PIONEER

Bruce Your name is the only one I remember as a still active DL frequent poster back when I joined FT maybe 33 years ago, and what a long strange trip it has been. Like you, I accumulated millions of miles, including AmEx. Also like you I gave away dozens (maybe over 100) tickets to friends and relatives, generally the 25,000 mile North American F ticket that you used to be able get as Royal Medallion. We recently did an RTW trip and are now booked for Europe, all up front of course. My retirement plan was to travel on DL, and so far that has worked out well, although increasingly challenging. Now I'm down to several 100,000 on DL alone, and that should last us for some time. (The quandry I have is that I also have over half a million on AmEx. I had always figured that I would transfer those to DL, but I'm not so sure now, and wondering what to do with those.)

I generally have nothing but very fond thoughts for DL. Their people are the greatest!. The original FF program was the best, but has since regressed towards the mean if not worse. You really can't blame them for doing what is the best for them. The stock price has done great, and I was pleased to see that there was a nice bonus plan for their employees this year. I'm hoping that they will be able to establish a good balance between customer service (including upgrades and free tickets), employee benefits, and stockholder value.

baccarat_king

I have heard decent things about SQ AMEX transfers and redemptions, for First Suites. YMMV. But, just a thought.

DeltaFan4Now

Does anybody remember maybe three years back when a regular poster at the time with the handle Cellisttoo told us about abhorrent changes she heard of at a super secret market research meeting she was invited to? She never divulged the nature of the changes, but I wonder if the revenue- and fare-based issues were the thing to which she was referring...

ETA: found the post. The thread is pretty interesting in retrospect...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/16580282-post982.html

DL2SXM

The FF landscape is continuously changing, at least Delta's is. Just imagine what it will look like 10 years from now. We went from 6 major players to only 3 today. It increases the ability for changes to stick. Less options out there, especially for the hub captive folks. Its only a matter of time until UA and AA follow suite in some similar fashion to the changes DL is making... Its only a matter of time.

mdb

EMIRATES!! First!

PIONEER

Thanks for the advice about Emirates. I have been almost totally a domestic traveler, with some time in Europe, Asia and Saudi. Emirates doesn't go to our cloest big airport (PDX) but they do go to SEA, which is not a terrible drive. So if one were to fly Emirates, where would you go? It looks like a great airline.

A5Globetrotter

Was it ever confirmed here - can you take both the 4 Global AND 8 Regional upgrades as your 2 Diamond benefits? Or is it 1 or the other?

bdschobel

Pretty sure you can take both.

Bruce

A5Globetrotter

Has anyone done this before? ie, are there radio buttons for both?

TheMadBrewer

At the DM level it is one or the other. You can choose 4 RUCs as your PM benefit.

MSPeconomist

WRONG. Just as you cannot pick two different gift cards for your two DM choices. The two DM choice benefits must be different and when you go to choose, the GUCs and (DM) RUCs are in the same category, so the computer will not let you pick both.

You can pick 4 DM GUCs and 4 PM RUCs.

Sabai

Take a look: http://www.emirates.com/us/english/d...route_map.aspx

It is an excellent airline, and when flying J, you get a limo to pick you up at your origin, and drop you off at your destination, which somehow beats a ride across the tarmac in a Porsche.

pleasantsn

Nice job replying 7 months later. I saw an add that VS is also doing the limo thing for their Upper Class, monkey see monkey do. I'd still rather have the Porsche experience, something money can't buy.