Good point. This change just comes across to me as a big middle finger and f-u to those who aren't buying B+ fares, or those who fly on non-JV partners. Actually as a DM I find it less insulting than I would if I were an FO or GM. Those combination casual fliers with infrequent biz travel are the ones who are really going to take it on the chin.

Seems as if DL thinks they can treat what is essentially a flat commodity product as a rolls royce... or take a public golf course and jack up greens fees to country club levels but not have anything special over the next course down the road.

I would fall into a subsection of Group 2: "I fly somewhat for work but I can usually plan it out and thus can often fly L and K and even sometimes U and T. I also like to travel for vacations, and usually buy discounted (S) business fares. I'm going to align my work travel and my leisure travel to the carrier who gives me the best bundle of related perks in both scenarios (perhaps comfortable seats and SDC for work, lots of award availabilty for leisure).

Immediate problem and reason why I probably going to decamp to AS Mileage Plan in 2014: those biz fares are usually TATL on a mixed DL - AF/AZ/KL itinerary. Thus, hardly any MQDs.

I fail to see how this INCREASES revenue for DL. People can only leave DL because of this. People aren't going to be like - oh a more difficult to attain elite status?? I'm in! Sure it helps those elites who spend more but IMHO it will lower their bottom line. Case in point, maybe a decade ago I left DL for NWA for many reasons but the primary being the 50% elite miles on low fares. Look how long that lasted?? Many applauded it though for the same reasons supporting this change. However, it killed revenue and they dumped it quick. Well I was forced back in with the merger and mainly have stuck around due to lifetime Skyclub I bought. Now I don't know. Will spend this year evaluating but may finally stays match or challenge over looking ahead.

I find the MQD discussion is distracting from the real discussion for those who travel internationally--the drastic cuts to almost all Skyteam partners. In many cases such as VN, AR, and KQ,even full Y will now only earn 75% MQM.

How about a separate thread in the forum: "DRASTIC CUTS TO SKYTEAM PARTNERS MQM EARNING RATES"?

No, the threshold is low. The average DL passenger pays around 16 cents per mile. The threshold doesn't even sniff that amount, taxes or no taxes.

As for your claimed rates of taxes, for a flight to LHR to be half taxes would imply a total ticket cost in the $450 range, roundtrip.

Actually, this is incorrect, but I see how you could think that. Airlines were very clever when they added the temporary fuel surcharge. (5+ years ago). They listed it as taxes and carrier imposed fees. So it is easy to think that YQ is a tax.

But on international trips the YQ often is bigger than the base fare. That's what makes fuel dumping so interesting. But, in this case, DL has stated that both base fare and YQ will count towards your MQD. On international trips, the actual taxes are roughly $100-200 depending on routing and destination.

But, as a rule of thumb assume that your CPM needs to be $0.12-14 for DL's new FFP

Thank you!

Alaska 'F' gets 200% MQM on or after March 1, 2013
 

Whoa, I've spotted an actual enhancement: According to the chart for Alaska Air, Alaska 'F' will earn 200% MQM on tickets flown on or after March 1, 2013... up from 150%.

OZ has a good product.

I am based in Canada. Are the minimum spend requirements going to apply to me? If not, what exactly is going to stop the majority to "rebase" to Canada or anywhere else outside of the USA?

+1

The end of the alliance era?

Knowing some of these changes were coming from the focus group I was in last year , I still am shocked they were so much draconian than the ones being talked about there. All of the "almost Silver" award people in that group LOVED the "easy to understand penny per mile" redemption proposal ,even when I was screaming at them a 650 dollar fare was going to "cost" them 65,000 miles that might take them years to earn.
I grasp there were a lot of new platinums created with the Amex card in 2011-12. You started to see upgrade lists that were 30 deep. Thanks to a Intl. consultant contract in 2010, I was Diamond in 2011 , flew 13 times on coach fares and upgraded 100 percent of the time. 2012 was 12 flights as a Platinum I had 2 upgrades. My Platinum was trumped by Platinums with the Amex reserve card. I grasp elite status should be elite and its sure going to be after this. Bottom Line is eventually by 2015, the only flyers in first cabin are now going to be those that actually pay for it with their FC ticketed fare. The rules and new restrictions on how you will get status are such that only a few will even attempt to "play". I will be like the old days where there will be empty seats in first. If you purchase a First Class fare you are getting the same level of service as a Diamond anyway, even Skyclub on Intl. flights. Other that riding in first and more bags what else does Diamond get you that a ticketed FC fare doesn't? Other than some metal luggage tags.
My impression is Delta is positioning themselves as the "premium" US airline that seems to want to get rid of the rabble like elderly and family travelers to create a better travel "experience". You can see it in the terminals where there are less options for cheap family meals like a McDonalds (kicked out of MSP last year after 25 years) and more Sushi bars and such for less-budget minded single travelers.
Seems so stupid to even verbalize it, but that's my impression.

Where is this stated?

Also I bought a ticket this morning from MKE-DAY. Just out of curosity I wanted to see the diff with taxes and without.

Ticket cost me $501.60 -25 RT to get me to $12,540
Base Fare 426.04- 30 RT to get me to $12,781

I am not lookign at MQM in this scenario just the dollars.

Looking at 5 extra trips per year. This was an L fare

Hear, hear!

This needs a new sticky thread. THIS is the big announcement (devaluation) for lots of us, not the MQD issues, which doesn't even apply to non-US based members.

Again, I think DL may have intentionally wrapped all the news into one to lessen the coverage. It's an old Wall Street trick. If you've got bad news, lump it all together. Make this quarter look really bad so next quarter can be a big improvement!