Beckles

Well, for those who maintain status on DL this is a positive change, no need to let those who are coming off the Medallion rolls stay on through February ... I can understand some buffer to allow for posting of flights and other housekeeping to make sure folks don't lose benefits they've rightfully earned, but a full month is plenty in this day and age.

Beckles

One of us is lacking in reading comprehension ... and personally I don't think it's me ...

timmy83

I think that was because the post was in reference to the SWU applicability, which is listed on the same page as th RMU and GMU information

jrkmsp

Being MSP based, the odds of me ever taking one of those ex-JFK tcons was always pretty remote, but the odds of flying to Hawaii were substanitally better. This is a net positive for me. In fact, I think for most medallions this is a positive. The change in medallion year end date is interesting — better hope I requalify next year as gold or better!

JulienMSP

same here, jrk and i apologize for my earlier post where i flipped out. It is nice to see them finally make SWU's an actual option. I was very disappointed when I joined the Delta family to see that unilke AA, SWUs were essentially useless to most of us.

I am already gold for 2015 (I know i'll hit the spend threshold pretty quickly as I've already hit the mileage one). So i'm looking forward to finally ending the misery of my MSP--AMS flight experience that is regular Y!

18sas

All in all good news. I wonder if the GMUs and RMUs will pull from the same inventory as the Mileage upgrades will, or if we will have separate potentially more restrictive buckets.

I've always chosen the Max # of SWUs in the past but exclusively used them on domestic flights, usually trasncons.

Now I have to have a new strategy. Hmmm.....I guess I will go with 4GMUs and 4 RMUs, but 12 RMUs may be too good to pass up now that they are V and above.

dilbertsdaddy

Good (maybe) for DM, bad for PM.

No chance to upgrade international as PM....ouch!

So for DM's, here is the question - take 6 that require M+ or take the 4. Conventional wisdom would say the 4 is better, but as others have stated, this does not mean seats are available. I have been using 1-3 for international, and then burning the rest for domestic flights just because I have extra. If they turn out to be just as hard to use as the current ones, maybe I would rather have 6....?

There WILL be lots of confusion for agents when there are people running around with some of each during the transition. They can't even get it straight now.

So on an international flight, there will be:

DM with SWU on M+

DM with Global on anything but E

PM with leftover SWU on M+

PM using miles on M+ (will you still need M+ to upgrade with miles?)

Here is another one for you.....you have 1 SWU left and a set of the new ones.....so you want to buy M one way and L the other way and use the two upgrades.....how many phone calls do you think that will take?

This should be fun!

Further evidence that PM is the new GM.

cfabar1

I think the real question here is how many FFers who were flying JFK-LAX/SFO/SEA will now go through ATL, MSP, DTW, CVG? instead. That is the question Silvers & golds will be quite curious about. Yes, we rarely got the upgrades, but we DID get them from time to time.

To clarify, if someone buys a Y fare on these routes, are they no longer elibigle for any kind of upgrade besides using the global certificate?


Also…. Have they changed the Silver baggage allowance? I thought that Silvers w Skymiles AMex could get two free bags, this "new baggage fee" link doesn't seem to show that anywhere… though maybe I'm just not seeing it.
https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...tml#guidelines

durberville

Excellent news! I don't give a hoot about transcon upgrades, but am delighted to be able to get ex-DTW/JFK upgrades internationally! Makes flying out of YOW very nice!

jondysse

As a part time DL, full time US(now AA) flyer, JFK-SFO upgrades were easy to come by and pretty much the ONLY reason I considered switching full time to DL. Unless I was just flying at the wrong times, I repeatedly saw GM and FO getting upgrades on this route. I myself was only flying as plat on cheap fares. Massively disappointing and definitely going to keep me stuck with the "new" AA.

GUWonder

I have repeatedly seen even AF elites get upgrades on SEA-JFK -- and they come even after DL Silvers in the upgrade priority list -- so I guess this is going to go the way of the dodo for them too.

Diamond is the old Platinum, but a thinned out herd in some ways compared to that.

The smaller Diamond cohort in the main may think it is winning a little to a lot with these changes, but the other elites aren't going to be gaining much of anything given the customer-unfriendly shenanigans will continue and DL will continue to play its game even against Diamond customers. Shortening the elite status membership year by nearly 7.5% is also designed to cost DL customers more and give elites less from elite status in the main.

The majority of DL's 75k+ MQM flyers are any better off in the DL FFP today than they were years ago? Doubtful.

dilbertsdaddy

That would render them useless for me.....

timmy83

I actually see this as a win, as it's one fewer month with a bigger fight for UGs due to last year's medallions still clinging on. Just my $0.02

DiverDave

It changed a couple of years ago, but the latest was that Silvers with Amex get two bags:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...edallions.html

David

rwoman

That (de)enhancement occurred awhile ago.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...llions-mm.html