Don't hold your breath for increased upgrades... DL will still be aggressively selling P fares for a marginal amount over econ while keeping V/X inventory zeroed out.

So I called up a friend that works for Delta, and started to complain a little. This past year I would have met the requirement for Platinum. The year before no way, not even close. I had surgery, didn't fly for 3 months of the year, and only qualified because of the Amex promo, and roll over miles. The dollar spend effectively negates the rollover qualification in my opinion, unless someone is a high spender on an Amex Delta card.

Interesting thing though my friend said she has heard, but not seen the actual numbers: Over 20% of the Diamond status flyers have spent less than $7500, annually and they think they are Mileage Runners, or gamers. Over 10% of the platinums, and about 5% of the Diamonds are spending less than $5000. Those are the numbers she has heard mentioned around Delta HQ water cooler talk. I asked what percentage of card holders spend $25k a year on cards, but she had no clue on that.

So now my thoughts are that when I am number 5 out of 32 on the list with 4 seats available, I probably will be number 4 once this kicks in. If that doesn't turn out to be the case, I will probably jump ship to another airline.

DL obviously doesn't care about M/SWU fliers anymore. They're only interested in B+ and full fare F/J pax who fly on DL tickets. They probably figure they can get enough pax to buy their S and I fares instead of those who bought M and used an SWU, or are just sticking it to travelers who aren't allowed to purchase BE but could buy M.

"Alliance? We don't need no stinkin' alliance."

:D

(With apologies to John Huston.)

I don't stop by Flyertalk often, but after receiving Delta's announcement today I just had to see what you people would say about it. Ugh. So much for mileage runs.

Why would anyone care if they have medallion status, if they aren't flying?

IMHO, M fares will be going down. There's no reason to cut the MQM otherwise. These are the most overpriced fares in industry and the high cost of upgradeable international fares makes DL very uncompetitive for a lot of VFIFs.

I'm sure bubba, pbarnette and a few others will disagree.

See bolded responses.

:rolleyes: Really? Those categories generate most of any airline's gross revenue.

Permit me to offer a clue: Airlines have huge fixed costs and low variable costs. This requires a strategy for maximizing revenue.

By your command: :D:D:D:D:D:D

http://saveskymiles.com/gallery/billboard5.jpg

Count me among the dubious camp here. But hey, there's always hope.


David

To quote Rutger Hauer in Bladerunner - "That's the spirit"!

It'll be great for the survivors. :D

Not exactly. The furthest two point on DL's map is SIN-MIA, which is around 22k MQM. That would require 3 for GM, and 4 for PM. Unless of course you meant in J, but then their spend would surpass the MQD requirement anyway.

Delta... please update the website so we can see our 2012 year spend, and track our 2013 year spend.

For those of us who buy tickets through multiple payment methods, some not under our control, it's not easy to pull reports to calculate. So, I suggest offering 2012 Final, and 2013 running totals so that your customers can evaluate things.

Oh, while you're updating the website:

The new website is painfully slow. What were you thinking?

The new website never fits on a single page without scrolling. What were you thinking?

Seat selection on the new website is just sawful. A scroll within a scroll within the webpage, that's just crazy.

How about the ability to upgrade with miles we've been promised for a few years now?

Or you could just bring back NWA.com. Thanks. :)

You're not alone: according to the FT counter, there are over 800 people on the DL forum right now, which is about twice the busiest time of a normal weekday.

The question is... why did I note receive an email about this from Delta? I am very curious as to why email communication has nearly seized entirely between myself and them.

And don't tell me my email address isn't inputted properly Delta! I just got two separate emails last night telling me my SWUs and $200 Vouchers were deposited into my account.

Did everyone else here get an email on this?

No offense, but as a resident of LAS I see people flush away money all the time and even take pride and find self-validation in it. Last year, I got to FO going to SIN and a couple to JFK for well under $2,500. I also have also hedged my bets by earning status on UA and WN the BIS way, so total air spend topped $2,500. But I would never call it VERY easy.
And yes, by DL's rules I deserve the perks.