It seems to me that most airlines and travel related industries look at marketing and big data analytics as a way of bolstering a station/location. Whereas DL is appears to be much more willing to change up the metal and schedule to meet the demand. Obviously there are focus cities where DL does market and target, but that seems to be the exception, not the norm.

For UA, for next year, I could still get *G by crediting fairly cheap US U fares to A3.
AA has a way out by crediting everything to CX and getting status that way.
(except for O class)
Plus, I think I can avoid this by using an overseas address (of which I have documents that I can use to justify my move, as the US address I put wasn't mine in the first place.)

DL doesnt care and hasn't paid you any attention which to me is baffling. Not because of your importance but because as a business they should be monitoring their "best" customers' activities.

A close friend of mine who is a consultant was a very HVC DM in 2012. Went to a new company who has a relationship with American. So he started travelling for work on AA. DL never called or emailed or anything. I believe he said he spent (or his employer did) in the range of $100K per year on paid international F for several years on DL.

Why would any business not pay attention to such an important customer who suddenly stops spending money on your product?? That seems like business 101 day 1 learning. Definitely a teachable moment for the bean counters on Virginia Ave.

I currently have 190,000 MQM's but haven't been on a Delta flight to Asia this year. I now mostly fly with United since I greatly benefit from the Global Services program (for example, it's nice to upgrade award tickets with Regional and Gobal Premier Upgrades for myself and family members)......Delta did send me an email about the Double Miles to Asia in February which I believe happened because I haven't flown them internationally all year.

If his company had a Delta specific contract, Delta would understand that flying DL was not a choice of his, but a decision by his employers (who are the real HVCs, as it was their money).

Same reason AA won't call your friend and try to lure him over, they call the decision makers for travel, which is (for a lot of companies) not the person BIS.

Fortunately for me, I book all of my own travel and make all of the decisions, not that DL really cares.

On another note, I just got my Ex-Plat status on AA and I can't wait to get my SWU's that I can actuallly use.

They will not miss you, or me, at the individual level. Their data mining may turn up a trend, and maybe generate some "please come back" emails. I pay for my business flying out of my own pocket and earnings. I shop price and schedule and upgrades, not brand loyalty. I will still fly enough DL in 2013 to make Plat for 2014, but I have been switching most of my flying to USAir, where there is (at least for now) no minimum spend requirement. If DL no longer wants my 100+ segments and 125K+ BIS of cheap 6-7 cpm business badly enough to give me DM or at least PM status for it, I'm not giving them those 6-7 cpm any longer. They will get instead from me an empty seat and 0 cpm. Delta, you're not going to get my 6-7 cpm business unless you give me back something more than just the getting from A to B, and your increasingly-devalued and nearly-impossible-to redeem SkyPesos isn't going to cut it, either.

If enough of us do this, they -might- notice. Maybe not.

I guess I'll give it another month or two and see what happens. I did notice a sense of betrayal on the face of my favorite DL GA when I checked in at my home airport on Tuesday. She will get over it, though.

I wouldn't be surprised if you got some promo offer if you fit the right profile
 

Back in '07 (before the NW merger and the economy tanked) I received a promo for double miles on every flight for 3 months after I had stopped traveling DL. At the time I was involved in a contentious situation down in N.C. and was traveling back and forth at least once a week (sometimes more often). The situation resolved itself and as it turned out didn't need to travel or wasn't on DL for over 6 weeks--although I bet I credited a CO trip or two. Then bang, I got a "we really miss you" email and an offer for double miles. It was a great deal b/c it had almost no strings and I started flying BOS/JFK-LAX on a weekly basis soon thereafter. We took a very nice family vacation in '08.

Somehow I feel they don't do that anymore. Frankly the game has changed. The goal is less about finding and keeping FF customers and more about changing the customer behavior now (i.e. making up buy more expensive tickets).

That's the kind of info I was looking for. I'll be on the look out for the 'missing you' email, but I won't be holding my breath.

I remember in gaming (casino) there were 2 types of companies - those that went after high rollers (aka whales) and those that went after 'the great unwashed' (aka grind players - we'd grind the money out of them). The marketing and retention costs were much less for the grind player.

I used to explain it with this story. A woman comes home wearing a $10,000 fur coat. Her maid asked her where she got it. The woman replied 'I met a man with $10,000.'

The maid left and returned a month later wearing the same coat. The woman said 'I can't believe you met a man with $10,000'. The maid said 'I didn't, but I met 10,000 guys with a buck apiece.

Delta can make more on a leisure flyer who pays for luggage, doesn't collect/redeem miles, get SC access and doesn't get upgrades. Allegiant air is profitable as is Spirit.

They probably don't care as long as their seats keep getting filled.

I'm in a similar situation as the OP, though I have a 20+ year record of steady, heavy traffic (for domestic) with DL. I would have thought with today's sophisticated data mining I would at least have received a "we miss you" email. Nope. But I don't take it personal. Call me a sap but I feel loyal to DL just because I've lived intimately with them for 20+ years.

That said, I'm having a summer "affair" with AA having received Plat status from my corp travel department. My travel policy will pay for AA upgrade coupons so I've been up front on most flights. I must say AA does several things better than DL, but the main reason for this temporary switch is that I spend 4 months working out of CO in the summer and DL coverage there is weak. AA isn't real strong either but they seem to have some strategic flights out of COS and ASE that work for me. Last year I flirted with UA but that affair ended poorly.

While I DO know all these airlines are running a business, and that trumps everything, DL would enhance my loyalty even more if somebody noticed - but they haven't.

I'm over at AA now until I get my SWU's and then it will be whoever is most convenient (price, schedule), except for TPAC and TATL flights, on which it will be AA simply because of the SWU's, assuming I will be able to use them. If I am able to use just one, it will be one more than I ever have been able to use with DL in the past 7 years.

When my home airport was LAX, I flew almost 1MM on AA, then I moved to ATL. I continued to fly AA until I went over the threshold (1,006,323), then switched to DL. That was 11 years ago. Still "permanent" AA Gold, but have only flown a couple of times on AA since. No call, no email from them, just announcements about every 2 weeks to say, "you're almost eligible for an award ticket!".