T.J. Bender

Agreed. If the voucher is less than $400, I have very little motivation to VDB. $200 rarely gets me where I want to go.

javabytes

Yes, but then you could just take the $600, apply it to your first ticket, then take the remainder and apply it to your next ticket. I suppose you could prefer 3x$200 if, say, your tickets normally cost $250 and you'd rather pay 3x$50 out of pocket instead of $0, $0, and $150.

GUWonder

Here's a "customer giveback". The above is not fair. At least one of them has been online. And a job is about helping out one's self, even if it's the customers who pay the price yet again.

Thank you, DL.

Deemus7

For me, this is ABSOLUTELY the most significant devaluation of SkyMiles yet. I travel on DL almost exclusively for work, and occasionally I do take advantage of VDB (and use choice benefits) to build up the vouchers in my account. Then, when Mrs. Deemus and I need to fly for personal reasons, we have vouchers that can be combined to fly on Delta, even if they are more expensive than other carriers.

Case in point...our alma mater is playing in the Music City Bowl later this month, and I combined three vouchers for my ticket on DL and two (of mine) for her ticket. I use almost all of my vouchers on her, since many times I can meet her at our personal destination on the company dime (rather than flying home).

I do not FOR A SECOND buy the "stolen certificates" argument. Surely the brain trust at DL could come up with a way to monitor and track the ones they issue. This is entirely a devaluation, plain and simple.

oh912flyer

Other than the slight inconvenience of having to add ecerts on 3 flights, my point is that it doesn't matter. If you fly weekly and book your own flights, the certs could be in $50 increments and I couldn't care less.

I'll shut up now before I give DL any ideas...

oh912flyer

Or, as others have noted, this turns out to be a temporary situation while they come up with a better algorithm for generating certs #s ...

SamOF

Right...

Deemus7

I still don't understand how they can think that my certificates are stolen when I am booking a ticket for my wife while logged into my SkyMiles account. My dog could tell that action is legitimate, and while I love him dearly, he is definitely not the sharpest wolf in the pack...

Renes Points

next you will see DL turn Skybonus into the new Skymiles and only pay miles based on spend. This works well since you can only use one ETV per ticket and they get more money and you get less miles!

Deemus7

don't give them any ideas!!!!!!

Renes Points

Sorry about that!!! I think it will happen to all airlines soon. Only money matters!

It will be fun to see if this gets as big as the T-72 post

T.J. Bender

I've wondered about this as well. With WN already using a spend-based frequent flier system, DL could once again make the claim that it was a "difficult but necessary" decision, and defend it by essentially saying that they weren't the first to do it, and it was necessary to remain competitive. Besides, how is any airline supposed to scrape by with only $800M in profits?

davetravels

Where are the regular apolgists who try'n spin almost anything into something good?

oh912flyer

But the computer only sees someone with the same last name, right? Or does it have a copy of your marriage license?

Deemus7

I (unfortunately) think you're right. JetBlue also uses a revenue-based program, and UA is adding revenue to the equation this year. All signs (read: Porsche pick-up in ATL) point to DL doing something similar...

BTW, as a frequent sLUT flyer, I have yet to see the Porsche when I land in ATL. Come on DL, show me some love!!