|
Overall I dig it....
I'm one of those loser plats who fly only domestically for business (and primarily routes that are <1K; so that's a sh!t ton of crappy flights) and internationally for pleasure. So I'm one of the 80% who never use their PMUs; so having the option to get something else instead rocks my socks.
I also dig rolling over miles in case I have a "down" year and the ability to get an upgrade on award tickets. To concur, i do think it would be awesome to upgrade internationally regardless of fare class based upon status / use of addtl SWUs, but that's just me being selfish when I see empty seats up front and I'm stuck next to a crying baby in the back.....for ten hours. i'm gonna fly Delta regardless (hell I live in ATL and pretty much have no other choice!); so I'm happy to get more bang for my buck since i'd bank the miles anyway. |
Originally Posted by WBurcham
(Post 12141126)
For the "VIP" line, we have SMS right now and NW had Chisolm before which essentially is a VIP line.
Originally Posted by WBurcham
(Post 12141126)
Upgrades on award tickets were something already offered on NW & were going to be brought over anyway (except for some IT glitches).
Originally Posted by WBurcham
(Post 12141126)
Choice benefits are CURRENTLY in place: *Earn 125,000 MQMs—enjoy your choice of 20,000 bonus miles, eight One-Day Delta Sky Club passes or $100 Marriott Bonus Bucks.
Originally Posted by WBurcham
(Post 12141126)
Rollover MQM's is new. That I neglected to mention.
|
As a DM, could you not pick the same two "Choice Benefits"? For example gift GM twice or get a total of 16 SWU?
To keep the NWA's happy, how about using 4 to 8 SWU for a one way upgrade on any fare. Some have said 2 to 3 but I don't see Delta doing that. 8 would be inline with a NWA PM who has earned 120 MQM's. Opening the ability to upgrade at the airport is big, and Delta will lose some full fare business class seats over this but they should pick up more YBM fares. Jeff, way to go for thinking out of the box with rollover MQM's and giving us choice benefits. |
Originally Posted by padirescu
(Post 12141312)
The MQM rollover is probably the biggest perk considering I will likely reach in excess of 200K this year. Since I've averaged about 100K MQM's the past 4 years with the exception of this year, as long as my travel patterns remain the same, I will qualify for DM through at least 2013. The other perks of the new DM will further increase the benefits I use most for both business and personal travel.
So let's look at that. 2009: You earn 200K MQMs. We are thinking in your case 75K will rollover into 2010, I think that will be correct. Or it could even be 125K if they rollover everything above Platinum while waiting for DM status to start on 3/1/2010. 2010: You become Diamond and start with 75K (or 125K) rollover MQMs. You earn 100K MQMs. The total requalifies you for DM through 2/2012. At this point the question becomes how the rollover MQMs into 2011 are calculated. If they take the 75K and add the 100K then 175K -125K gives you 50K rollover miles into 2011. Or 100K rolls over if 125K rolled over into 2010. If (and I suspect this will be the fine print) the rollover calculation into 2011 is based solely on what you earned during 2010, the calculation is 100K earned minus 125K threshold for DM. So nothing would rollover into 2011 and you drop to Platinum on 3/1/2012 based on 100K MQMs earned in 2011. I don't know for sure that this is how it will work, but it seems very possible to me. It will all be in the fine print. Here's the existing fine print: any MQMs you've earned above your Medallion qualification level at the end of the year will rollover to your MQM balance for the following year. Note it says MQMs that you have earned above your level at the end of the year. To me this strongly implies that your rollover miles will count towards status in the next year, but will not count towards your rollover calculation. So essentially they can rollover only once. Thought, comments, flames? :D David |
Constructive measures...
I know that when they started reserving a portion of the preferred seats with the intention of selling them, we came together as a community and started calling and emailing delta. This change was reversed within a couple of weeks.
