mnredfox

So true. The more you fly, the more they matter. That's why so many people are up in arms, because we fly a lot. And reasonably so, you would think PE's are the airline's most valuable customers.

Once again, "silence is bliss", the mantra of how DL implements it's enhancements.

Said in truth, not with marketing spin on it.

stephem

The "2 free redeposits" change is a joke. Here is a perfectly reasonable scenario that we used this week, that cost NW nothing (and indeed resulted in me spending a large amount of miles). Why I would have to pay this silly fee if we did this next year is unclear to me.

We booked tix for SEA-HNL-SEA, a 5 day trip in all. My wife is pregnant and so wanted F for more comfort. Initially booked one ticket F outbound, Y return and other ticket all in Y. Several days before outbound we found one other F space so we both could be upfront and made change #1. The day we arrived in HNL I checked and found the AS flight on the day we wanted to travel home had on award seat in F, and lots of other F space to sell (and the NW plane was mostly booked up in F). So I moved us both to the AS flight (changes #2 and #3), my wife in F, me in Y. The morning of our return as I went to check us in, I decided to call the Plat line and learned there was indeed another F seat available and so another chunk of miles and I was up in F with my wife (change #4).

At the end of the day, NW got 150k miles from us for a piddly 5 hour flight and we got to sit in the cabin we really wanted to sit in. There is nothing to justify a fee for this, it works out best for both sides. The fee is just a rip on top of the already quite high mileage level of 75k per F ticket to HNL.

By the way, I'm really liking BA's exit row on the top deck of the 747 and the nonstop to LHR is really convenient. Already a month into the year and I have 2 RT's to BA and nothing on NW...

lseflyer

" Bookings in Y, B, and M classes will earn a 50% mileage bonus which also counts towards Elite Qualification "

As Bill Clinton used to say, it depends on the meaning of what is is.

Yes the bonus was kept and even added for M class, but the B and M fares to Europe just doubled in price.

mot29

What is the status of the 2 free redeposit rule for plats?
I'm working to clean things up before March 1 and logged in to nwa.com to see exactly how the rule reads. And on the 2009 award chart it doesn't include the 2 redeposit limit -- http://www.nwa.com/worldperks/elite/...teBenefits2009
Click on the link for fee waivers platinum, see chart and the table doesn't mention the 2 redeposit limit.
The Delta site still has the two redeposit limit.
Has this changed again?

shiner

A bit of an interesting development on the M fare 50% EQM bonus. I flew MSP-SFO on the 23rd and SFO-MSP on the 24th on a RT M fare. The MSP-SFO posted as 100% and the return posted as 150%.

Mileage Lover

I booked an award ticket through Delta using miles transferred from NW. Prague to Venice and Venice to CDG (2 one-ways). I'm a NW Plat but don't have status on Delta. When I went to change my Prague ticket from coach to business (which we wanted because of the added luggage allowance), they wanted a change fee of $100/ticket and an additional $75 because the trip was within 21 days. Is this correct for NW Plats on a Delta award?

Thanks!

RobOnLI

Your NW Plat status doesn't mean anything for Delta when you book award tickets with them. All fees of a Delta general member will apply to you.

If you had booked the ticket through Northwest (I'm guessing it wasn't possible since you transferred miles to Delta) then you would be covered as a platinum and the change wouldn't cost you anything.

-RM

Mileage Lover

Thanks for the info. I received various answers from various Delta agents. Think I'll keep my Czech Airlines ATR 42 turboprop coach flight and hope we don't get nailed for excess luggage (about 44 pounds of checked luggage for 2 1/2 weeks should be fun!).

Thanks again!

thezipper

I'd play the ST E+ on the GA's if they try... do your homework first and see what their elites get... check the skyteam.com site as well...

lanny19

Sorry to be the messenger, but it looks as though the "IT issues" preventing the application of the award change fees to Platinums have now been either addressed or worked around. I looked at an upcoming itinerary for a possible change to better flight times (the itinerary has slowly evolved over several schedule changes to a 3+ hour layover) and the results showed a change fee of $200 (four persons traveling) and a comment that Platinums wishing to use one of their two free annual changes should contact the Elite Services line.

DiverDave

If your schedule has changed sufficiently, you might get the change for free. Wouldn't hurt to call and ask.

I know on the Delta side of things, it doesn't take much of a schedule change to get award tickets changed without charge. And usually there isn't an issue about whether award seats are available at the originally booked mileage either.

Good luck......!

David H.

thepla

So glad I left these guys.

75.700 EQM in April, 0 since. All flights back on AA since April. I also received the last 15,000 miles using my last SWU to PRG and cheap flights to Florida.

To show how stupid this is.

I have a BC tickets ORD-ZRH, ZRH-MAD and back from MAD on AA in July no problem getting award.

My brother and GF want to join me. They just bought tickets to match my itinerary on AA, over $4000 total.

Let's do the match, they lost $4000 in revenue witch is 80 of the $50 change fees. In my entire life I would not have 80 changes for awards.

Another scenario for the Delta.

Draw a line in the sand and put a dollar just over the line.

Now a foot further away put a dime.

DL jumps over the dollar to pick up the dime.

I made a mistake, there was a nickel and a dime they picked up

GrizShel

I had a small amount of hope that Deltified NW would have seen the light and realized this exciting change was a loser (they could have implemented a more reasonable limit without much backlash especially if they had made it effective after a long phase-in period). They could have quietly just let go of this one. Guess they really truly don't want our paid travel business (oh yeah, I guess with Delta, award travel in effect often turns out to be paid travel too doesn't it?.)

leiterk

NW/Delta missed the opportunity to promote the delay positively and use the technical problems to rethink the imposition of the fee.

This is still a very pathetic move among many that Delta has made to alienate Platinum elite members. I remain pissed about the change and am likely to take a match to Continental ...in large part due to this.

GUWonder

I haven't confirmed this yet, but I heard rumblings about the "IT issues" being worked around by requiring customers to loan DL management even more money -- in other words Platinums pay the award change/cancellation fee first and then wait for a refund to be processed for the award change/cancellation fee amount.