mbwmbw

I want to ensure CE Woolmans desk stays in tip top shape for Richard Anderson.

avidflyer

Focus on premium customers and decision makers is not the same thing as a wholesale FF program in my opinion. I completely agree attention to the best customers IS critical but when you have 100,000 customers in the DM/PM ranks it becomes a diminishing return situation.

Again, I LOVE FF programs and take advantage of them and in fact I use the benefits as overall cost aggregation for myself and my company. I am just stating that I think the idea of FF programs and status at current levels/benefits cannot last. Just a year ago I was not convinced they could control inventory EVEN IN A DECLINING climate (which is far easier) but they are doing a really great job and the tools will only get better.

gooselee

Now I REALLY want a revenue-based program. I will end the year in the $8k-$9k range and barely make FO. Silly me, I thought that PMs and DMs were in the $25k-$30k range at a bare minimum.

I knew us segment flyers spend more than the mileage elites, but I guess I never realized before that the discrepancy was that wide.

MR_MAMA

Do you think 9000 a year under the new program is going to get you higher status ...?

jamesteroh

that is a lot to spend to be just silver. I am PM and looked at my Delta spending over the past twelve months and it's around $15K. But 20,0000 of my MQMs are from Am Ex and I had a few DTW/LAS and DTW/LAX trips that were business trips in paid first and when I flew Dtw/Fll I was forced to buy a full Y fare going and first returning and also had one LHR trip in that.

gooselee

Other threads have made suggestions for an FO threshold as low as $5k. While that would be great for me, it seems quite low, and honestly, no, $9k/year probably wouldn't and shouldn't result in status for me.

Then again, it also would not result in status for some folks like Dovster, who spend the same amount and achieve PM. You said it yourself, everyone isn't meant to be a medallion.

But no matter what the thresholds are under a revenue-based program, it seems that my CPM is much higher than many others', which means that either it's easier for me to achieve status, or harder for others to achieve the same status.

Also, as I mentioned in the segment flier thread, if a cutoff were made at $10k/year, it'd be far easier for me to make that $1k jump than to make a 20 segment/26k MQM jump as I would need to do under the current system.

gooselee

I just did a quick look and my YTD credit card statement shows just under $6k of DL charges so far this year. I have some future flights that are part of that, but they're balanced out by similar trips purchased at the end of 2011 and flown in January. Sitting at 28 MQS and just under 18k MQM, even getting 20k Amex MQMs doesn't push me to GM.

Not saying that you don't deserve your status, but for me, it definitely feels like a revenue-based model will better serve my interests. (And yes, I know that DL's interests, and not mine, are the driving factor for whatever ACTUAL change happens).

MR_MAMA

Has anyone thought of what will happen to the AMEX MQM's?

Will they count towards status? If so, they are now much more valuable =more people signing up for them to get status.


Also, what if they also count your AMEX spend towards your HVC rating? I do know when you call in to AMEX Customer Service they can see how many total current MQM's you have, they told me how many I had when I called to ask a question last week.


Just throwing it out there...I know nothing, just speculating.

jamesteroh

It's all speculation anyway that Delta will go to a revenue based program. Delta is in debt to Am Ex big time so Am Ex spending will definitely still count towards status even if DL moves to a revenue based frequent flyer program. If spending on your Am Ex card doesn't help you achieve status with Delta, why would anyone pay the extra for the platnium Delta Am Ex fee each year, or pay for the Delta reserve am ex (the Platnium Am Ex gets you lounge access) if flyers aren't getting any elite benefits out of the spend?

yohanson

Just for the halibut, I added up my spend on Delta this year and I'm at $12,178.62. $9851.73 for business and $2326.89 personal. Not a lot and the personal MQMs earned this year account for about 45% of those MQMs earned. I've flown and booked about 124K MQMs (62 MQS) with just over 17K of that rollover. The rest are BIS.

I had a lot of gaps in my business travel this year but until recently, most of my flights were the less than 500 mile variety. The personal travel have all been cheap fares including one to CPT and another coming up to SIN.

Edited to add that the number of flown plus booked MQS is actually 74. Right at this moment I'm at 95,134 MQMs.

Edited a second time because I didn't include the spend for a personal trip I took to DC this spring. It was a weekly fare special so it was only about $200. I'm on my laptop in the SC and I don't feel like remoting into my pc at home to look at the exact amount. I may have missed some others but these numbers are really close.

MR_MAMA

That's way I mean. Those threshold MQM's are much more valuable now if they reduce the MQM's you are earning on your flights. Without those MQM's Amex would lose probably most of their reserve customers and also many of the Plat customers and many of the Business customers that hold and use the cards for the MQM's.


This whole thing will be interesting to see how they handle it once it is rolled out.

GrizShel

I'm not convinced that they'll continue to be able to reduce capacity and keep planes perpetually full without losing competitive advantage when unexpected circumstances and/or new competition cause their models to fail. But, yes, they are doing a pretty good job of this right now - my flights probably average 95% capacity these days.

AA still has a fantastic "traditional" FF program by the way that works great to incentivize both primarily volume-driven and revenue-driven qualifying elite customers. And while UACO has driven down the benefits of elites the award ticket system is still far superior to Delta and UA status qualification is still possible for the customer that is unable or unwilling to ignore costs in their airline purchase decisions.

And directly to the topic at hand: I've personally found that in the current and past elite status frameworks, that starting out at a base of 1 elite mile per flown mile at the lowest fare classes is really the minimum for me to actually be driven to fly an airline more in order to achieve the Status I desire. So when this system is fully implemented by Delta it will probably be the end of flying more with Delta even when they don't provide the superior product / schedule for me. One benefit though: It will be a lot more fun flying some of those Asian airlines instead of Delta to and from Asia when I am set free by Delta.

SFO777

I achieved my DM last year with only $9,023. 42K MQMs came from rollover and 30K from my DL Amex Reserve.
I've pretty much stopped flying DL, with only $3,000 this year. Even with 30K from DL Amex and some rollover, will struggle just to get to Platinum for next year. With cheap A/P fares, I just don't see the value in putting up with an inferior F product to maintain any DL status.

mnredfox

If we do go rev model, what about AF or KL tickets? Other partners?

MSPeconomist

No one knows, but if revenue based just means more emphasis on different fare classes earning miles at different rates (regardless of actual fare paid, such as SQ uses or UA for GS), then DL just needs to change its partner earning rates accordingly. If it really counts money paid, presumably without taxes (and fees???), a guess would be DL metal and JV flights, perhaps including codeshares. This would be a fundamental change to the way the SkyTeam alliance has worked recently, with partner flights earning status miles as well as redeemable miles.