If any other trips come up, burn miles and fly them as award travel. If they are flights which you company would have compensated, you can either generously tell your company that you appreciate them so much that you're using your miles for the trip, to help your companies financial position ;) or open a Flying Blue (or Alitalia) account and put that number in the PNR. You'll still get priority boarding, but you won't get upgrades.

^^^
I like the program updates, am on track for 200K MQM too and really appreciate being front of the line for domestic UG's
Keep up the good work Delta.

Man I second that complaint. The Platinum companion upgrade on NW was fabulous! Confirmed at the same time as you. From what I read, Delta's companion upgrade is so crappy - why even bother trying? Am I wrong? I mean if you're going to make Diamond all this great stuff - why not consider a companion upgrade like what NW had? Now that was one hell of a perk!

And you're right about AS. My brother is MVP Gold and he almost always has his wife flying up front with him - no hassles.

Yep. And deleted because of it. Definitely overly harsh.

i've been pretty surprised by the negative response to the DM level announcement. i am a relative noob here and i was not a frequent flier in these days of yore that are always talked about as being so great (particularly at NW), and that gives me a different perspective.

why does it matter what the program was like years ago? to me, adding DM and rollover seems like a substantial improvement over the program before this addition, and that ought to be the most important part. sure the SWUs could have included more fare classes, but the issue of empty seats in the front cabin when someone is trying to use a PMU day-of-flight has been brought up so often that i would have thought this piece would be viewed as a substantial improvement.

i also recall umpteen threads along the lines of 'i have 200k bis mqm why am i not EP?!' followed by lots of speculation. are people not happy that this DM level will allow you to feel special compared to the 76k mqm PMs and be shooting for a known quantity of 125k mqm ?

and what about all of the 150k mqm PMs who like to complain about losing out on upgrades to 76k mqm PMs who bought one higher fare class than you ? the upgrade priority seems to be getting lost in the shuffle here.

so like i said - with only the program as of 5 minutes ago to compare the 'new' version, i think it is an improvement. it didn't meet the speculative expectations built up here but that doesn't bother me a whole lot. maybe i'm alone in this stance.

I fully understand how useful the NW SWUs were. The point is that they weren't that much more useful than what AA offers. Why are we comparing to a program that is not only dead, but one that was far less generous than one that currently exists? Compare to AA and you will get a hearty "I agree". Compare to NW and you will get a hearty "doesn't exist".

I enjoyed meeting you as well as all the other Delta Employees that made our DO so great!
Although I'm not happy with all of the changes to the Medallion levels over the last year, I *LOVE* the rollover benefit.

Thanks!

I can't believe how long it took me to read all of these posts.

I am a disenfranchised NW flyer. One thing that does come out is how passionate so many people are about the loss of their old airline and the enhanced benefits of the 4th tier.

For the DL flyers, here are the things I liked about the WP program for Platinums and the NW soft and hard product :

1) The Platinum Companion Upgrade (on the same PNR) was simply sensational.

2) Using miles to upgrade Y/B fares on NW into WBC was pretty good, because B fares (especially in low season) were reasonably priced. TATL and TPAC could be found for $1200 +/-. Try finding that on an M fare on DL now.

3) I think we can all agree that most of the added benefits to the new DM tier were available before (save MQM rollover) as Platinum benefits to either NW or DL. So I think we all find that trumpeting the new benefits, while enhancements over the program as of June 30, are disingenuous at best.

4) I always thought NW's A330 and 747 in WBC (even if you are not a fan of angled lie-flat) provided a better ride than the old non lie flat DL product. And the DL 767-300 product today ... just does not compare to the A330. I am sure the new DL lie-flat 767-400 and 777 are nice rides.

5) The NW SWU certs were a real reason to make a MR in order to get them. Saving 60,000 miles AND buying a V fare (instead of B) drove a lot of traffic to NW. And, since they booked into C AND were valid on KL also, you could easily build an upgraded itinerary to most of the world.

The DL PMU/SWU certs will do little to drive that same incremental traffic. Of course, it is hard to drive traffic when they give out MQM's all the time.

6) the NW 1,000 mile guarantee when not upgraded was a nice kiss.

So, finally my flying patterns come into play. I fly 4-6x a year TPAC; 1-2x a year TATL; and 6-8x a year domestic. Basically every 3-5 weeks. And yes, I buy my own tickets.