When they took away the exception of Plats to be able to redeposit fees, we came together and contacted DL - they compromised. Whey they were not going to give MQM bonuses to YBM fares - we stepped up to the plate. I invite all of you to please go to Delta.com and email them letting them know that although you like most of the benefits of the new Diamond level, you believe at least some of the SWUs should be more flexible. Hopefully we can get them to compromise and make this a truly competitive program. |
Originally Posted by Juanefny
(Post 12142121)
I invite all of you to please go to Delta.com and email them
I like many of the aspects of the new Medallion program, but it's simply good, nothing really knock-it-out-of-the-park great, nothing that will cause UA, AA, and CO elites to jump ship and move over to Delta, and nothing to keep borderline NW and DL fliers from testing the waters at the other airlines. One of the weak points is the PMU/SWU situation. Jeff noted that 80% of Platinum Medallions never redeem PMU's. That is a real sign that they are broken, but there is a simple way to fix them. I am self employed, and average 6 transatlantic round trips a year. Unlike many of the high revenue pax, those of us who are self employed pay for the tix out of our own pocket, and make our own purchasing decisions. We really can't justify paying 4 to 5 times the price of LUT for YBM, but sitting up front will make us more productive upon arrival overseas. If HKQ were 2-1/2 times the price of LUT, I would at least price it out every time I buy a TATL ticket. I wouldn't buy it every time, but I'm sure I would a couple times a year. I could justify upping my annual spend on DL by $2500 to $3000 to get up front on a some of my TATL R/T's. I can't justify paying $2800 to $3600 for a single YBM r/t when LUT is typically $650 to $1100. Here's one way they might make the numbers work in your favor. Currently upgrades TATL to Europe, Israel or the Middle East are 15k or 25k miles. How about making upgrades from HQK cost an additional 7500 miles more than YBM upgrades, or they could cost either one PMU PLUS 7500 miles, or two PMU's? That would offset some of the buy-down effect that you are worried about (high revenue passengers buying cheaper tickets because they can still get to sit upfront), and it will also be beneficial for DL accounting because it would deplete my mileage balance or use up my PMU's. The end result will be a very low cost method for Delta to make lots of Platinums happy and to help match some of the benefits that AA and UA dangle in front of us. |
Originally Posted by DiverDave
(Post 12142107)
So let's look at that.
2009: You earn 200K MQMs. We are thinking in your case 75K will rollover into 2010, I think that will be correct. Or it could even be 125K if they rollover everything above Platinum while waiting for DM status to start on 3/1/2010. 2010: You become Diamond and start with 75K (or 125K) rollover MQMs. You earn 100K MQMs. The total requalifies you for DM through 2/2012. At this point the question becomes how the rollover MQMs into 2011 are calculated. If they take the 75K and add the 100K then 175K -125K gives you 50K rollover miles into 2011. Or 100K rolls over if 125K rolled over into 2010. If (and I suspect this will be the fine print) the rollover calculation into 2011 is based solely on what you earned during 2010, the calculation is 100K earned minus 125K threshold for DM. So nothing would rollover into 2011 and you drop to Platinum on 3/1/2012 based on 100K MQMs earned in 2011. I don't know for sure that this is how it will work, but it seems very possible to me. It will all be in the fine print. Here's the existing fine print: any MQMs you've earned above your Medallion qualification level at the end of the year will rollover to your MQM balance for the following year. Note it says MQMs that you have earned above your level at the end of the year. To me this strongly implies that your rollover miles will count towards status in the next year, but will not count towards your rollover calculation. So essentially they can rollover only once. Thought, comments, flames? :D David I would hope that DL doesn't penalize people by counting current year earned MQM's first then saying "MQM's rolled over from last year can't be rolled over again." The bookkeeping would be easier with the "first in, first out" method - just take your MQM end of year balance, subtract X miles for whichever tier you earned that year, carry over the balance. No need to seaprate "rollover MQM's" from "current year MQM's" But as you said, who really knows. John |
Originally Posted by mersk862
(Post 12134281)
AA and UA don't offer anything more than their equivalent of Gold to be earned via MM status - AA will get you Plat for life at 2 MM (but no chance for ExPlat for life); UA will get you PremEx for life at 1 MM (and Red Carpet Club for life at 2 MM) - they do not have 1K for life.
