Skymiles to expire in 2 yrs begining Jan 2007
 

I just noticed today that Skymiles will expire in 2 yrs instead of 3 yrs begining in Jan 2007 if there is no activity on the account. I'm sure it doesn't matter to most of us as we have constant activity, but it might be of interest to some.

From the Delta website:

"Previous Frequent Flyer Program
For the past 10 years, we have maintained mileage accumulated in the previous frequent flyer program that ended in 1995 and mileage earned in the current SkyMiles program since 1995. In order to streamline the tracking and redemption processes, we will be consolidating these mileage balances on December 31, 2006. Each previous program mile that remains in your account after December 31, 2006, will be automatically converted to one mile in the current SkyMiles program and added to your balance in January 2007. You may continue to use these miles under the current SkyMiles Rules & Conditions.

Once converted, previous program miles will appear in your SkyMiles account balance. You may keep your balance from expiring by earning, redeeming or donating miles just once every three years. Effective January 1, 2007, miles will expire after 2 years if the recipient's account shows no activity".

well, that's one way to reduce the number of miles floating around
 

time to order some magazines?

Yet another enhancement to the Skymiles program.

This is known internally at DL HQ as "The Mikey Rule".

So what does the penultimate sentence mean when it says "three years?" Presumably, it was written in 2005, and said "three years," but beginning Jan 1, 2007 (one year later), miles expire if no activity for two years. So the miles protected for three years in 2005 expire Jan 1, 2008 (two years) if there's no activity in 2006 or 2007? Or expire Jan. 1, 2007 if no activity in 2005 and 2006?

Or does it mean that miles in the account as of Dec. 31, 2006 are "forever" protected for three years while miles deposited thereafter are protected for only two years?

Can you donate 1 mile? If so, it'd be cheaper than buying magazines I don't need or even cheaper than diverting hotel or idine miles from a preferred account.

Minimum donation is 5,000 miles.

I can't imagine a person who doesn't fly a revenue flight, have a DL Amex or earn with a non-airline partner at least once every two years being that concerned about their balance expiring. If they are concerned and can't get their butt on a plane, charge a pack of gum or eat a meal at a participating restaurant they can buy miles to maintain account activity.

I believe this will catch a LARGE amount of people. You know the folks that travel once every year or so, or maybe even were very heavy fliers, but do not fly anymore, and do not have a DL credit card. Think of your family members, or the guy down the hall at work that once traveled, but now does not.

I can imagine a staggering amount of miles hitting the dust. Not everyone is crazy enought to know the rules, ever heard of Idine or has credit cards for each FF account they have.

If you fly once every year or so, you have no problem.

Most of the other people you describe don't have sufficient miles to redeem anyways. Besides, it's their responsibility to know the rules.

I believe the far more important point being made in this announcement is the reminder that old FF miles, as of the end of this year, will be converted to regular Skymiles. The old FF miles are generally of greater value because under the old rules you could use fewer of them to upgrade and get free tickets than it would take using the newer Skymiles. This change has been announced previously but this latest reminder is a good wake-up call for those of us who may have let this slip their mind.

For some reason, I can't locate the link showing the conversion rates for old FF miles but I'm sure another FTer will post it here shortly. I know I still have 20K or so to use before the end of the year and I don't intend to have them go to waste.

The penultimate and ultimate sentences are completely contradictory. My guess is that someone made a cut-and-paste error, and left in a sentence with the old three-year timeframe.

Correction.

"If you fly once every year or so and credit the miles to your Skymiles account, you have no problem."

The DAMN LIARS, "OLD MILES WILL NEVER EXPIRE AS LONG AS DELTA HAS A FREQUENT FLYER PROGRAM"

It's another "scr*w the customer" move, plain and simple. It costs DL nothing to maintain a bunch of customer accounts for an extra year (or even several years). Seems obvious that SkyMiles had one of their analysts look at the number of miles that expired with the 3 year expiration rule, extrapolated the figures to a 2 year expiration, and then showed the figures to a beancounter somewhere. The beancounter's eyes grew bigger, s/he danced around the office with glee and showed the figures to his/her boss, it made the rounds in the CFO organization, and finally up to Grinstein who made the pronouncement that, henceforth, SkyMiles shall expire in two years.

But think of the tax gain. All of the liability (unused miles) now gone... should help the bottom line some.

Steve B.