davetravels

I'm in exactly the same boat as the OP. I have just a tiny tad less than 3 mil. My take - for me:

I travel all on my own $$$ - 100% personal - 0% business. My plan - kinda / sorta - was to have free travel (and hopefully lifetime / annual GM) when I'm retired.

Since I don't travel for any work, it can be a little tough toward the end of the year to make DM, but I feel it's worth it for the benefits. I DO use some miles every year for award travel, including, maybe 2 TATL/TPAC BE trips. This past summer, I took a friend to Europe! BUT - I can only travel SO MUCH in a year!

A couple of weekends ago, I splurged for a last minute - booked same day & flew - LAX/OAK/LAX for 25K miles, which I would NEVER have wasted the miles for, if I didn't have a ton of 'em, but, I was in LA, and there was a function I found that I wanted to go to, so I did! It was a $438 last minute ticket!

Sure, for years, everybody here has been saying - BURN YOUR MILES! They're gonna deval them! But, I have no family to give free tickets to - just me! So, now, for sure, the VALUE has gone down starting next year, but I'm not going to book a BE award ticket to fly somewhere every other week, JUST to use my miles at a better VALUE! So, next year when it costs 500K miles for a BE TPAC trip, I'll have the miles to do it, and the "Burn Your Miles" crowd won't.

Thanx for reading!

GUWonder

With that large a balance, you're on the precipice of getting clobbered by DL when the revenue-based/regular-paid-price-based mileage ticket redemption chart goes live for redemption purposes (if not even earlier).

baccarat_king

But, you would have been the perfect individual to burn those miles (since you are a single person); and travel 100% leisure on your own dime. I'd say, unless you plan is to be retired in the next year or two; you probably could have spent the last 2, 3, 4 years flying in first/business class for free. You must be spending at least $3,000 a year on tickets. But, the $ you would have saved are REAL money that you could have invested.

If you basically use your miles for 100% leisure/personal first/business class redemptions then the "status chase" is sort of a mute point. You say it yourself :
"So, next year when it costs 500K miles for a BE TPAC trip, I'll have the miles to do it, and the "Burn Your Miles" crowd won't"
well, you could have "burned them" for first/business class, perhaps at a far lower rate then will be available in the future. It just doesn't make sense, since every $ you have spent on Delta for the last few years could have been money in your pocket (or better yet, money you could have invested).

and, then, you have the death, non transferable issue... of course, I guess, who cares, if you're dead....

davetravels

How do you figure it's a moot point? I fly TONS of domestic short to medium trips on cheap tickets, like, PIT to CHI/FLL/NYC/LAX, etc. Why should I have wasted miles on a trip to the west coast when I can pay $240 and get 225% miles and DM status - AND eventual GM annual / lifetime, which you don't get with award tix. I'm certain that I would never have had enough miles for all the domestic and TATL Y trips I've taken. And now, with DM / GUCs, I can <hopefully> sit in BE on paid cheapo Y TATLs!

I don't quite get the "investment" thing. It's totally unrelated.

baccarat_king

you say :

So, perhaps, I misinterpret what "SO MUCH," means.

I stand by my point. If you aren't retiring within the next few years; you are saving something that is guaranteed to go down in value. Obviously, you don't believe that is the case. And, starting 2015, your case of $240 fares (earning lots of RDMs) is not applicable. You have taken a risk; and your profile (low fares, lots of miles) basically means your are screwed; unless Delta changes things radically. I'd personally be very nervous, if I was a low-revenue Delta Elite. Things are going to get much much uglier.

davetravels

Perhaps retired is the wrong term . . . . Let's just say that, my "Single Guy Traveling Lifestyle" will be curtailing a good bit in the next couple / few years.

A point I forgot to mention above - - If I had invested, as you say, and not chased status - current AND lifetime - Then, fly on a simple domestic award ticket with NO status - - That would be unpleasant. We tend to forget the perks we get as Medallions, til they're not there.

Standing and WAITING in all the "kettle" lines (sorry, I hate that term - just used for illustration). No PreCheck - No SkyPriority / Acces No 1 at CDG - No EC - No UGs - No SC - No DM hotline - - The list goes on & on!

So, true, that the mileage / point awards will be going down, so, the dilemma is whether or not to earn as many this year as possible (while still at 225%) to have MORE of them!? - - so the new award charts won't hurt quite as bad???

baccarat_king

If an award ticket is in first class, you get some of the perks. But, quite frankly, most of the perks are available by other means (or you can just pay for them). If it's your own $, not OPM; you are paying for these perks if you are taking extra trips or mileage running. You are also paying for them with regard to your time.

