I'd say that AA was the leader and that DL followed -- at least as far as the 50% status mileage on discounted fares.

For many years I've been a loyal Delta flyer but the time appears near to pull the plug. I am a Gold with some 630,000 miles in the bank (a workaholic doesn't spend much time flying for leisure)and I've earned this the hard way - segments and high fares. TYS receives no privledges from Delta, has seen the flight schedule slimed down and fares are top dollar. My business travel usually results in paying top dollar. How Delta can see this move as an enhancement is beyond me. I received Patric Miles email today and if anyone needs a copy, I'll be happy to mail it. I'll take my Gold, find another carrier that will provide a comp. and start over.

Yes I know, it's time to start spending some time and free milage before this is taken away as well!

Pretty sucky.

I understand the Award travel restriction, but are these RONE fares that get zippo towards status all freebies, or are some of these weekly E-Fares or web sale fares?

Whenever I've booked the e-fares, they are booked in L class. Who knows if it will change come Jan. 1

R, O, N and E fares are exclusively award and consolidator buckets as of right now.

Thanks.

I find it odd that this new arragement comes so late in the year. NW already has propose changes to their plan and they are quite minor compare to DL. For NW to introduce such dramatic changes would be surprising. I think that DL is doing it alone and too late in the year.

I may be wrong...Would not be the first time...

What I find interesting is that no one has mentioned the Amex Platinum yearly 10000 bonus "base" miles that count towards status qualification. I wonder if they're doing away with that?

Also, with the elimination of the North American Upgrades, we now have no way to confirm an upgrade on a discount fare at booking time, unless DL is planning to allow mileage upgrades from discount fares. With my company travel policy I can't spend $1400 on an M-class fare to be able to upgrade with miles. AA lets me confirm with miles on a discount ticket, has more room and power adapters in coach for those long-haul flights. Why would anyone bother to fly DL after this?

Its a train wreck or more like a plane crash
Its also great for Delta if it works.
I think its a very clever well thought out but none the less highly confusing scheme.
Superb for Delta
Its going to be facinating to see if everyone/majority stays along for the ride with little or no payback in elite status.
Also if other carriers follow its lead.
My condolences to all those members who have put up with Delta through its poor upgrade policies,old planes,cranky flight attendants,poor customer service and now this.
Sure glad I don't live in one of their hub cities.You all deserve elite status for buying tickets of any kind and putting up with the crowded terminals and long cattle lines I see when I travel with them.
I will go back to connecting in other cities and avoid them completely now just in principal.
Being I always put my miles to another program anyway I nver had to deal with their program rules.
Good luck to all at Delta I hope you can deal with this or find a better
more appreciative carrier that appreciates your business.
Happy Holidays all and much luck in the new year.
I'll be watching your reactions and if you continue to support them or move elsewhere with your business.

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AA & Starwood,Marriott Platinum
Hyatt, Hilton Diamond
Swissotel Club Gold
U/A 1k

[This message has been edited by 777 global mile hound (edited 12-12-2002).]

Well, my email to Delta said that for all personal travel and cheap fares I will just go with Southwest. Yep they have cattle car billing, but they seem to welcome my revenue more than Delta. The only reason I attempted to stay Gold this year was the milage bonus and they took that away and even reduced the mileage I am accumulating.

While I am quite unhappy with the changes, AFAIK, the mileage bonus policy is unchanged.

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Vasant

Delta's new program will drive away many of its best customers. Although I am somewhat captive since I fly mostly out of Atlanta, I probably will be far less concerned with my patronage of Delta, since it is likely it won't be worth it later on in terms of elite status. I've known for some time that I may need to trash my loyalty to Delta, and now may be the time to do it. Too bad, I've been Platinum and everything else they've ever had, but enough is enough.

Thanks Delta. You've just taken yourself off the list of carriers I'll consider flying. Glad I moved over to AA.

Another FORMER Delta flyer here. These changes are so wrong! To the person who posted that low fare flyers should not get the same rewards, I would like to point out that Delta's new rules punish frequent business travelers who fly short distances. I am based in Orlando and fly primarily around the state for business on Comair. Because of my short flights and lack of connections, I can generally only gain silver status each year. However, that silver status makes a big difference to me in terms of having a special check-in line so that I don't have to stand in the sometimes hour plus long line of families and all those other people who travel once a year and spend 40 mins at the counter checking in. It is also important to me because I have better seats available to me on the plane, and because I get to board the plane before the hoards of tourists on those occassions when I am flying outside of the state. The occassional opportunity I get to fly outside of the state and get an upgrade is nice, but those other perks are invaluable. Sadly, the so-called premise of Delta's new rules - that it rewards those that pay more for their tickets - is fatally flawed. I took the trouble yesterday to figure out my total cost for the year to make even silver status under the new rules on a flight I normally take for business and compared it to the dollars spent for someone who flies on a discounted coach fare [it had a mix of the .5 and the 1 multiplier] from orlando to san fran. If I pruchase the normal coach fare on the flight i take quite often, I would have to fly 25 rounds trips to the san fran flyer's 7 trips, and the money I spend is slightly double that of the person flying 7 times from MCO to San fran [under the fare I randomly picked, the total cost for earning status on the cross country flight was $4,056]. Even if I purchased the full, nonrestricted coach fare [which is almost $700 for a 20 min flight and is more than the cost of flight to san fran], I would have to fly 17 round trips, costing me $6,000 more than the san fran flyer has spent to gain the same status. So the bottom line is that without the perks of quicker check-in, etc, its now just quicker and alot cheaper for me to drive rather than fly. I would previously always choose to fly over drive, even though the costs has always been higher for me to fly [those short comair flights ARE NOT CHEAP], just to maintain my status at Delta. I would also ALWAYS chose Delta over another available airline - even if the costs at Delta was greater - to maintain my status [even for leisure travel]. NO LONGER!! People in my situation, who have been loyal to Delta for years, basically have no chance to even maintain Silver Status. The perks I generally get from the status don't cost Delta a dime - but when I can possibly avoid it, Delta will be getting no more of MY dimes.

I wrote to Delta yesterday and was wondering if anyone else did and if so, any response?



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Donna D
fomerly loyal Delta flyer

A agree with the majority: The DL changes are the wrong thing at the wrong time.

I'm DL Platinum (barely) and will have no hesitation to fly Jet Blue coast to coast for personal trips now that my U-class fares will barely accrue status miles. And you can be darned sure that I'll take Amtrak on my weekly NYC-DC trip now that my company's negotiated fare doesn't accrue ANY miles.

Yes, I've fired off a letter to Mullin. And yes, I know that Delta needs to make more money per passenger-mile or they'll end up like US or UA. But for heaven's sake, when the economy is soft you just can't go around driving away customers.

BA and US both had disastrous experiments with rejiggered loyalty programs. AA got away with it, but the giveback to passengers was more leg room.

Where's the giveback to Delta's international passengers, for whom domestic upgrade coupons are little better than toilet paper? And where will aliented former Silver flyers go for a little recognition? Yup -- Southwest, Jet Blue...

I feel my DL Platinum card turning to tin in 2004.