SomeGuy

For how long? If nothing is announced for a year, does that mean you will wait a year to use that AmEx?

Personally, I have no opinion of if/when changes are coming or how they might affect me since we don't know what they are. If people want to burn miles, and it's a good time for them, then go for it. If they want to save up miles, or have no where to go, then don't use them.

But I think it's silly for people to get riled up about something that may or may not be happening.

DM.DIA

+1^

Deadtail

I never said they didn't. I don't give much consideration to AA because One World is comparatively limited where I travel.

With Delta, KLM, and Air France in Europe it's easy to change a flight and find one that works. With Star it's usually fairly easy with Lufthansa, and get's progressively worse as you start ticking down through the smaller carriers.

China, no contest. Skyteam is leaps and bounds better than any other alliance.

I find Sky and Star about equal in Asia, but give Star the nod because of the nonstop to Singapore on Singapore Airlines, which is consistently great.

I'm really enjoying Deltas codeshare with V Australia. How does one get to Brisbane nonstop on Star?

Africa Skyteam better than Star.

Delta and Skyteam are underserved in South America, but it's rare that I travel there.

dcline414

I'm pretty sure that most people wouldn't consider "holding off" on something a riled up reaction. If I were thinking about signing up for an AmEx now I would DEFINITELY wait until we know more about the upcoming changes. Perhaps closing your account or burning the card would be unwarranted, but purchasing travel with a different card seems to be a perfectly reasonable response in the face of ambiguity.

I also mentioned all of this gossip to a colleague that received confirmation from several different sources within Delta that they knew a major overhaul is in the works, but they didn't know when it would be implemented or what it would entail.

SamOF

Kenya airways is better than Ethiopian, Egyptair, and South African Airways? I'd say that Kenya barely stands up to Ethiopian alone.

Deadtail

Delta, KLM, and Air France are better than all three.

5khours

@Deadtail

So it's the routes?

AA_EXP09

I beg to differ.

randidliyo

So, which one are you, a 'first time platinum' or a 'high revenue passenger'?

GUWonder

The two are not mutually exclusive. Some high revenue passengers on DL flights don't have DL elite status -- it doesn't take genius to figure how that does occur.

StayingHomeIsBetter

I totaled up the numbers last night.

Over $12,000 spent on DL last year, for the travel charged to my CC.

Over 80 segments, most but not all on 4-segment itineraries... meaning over 20 trips... about 2 per month, allowing for a few 2-segment trips.

(Would have been more if DL management would only realize that some people need to work the full day in Chicago before returning to the east coast in the evening... DL's loss and WN's and AA's gain).

So, around $600 per ticket. This makes sense, as there were only a handful of LUT fares.

The actual average ticket cost is higher though, since one of my frequent clients requires that their travel agent bill the air fare directly to the company.

This means that I would likely not receive credit for several thousand dollars more income that I provided DL, which was not charged to my CC.

Presumably (yes, it is a presumption), under a revenue-based qualification scheme, I could lose credit for up to 20% of the business I give DL.

I recognize that there are some who may pay for a single TPAC ticket what I pay in a year.

On the other hand, does DL management really see it is to their advantage to pi$$ off folks who are consistently providing $1200 per month revenue to the airline?

Perhaps more importantly to DL, my AMEX spend was comfortably above $60K for the year.

So what happens if FCM makes UGs a rarity, and Faith-Based Award Ticket Redemption makes award travel an even greater farce... and a lot of $1200 per month folks start choosing air carrier based more on price and convenience rather than FF program "benefits?"

THEsocalledfan

Exactly. I do a ton of overnight trips and many of the recent have been in Y and M classes of service. However, I am still just a lowly gold.

With that said, I have started "mileage running" and this is why I will make platinum this year on a "T" fare to IST and an upcoming "L" fare on Alitalia to FCO and IST again.

To me, despite the mileage runs, I should be a coveted passenger by Delta. However, they have pushed me too far. Since my American flights are pretty limited, I will make the switch to United unless they also devalue their program (and this is assuming Delta devalues their program).

jeff30189

Somewhere around page 102 of the 113+ page rumor thread, I got to wondering what our alternatives are if in fact DL really does introduce (i.e. impose without notice) a dramatic (further and official) devaluation of their Skymiles program.

Yes you can status match to a competing alliance, but what are the alternatives within Skyteam.

• Is there a way to transfer 800K of Skypesos to another partner, effectively insulating them from any DL action?
  
• For future travel, is there any advantage to using your KLM or Alaska loyalty numbers instead of a Skymiles number?
  
• Even if DL blows up their loyalty model, they can't make ALL of their partners follow suit. There would be vast differences within SkyTeam that should present arbitrage opportunities to exploit the disconnects. No?

iamhereandthere

http://executivetravelmagazine.com/b...troducesEfares

I think we are referenced here.

andymo99

I think your last comment sums it up. I can't imagine you are a hugely profitable customer at $150/segment. Profitable, but I'd take the TPAC guy.


$1200/month revenue, not income.