ADLFO

...and from the DL side, I was hoping against hope that the merger would indeed take the best from both DL and NW in regards to the FF programs. I am saddened that this apparently will not happen. Saddened, but not entirely surprised. I've got to believe the pendulum has to swing back at some point and that some airline will fashion a FFer program that is profitable and gives fair value to their company and it's customers. I'm just hoping that some major carrier figures it out before Feb. 2010. (and yes, I still do hope it is DL that "gets it", but that hope is diminishing)

n301dp

Just burnt another 75,000 miles on a coach/business return ticket to France for a friend's birthday in a few weeks. I was pondering the purchase up until last night and decided to cash in while my miles are still worth something. I suppose the 40,000 miles I have left will be worth a domestic ticket somewhere now.

avidflyer

I am not betting against that. I think you have just outlined pretty much what we can look forward to. If you are not a Plat you may as well bail now. You know, I have been on the sidelines..I hedged my bets with some status om AA but I was hoping that DL would let us get one good year in to try and impress the customers of "the worlds largest airline" that we should stick around. I was planning on waiting at least until Q3 (full integration) to decide what to do, but this move is about the worst thing DL could have done. If they are willing to flip everyone off before the merger is complete you can only imagine what they will do next year. Good luck everyone.

pbarnette

I don't think anybody here wants such a program. Most here want a relationship that is heavily tilted toward the customer, and are upset that the airlines are now interested in making money. I'm much more skeptical that the airline gets fair value from me than I am that I don't get fair value from them. I think the changes we have seen industry-wide still haven't evened the scales between value for the customer and value for the airlines. This, of course, isn't to say that I welcome the changes, but it means that I am prepared for these cuts to stick and expect even more cuts to come.

FF programs were tilted in the favor of the savvy flier for a long-time. It had to come to an end at some point. I don't think the good old days will ever come back, because the good old days for us were an absolute blood-bath for the airlines.

SAT Lawyer

Wow, this three-tier award system that DL now offers and NW will be adopting staring January 15th sucks. I figured the bad news would be that DL would be allocating fewer and fewer seats at the "low" tier award pricing level. While DL is probably doing exactly that, it's even worse than I feared: the published tier rates appear to be entirely illusory in that the published "low" level is only a floor, not a ceiling, and the actual price of a "low" tier award appears to vastly exceed the published mileage cost. Please see here for my findings.

I guess I better scramble to burn my half-a-million-mile WorldPerks balance. What's unfortunate is that the January 14th drop-dead date for redeeming mileage under the existing WorldPerks paradigm precludes award redemptions over next year's Christmas and New Year's holiday period given the 330-day window.

Feather Man

I am definitely NOT an airline apologist. I am as upset with the changes that DL has made as anyone posting here.

BUT....

For those who claim that Customer Service is no longer part of DL's vocabulary, I would say "you are dead wrong" !

Who is the real customer? The shareholders ! Unless they are happy, the management is on the hot seat. How do you make stock holders happy? You make a profit, something that most legacy airlines have not been successful in doing since 9/11. As was pointed out by another poster, DL is probably on a very short leash, in terms of showing a profit. The paradigm is about to be changed radically. As was pointed out by another poster, maybe the management has too many layers and costs could be cut there. WN seems to have the business model to be profitable, but I'm guessing a majority of us on Flyer Talk would not trade the flight options a legacy carrier provides for the WN model.

GUWonder, talk is cheap. You seem to be quite confident on how to run an airline. So why not start your own airline? Show all of these airline managment bozos how to run a successful and profitable airline where all of your flyers are happy . And don't accept the infusion of capital by issuing an IPO once you are successful, because then you will become beholden to an entirely different group of people who have different expectations for their investment into your new airline.

With the exception of the occassional college prof, or perhaps the owner of a head shop that travels to LAS for the trade shows, most of us understand that a company needs to make money. Can the airlines make money and still keep their loyal customers happy? Maybe, but why not eliminate the doubt. With your infinite wisdom, show us how it can be done when you start your own airline. I promise to be your first and most loyal customer if you can achieve it.

But I am still not happy with all of the changes made to SkyMiles. Unlike indufan, I very rarely find award tickets for my destinations, and if I do, it is always at the outrageous mileage redemption levels. But until one of the legacy airlines shows a profit AND can demonstrate that they provide a better overall product (upgrades, fees, award tickets, hard and soft products), I am resigned to current state of the industry.

saleenxp8

I agree. I'm off to southwest. Been gold for five years but no more...

joker545

I just burned the last of my miles. RIP WorldPerks...

On a high note, I did have a very good customer service experience with the NWA Gold/Plat line. I was 700 miles short of the award itinerary I wanted to book and was prepared to pay $52 to purchase 1000 miles from NWA to make it happen, but the agent spent 40mins on the phone with me and was able to transfer miles from my Delta account for free and found a better flight schedule than I had in mind ^

hazelrah

I don't agree; if WN flew from GRB-> MDW or GRB -> BWI there would be mass defections from NW/Delta.

WN's move to offer service at MSP is brilliant.

MileageAddict

Me too. Cashed out the last of my miles. It's really weird to see a sub-500 mileage balance in an account I have kept very active since 1989.

Jaimito Cartero

A pile of steaming crap, with a bit of whipped cream on the top, is still at it's heart, a steaming pile of crap.

Jaimito Cartero

As in the Twilight Zone episode, To Serve Man, I think we looked at that statement, BEST in the industry from our viewpoint, and not theirs. By cutting out so much, raising levels, adding fees, it's the best for the airlines!

Jaimito Cartero

NW has a 352 day calendar. Use it. Abuse it.

Daze

F9 charges a fee for ALL award travel, regardless of when booked.

Feather Man

If WN flew from CVG and if Wn flew to Asia and Europe, I would defect, too.

But they don't. And until they start flying the routes you suggest and the routes I suggest, it is purely hypothetical.

WN is using guerilla tactics quite successfully in the current market conditions. But there are limitations to this type of business model. That doesn't mean they won't continue to be successful, but there are boundries they won't be able to breach unless they change their model. And frankly, why fix something that isn't broke ? Although their stock is also trading near their 52 week low.