Segment Recognition Idea
 

Alrighty, I'm getting sick of earning MQM 500 miles at a pop and having almost no chance to renew my Gold status. I have flown 9 round trips with DL so far in 2008, but only have 9000 miles because STL to ATL is a short trip. So, I'm hoping the NW or some other deal comes through and segment recognition occurs.

I spoke to customer service about this. They properly pointed out that a person who regularly flies between non-hub cities will get "too many" segments over those of us who have direct trips, yet the gross revenue for each customer may be similar. So they have decided not to recognize segments at all.

How about limiting segment earning abilities to 1 per day?

I sometimes make round trips in one day, so I recognize this would hurt me in some instances, but the benefit is worth the cost. I think giving folks the choice between status qualification by segment or by MQM calculation (akin to AA) makes sense.

And for you international superstars with buku miles who don't want to lose out to us short leggers, I think a 4th tier is reasonable. The exclusive benefit of the 4th tier would be international upgrades when available within so many hours of check in.

There's my trial balloon. Please fire away.

How many segments do you think it should take to earn Gold? You already get it for 100 segments.

Well it used to be:
25 for Silver; 50 for Gold; and 100 for Platnium - if I'm not mistaken . . .
They should probably make it 35/65/90 (since plat is now 75,000). This would make sence.
SR

100 is way too many.

AA & NW both give status at 30/60/100 segment intervals. That's reasonable.

I think it was 30/60/100

Spend more money and it is only 67 segments. Use your AMEX Plat and it can be as few as 40 segments or 20 RTs for you.

I'm trying to find a way not to depend on MQMs at all and still be elite due to the number of trips. Both of the methods you suggest depend on MQMs.

I'm also realizing that folks in non-hub cities benefit from up to twice as many MQMs for short trips. So, could I get some feedback on my 1 segment per day idea?

How about yet another option that I just came up with?


'Medallion Qualification Credits' or MQCs

2 credits for discounted (HQKLUT) domestic coach
3 credits for discounted (HQKLUT) international coach
4 credits for domestic F/J and YBM coach
6 credits for non-B/E international business class and discounted B/E (I class)
10 credits for international B/E

And before anyone points it out....I am aware that this earning rate would favor those who fly non-discounted international B/E........but then again, those passengers tend to 'bring in the most money' to airlines and should be rewarded for doing so......do you think?

Disclaimer: All my flying is domestic......so, no personal bias here. ;)

Anyway, these credits would be earned per paid one-way travel (regardless of the number of segments) based on the number of fare basis codes that make up a given ticket.

Basic RTs are comprised of 2 such codes.....one for the outbound and one for the return.....so, a RT would be credited for both.

A multi-city trip on a single ticket is often made up of 3 or more fare basis codes and would get a separate credit for each 'leg' that is represented by its own code.......but not credit for 2 legs booked under a single code due to having a free stopover.

The only thing left to be determined would be the number of points needed to attain each elite level........

A.J.

I'm cool with that approach, Bulldog.

Why don't you fly another airline? NW thru MEM or CO thru IAH would give you 2000 miles a trip, that way you would get PM after 37.5 trips like I do by flying MLB-ATL-Wherever each week.

Problem solved. :)




Yes I benefit. But I'd much rather be silver or gold and not have to transit ATL each and every week.





I missed the obvious.... why don't you fly DL ATL-CVG-STL each week? That way you stay on DL and get 2000 miles a week?

i doubt too many people flying intl BE on a full fare ticket are in need of segment credits to qualify for elite status. and fyi, on CO, a full fare y and biz and F class tix earn extra segment credits (2 instead of 1), so 15 full fare RT gets yout o their lowest tier.

And, that's why I left DL and went to NW

You could fly US and get credit for segments (30/60/90/120) but only actual miles flown, no 500 minimum. :D

The time wasted in connections usually rules this out for me, but believe me, I have considered and done this when time allowed.

Who are we then? Southwest and AirTran?

The minimum MQMs per segment are an appropriate recognition of segment flying. DL will not go back to segment counting and I honestly think that segment counting will die out of US FF programs. DL was just ahead of the curve.

Exactly! I think it's only fair that travellers who connect deserve something extra for the waste of time... be it a higher status or extra miles. If I could fly Delta and not have to connect thru ATL I would. :)

You don't say?

I'll be the first to speak against segments.

I think it doesn't give enough recognition to those of us that don't connect everywhere (hub flyers) and too many people took advantage of it by taking 10-12 hop round trips!

I think segment qualification should NOT be allowed.

So if instead I do 2 el cheapo MR's to FRA (which probably cost a lot less than 30 segments, I'm a "better" customer?

The problem with segment qualifying is that is has to be sustained throughout the year. Most of us could never qualify that way; those who could are probably paying > average to fly.

Seems like there are lots of ways to measure who is a better customer. I don't know, and I'm willing to bet neither do you, but the margin on a single Y passenger on a 777 or 767 to FRA may well be higher than a segment runner (very possibly in F due to free upgrades) on an MD-88. In the end, incentivizing your higher margin customer to travel more is better for DL.

Maybe they should abandon miles/segments all together and simply go with revenue. That would directly link status with how "good" a customer you are. I would say that they should use profitability, but that's impossible to measure and involves a lot of things that have nothing to do with the customer's behavior.

Did you read the OP? The idea was to credit no more than 1 segment per day, which solves this problem.

The discussion centers around a moot point. It seems pretty clear that Delta doesn't want to do segments.

(Of course now that I said that, they will announce their new enhancement of segment qualifying!) :D

David

Dude, if we start not discussing moot points, flyertalk is gonna dry up quick.

To measure it exactly would be difficult, but the airlines have enough data to calculate profitability based upon historical measures. I'm not so sure that to measure by revenue is a bad thing. With all the people out there who travel internationally on J tickets, I'd never be a top tier elite. 3RT international J tickets is probably more than I spend all year.

Yeah, the could do it historically, but then they'd also have to publish their profitability data for all their competitors to see. I think revenue based would be better anyway...costs aren't under the customer's control. The point of the loyalty programs is to increase profits...so why not incentivize revenue directly? That's what the hotel programs do, at least for point earning, though not for status.

Delta already does this with point earning AND status.

It makes sense to me to give the international folks another tier--international upgrades. A mediocre international flyer flies way more miles than the best short haul flyer, and the short haul flyer may be the most profitable. Granting status on miles alone is not equitable, nor is it always consistent with revenue generation goals.

Segments actually would work against you for GM or PM status.... the old segment program (30/60/100) would eqate to 15000/30000/50000 MQM's at the 500 mile minimum (30*500=15000, 60*500=30000, 100*500=50000). So, using segments to get to GM you'd have to fly 100 segments and for PM you'd have to fly 150 segments. All this assumes you only get the minimum and no class of service bonuses but you can see the math.

On the other hand, it would create a lot more FO's as 30 segments would only be 15000 MQM....