Dilemma

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

mersk862

Agree - hopefully they won't given that all those who fly 75k EQMs on CO/US/UA/AA all get international lounge access (which to me is the primary benefit of ST Elite Plus is international lounge access...).

Granted, all four of those aforementioned carriers gives their Gold-level flyers international lounge access (CO has announced that CO Gold will be Star Gold...).

Taipei

Delta enhancing frequent-flier program, see news story:

http://www.newsday.com/delta-enhanci...gram-1.1330455

Miles rollover and new level updates

jimrpa

The rollover MQM idea is pretty neat.

Of course, it brings up an interesting strategic quandary for folks like myself. I'm currently at about 100K MQMs. Do I make the effort to go for Diamond OR do I not worry about hitting 125K, realizing that everything about 75K will roll over to next year. If I get close to 25K, I'll be close to Gold for next year.

From what I saw in the article, the big discriminator seems to be Complimentary SkyClub membership. I burn miles each for for a SkyClub membership anyway, so I'm not sure that a SkyClub membership alone is going to convince me that I should push for Diamond, instead of taking the rollover.

I don't think domestic upgrades would make a difference -even as a PM, I'll still be competing against the same (relatively) small population for those seats so the fact that one or two "diamonds" may trump me probably wont matter. Most likely, they would have trumped me as PMs anyway.

Maybe if "Diamonds" got a "hold that plane" benefit when they were on the last flight of the night? Suppose a Diamond is connecting in ATL to the last flight of the night to their destination but their inbound is late arriving (for example, JFK-ATL-MCO). If the Delta computer "saw" that there were Diamonds on the ATL-MCO flight AND computed that "holding" ATL-MCO wouldn't cause the crew to go illegal, the flight would be held until the connecting Diamonds were aboard?

mersk862

Please see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ow-6-28-a.html for more discussion and links.

bennos

"As of now, the medallion program has three benefit levels -- silver, gold and platinum -- for SkyMiles members who fly 25,000, 50,000 and 75,000 miles a year, respectively. The levels are also available to passengers who fly 30, 60 and 100 segments.

Requirements for reaching the first three levels aren't changing. What's different is the diamond level."

OMG, do you think they're going to change the qualification levels to 30000/60000/90000????? It sure smells like they're going to!!!!!!!111!!!!1!!

Dilemma

doglover

I was thinking the same thing. Don't cross the 125k boundary and start out nearly at gold for 2011.

I'm hoping for more liberal International Biz Class upgrades. If that happens, then I am most certainly going to cross 125k (which I will hit shortly unless I switch programs for the 2H)

mersk862

My guess is that a benefit such as that would be more of a soft benefit. Bob Soukup mentioned to me at the Delta DO that Diamonds would get UA Global Services-type treatment - superior customer service, etc. I'd think that if need be, a representative can escort a Diamond to a close connection, but that wouldn't exactly be a hard benefit - especially due to all the operational concerns that you mention.

RobOnLI

So the Chisholm call center is staying open Maybe that's where all Delta Diamond elites will go when they call the new 800 #.

So anyone taking guesses on when Delta Diamonds will get EUA'd? Will it be at the 5-day mark but we're ahead of Plats or will it be at the 6 or 7 day mark?

BTW...the comments about ticketing fees being exempt - I take that to mean that we will continue to not have to pay any fees when we book new revenue tickets via the phone. My guess is that the articles are not referring to award ticketing fees. However, since the details of the Delta Diamond program are still not out I think there's still room for Diamonds to be exempt from more fees.

-RM

Erasmus

We'll see what all the details are tomorrow, obviously, but sounds to me like the 125K Diamond might resemble what the old 100K Platinum used to be like. That wouldn't be all bad in my book; I was a pretty happy flier back in those days. ^

OHDL1

Rumor has it that only MQM's over the threshold will rollover....segments will not rollover.

indufan

You know most of us feel like we get superior phone service without the Chisholm call center.

OHDL1

>>> Will it be at the 5-day mark <<<
Shaking the Magic 8 Ball....."Yes"

Burj

Wow...really?

Considering it is a pretty big jump from 75K --> 125K MQM....I hope they something to really distinguish Diamond from Plat...