Flying_Duck

Well, you know, I am just this poor ignorant immigrant from Denmark who came to this big wonderous country and among other difficult tasks am trying to understand this mysterious and difficult language called Denglish - and I still am working on it!!

NYBanker

FO = Flies Often or FO = Flying Orchid (not orchard!)

A long time ago, DL had just one medallion designation (not the three levels that there are now), and these people had an "FO" designation in their records when their Medallion SM#, or FF# back then, was entered in a record.

Flying Orchids were people at offices who booked other people on travel, and often on DL. Stereotype here - but generally women, hence orchid. They got a certificate, and maybe a few other odds and ends. I don't think there was any real value given (like a free ticket).

SM could be Silver Medallion or SkyMiles.

Here's my question - when did DL start having multiple medallion levels?

vasantn

AFAIK, it meant Flies Often.

Flying Orchid was another designation for the "bookers" but was unrelated to Silver Medallion.

PDX-RDM-AVL-TPA

Tennisbum, don't feel stupid for asking, I've been wondering what FO stood for myself. I'm sure there are lots of other Delta Forum folks out there who used it but never knew what it stood for. Fess up everyone. I tried to search the forum several weeks ago but was unsuccessful due to the fact that the search algorithm won't search two-letter terms.

I had figured out that SM was not used for Silver Medallion because it is too confusing with SM = SkyMiles, but couldn't figure out what FO could possibly stand for. Now that we know, thanks to mtparadis and NYBanker, we shoudn't feel so bad. Flying Orchid !!??!??!?

It's already confusing enough to have SM = SkyMiles, and SMS = Special Member Services, so FO works for me.

Although at one point (before I made GM in November), I thought maybe the GMs and PMs were simply telling us lowly FOs to F_ Off.

bursa

Nothing wrong with being an FO (or should I say SM)!

Dovster

This is not true. FO's are low-life, miserly, scum-sucking bottom eaters who are not fit to mix with other human beings.

PM's are obnoxious status-snobs who grasp their ill-gotten SkyMiles with greedy hands and hoard them, along with their bottles of Cholula Hot Sauce while cackling insanely.

GM's, of course, are the salt of the earth.

(Please note that this is only true until the end of February. At that time, I will become an FO and a Silver Medallion will be the sign of the superior person, while GM's will be merely PM-wannabes. Everything I wrote about PMs will remain true.)

Robert Leach

vasantn is right; FO stands for "flies often".

The Flying Orchid program was set up to recognize corporate travel arrangers of substance, back before the day of corporate travel policies, mandated travel agents, and even frequent flyer programs. The person who did the travel booking typically had some discretion as to which carrier the flyer flew; it was often a higher level secretary, perhaps even the secretary to the boss. In an effort to recognize these behind-the-scenes travel arrangers, as well as influence them favorably, Delta had a program whereby the travel arranger could be nominated to be a Flying Orchid. They got minimal benefits for being one, but at least it was some sort of "thank you" and recognition from Delta. It was sort of a distant cousin to the Flying Colonel program in that it was an honorary recognition without strict criteria for includion; you could think of the Flying Colonel as being a program for the boss, whereas the Flying Orchid program was for the secretary (although in reality it was targeted at the executive secretary level).

Now, as to "FO", the history there is that in the beginning there was only one Medallion level, and it was for people who flew often. There was no such thing as Silver or Gold or Platinum. You were simply Medallion. And, since you flew often, the designator was FO. A few years later, Delta introduced the Royal Medallion level for those who flew even more; I have no idea what the designator was for that. A few years later yet came the revamp with Silver/Gold/Platinum.

Cholula

You can pretty much expect a question on the meaning of “FO” to pop-up here every couple months. And you can also expect the usual debate to break out as to the “true” meaning of the term. I still vote for “Flying Orchid” as the way I’ve always understood it. But this thread too will eventually end with no clear-cut answer.
The first that multiple medallion levels started, as best as I can recall, was aroubd the mid to late ‘80‘s. At that time there were Medallions and Royal Medallions. I forget what the actual difference was but Royal Medallions could upgrade easier and I also think Royal Medallions earned bonus FF Miles at a higher rate.
But I’ll defer to one of the other SM’s historians here to fill in the exact details.

Tennisbum

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Dovster

Personally, I speak two languages -- English and Foreign.

My daughter will never let me live down the time I took her to Italy and said something to her in Italian and then turned to the desk clerk and asked for my room key in Hebrew.

Tennisbum

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AAND

Did they jump straight to the Silver / Gold / Platinum designation? I am too young to remember, but I felt like it went Bronze / Silver / Gold at one point? This is just based on hazy memories of my dad's status card. Maybe that was the Royal Medallion card or something.

deltadiva

I am reading from the 1993 Frequent Flyer Program Awards, Rules, and Conditions. Medallion status was earned with 30,000 base miles or 15 round trips per year. The FF card was white with a blue Medallion Level ribbon on the left side. The Royal Medallion was earned with 60,000 base miles or 30 round trips. The card was gold with the blue Royal medallion ribbon. Base miles were 1000 mile minimum. Both levels got reduced mileage awards such as the MX 2500 RT upgrade, MB 20,000 RT coach in NA, and the MC 25,000 first class in NA. North America was defined as U.S /Alaska/Bermuda/ Caribbean/ Mexico. Also there were complimentary upgrades at various thresholds and beginning at 35,000 base miles, a 10,000 bonus for every 10,000 miles beyond that (up to 50,000 bonus miles per year). The Royal Medallions got a 50% base mile mileage bonus and if they reached 100,000 base miles a free 1 year Crown Room membership. I still have a lot of old FF miles and as a Millionmiler (lifetime Medallion) continue to use these awards. You can see how much more lucrative the old program (pre 1995) was back then. DD

neverhome

Wasn't it around 1996 that they switched from Medallion/Royal to Silver Gold/Platinum? It was the same time that they switched from frequent flyer miles to skymiles and from a 1000 mile segment minimum to 500.

Tennisbum

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