syd999

Mine expire in a few weeks. Great job Delta!

fiuchris

My electronic ones expire in November 2010, which coincides with one year from when I hit PM. The purely non-scientific method of matching up some of the expiration dates people mentioned with their current status (i.e. if you've said your eCerts expire today or next month and your profile on FT says DM meaning you achieved PM early in the year) leads me to think that the electronic system is setting the eCerts to expire one year from the day status was achieved rather than at the end of the qualification year in Feb 2011.

Just my observation. I almost always fly sLUT fares anyway, the expiration date is moot to me personally.

javabytes

Medallion desk says that expiration date is wrong and they'll be honored until the original expiration date on the paper certs. Insert some vague details about a fix possibly in the works for the way they're showing up. Wonder what'll happen when I try to redeem one after July when the electronic ones "expire"...

generaltao

You mean those things are redeemable? Could have fooled me! I have tried unsuccessfully to use a PMU on a full-fare coach ticket 5 times now (3 times domestically!!).

Blank Sheet

Be sure to print out\record the certs as they may disappear from the system when they expire.

stardal

Same here. Have certs that expire in Feb 2011 and yet these new ones expire August 2010. You know, I've been a very loyal customer for a number of years, but these repeated missteps are starting to wear on that. Who in the heck does their system QA checks?

StayingHomeIsBetter

Perhaps this is one of the new tools that were described as:

"...changes will be gradual and will continue over a series of monthly production loads that will allow us for continuous, phased improvement and also allow for the various quality assurance testing steps that need to be taken prior to moving functionality from a test environment into a live production environment."

... phased improvement

... various quality assurance testing steps

DL management's concept of "quality assurance testing" appears to be "dump this in the customers' laps and lets see what they say..."

How can one organization continue shooting itself in the foot so frequently, and not find the motivation to straighten up its act?

Justin026

I received the e-mail with 6 certificates that expire in 11/2010. From this thread, it is apparently a fouled-up, inept implementation of -- something -- by Delta. They use "careful quality testing" as a reason not to act and then this is what results when they do act.

The overriding problem is that airline employees have no concept of how a frequent flyer award program actually works day to day with the user. At best, they have to interview others to try to figure it out. Airline employees use their own company's service as a bartered benefit, so they don't know how the paying passenger interacts with it either.

What are needed here are some letter codes in a separate column the little tables they put in the e-mail. The codes would each mean something -- which paper certificates they replace/duplicate, which program feature the certificate comes from, etc. For example, "A" might mean "normal annual renewal PMUs, they substitute for the paper certificates you received in early 2010." (I don't know if that is actually correct, but this is the kind of detail we need.)

The question of actually ever being able to use the certificates is another matter.

DevilDog438

Just sent in my email complaint, since the Diamond Desk, for the second time, advised that only the SkyMiles Service Center can help with this issue, they (SM SC) are too busy at the moment due to staffing levels and I will need to call back on Monday during normal East Coast business hours.

When I raised the point that the certificates expire tomorrow (Sunday) and will be automatically removed from the system, the agent expressed sympathy, but said there is nothing he can do about this issue.

flsunshineflyer

My Profile is just out of date. I know Platinum is a one year thing for me thanks to the gift MQM's Delta gave out last year, so I haven't bothered to change the profile.

Dovster

We are almost in the same position. I will probably make Silver this year.

I will, however, remain active in the Bates Motel program.

DevilDog438

DL's reply to my email:

So much for fostering customer loyalty.

No reply to my follow-on reply yet.

timetosave

I was excited when I saw the subject of the e-mail "An Update On Your Platinum Systemwide Upgrades." For a minute, I thought they were going to announce they were lowering the fare class requirements for these.
Unfortunately, I just got my paper certs converted to ecerts with an earlier expiration date.
Come on Delta. Consider lowering the upgradeable fare class by at least one for international upgrades. I've already taking 2 international flights on United (paying for economy plus) because it was significantly cheaper than an M fare.

Spiff

This really sucks!!!

Now, what will I use to wrap fish or train kittens? Newspaper? TP? This is yet another shameful downgrade of benefits.

These instruments just went from nearly worthless (open envelope, put on floor, happy kittens) to completely worthless and now a waste of my valuable time (open email, mark as spam, delete spam).

Manoa Chris

Which is to say you cannot use them on Air France flights!