2015 SkyMiles Program News from Delta
Mar 6, 2014, 8:50 am
#586
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remove jokes. lets keep discussion on thread
Last edited by DLroads; Mar 6, 2014 at 8:51 am Reason: remove jokes. lets keep discussion on thread
Mar 6, 2014, 9:14 am
#587
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Mar 6, 2014, 11:00 am
#589
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We have a winner
Mar 6, 2014, 11:13 am
#591
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So the award prices didn't sh
t through the roof -- and some even went down. But that does nothing about the fact that the number of RDM earned will go down significantly for the majority of program participants and that DL has control over which of the five levels it makes space available in. The 2015 program is still a huge net loss for the average customer.
t through the roof -- and some even went down. But that does nothing about the fact that the number of RDM earned will go down significantly for the majority of program participants and that DL has control over which of the five levels it makes space available in. The 2015 program is still a huge net loss for the average customer.
Mar 6, 2014, 12:24 pm
#592
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Mar 6, 2014, 12:25 pm
#593
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I think there will be less posts about the new award charts since it's mostly good news. The only bad news being the increase of miles to redeem PEAK (Level 5) rewards within the U.S. and Canada.
But the million dollar question is still unanswered (and we will just have to wait and see) and that is: will there be an INCREASE of seats available at the lower tier reward levels?
It's nice to see a decrease in the amount of miles needed to redeem lower level rewards for many destinations, but that doesn't amount to a hill of beans if Delta keeps up its practice of offering VERY FEW seats at its lowest (SAVER - Level 1) redemption level.
But the million dollar question is still unanswered (and we will just have to wait and see) and that is: will there be an INCREASE of seats available at the lower tier reward levels?
It's nice to see a decrease in the amount of miles needed to redeem lower level rewards for many destinations, but that doesn't amount to a hill of beans if Delta keeps up its practice of offering VERY FEW seats at its lowest (SAVER - Level 1) redemption level.
Mar 6, 2014, 3:50 pm
#594
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I think we will see the same number of low level (Level 1) that we currently have. Then a small portion of what is currently available at medium will be reduced to the Level 2. DL specifically said they will be making more awards available at the lowest levels (plural). I think DL is going to try to convince us that having 5 tiers and adding additional awards at the 2nd cheapest fare is as good as giving us more low level awards...
Mar 6, 2014, 3:55 pm
#595
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ut far fewer miles overall from flying.
Mar 6, 2014, 4:36 pm
#596
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Mar 6, 2014, 4:51 pm
#597
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I would have to disagree with that. It's obvious that they are trying to steer traffic to certain flights. Take a look at a market like ATL-LAX where there are tons of daily nonstops - if everything is priced at 40,000 (or 60!) miles currently then people will pick the flight with the best time. Now the best timed flights will likely be higher in miles and the less desirable times will be lower (with 2 additional tiers) driving traffic to those flights (ie 6-8am or after 8pm). It seems Skymiles awards are moving closer and closer to what revenue tickets look like and I'm sure that yield management (inventory) is what is the driving force. I guarantee that they are asking for more award buckets just like they asked for more revenue buckets (X, V) to better price differentiate and segment markets to boost yields or shift traffic to weaker performing flights. I think this is the way DL keeps improving it's RASM and increasing profits - they must have quite a good system and have some idea of what they are doing.
Mar 6, 2014, 5:13 pm
#598
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I would have to disagree with that. It's obvious that they are trying to steer traffic to certain flights. Take a look at a market like ATL-LAX where there are tons of daily nonstops - if everything is priced at 40,000 (or 60!) miles currently then people will pick the flight with the best time. Now the best timed flights will likely be higher in miles and the less desirable times will be lower (with 2 additional tiers) driving traffic to those flights (ie 6-8am or after 8pm). It seems Skymiles awards are moving closer and closer to what revenue tickets look like and I'm sure that yield management (inventory) is what is the driving force. I guarantee that they are asking for more award buckets just like they asked for more revenue buckets (X, V) to better price differentiate and segment markets to boost yields or shift traffic to weaker performing flights. I think this is the way DL keeps improving it's RASM and increasing profits - they must have quite a good system and have some idea of what they are doing.
Mar 6, 2014, 5:41 pm
#599
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6am 35,000
8am 40,000
10am 50,000
12pm 65,000
2pm 50,000
4pm 50,000
6pm 50,000
8pm 35,000
This all happens without them having to even open a low tier award. The old scheme would have everything at 40k and the 12p departure at 60k which means people would take the 10am or 4pm or 6pm and rarely choose the 6am, 8am or 8pm. I'd be willing to place a large bet that they are trying to shift award traffic off of the peak flights and put it on the off peak flights with the new 5 tier scheme. A lot more options to try and steer traffic with 4 tiers that aren't low than having just 2 that aren't low.
Mar 6, 2014, 6:47 pm
#600
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So the award prices didn't sht through the roof -- and some even went down. But that does nothing about the fact that the number of RDM earned will go down significantly for the majority of program participants and that DL has control over which of the five levels it makes space available in. The 2015 program is still a huge net loss for the average customer.
t through the roof -- and some even went down. But that does nothing about the fact that the number of RDM earned will go down significantly for the majority of program participants and that DL has control over which of the five levels it makes space available in. The 2015 program is still a huge net loss for the average customer.DL's change to 3 categories for award pricing was a fleecing mechanism, and this change to 5 categories is going to be another déjà vu moment.