In addition, in most Delta markets, there are very competitive FCM fares; so you really don't have to be elite to get the perks.

PreCheck - simple to obtain by just paying $100 for Global Entry (and Global Entry is a additional perk, which is probably more value than PreCheck)
EC - you can pay for that
Upgrades - not really necessary if you buy FCM or redeem first class awards
Delta Lounge Access - get an American Express Platinum (and that also covers the $100 for Global Entry)
Diamond Line - this can't be duplicated; and has value. Guess, the question becomes, how much value.

I like Delta. I fly Delta a lot (as does my SO). We will both be Diamond this year. But, I don't take extra unnecessary trips. We happen to have a decent amount of OPM trips. We live in a SkyTeam hub. I just live life, and let things fall where they fall. People ask me about Delta (SkyMiles) all the time; I always say, great airline horrible frequent flyer program. I then follow up with, but if you work it hard enough, you still have some decent SkyMiles redemption possibilities; just don't count on it too much.

Delta Skymiles, I treat them like a perk. If I were a 100% flexible, leisure traveler looking for lifetime status and valuable miles (and lots of international upgrades) I would have switched to AA ExPlat years ago. That's always been very clear. But, I value nonstop flights, and I live in a SkyTeam hub. So, it's Delta for me.

Why anyone who loves the "game," including mileage runs and low fares would play the "game" with SkyMiles is beyond me. That's been clear for a lot of years.

davetravels

I don't do mileage runs. I only go places I WANT TO GO! I may take a slightly longer route to get there.

FCM fares are NOWHERE near V & X fares!

Please check out my new thread for the latest DM enhancement!:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...l#post22441268

baccarat_king

And that is awesome. ^ But, you are definitely the outlier if you are 100% leisure, on your own dime, no mileage runs and qualifying for Diamond Medallion.

Still doesn't change the fact that SkyMiles go down in value every year.

and, as you mention, sustainability as a Diamond Medallion is going to be a lot less rewarding (RDM wise) starting in 2015.

Don't get me wrong, I love Delta; and believe that Diamond Medallion is great. But, I couldn't imagine being 100% leisure traveler buying V&X fares and qualifying.

I also think that the new Global Upgrades are a great perk; perhaps the best perk of Diamond Medallion.

davetravels

This part is very true. People with new accounts or low balances will definitely be on the short end of the stick trying to get awards with the new mileage / point accrual scheme. Glad I hava bunch!

baccarat_king

This is my preferred way to earn status.

Beckles

Eight days ago I ran into IRROPS and had to call DL twice, I was on hold 15 minutes before speaking to an agent as a Platinum each time, this is where no matter what, even with FCM, elite status still matters (unfortunately).

SuperG1955

In case you didn't pick up on the death situation that's been mentioned as an aside in a few previous posts, you cannot will your miles. Delta changed policy (surprise, surprise, surprise) and when you die, and they find out about it, your account is closed and the miles are forfeited.

If you've left someone the password to your account, they could continus to use the miles to purchase tickets BUT, there may be a check in the system to look at acccounts that have not used miles in a long time that suddenly start using them while the account holder is not using the miles for themselves and not doing any other flying. Your email would also need to be kept active and there's the need to have a credit card for the fees, etc.

It's almost guaranteed that someone or something will get screwed up and the miles will be lost.

You would probably be better off using most of the miles and investing the $, then deal with them in your will

xooz

Wish I knew exactly what this meant. Is this just some prediction or something announced? I earned a fair number of miles from BIS J class flying a few years ago and changed jobs. I don't fly for business anymore and and currently sitting on a few hundred thousand miles. I haven't gone through the recent announcement threads much since I don't care about qualifying for any medallion level. I do assume that low redemption availability will not get better yet for me that is offset by the addition of one way awards. I am already in theory disadvantaged as far as availability of award seats goes since I am not medallion.

Are you saying that there will be some significantly onerous deployment of multiple award charts forthcoming that explicitly sticks it to people who have accrued points in the past? Or just that the 5 tiers will end up devaluing current point values?

puntamita

I agree save your miles if you want and take a great trip WHEN YOU WANT to take it. Savers can do that. Burners have to wait or pay for the ticket. I know everyone thinks the new system will not be good. If it is spend based vs miles flown, mile balances could be worth more. None of us know.