timmy83

Agreed - one of the few times we get early engagement from DwayneSkyMiles, and the respondents have nothing but negatives to spew at him or perhaps they're just releasing negatives in general. I appreciate the advance notice, and recognize that this is just DL trying to look like its competition.

GRALISTAIR

I am here

GRALISTAIR

I know, it is absolutely crazy.

A company representative posts on here in advance and keeps us informed and communicates and all they get is whine whine whine. I will supply the cheese.

Air Houston

This group still has a long way to go to catch up to tne "industry-leading" level of whining over on the UA board.

timmy83

Hahahaha

FlyingUnderTheRadar

Get the stinkiest most mold infested cheese you can find.


More seriously, while advance notice is great in the big scheme of things the name change has zero bearing on the real issue with award travel. I could care less about the what the levels are called. Call them Larry, Curly, and Moe for all I care. How many years have people been asking for the calendar to be fixed? Until that happens anything, however remotely related to the award travel is going to be a whine and chez fest.

gogreyhound

The next round of "enhancements" should come about a year from now.

javabytes

DL has zero credibility on these forums. This is the first time in many months they've made a change that hasn't been scooped by FTers before they announce here... and it's something small like a name change.

Nonetheless, the name change reflects the direction in which they've taken and intend to continue to take the SkyMiles program - increasing redemption levels. We all know "Peak" days are anything but... on July 25, 2008, Jeff Robertson said "The only people who should really be using 'choice' are those who plan last minute when the flights are full, or who are trying to find award seats during the most peak special events (e.g. Super Bowl)."

Well holy hell, looking at the award calendar, we sure seem to have a lot of Super Bowls every year.

DL gets all the respect it deserves here. The fantastic thing about social media is that it levels the playing field. Company spokespeople hold no influence simply because they are company spokespeople. Rather, you build social authority by contributing to the community. You gain influence over time because the community gives it to you little by little as a result of your two-way interactions. Not going so well for DL on the FT forums, because that would require making contributions. Dropping press releases does not constitute a contribution. Hit-and-run posts, corporate speak, and overt marketing are social media no-nos. It shouldn't be surprising to anyone that DL gets laughed off the stage the half-dozen times a year it bothers to show up. You want to see a better example of how to engage on FT, head over to the SPG forum, or even the UA forum (and it's not like people in the UA forum have been thrilled about the direction of their program either).

pbarnette

The fantastic thing about social media is that we can snicker whenever someone talks about the transformative nature of social media... Just because it is on the interweb doesn't make the complaints here any less pointless or any more effective in bringing about change. It has just moved the gabfest from the water cooler.

dilbertsdaddy

Read between the lines, mid level is now normal! Of course we already knew that.

Better tell the AX hawkers in ATL that the bonus IS NOT enough for a free ticket!

eturowski

To all of the people saying it's not nice that FTers are saying bad things about this announcement - it really doesn't matter. Bad or good, no matter what you say in this thread, history has shown that there is about a "zero-point-zero" chance of any further input from a SM rep concerning the initial post.

So, say whatever you'd like.

bennos

I'm not really interested in yet another is DL good or evil discussion. My point is simply that if DL treats this board like the one-way recipient of PR pablum, the result is predictable. Compare against the SPG forum, where the Lurkers are involved and get much more moderate responses when program changes are announced.

Heck, compare against this very forum, when posts are made by DL people who don't work for Corporate PR.

javabytes

Like the DL armed forces bag fees fiasco? You're right, a bunch of ineffective whining that didn't bring about any change.

pbarnette

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while. When considered against the complaining about award levels, award calendar, upgrade policies, FCM, SkyClub drinks, industry consolidation, MEM-dehubbing, Michele Bernstein entrees, SDC policies, partner MQMs, and many, many other complaints, that puts the social media batting average needing binoculars to see the Mendoza Line.

And there is a world of difference between the perception of messing with soldiers and messing with a bunch of IT consultants that happen to fly a lot... I mean, I don't care if DL disrespects IT consultants, because don't we all?

TrojanTraveler

Nothwithstanding the DL apologists, this is the larger issue. When the three tiers were announced, they stated what you said above, as well as other information along the lines that most of the award supply would still be low. We were suspicious, and as we all know from experience it's hard to find low...not that it's not there, but it's hardly a good portion of the award supply.

So by this announcement, they are saying that the increased medium tier is actually the normal, or "standard" one, which I would take to mean that this is where the majority of award supply will be available. That is a major change in what was previously communicated, and all but officially confirms that medium/standard is the new normal, and you should be be lucky/not expect to find low that much.