yohanson

When I first started the traveling gig, my longest flight was MSP-LEX. I used to spend huge money for those short flights and only got Silver Elite with NWA because they just gave it to me with only about 8500 qualifying miles, if memory serves. Then I discovered FT. It didn't take long before I was PM from Delta's DMQM offer. I was still only flying about 40-50K miles for work. I hit DM in 2011 by doing vacation runs. Then, my area expanded but I still only averaged about 100K MQMs from work. But, I still take cheap flights to parts unknown (to me) when I can. Why would I give $16-22K to Delta every year and not have their "top" status? I don't even consider this gaming the system. I think of it more as getting the most out of it. Plus, those long international flights I fly for fun are usually off peak so Delta wins when I use my GUCs by not letting a nice D1 seat go empty while appreciating a loyal customer. It's a win for both of us.

vincentharris

DL could care less unless you are spending AT MINIMUM $100k plus a year on tickets pre tax. I spent $20 some odd thousand this year in pre tax fares (with lots of expensive fares) and I know DL could care less.

ethernal

That's a bit of a silly perspective. Delta doesn't care about someone who is spending $100K either. They care about groups of people that spend that (or other) amounts of money. And they treat those people in ways preferential ways that Delta believes will help them be more profitable. It is not crazy for a person to wonder why that group of flyer (high MQD low MQM) is treated worse than the opposite (high MQM lower MQD) as a group. Obviously the former is more profitable on average to Delta since more miles in the air cost more money for Delta.

I have no doubt that Delta will eventually move to a revenue-only model, or at least a model where revenue is the most restrictive piece (rather than today, where miles are usually more restrictive except for the types of customers Delta generally would care less about to begin with). Delta does not do this because people would freak out about it.

The way it will happen is that Delta will slowly raise MQD thresholds higher and higher (on an average basis probably a few percentage points above the rate of airline ticket inflation). This could be coordinated with expansion of MQM fare bonuses so that MQMs (e.g., main cabin gets 25% bonus, or at least H/Q/M fares get a bonus, etc) become less restrictive than today, making MQD the primary determinant.

vincentharris

Fair enough, they value a CFO/CEO of an organization driving millions of dollars of tickets through a contract with Delta then they do people spending 10k, 20k, 30k, etc.

ethernal

Yes, agreed, that is the exception to the groups of people rule - Delta does care individually about anyone that can channel $10M+ of business.

Even then, that is still only equivalent to .03% of Delta's revenue, so even that is a bit of a "yawn" care. $100M+ (the kind of spend channeled via, e.g., professional services companies) is probably where Ed is aware of who they are.

charlesdemar

After my last trip for 2018 next week, I will end the year at 105,175 miles. Even if I purchased the highest end mileage offer that would put me just under 118K miles for the whole year, just a bit short of DM. So, I don't know if they are factoring a margin of mileage after the buy-up they expect you could cover voluntarily with another trip/MR? So close, yet, so far away!

DCAhome

This year, I'm 1,946 miles short of DM on purpose. With rollover and two big trips in January (AF IAD-SIN and KLM JFK-DPS both in J), I should be DM before the end of January -- and that would last for two years. So, I'm more than happy to ignore this offer.

MSPeconomist

ethernal

Those flights add up to about 40,000 miles which means he'll get $16000 in MQD credit based on the 40% for J for those partners. And since it's about 40000 miles, that's 60K MQM so plenty to make DM. A sound strategy to be sure.

MSPeconomist

ethernal

Yep.. I do wonder when Delta will decide to close that loophole. They can be quite generous for discount J fares, especially with the TPAC market glut.

DCAhome

Yes. Partner MQDs are by distance and class. So, IAD-SIN in J should get me roughly 8400 MQD and NYC-DSP in J should net 8950 MQD.

defrosted

I got the email, it said $599 to make Gold.

The email came half way through a trip so what the email didn't know was returning home was going to make me Gold, so yeah I passed on the $599 offer.

Vegas Vegan

Where'd you eat? Just spent a couple of days there and am still stuffed from all that wonderful v*n good

GrayAnderson

I think it will have a decent shelf life. Yes, there are discount fares that act as a loophole, but there are also plenty of other fares where you still get screwed pretty badly. The main issue is that "zeroing out" those flights would hurt some decent-level elites who have to fly on partners to get somewhere (either to avoid painful routings or because DL just doesn't go somewhere) and not giving some sort of credit to them would act as a fairly aggressive soft push for those passengers to look at the competition (with all of its issues). Also, with those credits somewhat fixed as a function of distance it is quite possible to envision inflation slowly closing the loophole for Delta.

Ultimately, DL would need access to faring information in order to handle credits like this accordingly. I could see this happening with some of their equity partners, but not really with anyone else.