I hate this line. No one says they don't get to set the rules.

The question being asked is clear. If Delta values spend above all else, why cap what you can earn? It goes against the very notion of what they're trying to encourage.

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your right, end thread

Is the logic really all that difficult? It would be difficult to top 75K miles on a single trip with a competitor that still uses a mileage based program. Why create additional mileage liability when it adds little competitive advantage to go beyond 75K.

Why would Delta think Medallion flyers would want to earn less MQM, and try to convince us that earning x amount of miles per dollar is better than milea flown?

That really doesn't make any sense as to why they would cap it. There may not be a lot of competitive advantage, but there's at least the business advantage of getting the passenger to spend more. Then there's the business disadvantage of causing passengers to not book tickets over X dollars knowing they won't get credit for it.

They gain nothing and risk little by offering miles for all dollars spent. By limiting it the only thing they do is gain the disadvantage of having passengers cap their purchase prices and pissing off their top tier elites. The purpose is to increase spending, and by capping they've done the exact opposite.

[QUOTE=dd1612;23559428]Here is one obvious reason:

Because Delta owns, runs/ operates it's Frequent Flyer program. Delta makes the rules ... you as a traveler do not!


Thanks for the "obvious" reason, yet it doesn't get to the core of the issue and is essentially a "how dare you question Delta" response. I am that guy that Delta wants to court, MQDs at or above $100k a year. Since they obviously want to concentrate on the money (which I agree with fully) and they promote the new program for its great benefits, well then make it great and award the full miles. Since that isn't going to happen, up the MQDs required for status to promote the spend even further and reduce the number of upper level Medallions...

I would suspect that most people who buy $7K+ BE fares are senior level execs, wealthy people, etc. who don't spend much time thinking about FF miles. It just seems to me that the population of people who could spend that much, and yet would be offended by the limit to actually cap their spend or book away from DL, is pretty small.

this goes back to my original post and letter, I spend 13k per year with delta and will still be Diamond going forward I will just earn about 150k miles per year instead of 275k miles. So while they are increasing year over year the milage required for a FF ticket to Asia or reducing it 5k miles (7%) all they are doing is reducing the free things I get. Then they send me a email saying it is in there customers best interest and something about upgrades I have gotten. Again I am confused with a cap at the top, lower tiers earning less how this really does anything but hurt us. With MQD's anyone that spent 12,500 will still make diamond with new system just get less benefits....maybe I am wrong if so can someone explain why?

Do what you need to do, but look at this statement you made very carefully.

If you truly believe this, then you will surely be willing to sacrifice something in order to continue flying on the airline with the "best product on the market."

Having said that, given that you are a DM I am not sure I quite understand what you are so upset about. If you fly, as an example, BKK-NRT-ATL-NRT-BKK currently on an M fare for $3600, you would earn 9740 miles each way x 2 = 19480 miles roundtrip plus a DM bonus of 125% that equals 24,350 miles plus an M fare bonus of 9740 roundtrip, for a grand total of 53750 miles. The same $3600 under the new program would earn you $3600 x 11 miles/per/dollar, which is 39,600 miles. However, under the new program, for two of your roundtrips you can use the lowest fare coupled with one of your Global Upgrades, so you would fly for far less than $3600 roundtrip on those two trips, so in a given year you would cut your out-of-pocket expenses a bit.

To me, when you factor in everything, for you it is very close to a wash. You will earn fewer miles, but you will also spend less for the same number of trips given that two of them can be from lowest fares rather than M fares. Given that you get to fly in the front cabin in the "best product on the market" I don't quite understand your angst.

Throughout time, people have generally had to pay more for the "best product on the market" than other options.

I am not trying to be a Delta apologist, but you do insinuate that you are getting chopped off at the knees when I respectfully submit that you are not. You are getting trimmed a bit, but that is just part of a natural market correction as competition decreases.

I did all this math in a hurry, so forgive me if I am off a few miles here or there.

The $12.5K spend threshold for Diamond does not make you an HVC. It's not even an "average" or "median" spend for Diamonds. It's more of a fairly low bar meant to weed out the bottom third or so of Diamonds.

Also, I don't understand the reference to MQM's above as they are still based on miles.

I will attempt to answer the best I can.

If you truly believe this, then you will surely be willing to sacrifice something in order to continue flying on the airline with the "best product on the market."

---- I always believe that you should mention the good and the bad with each other cause in my opinion there is rarely all good or all bad. I do think Delta has best product on the market, I also think Mercedes does also.......I don't drive one though.

As for your math if I use the new global upgrades as opposed to the system wide ones my spend will go down as will the bonus miles. So on one hand I will save money and on the other I hand I might lose my status, and not get the same amount of miles done that way. Also in your equation it is on 15k miles but that is per trip, if you factor that into 5+ trips a year it is 75k+ miles, basically 1 free round trip ticket to from where I live to see my family. I personally consider that a bit more then a trim, to me it is 33% of my total or more (my math might not be the greatest here either). Ask yourself how happy would you be the price of gas went up 1.25 per gallon tomorrow or would you consider that just a minor price increase? There is no company paying the tickets for my wife and I, it is out of pocket for us and we do not save our miles as we use them as extra trips for family vacations or to see friends ect ect. So in my case I will no longer buy M class due to the reduction in miles leading me to get less miles and less benefits. So if i choose to stay with Delta I will still fly the same amount and spend less and will get less, seems like a lose lose for both myself and Delta. Most likely I will use a different carrier and attempt to maximize my travel budget.

You also say as competition deceases although that might be true in the USA, as someone that works in Asia we have not seen a consolidation of carriers if anything we are going through the opposite, fares are getting cheaper with much more flight availability. My Delta flight here last week from NRT on a 747 had less then 170 people on board with 30 open BE seats.

Please remove the name of the Diamond Desk representative from your post (or mods, please assist). You may use x's or state that the name is replaced.

I don't think there is a minimum Diamond spend requirement if you are domiciled/registered outside of North America.

thanks I will look into this.....

Also I will edit out the name since it bothers you, just wondering why though? she wrote it and signed it as a representative of their company.