StuckOnSegments

You got it. I really don't think Delta is too concerned that the people buying $7.5K+ tickets care about losing some skypesos from the cap.

stephem

Suspiciously close to what my corp rates to pretty much anywhere in J/C class on DL. Most of our RTs are $5-7k, I suspect this is pretty common among large corporate customers. I wonder if this had anything to do with these thresholds/limits and how DL set them?

GUWonder

Indeed. DL's thinking it may even attract some other big ticket spenders to spend more on DL flights. It's going to be very uncommon for most frequent business travelers to come up against the 75k SkyMiles limit per ticket. RTW premium cabin ticket purchasers with higher level DL elite status? That may be another story.

If the 75k cap were to include route promo miles, then some more may hit the limit; that said, I'm not sure why DL would do that when they can just do targeted promos that restrict enrollment to promos that would otherwise get people to approach 75k miles or more on a given ticketed itinerary.

Why anyone would spend $7.5k for a simple roundtrip TATL or TPAC business class ticket on DL? Not sure, but I wouldn't do that.

mapsgl

Although it seems as if this cap will only apply in a few full fare J situations, It seems stupid and I bet they will "unenhance" this cap before they roll out all the 2015 changes

Im curious that Bubba hasnt been here to defend this....

Maybe we have to wait until his delta cheerleading out comes back from the dry cleaners????

k2

It will apply in most situations for hub captive business travelers on routes with no competition. The only way to get, for example, DTW-PVG nonstop for under $10k is to fly midweek. Normal business travel days like departing Sat/Sun and returning Fri/Sat, Z costs $10k to $12k.

DeltaFan4Now

He's furiously liquidating his remaining DAL stock

Petercbm

As a diamond the threshold ticket price is $6818 after which you stop earning miles
As a platinum the threshold ticket price is $8333 after which you stop earning miles
As a gold the threshold ticket price is $9375 after which you stop earning miles.

Most of international long haul travel - JNB happens to be the route I travel most - the fare is rarely under $8000 --one ways are not an option as it's prohibited by our travel policy.

Let's hope that AA or UA match this Revenue based mialage program - it's going to be easier or get status on multiple airlines.

xliioper

The new revenue-based model is only for redeemable miles, not status miles. If they simply copy DL's current model, it won't be any easier to earn status.

Petercbm

@lbj -

Totally understood - status is still BIS miles.

Just feel,it's unfair to put a cap on RDM earning - I am basically earning the same as a Gold pax on the same fare.

Mishap

So my question would be are you really freaking out about RDM caps?

If you're doing a lot of long hauls to JFK-JNB in BE, it only takes 4 trips to go from 0 to DM. If you're already DM, then you'd earn 175k RDMs today. Next year, you'd clear 300k w/o any AMEX miles so long as the avg fare exceeded 6-15k depending on your status.

If you just spent up to $24-60k of someone else's cash on plane tickets, is the last few hundred dollars more of hard to use miles really a deal breaker especially you just got a minimum 71% increased earning rate from this year's rate?

Petercbm

Last months trip was 30098 MQM 55,178 RDM 8080 MQD

Next year this will be 75,000 RDM - I agree more than I am earning -

but I do not see how delta can say they are rewarding high value customers more.

They are reducing RDM earning on customers that spend less
They are capping RDM earning on customers that spend more

PDXNRTLHR

How can you be complaining that you're "only" getting 75,000 miles? that's still a heck of a lot more miles than you'd get under the old rules.

CPMaverick

Exactly my point...

And currently you'd earn less than 27k miles for this route. How can you complain about the changes when the RDM is almost triple?

If the complaint is that Diamonds don't earn more than a Gold, well that may be true for the cap, but unless you only fly these routes you'll earn a lot more than Golds overall. Current system you only earn 11.1% more RDM than Gold (225% vs 200%), and less than 10% more than Gold for tickets with RDM class bonus.

You'll also be earning a lot more miles than any other program offers... hard to complain when you are being treated better than you can get elsewhere.

It's a win-win, but somebody has to see the glass empty!

MSPeconomist

No status is still based on MQMs (or MQSs), plus MQDs (or a waiver). MQMs aren't just BIS miles; they include class of service bonus and MQMs from AmEx spend for instance.

k2

Actually I earn 39k miles on that route today (DM plus class of service bonus), so it's less than double. But I clearly understand double is a huge win. What I'm complaining about is Delta itself says "we're rewarding passengers that spend more" when in fact with the cap they aren't.