Alta Flyer

I have been a lurker for many many years; this is the first time that I felt an absolute need to post. Years ago, Delta asked its frequent flyers to help it survive a catastrophic crisis. We came out in force and flew as much as we could to help support the airline… that's what loyalty was about. Since that time here's a list of the things that Delta has given us in return:

1) no published award charts; no longer aspirational awards; astronomical prices for overseas flights

2) no increased award seats for platinum and diamond

3) million miler has become virtually worthless; "lifetime" silver medallion is no longer lifetime and silver medallion is not much better than nothing; million mile are gifts have been degraded

4) gold gets no advanced Comfort Plus seats at booking

5) first class monitarization… although I can accept and understand this

6) at one point during this period mileage cost was higher when logged in

7) earning mileage has been decreased and dollar based

8) Air France awards which used to be generous don’t really exist anymore… this was reciprocity for Delta not awarding flying blue players

9) no longer membership cards; no longer useful luggage tags with membership number or information on them; no longer metal luggage tags for platinum million miler

10) Leo Mullins – Driving Every Loyal Traveler Away



These are just the ones that quickly come to my mind. Loyalty plays both ways. I have switched a great deal of my flying to other carriers, especially my transcons. I used to insist that visitors to my ski vacation home fly Delta: I no longer do this and most fly other carriers; and I estimate that Delta has lost approximately 50 flights a year from this. I was, back then, as loyal a Delta flyer as there could be; they stabbed me in the heart. We should remember this now as Delta might come crawling back.

defrosted

Not lurking around long enough to see the other thread on this very topic that was shut down?

Reap What You Sow

sydneyracquelle

I feel the exact opposite. Delta is a for-profit business not a charity.

Thanks Delta!

ijgordon

Could you maybe jog my memory? They asked you to fly them out of the goodness of your heart, or did they throw in a bunch of sweeteners like double miles/MQMs?

Daitheflu84

I've only been a DL loyalist since 2017, so I don't have the comparison between now and the PMNW "good old days". Its likely that things from a flyer's perspective were much better back then, and there surely have been times where I've been angry at DL for many of the things you reference.

That being said, I could not be happier with DL at the moment. They've been great to me this year, including several times in the last 10 days when I've needed to change flights at the last minute. Virtually every change has been to my benefit, such as changing from a 1-stop itinerary to a nonstop, and I think I've paid a whopping $60 for fare differences combined (all these flights were with companion, too). Considering that Delta is dealing with one of the biggest crises in it's history, the overall demeanor of its team members, many of whom may soon lose their jobs, has been nothing short of amazing.

rylan

Yes DL is a for-profit business. When things are good, you see perks and some benefits removed and replaced with fees. However I would expect the opposite to be true as well when they need to attract flyers.

With the coronavirus pandemic, DL is being extremely flexible and accomodating even beyond their stated policy online. You can get refunds for most international travel even though policy says no change fee and credit. They are also allowing a lot of other circumstances for changes to be made with no fee.

Do I like some of the changes? No. Do I like the service and treatment I've received from DL despite some of the changes? Resounding YES. They've gone above and beyond repeatedly and earned my loyalty.

GrayAnderson

I mean, the frustrating thing is that if you set aside WN (who has a very unique business model), while DL has trimmed perks over time and to our frustration, they've done far less than much of the competition. They haven't been as utterly restrictive on things as American and they haven't followed United's model lead (UA and AA both have reasons to be deeply worried at this point). In terms of what they have done, there are some very good reasons to have stuck with them.

ryandc99

Folks,
This is strangely familiar with another thread we just closed. We are not normally ones to close "negative" threads, however as you can probably imagine currently our workload is quite high and these types of threads are non productive and don't provide much value to the community. Therefore we are going to close it.

Ryandc99, Moderator Delta Air Lines.