sydneyracquelle

Saw on DL site this morning any BE tickets bought on or after 12/9/21 for flights after 1/1/22 are no longer eligible for MQMs or RDMs.

VFR

I'm searing their website to try to see if they are doing anything to improve Basic Economy (e.g. providing elite benefits like AA) to compensate for this change. So far, it seems not.

Eliminating RDMs is an odd choice, because it does not incentivize the mom and pop travelers who fly once a year to choose Delta next year. Still, I suppose it recovers 5% to 11% of revenue from these fares.

It seems that E fares still earn 70% of miles flown when credited to KE...

tkey75

I took me a second to realize now what the 'BE' abbreviation means. It used to mean something else - and that would have been very significant.

I don't see where it hurt DL as I can imagine most of the miles earned from those tickets never get redeemed.

Yellowjj

I guess this is our Christmas gift from Delta. I have no doubt they will be increasing main cabin fares at the same time and calling it a customer enhancement.

ATOBTTR

To an extent I understand your point but I'm sure DL is looking at it's own metrics. I see two reasons for this change:
1) Force those who do care about RDMs and in particular, MQMs, to buy-up to higher fares, thus more revenue for DL.
2) Of the mom & pop flyers who fly once a year for their annual vacation and are going to Kayak or Priceline and buying the cheapest fare, how many of them are incentivized by FF miles in their purchase decision? Probably not many. They're going on price, followed maybe by a little bit of schedule but these are also the people who will take a double connection departing at 6 AM and arriving at 11:30 PM with 4 hour layovers at each connection point over a nonstop to save $5 a ticket. It wouldn't shock me if a large number of these flyers don't even have FF accounts or put in FF numbers anyway.

jimrpa

Just to be clear, delta hasn’t rebranded Delta nOne back to businessElite and enhanced it because their most loyal customers demanded it (nightmares of Leo Mullen run through my mind)? 😀😀😀

regiobaden

Can someone help me understand the implications for transatlantic JV Basic Economy credited to SkyMiles?
That used to be a good option if you didn't care about the checked bag and C+ upgrades...
- DL marketed & DL operated: No SkyMiles & No MQM
- DL marketed & KL/AF/VS operated: No SkyMiles & No MQM
- KL/AF/VS marketed & DL operated: regular earn?

lsquare

Are all DL basic economy fares E-fares?

Eastbay1K

The big benefit to DL regarding this change is probably to its balance sheet. Just because the miles are unlikely to be redeemed, or of relatively insignificant value to the occasional traveler, the reduction of billions of aggregate miles from the balance sheet makes the company's financials seem rosier, all without any material change to its cost of doing business.

VFR

VS uses T for its basic economy fares, including on codeshares. I'd expect DL will eliminate SkyMiles earning on T fares shortly.

Flying KL/AF codes may be attractive.

BudgetJetsetter

I'm a new flyer to Delta this year and have flown basic economy a couple times after achieving Silver medallions status.

I felt that Delta's basic economy was more generous than the offerings of the other airlines. The ability to choose your seat after it was assigned was amazing. It usually meant that I wasn't stuck in a middle seat on a flight with a light load,

Status also meant that a lot of the downsides of BE were eliminated with boarding and baggage. The only thing I was giving up was the chance to upgrade which wasn't likely to happen as a Silver (some flights had 60+ people on upgrade list).

Not sure how this change factors into my math for re-qualifying for next year.

xliioper

Yes, they all book into 'E' booking class which is what show on your itins and receipts. The fare basis codes which make up Basic Economy fare filings all have a main cabin coach class (not E) as their first letter, but the second to last letter in them will always be a 'B'. There is a dual inventory check when booking BE fares on both the main cabin coach bucket (from the first letter of the fare basis code) and the E booking class bucket.

dw

I kind of see this as a consequence of DL eliminating expiration for SMs.

Ironically, BE fares haven't counted toward elite qualification on AA, but will once again starting in January with the migration to their new revenue based Loyalty Points system.

eponymous_coward

I can tell you right now that prior to DL opening the barn door wide for status matches, I was an occasional flyer because DL gives free miles away in the SEA market and their BE product was reasonable. I was willing to put them in the “maybe” bucket with AA and WN.

But “hey, we’re Spirit or United and we need to punish you for buying cheap fares” is going to drive me away from them, and confirms my decision to try them and go “nah, SkyPesos aren’t for me, unless I get them for free”. And fortunately I don’t live in a hub captive market like DTW/MSP.

jamesteroh

I think the $99 change fee is more than fair. Still a big improvement over pre-covid, surprised they didn't go back to making those totally non-changeable.

For the MQM's and RDM's they should have reduced the earnings to like 50% instead of eliminating them. I'm sure people flying on an E fare don't fly enough enough to qualify for diamond status anyway and if it's a once a year ma and pa they aren't going to accumulate that many RDM's anyway.

At least you can still carry on unlike United and change your seat after it's assigned