hfly

Like the Op, I too have millions of miles banked, and yes I am at risk of getting clobbered, however the truth of the matter is that I have made good use of my miles when the opportunities have been right, it is just that I fly way too much to use them, so the dream is to hoard them and have them saved for a later day.............as elusive as that dream seems to be becoming.

wspfan

That is why I started the thread. I must agree that miles deflate over time but who knows what the heck Delta will do.

hfly

The funny thing is that years ago, I had the opportunity of combining my significant Flying Blue balance to my Skymiles balance, and did not. When FB devalued their program significantly I sometimes regretted that I had not done so. Now that DL is doing this, I may be happy that I did not do so...........

technole

How so? This isn't a devaluation in redemption. Reeling in the earnings from rock bottom fares makes the program better. Additional award seats becoming available at lowest and different levels makes the program better. Some look at this as a one-sided affair, without seeing what the other hand is giving.

Also the bread-and-butter customers who ante last-minute fares win in this ordeal. Not all of us scrape the lowest fare, by choice for that matter.

GUWonder

I like wishful thinking and fairy tales before bed too. Repeat after me, and click your heels like Dorothy (in the Wizard of Oz): "This isn't a devaluation in redemption. This isn't a devaluation in redemption. This isn't a devaluation in redemption.....".

Not at all, for most all.

The changes DL has previously made to "make available" "additional award seats" at any given or alternative level have routinely come with less award seats being made available at the historically prevailing mileage price level.

Of course, DL doesn't mind playing to gullible customers.

Most all of my ticket bookings are made well within 24-hours of flight departure and these DL changes aren't doing me any big favors; in the main, they are going to reduce my earning rate of miles from flights and make it far harder to recognize and fix DL's mileage credit problems.

baccarat_king

So why even bother with Delta (or Skymiles), or at minimum why even bother going forward?

It seems obvious to me that you loathe Delta (and Skymiles); so perhaps, you are one of the gullible customers, since you keep coming back for more.

DLATL777

I see what you did there.

GUWonder

If it seems that way to you, you quite clearly don't see me.

I don't loathe DL. I am far from loving SkyMiles.

I fly DL when DL is the cheapest, reasonable option for the conditions of travel applicable to my trip and meet the minimum requirements. I don't credit most such flights to DL's program and will be crediting even fewer flights to DL going forward. I will still end up booked on DL from time to time as some purchases are made on my behalf. I fly other carriers way more than DL, but fly DL more than the vast majority of DL's elites.

Apparently your definition of 'loathing" must be a rather creative one. I'm more unemotionally critical than anything else.

baccarat_king

I am very creative, actually.

I still don't see how one can fly a carrier from time to time but still fly Delta more than the vast majority of DL's elites.

I tend to not support companies, that I am (very) critical of. Or at, least, I only support them as a last resort (or on the fringes).

GUWonder

Well, apparently you've not been much of a "DL insider" as some of us.

Most DL elites don't fly DL more than 50k miles a year.

25k-50k miles a year is enough of a joke to barely cover even one month of travel for some of us.

baccarat_king

Not enough ROI for that. or, perhaps, my worst nightmare (being an "insider") unless, it yields something more valuable than us "non-insiders" can ascertain.

hfly

To touch on the above, I am consistantly DM, however DL is not by any stretch of the imagination the carrier I fly most, not anymore. To concur with the above, it is March 6th, I have flown 118,596 BIS miles since Jan 1, only 22,000 or so so far has been on DL (or DL codeshare flights) yes some of us fly that much.

Now back to the subject:

1) Nice to answer me AFTER they have released their charts. Keep in mind that these are only US originating charts and we were expecting (because they said it) that we would not be seeing these for many more months.

2) If a shop, increased its prices one day, then again the next day and made a third small increase the third day............and then dropped prices slightly on a few products the fourth day, and 90% of the prices remained higher than what they were the first day.......you would have another opinion. This is exactly what happened here.

Georgia Peach

Sadly, Delta will do what benefits them. The bottom line is $$$$$, not the customers who spend them.