hfly

Remember all those innocent chats like, "I registered for the promotion and never got the card!" or, "I really think that I should get the targeted bonus even though I wasn't targeted!" and all those similar conversations?

We'll guess what (Don't ask how I know), Delta has been listening to/reading our posts here on FT and the whole phone up VRU thing changed as of July 1st. This means that for now on when we phone in for a bonus it will not post for 4-6 weeks because they will verify each and every VRU and whether you qualified for it!!

This was a direct response to many of the whining threads that have been posted here on this board about people believing that they were deserving of these bonuses and stating so ad nauseum.

I am not saying whether or not I ever benefitted from this (I may have once, but am not sure), but what this basically means is that those of us that benefitted from getting these bonuses before will no longer do so (yeah, I know, we'll probably be told that its for our protection and we asked for it!!). It also confirms what many people said/thought before that once you registered on the phone you basically got the bonuses.

This of course relates to the whole argument of what to post or not post here on FT. I am sure that this debate will continue....

jwhite4

A couple of thoughts:

1. I'm not sure any excessive or whining comments on Flyertalk contributed to their changing their policy. People might have loearned about it FT, but the complaining was done directly to Delta.

2. There are NO secrets here on FT. The board has gotten a lot of publicity recently, and I'm sure every major company (DL included) has a lurker who reads every post. They had 2 of their senior management people on the live chat months ago, you don't think they would have had their people read the board first before deciding to participate?

3. The whole verification issue has done degree of bs to it. If Delta can figure out who to send bonus notifications to in the first place, and can post Skymiles to your account within minutes of a flight leaving, they certainly CAN provide more immediate and positive bonus enrollment confirmation. Whether they CHOOSE to do that is up to them.

4. People might automatically assume that Delta wants to prevent everyone who isn't eligible from participating in these bonuses. I don't agree. Almost all of these bonus require some additional (new) travel. If I'm willing to pay money to travel (espcially now with the travel economy going south), Delta may not want to blatently discourage that.
My feeling is with any bonus, they look for a certainly enrollment percentage. If it is too high (ie. the Latinpass mileage runs of last year), they may want to use the 'you weren't officially eligible' as a way to try to officially disquality people.
I people took the fasttrack to Gold program last year, and because of becoming Gold Medallion, have gone on 7 different trips this year (most international), and will make Platinum by the end of the year. All of this because I 'illegally' qualified for Gold last year. If it wasn't for that, I'd have traveled maybe 2 of the 10 trips I have planned for this year.

6. The 4-6 week bonus verification period will not go over well. I encountered that last with the International travel bonus of last fall, and for the 2 flights I took during the period, both times I needed to contact SMS to get the miles posted. I know others had similar problems. If that's the way bonus miles will be posted in the future, then I predict a good number of people won't fly (similar to how many people don't want to deal with rebates, they don't want to have hope they'll receive their credit without needing additional contact). This then goes back to the bottom line, less people flying.
I've said this in other postings, but I really think the Fall is going to be very interesting in terms of air travel:
- the new contract's pilot, gound, and flight unions have gotten recently will start to kick in.
- business travel will probably continue to go down
- the Summer vacation season, whihc probably has been keeping planes full, will end.

Very interesting times indeed.

Jeff

GG

Can't say I'm surprised. Disappointed, I can say. Mostly at DL.

The List (for i.e.) got stupid quickly because stupid people couldn't do what was asked (send an e-mail) and HAD to Post. But it certainly proved its point, which was that even on FT, careless posters can blow it...

Almost every single person who benefitted from the recent promotion will have been a clueful flyer somehow, and usually attached to one or more serious Medallions. THIS is something DL worries about? Is the percentage of unworthy fliers likely to really increase? Can I split more infinitives? (Sorry!)

The closing of future loopholes is One of Those Things, and might have been expected by advancing technology anyway.

But if Delta can have SPIES here, why can't they have a Real Person?

