Originally Posted by dean1121

blah blah blah, same old same old.

I'll believe it when I see it.

Originally Posted by DLroads

No, no need to flame.

Few of us have posted the job descriptions associated with the comming changes. They actually provide quiet decent details of the changes:
First- miles award will be based on revenue. Second- miles redeem will be based on revenue. Third- the formula will be biased for a non-ingorable change. Then, others have informed of their internal source's input of the changes, in particular- (a) middle of a year change (b) conversion of miles from current to new scale (c) delay of projects related to improvement of award redeem options until the new scale/features are comming.

Add to that the fact that others have presented in the past and also very recently evidence for cases of 'bait and switch' were prices on delta.com increased when one tried booking (and then return to the original), and you get a picture of non-ignorable amount of experiments running in the background. Actually, some of them may be questioned (as a legal business practice) by the department of commerce and department of transportation.
It just that one needs to seperate the 'flame'/'noise' from the data.

DL trust that flyertalk would create so much 'noise' that it would be hard for outsiders to follow, consume information and become concerned/upset as well. I believe that we, as a group, can change it if we add occasionally reasonable summaries of the information so that someone can read and understand what happened:

(a) Delta is planning a change from miles to revenue in the skymiles program. Implementation is planned to be MID-YEAR (changes to the rules in the middle of the game), and seems to be Sep. 2012
(b) Delta currently has numerous hirings for this project, which shows high priority. Some are done through external vendors, some are direct. All show the technology that is going to be used-- web applications, C++, JAVA, certain oracle business solutions (for the pricing side), etc.
(c) Delta delays imporvements in current awards and award calendar to give priority to such changes. In others words- making the customer experience suboptimal (at best), at present time.
(d) The internal sources cited suggest that the change has four implementation phases, with the first one to begin late March or early April. All internal sources arrived through users that have long and credible 'information' credit assigned to them. I highly value their input, and they proved over time to be VERY accurate
(e) So far, Delta remained silence of the changes, and it is a worrisome sign because these rumors have a record of becomming true and negative changes to the clients. Previous examples include: Changes to award redeem (T-72), changes to trans-continental mileage requirements, changes to the e-vouchers (not more than one per purchase, no transfers).

I hope this summary is decent enough to allow some general view of the thread. However, you can feel free to add/change, adjust such that it would be easier to review. I do admit, I am a technical writer more than a public writer, so this is not the best summary (Canarsie, or any of the other moderators, you are much better at public summaries- feel free to jump in)

Originally Posted by Deadtail

Any other predictions you wish to share.

What happened to LedgeT and jsmith50? I need more insider information.

Originally Posted by LedgeT

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/19774937-post2770.html.

Originally Posted by Deadtail

So I take it you won't be issuing anymore guarantees?

Originally Posted by javabytes

I missed the part where he ever guaranteed anything by posting what he did.

Originally Posted by n7371f

Delta's Investors Day is coming later this week. Pure speculation but it would be the optimal time for the change announcement. The overhaul is all about making more money - and this would be the ideal crowd to share the new SkyMiles with. Something to keep in back of your pocket.

Originally Posted by holtju2

The overhaul is partially to lower the liability that the unused SkyMiles are representing on Delta's book. By making it revenue based both on earning/burning, they could lower the assigned book value of unused miles on their balance sheet and book one time gain.

Originally Posted by bajrbajr

In light of these rumors, would it be a good idea to top-off a skymiles account so as to have enough miles for a specific award I will need in a few months?

"IF" the changes occur, I am worried that I might not be able to accrue more "old" miles to get the award I will need. Its only 10k miles, so if I transfer them over from AMEX now, it's not a big loss if the changes never happen. (Although transferring points without a bonus in place will hurt!)

Is it logical to think that if the changes are going to happen, January 1st is a good bet? Or is DL just as likely to make SM changes in the middle of the year?

Originally Posted by bajrbajr

In light of these rumors, would it be a good idea to top-off a skymiles account so as to have enough miles for a specific award I will need in a few months?

"IF" the changes occur, I am worried that I might not be able to accrue more "old" miles to get the award I will need. Its only 10k miles, so if I transfer them over from AMEX now, it's not a big loss if the changes never happen. (Although transferring points without a bonus in place will hurt!)

Is it logical to think that if the changes are going to happen, January 1st is a good bet? Or is DL just as likely to make SM changes in the middle of the year?

Originally Posted by MSPeconomist

If it's long haul international BE and low is available, grab it now, buying or transferring 10K miles if needed.