TTT

I think you will find that even though you are in the coach cabin, your BP zone will be PREM. DMs are now automatically in the PREM zone which is the first zone to board.*

And by first, I mean third after special needs and families with car seats.

BenA

I suspect this is less about relaxing MQD requirements, and is more a precursor to making partner earning also based on revenue.

Right now, there's a strong incentive to book lower-fare tickets onto partners with favorable earning rates. Once the IT infrastructure is in place to reliably report revenue figures to Delta, it's not a huge jump to imagine that joint venture partner earnings will shift to the same scheme as Delta's.

The JVs are supposed to be operating carrier-neutral, and the current earning scheme makes that decidedly untrue from a frequent flier perspective. This seems like a first step towards removing the incentive to fly other carriers but credit to DL.

flyerwma

I haven't made it through this whole thread, so I don't know if this is addressed deeper down. But you will note this in footnote 1 to today's email. This makes clear the 21 advance purchase for the 10,000 mile award that we have recently noted.

MSPeconomist

My guess is that weather problems have hit USA airlines hard the last several months. There were lots of waivers and cancelled flights.

Also, January is generally a slow month for air travel. I don't know whether the numbers you're seeing rarer seasonally adjusted or not. In other words, is revenue (or do you mean earnings) down from December or down compared to January 2014?

Dieuwer

If A, Y, B, M, U fare...yes. At least that is how I understand it.
The MQD rates are actually pretty high. At 35%, it translates to less than 3 cpm. Better than a mileage run
So in your KL example, you would be instant MQD Silver by spending $1300 with KL but half way had you bought the ticket on DL.
Weird actually...

MSPeconomist

True, but we've already seen examples here of cheap tickets that earn many more MQDs under the 20% rule when they're booked with other carriers. I don't think this is what DL wants to do. It's rewarding folks using cheap tickets and also providing incentives to fly partners rather than DL.

yohanson

I'd like to be able to find MSP-MSO-MSP for less than 40K 3 weeks in or less. I'm seriously thinking about flying AS. I can purchase $300 flights from them or at least I could a week ago. DL typically charges $489 >30 days out.

Dieuwer

Sounds like DL want to stick the kettles to the partners, keep the HVCs for itself

TheMadBrewer

OK, so (partner) Medallion Qualifying Dollars are based on Milesflown...

So an already complicated program is made even more complicated.

mreay

Has anyone found any of these 10k redemptions yet? I've scrolled through a few months on a couple of random routes and didn't see any. The promotion is for selected markets, though no list of these is provided anywhere that I can see.


Whilst these MQD changes are potentially generous for long, cheap partner flights, they are way off base for shorter more expensive routes, evidently an imperfect, though still welcome, adjustment

Dieuwer

Just imagine, you will have the equivalent of a Math PhD when you finally and fully understand the Skymiles program! Google, Apple and others will want to hire you ASAP!

MSPeconomist

Next step will be to remove the rules and tell us that whatever MQDs are credited must be correct by definition. So DL keeps the risk loving customers that prefer to play lotteries.

Dieuwer

That's why you are gonna COPY ALL AND EVERY TABLE RIGHT NOW to just make sure that won't happen to you!

MSPeconomist

Did DL just restore incentives for MRs, provided that they are done with partners?

spin88

Sort of shooting from the hip, but I think the answer for AA is (1) an immediate uptick of fare pressure ex-DAL due to lifting the perimeter, putting pressure on yield, (2) AA adding several new longer flights ex-DFW to asia which may be under-performing and add a lot of ASM, (4) more exposure to South A which is getting hit, (4) AA did well in 1Q 2014 (as did DAL) so they have hard comps, while UAL sucked, so has easy comps, (5) and as you build up your yield (and out perform) it gets harder to continue to out perform as your competitors (UAL) can undercut you. in 2014 consolidated PRASM was SWA +5.1%, DL +3%, B6 +2.3%, AA +2.1%, UAL +1.6%. It gets harder and harder for AA or DL to outperform UAL which has lagged for three years.

My guess was that they are simply responding to pressure from elites and in particular from ME airlines. Delta (and UAL) have a choice, try to force elite international passengers to pay more/fly legs on DL (UA)/have a hard time booking some itinteraries, or potentially losing them entirely to the ME3 or other carriers, such as AA which are more agnostic about elite qualification. Someone evidently ran the numbers and found DAL could compete on the merits, so did not need to put a gun to it's elites heads to fly DAL, and made what is clearly a major (positive for DAL elites) business decision.

cancellations of flights, absent a "book away/cancelled trip" issues actually helps PRASM. I think AA and DL got a bounce from the cancellations in 1Q 2014, United - which could not handle the IRROPS well, got cancellations of tickets which hurt PRASM and total revenue.