dcline414

Or pretty dumb, depending on how you look at it!

StayingHomeIsBetter

I'll give you my story in a few short lines:

• Nearly 40 years flying on the airline
• Strong bond with the airline
• Strong respect for DL employees and DL tradition
• Strong disdain for current management
• Grew up in a place and a time where a man's word was his bond
• Find the current "bait and switch" practice of frequent mid-year benefits changes to be repugnant
• Concerned that current management are willing to risk long-term stability of airline for short-term goals
• Not easily deceived by crocodile smiles and hollow promises
• Will give anyone a fair chance, but won't let someone burn me twice
• Believe that a company who advertises using a statement like my signature line ought to live up to the rhetoric

"Be who you are and say what you feel
because those who mind don't matter,
and those who matter don't mind."

- Dr. Seuss

SJC ORD LDR

Dang, long thread on a rumor. Can't believe that somone from the company hasn't tried to deny it yet. It's showed up in articles linked to my Twitter feed. It's gotten out.

Anyway, if they do something serious. It's time to look elsewhere. I guess with AS MVP Gold, I can get most benefits when I fly DL except even lower priority for upgrades (as if they happen anyway) and AS will upgrade people from the mainland to/from Hawaii, which DL doesn't do for some strange reason.

dcline414

I know. Delta's silence is deafening.

At the rate this thread is going, it will pass the Delta.com Bug Reporting: The Official Master Thread in terms of both views and replies by next week--And that thread has been going for three years strong!

Who would have thought that Delta could screw something up worse than their website--and before they even announce the forthcoming changes!

DeltaFan4Now

Are you being coy, sarcastic or passive aggressive?

OnTimePlease

I love a good mystery . . .

javabytes

It's not, really. DL's silence is no surprise, whether these rumors are true or false, and one shouldn't read anything into it.

dcline414

Well Delta has an audience here that believes there is *something* to this rumor, most of whom are concerned to varying degrees. If there is nothing to it, a post saying "this rumor is unfounded" would silence all but the most seriously crazy of the conspiracy theorists and put an end to the rumor.

At this point it is quite possibly having an impact on their business, albeit a small one. By not addressing this thread, which has had FIFTY THOUSAND views in just over 4 days, it sounds like the rumor is well-founded. Perhaps there is no response because the changes will be worse than has been speculated here. Even if this is Delta's typical MO, it is an unwise strategy at this point in time.

Clearly ignoring this thread isn't making it go away. Delta, your customers would like answers and they are currently getting their information HERE. Your silence is being taken as an admission of guilt, like it or not.

jsmith50

You're absolutely right! DL could silence the rumors with a simple "this isn't true" and we'd all move on. At last glance, skymilesinsider was curently online and undoubtedly lurking and reading this very thread. I would agree that the silence is interpreted as an admission that we're on the right track with regard to program changes. Howeer, to be fair and balanced, FTers represent a very small percentage of DL's high value customer base albeit a very committed sample willing to spend time on this board reading and responding to comments on a daily basis and losing sleep speculating on these types of conversations. While we are all paranoid at the impending changes, the average flyer out there likely could care less. The average flyer likely sees these changes as all in the daily course of business and doesn't give much thought to the overall implications to the SM program and their ability to cash out miles for award tix. Until FTers can atract more of the thousands of medallions out there who have never heard of this board, mobilize them to action, and convince DL that they can not continue to screw over customers, they're not going to care about the few of us on this board think! Unfortunate, but true!

jackplum

Good post

dean1121

just truthful.

OlderGeek

The following is from the SEC filing of Delta in February of this year.

"Passenger Ticket Sales Earning Mileage Credits. Passenger ticket sales earning mileage credits under our SkyMiles Program provide customers with two deliverables: (1) mileage credits earned and (2) air transportation. Effective January 1, 2011, we began applying the provisions of Revenue Arrangements with Multiple Deliverables ("ASU 2009-13") to passenger tickets earning mileage credits. Under ASU 2009-13, we value each deliverable on a standalone basis. Our estimate of the standalone selling price of a mileage credit is based on an analysis of our sales of mileage credits to other airlines and customers and is re-evaluated at least annually. We use established ticket prices to determine the standalone selling price of air transportation. We allocate the total amount collected from passenger ticket sales between the deliverables based on their relative selling prices.

We defer revenue from the mileage credit component of passenger ticket sales and recognize it as passenger revenue when miles are redeemed and services are provided. We record the portion of the passenger ticket sales for air transportation in air traffic liability and recognize these amounts in passenger revenue when we provide transportation or when the ticket expires unused. The adoption of ASU 2009-13 did not have a material impact on the timing of revenue recognition or its classification with regard to passenger tickets earning mileage credits. A hypothetical 10% increase in our estimate of the standalone selling price of a mileage credit would decrease passenger revenue by approximately $50 million, as a result of an increase in the amount of revenue deferred from the mileage component of passenger ticket sales.

Prior to the adoption of ASU 2009-13, we used the residual method for revenue recognition. Under the residual method, we determined the fair value of the mileage credit component based on prices at which we sold mileage credits to other airlines and then considered the remainder of the amount collected to be the air transportation deliverable."

Considering the recent adoption of ASU 2009-13 resulted in a deferral of income based upon mileage credit, it would stand to reason that Delta would consider a reduction in credit for low cost tickets. Considering that the deferral is based upon the value of the credit, it stands to reason Delta would reduce the value of its miles. Interestingly, they have now removed the accounting connection between the sale price of miles to others and their accounting for value.

What this all means to me is that Delta is now free to sell miles for whatever it can, reduced their actual value to flyers, and book the reduced value as income. Enron would be proud. (Reducing the value of Skymiles offers $4.5 billion in net income potential. Wow. What is the easiest way to make $225 million - reduce the value of Sky miles 5%!!))

AA_EXP09

And to add, some of the FTers posting here aren't HVCs and one of them doesn't even fly the airline.

yohanson

Friday at 9:30 PM EDT

AA_EXP09

No later than midnight