mhbaker

Perhaps a tad over the line, but not much more rude and condescending than DL's posts which start out suggesting that DL wants a frank discussion of this policy when, in fact, the policy is cast in stone and DL has no real interest in hearing any discussion. Numerous posters have explained why this policy is BS and have offered alternatives. DL isn't interested. DL has no intention of "engaging the community;" they've made that clear and it isn't because their feelings were hurt. I don't think the poster was suggesting that 70,000 + people should lose their job because they are incompetent. I believe he was saying that when a company shows such little respect for its best customers, it doesn't deserve to be in business.

NCommander

Might be worth a call to AF to see if you can upfare to T or another earning class; shouldn't be TOO much of a difference.

DLdweeb

Why? Heck, I can speak corporate BS just as well.......

DL757ATL

Now we're up to 194 elites leaving Delta...even if half that amount leave, Delta will still lose a pretty handsome chunk of change.

Let's say that 100 of the people who say they're leaving actually leave and the average yearly spend is $10,000 (some lower and some much higher). That's a million bucks lost right there. Just think, Delta could've spent that million on fixing (or even attempting to fix) the SkyMiles program, which IMO, would pay off more in the long run.
Please feel free to point out how flawed my logic is .

StayingHomeIsBetter

DL needs to survive for the sake of the good employees.

But its long term survival is put a risk by the current management team.

A company in the service industry cannot survive when the management is this tone deaf to customer concerns.

flargley

I like how none of these questions were ones we really cared about, like, oh, I dunno, why you don't just offer the low award tickets earlier, or why you don't fix the obvious IT problems with the booking system, or why don't you explain the actual methodology behind the fake 1M seat number. Oh yeah, it's because you don't actually care about your frequent flyers. SO INSULTING.

Again, for the 3rd time, ban these DL public relations hacks from FT. They eat up bandwidth and provide no benefit to FTers. Their asinine "dialogue" is doing nothing but enraging all of us.

A captive customer audience is a huge benefit for PR reps looking to spread their press releases (read: propaganda); just cut them off, make them hurt.

FT and its userbase is about making flying better. These DL reps are about making flying worse.

DL757ATL

^

StayingHomeIsBetter

I won't leave.

(To clarify... I won't be searching for a status match to another alliance, but I'll be damned if I'll go out of the way to fly DL when a more convenient or cheaper alternative is available. I've got all the miles I need on DL this year, now that the Keystone Kops in charge of DL have shown me how little value there would be to going for DM. )

Now I have additional motivation to stay, I want to beat them on their own turf.

I'm tired of being kicked around.

AeroWesty

Michelle, simply reaffirming a bad decision isn't the "conversation" that was promised.

But in a way, I'm glad to have seen this. I don't have a very long iron in this fire. At the moment, I'm simply trying to use some old NW/DL miles that have been sitting around too long, and have gotten caught up in this policy change ONE DAY after a SkyMiles agent said I could make any change to the ticket I wanted right up to departure. Talk about bad timing.

But I see we're getting no where on this issue.

My current interest is mainly making my voice heard so that hopefully other airlines will see the folly of this, and won't follow suit.

When I take the trip, I certainly won't be looking around to consider whether to switch my loyalty from Star Alliance to Delta/SkyTeam. It would have been the perfect opportunity to catch a traveler, someone who only recently set foot on a Delta jet again for the first time in a few years, to show off Delta's international product, where the real money is made. But now, no matter what improvements or investments Delta has made in their product, and I know there've been many, with more in the pipeline, I've no interest in looking at Delta as an airline I'd want to commit any loyalty or dollars towards.

Vuelos

where's the step forward?

Or in the words spoken by Donald Sutherland, the "push" for every "pull"

Winkdaddy

So I was wrong. From Michelle's response, Delta was indeed targeting those who change from Mid-High awards to LOW awards within the 72 hour mark. At first they made it sound like they were just going after people who were not using award tickets by making them cancel ahead of time (which this policy actually had decent support here at FT, including myself)..BUT they got super greedy..and added this new stipulation that eliminated switching to LOW awards.

The sad thing is ALL this could be avoided if Delta fixed their award calendar and offered a REASONABLE amount of Low level awards way in advance, especially BE awards, and normal routing options of course, so searching at last minute wouldnt be necessary.

ryandc99

^

BearX220

When a corporate rep follows 700+ angry posts from enraged customers with a bland, non-responsive "Thank you for your feedback," you know the "conversation" is over. As is the thinking customer's relationship with the company.

That's patently silly, of course. They push poor Michelle out front here and make her say these crazy things. Like Saddam making Baghdad Bob tell the press Iraq was winning the war. Don't vilify the poor woman. She didn't write these lies, she's only reading them.

Repricing award seats down to market-standard levels doesn't mean they go unused. It means people get more value for their miles, which is counter to DL's interests.

It's obvious. In two words, currency management, which has become more important at DL than customer satisfaction.

Everyone has too many miles, mainly because of the Amex relationship. And there's less award inventory. This disaster and the "broken" (ha) award calendar are the natural consequences: DL has to make redemption harder and more costly. Forbidding close-in down-pricing is part of that strategy. DL calculates that the benefits of devaluation will outweigh negative customer sentiment.

All those huge mileage bonuses have led to this, and people who celebrated their bulging SM balances are seeing the other shoe drop now. As Tom Waits sang, the large print giveth and the small print taketh away.

I have said for a long time, ever since WorldPerks was dismantled, that DL is seeing how little of a loyalty program they can get away with operating. They're testing for a floor. Unless enough of you quit DL/SM (I quit in 2010, heh, heh) there will be another development like this soon enough -- termination of all low-tier BE awards, let's say.

As you know, titans of business vote DL among our most admired companies while the public at large votes DL among the most hated companies in America. They're both right. DL has turned in good business results while treating customers with profound indifference. Until now elites have tended to dismiss the "most hated" stuff and defend DL. But now, to paraphrase Pastor Niemoller, they come for you.

Perhaps this is the tipping point where the costs of lying to customers and gutting SkyMiles are finally seen by DL to outweigh the business benefits. But I bet not.

Traveller

As do I. I am still hurting over the untimely passing of my brother 2 weeks ago, he was an uncle to 8 of my young nieces and nephews. How callous can that uncle statement be?

Traveller

She isn't writing them, it's probably a team effort. I'm sure the answers have to get approval up the chain of command which is why she only posts here once a day.