The government also used to have that policy. It changed around 2002 for the same reasons listed above.

I was shocked today.

I typically book a half dozen trips per year between Bozeman and DC. (My youngest is going to school there.) I buy advance purchase, usually *well* in advance. Typically the best price I see is in the $600-800 range. There are times its been over $1000 for coach.

I went to buy a ticket for my son to come home for Christmas, and not only was Delta the cheapest, it was pricing out in the $300's.

I can only hope that Delta Revenue Management is getting a serious lesson in quantifying the value of customer loyalty. If you destroy loyalty, then you are stuck competing on price and value. And, I don't believe Delta represents the value it once had.

Ive seen the same across the board for thanksgiving and Christmas travel, not just for DL. I think this has more to do with the fact that RM on all the airlines was being very aggressive far out and is now starting to seeing softness in demand due to larger economic factors at play now.

One factor- I paid $6.35/gallon for gas yesterday (Los Angeles�), the most I�ve paid in quite some time. A lot of people are going to start questioning discretionary travel.

I started flying for the government in 1977. I joined the AA, DL, and UA FFPs in the 1990s. I�ve never had to turn over any FFP benefits to my employer.

To some extent, European schemes (e.g. British Airways Executive Club) block this. At BA, you don't own your miles, instead, a company called Avios Group (or something like that) owns them and redeems them for your benefit. As you technically don't own the miles, they're not yours to give to your employer.

So, I think the answer to the first question is that the others did a better job of communicating, didn't gaslight folks, and didn't take quite as much of an axe to everything all at once (including the massive hike in tiers, though a bump vs 2019/planned 2020 reqs was probably in the mix no matter what). Yanking the MQD waiver from the CCs (without a de facto replacement) stands out - $25k on the CCs now gets you an MQD waiver into Plat. Post-change it doesn't even get you halfway to Silver on the Reserve CC. Had the status-earning change been the only change, I think this wouldn't have been as much of a mess. So it was a massive, multi-part overhaul and there was no clear subset who might plausibly have gained. Much like the markets last year, there was nowhere to hide.

As to what I/we want to roll back, others have said it well: You'll get different answers from different people. Personally, I'd like to see the Reserve/Lounge situation reverted in some manner (even at the price of the CC fee going up). If I could get lounge access for a set fee (we can haggle about that amount, but I'd be just as happy to plop down about $1000 for that) without messing with status or poorly-valued CC spend, I'd be just as happy to keep my business with Delta. (If Skyteam matched the others, this would be easy enough to resolve...) But I know there are others who would opt for other things.

By the way, one thought comes to mind: I wonder how it would go over if a program just went to "RDM earning" and "benefit earning", where for the latter one could opt for assigning "points" to things like boarding priority, extra free bags, maybe even extra RDMs, etc.? For WFBF folks, a lot of the "conventional" benefits (e.g. complementary upgrades/upgrade priority, boarding priority, free checked bags) simply don't apply (there is an assumption that folks aren't paying for premium seats which is built in via most of the lower-tier benefits - other than the extra RDMs, Silver offers absolutely nothing that isn't already built in to a purchased F ticket). Others might opt to pump most/all of their stuff into other categories of benefits.

On the contrary, I fly DC-SDQ via JFK or ATL. Typically $500-700, historically around Christmas time $1,200. This year DL has the cheapest at $1,600, from BWI, and for the dates I usually book for less than $1,300.

My brother in law is a medical recruiter for a large health care system. Any employee found to be claiming miles on company paid travel was immediately terminated.

There are entities that have a more rational approach to this: get the best deal (spend our money as if it was yours) and you keep the miles.

If you think the increase in requirements for US passengers was high look at what they did to international passengers including those who live in Canada and use DL/ST as their main carrier but cannot get a DL Amex card with no SSN.

I think a few things Delta did are actually more "punitive" than anything AA or UA has announced

1) Removing unlimited SkyClub access from the Reserve/Amex Platinum cards - SkyClubs access, for better or worse, is a huge draw to the overall program for many, ranging from casual flyers to 100 segment road warriors.

2) The removal of MQM - most Delta flyers are used to MQM, particularly when it comes to things like the card status boost and extra MQM for business/first class tickets. Other programs have gotten beyond mileage, but Delta clinged on to it. I get annoyed when I book a business class ticket on American only to get the value of the ticket back as "loyalty points" when I am used to getting more having booked J.

3) The change in the MQD waiver to MQM boost. Someone spending $30,000 on a Delta reserve used to get 15,000 MQD, 20% of the way to Platinum, and an MQD waiver. Now, that same $30,000 gets you 3,000 MQD, with is 17% towards the new MQD requirement for Platinum. IMO, that is a devaluation, but not necessarily a sea change - but for whatever reason, the Delta Reserve "MQD boost" isn't resonating with people.

4) The elimination of rollover is stinging a lot of people who built up big balances - rollover wasn't a factor in any other program

The Delta program appeared complicated to some, but in reality it was very simple - you spend $30,000 on a Delta Reserve, you fly 60,000 miles... At that point, you are a Platinum elite with unlimited SkyClub access, SkyPriority globally, etc. If Delta just kept this system in place, but maybe increased requirements / thresholds, it would have likely landed a bit better. But they really do need to do something with the rollover balances

The unique Delta problem was the rollover, which functioned for many people as a soft landing. So you felt like you had lost multiple years of status.

AA�s program also had some element of loyalty still present - it�s easier to keep status if you have status.

UA miles can still have some value on J for partners and AA specials can be good whereas DL has more aggressively ensured there will never be any large value

The coup de grace for DL was really the SkyClub changes - buy our premium card and we�ll let you have enough coupons for two or so round trips with connections.

Just my own anecdotes talking with several people I know, but it seems the change that has stung the most is elimination of unlimited SkyClub visits on the DL Reserve Amex. At least among those I interact with (including medallions), that change was perceived far worse than the changes to how medallion status is earned.

Diving further, I think the biggest problem is for many there is no perceivable path to earn unlimited SkyClub access. Being blunt, 75k spend on DL Amex isn�t realistic for many, even if you ignore the poor return structure of doing that.

I think DL would have been much better off offering Reserve cardholders the option to buy unlimited SkyClub access, at staggered rates depending on how much spend was placed on the Amex.

As an example:
-Spend $25k on DL Reserve, you have the option to buy unlimited SkyClub visits for $400.
-Spend $50k, you can buy unlimited SkyClub access for $200.
-Spend $75k, unlimited access.

Or something like that. Then there would have at least been a perceived achievable path (to more Cardholders) for earning that unlimited access. I think had DL done that, they would have probably gotten more Amex spend on their cards, and wouldn�t have seen the backlash they are now getting, because again there would be a perceived path for club access.

Well that is a company I would never work for. I don't even know how a company can take miles from travel... DL and other airlines program states miles are credited to only the traveler not by somebody else.

Medallions can still purchase a membership for $695,
however. Are the people you�ve spoken with aware of this option?

Though what sort of stings is that DL has structured the new program in a way where some people will sort of be forced to keep the Reserve card regardless, because it�s the only card offering a reasonable spend to MQD ratio. (Especially compared to AA where all cards have the same spend ratio, even the free one.). So in that sense, for non-Diamonds this is an additional $695 they didn�t have to spend before. (And Diamonds who don�t have the Reserve card may feel compelled to get it, so that�s $550 for them.)

Hypothetical question for everyone- would you be happy giving up the companion cert on the Reserve in exchange for unlimited SC access? That�s sort of the odd quirk with the card, compared to similar cards from AA and UA- those don�t come with many benefits aside from lounge access.