On the one hand, this is exactly how hotel programs work. And I have said for years that if I ran an airline frequency program it would be dollar based, not distance based. Because the distance based model only made sense in a regulated environment where price and distance were directly correlated by regulation/law. But it hasn't been that way for 30-some years now.

OTOH, it seems to me that to some extent Randy and other EM&PR providers built their empires on the backs of mileage runners, so gloating about and/or celebrating this move is a bit crass.

Coverage of the Delta FF program changes
 

Blogging is an evolving business. Those who do not adapt will be out of business soon.
The FF "fly free like a king" mantra was never meant to attract but a small segment. Now that you have dozens or maybe hundreds of blogger out there, changes and adjustments like this are going to happen frequently. What has taken them this so long is puzzling. Thank God I don't live in a DL hub.

UA here ya come!

Skypesos
 

Does anyone know whoever originated the term "Skypesos"? Have been wondering about that for years.

Gary Leff.

It got most widely circulated by him, and he was the first one to use it on FT or travel blogs.

I have no doubt that he came up with it on his own, whomever may have already been using the term prior to that or not.

Seems the coverage through several blogs, including VFTW, OMAAT, and TPG, softened from Sunday to Thursday (TPG posts: Sunday, "Why I Dumped Delta"; Thursday, "I Am Cautiously Optimistic"). Does this reflect genuine surprise around the blogosphere that, at the moment, there was no change to the highest and lowest redemption levels (of course, with one new level apiece slipped in between the low and middle and the middle and high)? Or a sudden realization that maybe they were biting the feeding hand just a little too hard?

Criticism of earning rates with the tie-in to actual revenue spent on tickets seemed a little rash since the airlines, rightly or wrongly, have for several years now made it clear that the path to earning miles (and now even partially earning status) was easier through non-flying methods than BIS. I've flown a total of 2 paid revenue seats on US, AA, and UA since joining FT, redeemed for six award tickets, and have gone from a combined 43K miles on those three carriers to nearly 900K--and I know I'm small fry compared to many. Furthermore, it would appear to me that concern about further "official" devaluation was equally overblown--US has also made it clear that you can keep your "official" levels the same while making low-level nearly impossible to find and allowing all the award tickets you want at the highest level.

I'm certainly not defending DL here--there's a reason my stash of miles hasn't included DL despite their presence at my home airport. But the reversal of tone this week seemed a bit difficult to understand other than that perhaps a few DL and Amex warning shots got fired over several folks' heads. Although I guess it's possible that sheepishness overcame the blogosphere when it became apparent that the "sky is falling" mentality brought to stirring fear of potential further "official" devaluation of the DL award charts proved way overblown, especially for these three blogs whose authors certainly seem to have become, in various ways, voices in the MSM for the FF community.

My gut feeling is that most wrote of outrage based on partial information because all changes must be bad, no matter the reality. Plus that's what readers want to hear. And now that they've actually read the details it doesn't seem as bad.

I agree for the most part, but maybe part of that outrage seems to come from the disconnect between the image that at least two of those bloggers would like to impart that they are privy to inside airline information (don't think they're blowing smoke there as VFTW and TPG certainly have had a recently visible presence in the MSM which would mean some airlines would look to them as point persons for leaks of advance information--but in case you haven't noticed it, VFTW was on ABC, the Colbert Report, and CBS and TPG seems to have an in with the NYT--not that you'd ever learn that from their blogs ;)) and the reality that, at least for this go round, they were just as much in the dark as the rest of us. And when their uninformed guesses turned out wrong, they've had to do a bit of backtracking.

VFTW's evolved take: Delta is destroying the romance of FFPs.

My take:

The executives who invented miles-based FF programs grew up under the Standard Industry Fare Level (SIFL) formula, which provided a distance-based formula for calculating fares based roughly on industry-level costs, a 12% rate of return and target load factor of 55%. SIFL-based fares were intended to better align the fare structure with the distance-based economies of modern jet aircraft. (see http://www.nber.org/chapters/c12570.pdf)

So those executives naturally and correctly correlated distance (miles) flown by a customer with revenue in creating those programs, designed to reward those customers who flew the farthest and therefore, by regulation, paid the most. The tactics (rewarding flyers based on miles) was closely correlated to the goal (making your most profitable customers happy).

But it has been two generations since the US airline industry was regulated. And price has been divorced from distance for over 30 years. Miles flown by a customer is now a totally irrational way to measure revenue from that customer.