DL and CO to my knowledge are the only ones offering Platinum for life...I believe CO also requires 4 MM. |
Originally Posted by Gargoyle
(Post 12142183)
Thanks for the nudge. Per your suggestion I just sent this missive:
I like many of the aspects of the new Medallion program, but it's simply good, nothing really knock-it-out-of-the-park great, nothing that will cause UA, AA, and CO elites to jump ship and move over to Delta, and nothing to keep borderline NW and DL fliers from testing the waters at the other airlines. One of the weak points is the PMU/SWU situation. Jeff noted that 80% of Platinum Medallions never redeem PMU's. That is a real sign that they are broken, but there is a simple way to fix them. I am self employed, and average 6 transatlantic round trips a year. Unlike many of the high revenue pax, those of us who are self employed pay for the tix out of our own pocket, and make our own purchasing decisions. We really can't justify paying 4 to 5 times the price of LUT for YBM, but sitting up front will make us more productive upon arrival overseas. If HKQ were 2-1/2 times the price of LUT, I would at least price it out every time I buy a TATL ticket. I wouldn't buy it every time, but I'm sure I would a couple times a year. I could justify upping my annual spend on DL by $2500 to $3000 to get up front on a some of my TATL R/T's. I can't justify paying $2800 to $3600 for a single YBM r/t when LUT is typically $650 to $1100. Here's one way they might make the numbers work in your favor. Currently upgrades TATL to Europe, Israel or the Middle East are 15k or 25k miles. How about making upgrades from HQK cost an additional 7500 miles more than YBM upgrades, or they could cost either one PMU PLUS 7500 miles, or two PMU's? That would offset some of the buy-down effect that you are worried about (high revenue passengers buying cheaper tickets because they can still get to sit upfront), and it will also be beneficial for DL accounting because it would deplete my mileage balance or use up my PMU's. The end result will be a very low cost method for Delta to make lots of Platinums happy and to help match some of the benefits that AA and UA dangle in front of us. |
Could a Delta veteran please PM me about where I could most effectively write with comments and constructive suggestions about the announced changes to the SkyMiles program? I'm DL Gold at the moment, but also NW Platinum and at about 160K EQMs for this year (with more booked), which probably means Diamond next year (and some rollover).
Thanks. I'll also make my thoughts known to the WorldPerks team. |
Originally Posted by Horizons
(Post 12142392)
Could a Delta veteran please PM me about where I could most effectively write with comments and constructive suggestions about the announced changes to the SkyMiles program? I'm DL Gold at the moment, but also NW Platinum and at about 160K EQMs for this year (with more booked), which probably means Diamond next year (and some rollover).
Thanks. I'll also make my thoughts known to the WorldPerks team. |
Originally Posted by VA1379
(Post 12142293)
Actually, UA does have 1K for life. You need 3MM (all BIS).
|
Originally Posted by VA1379
(Post 12142293)
Actually, UA does have 1K for life. You need 3MM (all BIS).
http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,52380,00.html though I have no idea what "personalized upgrades of status" under 3MM means... UA's is probably the hardest as it requires the BIS to be all on UA or UA Express flights - no Star Alliance flights EQMs are included, etc. |
As far as the cost of Y/B/M fares go ... remember that DL hiked B fares substantially earlier this year. Before that, the premium to upgrade a NW ticket was a lot more reasonable.
And if DL had made a NW-style Companion Upgrade Program part of the DM tier, I am sure that one thing would have driven a lot of incremental revenue to the airline |
Originally Posted by mooper
(Post 12141763)
In my case, for example, the ability to gift Gold is far superior to 6 PMUs or any of the other options.
I am endlessly confused about how DL fans think LOSING things is an improvement. In the NW program, ALL plats (75k miles only), your companion upgraded with you at the 7-day window as a Plat. Now you think it's a great thing when, at 125k miles, you can forfeit your PMUs and all other Diamond benefit options, choose to gift gold to your spouse, and now BOTH of you upgrade as Golds at the 5-day window. This is not a new benefit - it's a worse version of an old benefit that comes at the price of 50k more qualifying miles and forfeiting all the other benefits you could ahve chosen. |
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