They've blown a bit of cover too, haven't they?

[This message has been edited by GG (edited 07-20-2001).]

rcs85551

I concur 100% with hfly.
I guess several people simply went too far, and the reservations/SMS agents do talk to their managers as well.
And this makes that realize that such a promo is costing them lots of miles for flyers they did not target. And those miles do represent a liability...

AIRcop

I'm one to blame. I whined. I was not targetted but registered and was accepted and I ended up getting the miles and Medallion because of it. But I agree with Jwhite. If it wasn't for this promo, I would not have flown about 7 or 8 trips on Delta, including an overseas to the Pacific Rim. I have now changed my business travel exclusively to Delta. I am sorry, but the promo added a loyal cusotmer to them, that they would not have received otherwise.

This new promo, 1043, has a different greeting when you call. It tells you you will be verified. Am I one to blame? Yup, but its a better way to do business for them and fair.

My apologies to all who feel my whining, for one, encroached on your elitisms. However, Medallion status isn't just for you.

PMMMColonel

This whole post is upseting to me and should be to all.

If Delta is so stupid again not to see the long term benifit to them by allowing a few unsolicited people in a promo that is horrible. It did not benifit me and in fact may have hurt if new people make PM, But this is realy good for DL and may benifit all of us in the future.

This seems to be consistent with the way they do everything. They only look at the short term. If I recall correctly Hilton felt it benifited them it other used the promo and did not hur the other elites if they did not keep it up after the promo. This is also true for DL.

If they are indeed looking at this fourm why do they not address the real issues and try to improve the overall program!!!!

This I feel is the bigger question??? If the answer is only what is good for DL then the ecconmy and other carriers will eventually really hurt DL. Lets not go back to the early 90's!!

LexPassenger

So Delta has run out of feet and is now shooting itself in the, ah, other appendages?

This is not the Titanic, but it just might be the Buggy Whip Manufacturing Corporation.

What's wrong with the theory that there's an American Airlines mole who is working all out to distract Delta from the primary need of the day: get them on the airplanes. GET THEM on the friggin' bloody snarking airplanes!

------------------
"Service" should be a noun, not a verb.
Beginners' Guide to the Delta Forum

[edited for force]

[This message has been edited by LexPassenger (edited 07-21-2001).]

lele14

Aircorp, I'm not trying to sign up without permission but what is promo 1043?

knit-in

Although I think it is short-sighted on DL's part if it indeed wants to verify non-targetted registrations, I do think a lot of people will sleep better at night without waking up in a sweat thinking "will they post...or won't they"!

jabez

While this promotion doesn't affect me, I think that one of the great things about FT is it keeps me informed of promo's that I might have missed. With all the mail and emails I receive,it's very easy to overlook or never see the promo. Delta should be reading this forum and thanking all those who bring the news of their promotions.
They should also be thankful for the additional business they picked up from the non-invited (especially during tough fiscal times).
Let's say my wife sees an ad and tells her sister that a new grocer has opened and they have 50% off all tissue paper. Now her sister never recived the neighborhood flyer that advertised this,but goes to the store and purchases much paper. The store intended it target more likely repeat business. Does this upset them when others come in and spend their money?
While this may not be a perfect illustration,I find it sad that Delta is so tunnel-visioned.