The whole notion of mileage running is/was simply a result of this enormous lag in FF program tactics keeping up with their goal (rewarding the most profitable customers).

If I ran an airline frequency program it would be dollar based, not distance based. Because the distance based model only made sense in a regulated environment where price and distance were directly correlated by regulation/law. Today revenue from a customer is only correlated to…revenue from a customer.

FF programs were always meant to be commodity based: reward those customers who spend the most. But two generations of incompetent airline execs were simply employing outmoded tactics to achieve their goal.

So what you call romance, I call airline executive incompetence. Incompetence that worked out in mile grinders’ favor, to be sure. But incompetence nonetheless.

And it’s kind of hard to berate execs for trying to be rational and competent.

When I read VTFW today, I had to check to see that it wasn't April Fools' Day. One of the most cynical posts I've seen from any travel blogger. For the proudly self-proclaimed author of the phrase "SkyPesos", a blogger who regularly pushes the viewpoint that the best use of Delta miles is generally on carriers other than Delta, and someone who rarely seems to write about actually flying on Delta to talk about the romance and loyalty of FF programs, but Delta's in particular, seemed ridiculous. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I have no particular love for Delta, but I don't think their decision to move FF programs in a different direction is a bad business practice on its face--perhaps it will work, perhaps it won't, but it's not an irrational approach to try.

If, as has been speculated, Delta's reluctance to go all the way and make redemptions revenue based as well arises from Amex's demand that their $675 million investment in SkyMiles not be diminished by taking that step, then the old phrase, "money talks, BS walks" seems applicable here.

And, recently, Gary's been doing a lot of walking. . .

It has felt a bit odd recently, with some of the "coverage", that being one of them. FrequentMiler seems to have taken a pretty even, rational approach, as have others, but certainly not all the bloggers have been that way.

I tend to agree that there isn't anything necessarily illogical or inherently unfair about awarding RDMs based on dollar amount. As for the new tiers, the devil will be in the details as to availability and the new website functionality. Though one-ways at half price would help so one could mix and match with other programs that also have true one-ways.

It will definitely be interesting watching the blog coverage over the next year on this.

Not too long ago at a FTU Brian Kelly from The Points Guy debated Gary Leff from View From The Wing about the relative merits of Delta SkyMiles. Brian took the “pro” position while Gary took the “con.”

It appears that neither of them mentioned the romance of collecting Delta SkyMiles... ;)

In fact, they appear to reduce the frequent flyer program to a crass commercial transaction! :o

Gary's comment that FF programs aren't S&H Green Stamps made me fall over laughing--because that's exactly what they are. A higher tech, contemporary version but Green Stamps nonetheless. My parents collected Green Stamps, and I'm certain that had the internet existed in those days, there would have been forums telling customers how to maximize their Green Stamp benefits. In those pre-wired days, however, if S&H made a change to their program, there may have been isolated outrage amongst customers but certainly no organized customer base to focus that outrage as you can have now with a travel forum or blogger readership.

Well sure. And the whole point of FlyerTalk and the blogs are to help people squeeze every last benefit possible out of frequency programs for as little money and/or effort as possible.

Which is what makes it so ironic when FlyerTalkers and bloggers complain that the airlines are trying to get as much money out of their frequent flyers as possible.

Now, it IS true that I used to have what some might consider an irrational/romantic relationship with UA. But to me, the relationship was perfectly rational: I weighed the benefits of being loyal to UA exclusively against the benefits of nonstops/cheaper tickets/etc., and found that loyalty was a good deal for me. As UA evolved its program that cost-benefit analysis changed and I am no longer loyal to UA as a result.

It seems to me that the FF programs are taking a similar view of frequent flyers: some are worth pursuing and keeping from a cost-benefit analysis basis. Others not so much.

Point being: it's not personal. It's business. And not just business, good business.

As someone who never buys a coach ticket, I think I might be a fan of the new DL program. And I think DL might be a fan of me. Once the dust settles I'll do a CBA and see if they made it enticing enough for me to go to them exclusively, or if i want to remain airline agnostic.

Because at the end of the day it's all a crass commercial transaction...in both directions.

This seems so obvious to me. But I don't see bloggers explaining this reality. Unless I've missed it.

http://boardingarea.com/viewfromthew...nsive-tickets/
kokonutz, should hotels should switch from nights to spend?
http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/articles...Clock-check-in