Psyduck1

I couldn't find anything in search, so here goes

I hear a lot about high value customers and 360s getting special treatment. Does anyone know if Delta also looks at bad customers and is less likely to bend rules for them?

I'm certainly a low value customer. PM butt in seat miles. Silver spend with a bit of pay with miles and qualify on the amex waiver.

I get a ton of upgrades, a lot of value out of the program and delta always seems to bend rules for me. If i was in charge at Delta i think i would fire me as a customer.

Any thoughts?

**Edit: program changes seem to be working towards a more MQD favored qualification. Diamond spend waiver bumping up to $250K reflects this. I think I'm more interested in if there is a current service impact of being low value, rather than does Delta dislike low value customers.

Renes Points

You seem to be under the miss-information that CC spending is not valuable to Delta (and only those who pay money are). In the $DAL conference call they clearly stated they care not miles spent or money.

Those of use who earn status via card spend and such are just as valuable (if not more so) to Delta. Enjoy your earned perks!

Psyduck1

Interesting. I think most cut off the spend after they hit $25K and move to a better earning card. How valuable do you think each MQD waiver is to delta? Seems like a steal for me.

Renes Points

Most who have the Reserve card spend 60k per year for 2x15k MQM and SkyMiles bonus. Some hold 2x Reserve and spend 120k for both bonus (personal and biz). I, for example, have already run 30k on mine this year and will run next 30 in April (tax time again).

Psyduck1

Gotcha. I guess if you look at mix I'm probably a one off so immaterial to delta.

FlyBitcoin

The margins from credit card spend are way better than the margins involved with staffing and flying actual flights in the most cases. Plus it is easy to expand credit card spending vs expanding routes, frequency, or upgauging equipment which carries more financial risk.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/airline...rds-1535362202
I can see MQD slowly replacing the mileage qualification as it more directly reflects revenue, but the CC spend waiver should be here to stay.

As someone who is a DM and a shareholder, I have to say that everything my DM flier side wants to see changed, my shareholder side rejects. And everything I want to see as a shareholder, my DM side takes issue with, I guess that means management is doing a good job balancing the wants of both audiences.

mot29

I guess I'm a low value customer as well-- Diamond since the beginning, just a blue DL Amex card that I don't use because I get better value from other cards. I get to the DM MQD with at least 1,sometimes 2 AF/KL/MU etc trips to top out my spend.
But I feel I am well-treated by DL -- when things go wrong I get what I think is relatively generous compensation -- vouchers and/or miles. Been allowed to change a few trips without penalty when there is a good reason.
The only thing I think I've missed out on are Porsche rides -- I've only had 1 although it was pretty neat to drive around JFK (T2 RJ maze to T4).

DougSkymiles

Psyduck1

Absolutely! Most of what delta rolls out disappoints me as a customer but seems like a no brainer to me on the business side.

Psyduck1

Will add the earnings releases to my calendar. Good way to stay informed and see their perspective.

Renes Points

Or sometimes the facts are the facts! https://s1.q4cdn.com/231238688/files...Transcript.pdf

"Yeah, the way we think about it is, there is no difference between them. We want to get to the point where we're
just kind of indifferent whether a person uses miles or whether they pay cash, obviously from a cash perspective
that's different. But from us, as we measure financial performance and kind of our goals for what we're seeing in
the products in terms of performance we would think of them no differently." - Eric Phillips
Senior Vice President, Pricing and Revenue Management, Delta Air Lines, Inc.

DougSkymiles

e30st

I think I am the ultimate valueless customer for Delta. I am PM also, and I live in Europe, so I don't need any MQDs. I reached PM just by flying many EU-US flights, mostly on AF/KL. Yeah, I flew all together 3 segments on Delta last year (didn't get upgraded), earning 83.000 MQM. And I spent about 3000$ on tickets (incl. taxes). If I were crediting these miles to Flying Blue, I would have not even earned SkyTeam Elite Plus.

Renes Points

I never buy or sell $DAL stock (nor any airlines stock) and if I had this past year I would be very sad.

As to the rest - I will stick with what the Delta rep stated - miles or cash are the same to them.

Wimsta

You are intentionally avoiding the following words:
"We want to get to the point..."

Your source clearly contradicts your assertion.

Your source clearly states that they want to get to the point where miles or cash are the same to them. It is clear that they are not in this position yet.