I am in total agreement here.

In fact, eliminate the fare requirement alltoghether for upper tiers.

Wow, wow, wow. This program has been gutted. What folks don't realize is:

1. They are killing the program for Asian based fliers, yet another huge fleecing. So no MQD requirement if you're not US based, BUT look at how KE, MZ, CI, and CZ have been gutted re MQM. CZ full Y barely earns 50%. Full Y on the other only earns 75%.

2. As if M fares aren't already insane enough, but they are gutting the 50% MQM bonus. Really, who buys Y/B to use SWU's? Wow, this is going to hit lots of people hard.

3. $12.5K, likely going to be tough, esp now if you loose any ST partner flight not marketed as "DL" and on non 006 stock. :td:

Yes, Asian-based fliers got screwed big time.

Per FAQ appears yes, but will DL call this "gov imposed"?

I'm still in shock over KE.

The only tiny positive is DL's ahead of time announcement. Kudos to this, but :td: to the changes.

DL talks a talk, now I know they really are anti-Asian based folks.

Seems so.

Oh, yes, fail to make the DL spend for FO (or the alternate minimum Amex spend) any year and your accumulated MQM balance goes to zero.

Does anyone else read the rules differently?

"SkyMiles never expire... but MQMs may."

:confused::D:rolleyes:

The new plan definitely favors those who have help paying for their tickets, but that's not Delta's problem. Their focus is on upping the spend-per-mile.

Though I'm close to million miler status, I can see that Delta isn't going to work for me anymore. 100% of my travel is leisure, and even when I was working my employer didn't for a plane ticket or hotel. I normally reach Gold on a $2500 spend; every cent I've ever spent on NW or DL has come directly from my wallet, and still does. As it is, that's 10% of my gross income. So yeah, I was very loyal to Delta from my perspective but perhaps not as DL needs to count it. :rolleyes:

At this point I'll mainly miss the booking and flying advantages of elite when using my million or so remaining Skymiles.

I am quite sad. The majority of my flights are leisure travel and I pay for them out of pocket. I have been having fun doing MR and traveling to destinations that I would not otherwise travel to. The perk of having status was a huge incentive for some of these flights, particularly to odd locations. Given that almost none of my travel was necessary, I will just stop these adventures. OR, I will find another carrier that will value my dollars. I realize many of your fly for business but there are those of us that fly just to fly. Maybe you don't think my sort of flyer deserves status but Delta would get none of my dollars if I didn't play the MR flying game. Why they want to eliminate this revenue is hard to understand. Yes, I understand the elite inflation problem but Delta created it with the rollover miles and the CC offer.

As for AMEX, no, I don't have the ability to spend 25K on a CC. Not everyone has the luxury of putting 2K/month on a credit card.

I have been loyal to NW and Delta since I had to move to the DTW hub. It is now time to change.

I don't think that is true. As long as the flight is "Delta Marketed", meaning it has a Delta Flight Number associated with it, you should still earn the MQDs... Right?

Skyteam Upgrades Now Difficult to Justify
 

Overall I don't have that much of a problem with the changes, especially considering that I spend more than $12,500 w/ Delta and way more than $25,000 on my credit card. But....

In the past month, I spent $1,800 on a one-way Y fare KE ticket from HKG - LAX, then used 12,500 skymiles to upgrade it. Delta insisted that for the Skyteam upgrade to work, it HAD to be purchased with a KE code and that despite having a ticketing agreement Delta could not sell me that ticket.

So now, not only would I get 50% MQM for that ticket instead of 100%, it wouldn't count against MQD either... kind of hard to justify buying that ticket now. Seems to me Skyteam is now completely pointless as an alliance. Star Alliance partners are much more cooperative than this.

Except Other: Accrual only applies to KL-marketed flights operated by KLM, PrivatAir, City Hopper flights, and KL coded SkyTeam partners.

I didn't get credit last fall for a KL coded, Baltic Air operated flight AMS-RIX. Years and years ago I had to fight for credit on a KL coded but whatever the name of their captive charter airline was from AMS-IST. When I booked the flight it was KL operated but they were having equipment problems so pieced it out -- it was flown by a KL crew though and NW gave me the miles.

LOL good one.

Boy am I glad we let our elite status drop at the end of 2012, as we wouldn't have stayed with DL anyway in 2013. I still am FO but we'll be shopping cheapest fare only from now on. I know I was never DL's target flyer, being 100% leisure, but now the feeling is mutual.

Spirit, even paying for bags and assigned seats, is a cheaper option much of the time.

A FT version of an office pool... how long before a post showing the "Save SkyMiles" billboard truck shows up in this thread? :D

Somewhere, Leo Mullin just felt a chill go down his spine, and he doesn't know why. :D:D

Check the Asian airlines, they got it the worst.

Well, what about when you ticket something AF but have it changed to DL to use your SWU. Does that count? What about VDB or IRROPS reroutes on partners?

Got mine too.

Yeah but you have to fly DL metal, if you fly partners you get your MQM's stripped.

Enhancement was that nothing else got fleeced.

Check CZ, CI, and KE.

+1

I agree with your strategy. I have always given Delta a premium to fly on their metal so I could keep status but from now on, the cheapest carrier will get my $$$.

Maybe I missed it in 30+ pages, but what effect does this have on those with gifted Silver or Gold? Can the gift status recipient maintain the status without the MQD?

Do we have any kind of confirmation about whether the "dollars" will be credited to the traveler or the purchaser? I just want to make sure that if I buy myself, my daughter, and my wife tickets to fly, all on my credit card at $400 each, that we each get the $400 credit and NOT that I get all $1,200 credit. Any definitive explanation on this?