And this year, for the first time in 10 years, I will not have bought a ticket on NW/DL.

I think when you look at these benefits, one can understand why some old NW customers are disgruntled. I decided to find other carriers that are now better meeting my needs.

If and/or when DL decides that they really want my business, I will be happy to give it to them again.

2009 is my 4th year as a PM and I did not experience the old days that are sometimes discussed here. In any case the changes to the PM program that we have seen in the last 9 months have been problematic. IMHO, DL is trying to make PMs do two things:

1. Make us fly more
2. Make us spend more $

It is a business after all and there is nothing wrong with that.

Since DM will obviously not draw any UA's 1k and AA's EXPs; IMHO DL decided to create the DM status because they believed:

1. that some PMs will fly more to get to the DM status (goal 1: make us fly more)
2. that some PMs would fly a few more TATL flights in YBM is they had extra PMUs (Goal 2: make us spend more $)
3. it would not cost them much money

The problem is that they keep upsetting their most loyal customers (long term DL PMs) and potential long term customers (former NW PMs). Personally I feel insulted when I read "best in class" or "we are improving" and see what I consider a reduction in PM perks from a year ago.

I typically fly about 120k MQM mostly in K-fare except TALT were I typically go for sLUT fares (I cannot afford M-fare). I like DL, enjoy being a PM, and hate it when I see them rolling a product (to me DM is a product) that is obviously not competitive with AA and UA.

What would make me go for DM this and next year? Real SWUs that work on any fare (like AA's EXP or UA's 1k). BTW, I rarely use all my PMUs. The suggestion that two PMUs could be used at any fare would also work for me.

No, not a wildly outrageous request....just pointing out how many people here (not directed at you) like to talk out of both sides of their mouths...;)

My sentiments exactly. Lipstick on a pig doesn't fly for me.

DL management destroyed significant elements of the NW and even DL FF program value proposition by first stripping away benefits from a larger segment of customers and then reintroducing some of the stripped away benefits for a smaller segment of customers.

The NW program does still exist and it and the DL program are a shell of what they used to be and are a shell game of DL managements creation.

Other than the rollover benefit -- which will be eliminated in a few years -- these changes by DL are largely unimpressive because they were part and parcel of the DL loyalty programs' features within the past few years until DL management decided to take away from more only to give back later to fewer.

It's not a bad thing that something that was definitely false was deleted. "Most" FTers don't share that opinion in the first place and there's no sign that most of the segment of FTers posting on the DL forum share that opinion either.

I don't follow this at all. In addition to the fee waivers, didn't they also add a VIP line, upgrades on award tickets, rollover MQMs, and the Choice benefits (including the ability to bestow Silver/Gold status, bonus RDMs, etc.)? Were all of these previous PM benefits that are just being given back, or are they perhaps new and additional?

This oft repeated claim is also perplexing to me, as it is blatantly ignoring the other half of the offer. PMs currently get 6 PMUs and no other choice. Going forward, they will get *either* 4 PMUs/SWUs, *or* Gold/Silver gifting, *or* 20K RDMs, *or* a gift card, *or* 4 SkyClub passes. Before considering it a downgrade, one must first consider if any of the non-PMU/SWU choices are more desirable than the 6 PMUs/SWUs that are currently the only option. For many of us who find the PMUs/SWUs relatively worthless, this is actually an upgrade. If you love your PMUs, then your position is valid, but going from 6 to 4 isn't exactly a devastating cut.

+1 plus SWU can now be used DoD.

It seems that SWUs are a significant factor in the decision making (which airline to fly) process for some here, while for others like me they factor into the equation to a lesser degree. I am not even sure I will pick them as my Choice Benefit. However I am perplexed that they dropped PM SWUs from 6 to 4. If they are mostly unused as Jeff admits, why bother reducing the count and appear to be reducing PM benefits, why not leave them at 6 for PM since the cost to so would be negligible?

When I first heard of the 4th tier I thought the threshold would be beyond my reach. At 125k that is attainable for me yearly until business travel requirements change. So for me I actually like the 2010 program and will continue to choose DL. YMMV.

I think you made your case very well and I agree with you.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

Curiosity here ... Did NW allow PE's to gift elite status to others?