
B2GB DL B Round-Trip 2764.00(USD)
Y1US9 DL Y Round-Trip 3150.00(USD)
Y1US DL Y Round-Trip 3151.00(USD)
IRLEIS DL I Round-Trip 3338.00(USD)

Actually it is not that uncommon to find that on delta.com. The differences are that the I requires a much longer advance purchase period but the M requires Z availability.
I did buy an I JFK-CDG-JFK this summer on dl.com with DL flight numbers although on AF metal and it was a few hundred dollars cheaper than the M.

Oh yes. There is one and that is that the domestic upgrades are much more certain for Platinum Medallions than they are for comparable status flyers on CO or will be for UA 1Ks.

Delta has more first class seats on its domestic flights and apparently has not flooded its ranks with Medallion flyers by handing out DEQMs on the lowest fare classes. Additionally, they do not issue as many of the MUP, BUP, and QUP fares that the others do so that the cabin does not fill with paying customers as quickly.

As a PM, you almost never fail to upgrade domestically but as a CO PE I was beginning to miss nearly a quarter of the time and I understand that it is now even worse than that.

And here lies the real joke of the M fare. Ex-Europe, the M fares are a little north of were they use to be ($1700ish). Ex-USA, they are about $1000 more. If you do enough TATL in and out of the same cities, you might be much better off getting over to Europe some way and combining this with a bunch of Europe-US-Europe M fares. I prefer M over I fares as the M fare doesn't impose a Saturday night stay.