pbd456

i am already Plat on CO and will have 67K till April.. not sure if i should status match.
it is clear that DL is american-centric and dont give a damn to asians.

reed2x

Michelle obviously left out information.
She specifically states changes to TPAC redemption levels. These have not changed yet. Its still 60Y/120C. Reading between the lines, I believe these will change early next week without warning. My bet is that US-JP stays the same, but destinations beyond Japan will be higher. Book now!!!

Take warning in other regions. We might be in for unpleasant surprises elsewhere. EU-India, US-Mid East, EU-ASIA,..its anybody's guess at this point.

pbd456

HNL - Asia will have to adjusted.
HNL - NRT is 40000 in Y for almost 4000 miles
while NRT - SPN is not even 1500 miles for 45000 miles.
Michelle picked NRT - SIN and compare that to JFK - LHR, she didnt mention
NRT - SPN or NRT - GUM.
but again, this is what you expect from delta.

andymo99

My first comment is admittedly a snide one. Why is it that welcome changes that we are legitimately looking forward to - such as baggage waivers on AS, Perk Choice awards, etc. - seem to be announced but continually delayed, whereas negative changes get "pushed out" before they were even intended to be implemented?


Uh oh. This doesn't sound good at all!

You are being a bit patronizing. We haven't been patient at all about the publishing of award charts. We've been very inpatient, and consistently getting the run-around and promises from DL.

Also, to be fair, people often confuse problems with the award calendar with problems pertaining to low award inventory. The latter is by far the bigger problem for most of us.

[emphasis added]
Interesting, so someone traveling from the West Coast to NRT might get a lower rate than someone traveling from the East Coast?


My two cents: whatever value you put on premium high level awards is absolutely irrelevant to me, because I will never redeem more than low level for any award. I have successfully redeemed 4M DL miles on low awards only, and this behavior won't change. So as far as I am concerned, you can go ahead and double or triple the high level awards and get all the less informed and less tenacious customers to reduce the mileage liability this way. What I do care about is:

• How you adjust the low (what I call "standard") mileage levels
• How you adjust the usually pathetic availability of the low awards, especially compared to the competition

I fear that Delta is going to trumpet via PR that they've reduced the high level business class award on SEA-NRT from today's level of 370,000 miles roundtrip to 250,000 miles roundtrip (BFD as far as I am concerned) while at the same time announcing that the low level business class award has increased from 120,000 to 140,000. Delta will brag about massively reducing some awards by as much as 120,000 while introducing "modest market adjustments" to other awards by 20,000 miles or so.




Just for context, several years ago (c. 2005) when we had a round of increases that included something like 80k to 90k or 100k for US-EUR in J, there was indeed ample advanced warning. Not only that, but this was at a time when one could "cash in" for awards that you later redeemed for the actual flights you wanted. So I redeemed for a handful of US-EUR J awards and then used them later when I identified my travel needs.

luv_flying

I think the best way is to escalate to the top management (top down approach), it is only through this way we can have our voices listened and get that changed. Bottom up is simply not going to work. Who has the email address?

stephem

yeah, I'd like that too.
I just got off a call to the Diamond line to try to get a decent contact. I was given a PO box, asked for a supervisor and wound up getting nothing more but a very sympathetic ear: "You guys have to get into the marketing department, they are the ones making these changes. People like you helped roll back some other unpopular changes." She gave me a fax number in customer service, but I think it is the SM department where we need to direct our comments. I also think we need to sandbag their social media presence, to make sure their positively spun announcements are balanced out with some critical feedback.

GUWonder

Complaints to top DL management are relatively meaningless compared to publicly embarrassing DL management, something that is better done via traditional media channels and should increasingly also include a social media element as well to ratchet up the pressure on DL management from a wider base.

s1c3r1a1b3b3l1e1

That is a great idea. I'll talk to some of my reporter friends and see if anyone wants to pick up the story.

rankourabu

I vote for this bit for best spin of 2011

woo hoo no more 670k tickets to Europe, bring on 500k!

I have 90k SkyPesos, I am expecting a 10-30% devaluation next week for intl awards
Sad to see my hard earned NW miles becoming more and more worthless....

pbd456

i take a bigger hit already.. since almost all my redemption are intra-asia.

davetravels

Nahhhh!! I think they're gonna LOWER USA to Europe in Y from 60K to 55K to match UA & CO - - - right????

Jaimito Cartero

I'm guessing 120k US-to NRT and maybe ICN. 140-150k to everywhere else.

Has anyone seen what US-Africa biz award is now? Haven't checked, but would guess 140-150k.

DL is all about pulling the wool over your eyes. They did this with the elimination of free award changes, and sneaking it into a promo email. Anyone who believes the spin that JR, or any other DL lackey puts out, is going to be in for some big time hurt.

Expect fuel surcharges, higher redemption rates on popular routes, and who knows what other "enchancements".

As a give back, they'll only charge you 320k for a RT, instead of the 380k that it sometimes spits out. Oh, and only 15k from NRT to ICN. Wooo-hooo.

s1c3r1a1b3b3l1e1

Just like the Hawaii upgrades for Hawaii based elites also disappeared quietly during the merger and never reappeared. This is one more area where they are definitely not Best-in-Class!

And, I think it was quite the sleight of hand to take away lounge access for Asia-based gold elites and above while giving them ST Elite +. They lose out on that transaction big time.

SAT Lawyer

120K, but it sounds like that's about to change.

RealHJ

What Dullta should do here is simple: SMs earned BEFORE the massive increase in redemption rates can be used at the old rates (per the current...sorry, I mean old, award charts off nwa.com), while SMs earned for tickets booked after the massive redemption rate increases would be redeemed at the new rates.

That is how it's typically done in business and how any reputable company would handle it. (But, then again, Delta and reputable do not belong in the same sentence, that is, unless there is also a "dis" before the "reputable.")

Customers who booked flights and spent on their AmEx CCs before the change in SM redemption rates can spend those earned miles at the old rates. Customers who booked flights after the change (thus knowingly acknowledging the newly further devalued SMs) would book at the new rates.

That is how it is always done with checked bag fees: tickets booked before fee change date honour the old fees. Why not also apply the same principle to SM redemption?

It is highly unethical to raise SM redemption rate for SMs purposefully earned before the devaluation that one was planning to use based off the current (saved off nwa.com) award charts. Why not at least do it honestly and only apply it to SMs earned for tickets booked after this massive devaluation? (Dullta, please respond... though I can be sure that you won't, as you are, afte all, so very extremely dull to your clients' needs and expectations and how your are perceived by your clients, and are outright deaf when it comes to listening to your passengers on any matter of actual importance.)