jetsetter

What if Delta Airlines just puts a recording (or some other message) preceeding a promotion registration transaction, but in actual practice does not verify the promotion. In other words, kind of like having one of those "burglar alarm" stickers, but not really having an alarm system? In fact, to prevent unauthorized registration of many people, all Delta has to do is create a perception in the community that they verify these things, etc. If the community has a perception that something will not work, then most people will never try to see if it really actually works or doesn't work. I have no idea personally whether this is real or not, but I think I make a valid point in general. Stores do this too. Some stores install something that looks like a security system to prevent shoplifting, but maybe its really not turned on. One storekeeper told me that they keep the system turned off, because it is too much trouble handling all the false alarms. Similarly, I always got a laugh in college. They would send you these little brochures from the housing office, and they would say that nobody can move in early "NO EXCEPTIONS!" So I would be sitting in my dorm room, moved in early, laughing reading that they are not making any exceptions. But they succeeded in doing what they needed to do. Most students/parents who read the brochure, believed them, when they said no exceptions and never even tried to get an exception done. All they had to do was create a perception, but not really do the thing they said they would or wouldn't. It is much less expensive for airlines to create these perceptions, than it would be for them to implement changes in system infrastructure to make whatever it is a reality. I mean, come on, for example try calling reservations and ask them about changing the outbound on an L fare ticket. What will they tell you? That you must pay $100, plus difference in fare, your tkt must be repriced, etc. Thats the perception they want you to have, and the perception that 99% of the public indeed has. And probably 85% of frequent flyers have it , too. But in reality, I hope, you are aware that airports can change tickets, even outbound, either with no charge for just the $100 fee. Look at the posts we have had before from DL res employees. When the SGB training was going on at Delta, the res agents would say to each other in hallway conversations "they'll just do it at the airport," meaning that pax will get the waiver/favor at the airport. All they must do is give you a perception that the rule book is the rule book, and if that is the reality you believe, you or anyone else is very unlikely to challenge that.

RSSrsvp

GG, please refer to my thread on Randy's board, his rebuttal and my reply.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum97/HTML/000473.html



[This message has been edited by Rssrsvp (edited 07-21-2001).]

hfly

Aircop and jwhite. You are missing the point about this particular thread. Great, you did it and got your higher status, neither I nor anyone here would begrudge you that. No one is trying to keep it for themselves. Aircop, any such insistance is nonsense. Got it?

Did whining on this board get you your miles/bonus? No it didn't. The information that you got here did. Had you not deliberated and gone on about whether you deserved them it would still have made no difference whether you got them or not. GET IT?

There is a big difference between posting that there is a new promotion out and then whining on and on on the merits of whether you should have deserved to have received it or not. Why not just have registered for the promo and then SHUT UP ABOUT IT!!

In the future neither I nor anyone else on this board will be able to get DL bonuses if we were not targeted for them. Isn't that great!

I'm going to blow one on purpose and we'll see what happens, just so everyone understands the idiocy of saying TOO MUCH on the board.

On another thread there is a question about Codeshares and elite miles. The first many are great/fine/informative. Wonderful.

People then go on to say, "Well I flew XXX-XXX on the CO codeshare and got the miles" etc.

What rcs stated was that according to the rules this should not be, as the rules state that AF codeshares on other carriers (Brit Air for example) do not count. RCS is right.

The truth is however that in about 99% of the cases everyone gets the miles on Delta for various reasons. DL does not in fact know which exact AF flights are code shares on a third airlines metal (i.e. AF has some where they alternate days with other carriers and in other cases some regional airlines are wholly owned subsidiaries of AF).

The last thing that we need here is for about 40 more people to talk about how they are getting around the system. Just fly, get the miles learn about things here but please be careful.

If you want to brag about how you are bending/breaking the rules be vague. Do not state, "I flew XXX-XXX and got them!". Instead just be vague if you HAVE to brag. Post new promos here, that is what this board is for. Do not however harp on about them.

Just be smart about what you write.

[This message has been edited by hfly (edited 07-21-2001).]

Beckles

Personally I think it is not what was posted here, but likely persons calling and/or writing Delta and demanding bonuses that they were not invited to but feel entitled to.

I think it's ludricous for persons to think that the airlines and hotels don't have the right to target promotions. I would never fault someone for trying to take advantage of any promotion, but faulting a company for targeting and enforcing that targeting is not something I think is right.

What some people fail to recognize is that a companies only two choices are not targeting or sending it out to everyone ... they also have the choice just to not have the promotion at all, and I'd rather them target a promotion than not have it at all.

opus17

Beckles, well said.