The news this week about the changes to Delta’s Skymiles program has rocked the points and miles blogosphere. Gary Leff basically hates it. Jeffsetter considers a cross country move to escape the clutches of Skymiles. DeltaPoints wonders if the new program will mean the end of mileage runs.
I don’t live in a Delta hub, and most of my flights are on Southwest or American. That being said, if American pulled this stunt I would likely be looking to get a status match at another airline and bail–despite my ten year history. DeltaPoints thinks that most of the elite fliers will stick around, but the more casual fliers will look elsewhere.
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I haven’t flown delta in thirty years and the former NW in over twenty. Even though my home airport is DTW. I normally fly United or US air.
Will be crediting to Alaska from now on as long as that partnership lasts.
I too live by dtw and have noticed I fly them less and less. They were about 20% of my travel last year vs ~50-70 in the past 5. They/skyteam are either not flying to the places i want to go, or are 4x the price (dtw-jfk/lga nonstop for over $700? Please. I can outright buy enough BA avios to book that ticket on american for like $140 – and they’re flying six times a day to, what, deltas two or three? That’s embarrassing. How are we even a hub?
I don’t know what delta thinks they’re doing, but they’re definitely doing it wrong.
No because this is like Christmas to me. Finally getting recognized for what I spend not how far I travel! As someone who almost never spends less than $800 for a ticket and rarely go more than 500 miles. This is fantastic.
Answered “other.” Depends how crediting to Alaskan will be affected by the devaluation…or is this a devaluation? What do you call screwing people?
Clearly the travel reward of flying DL will be worse than UA, AS or AA/US. So DL must have significantly lower fare or be the only reasonable option before I will fly DL under the new program – and hope I can credit to AS. Skymiles were already weak, and hard to use.
Delta’s change to their frequent flyer program won’t change my flying behavior. I fly whichever airline is most convenient to where I’m going. So if it’s Atlanta, it’s Delta. If it’s anywhere else, it’s probably another airline.
I already started crediting all my DL flights to Alaska Mileage plan. Better use of miles too 🙂
The blogger world hated Delta before this so Gary Leff getting all sanctimonious seems a little like overkill.
Delta delivers the best flying experience of the big three airlines…period. That is a big consideration in anyone moving to another airline.
If you play the mileage game at a serious level you can accumulate points/miles far easier from other sources than from flying. Delta reducing my mileage earning by a third isn’t going to have much effect on my travel plans.
If Delta fails to follow through with improved award availability I can always status match/challenge to AA or United.
At the end of the day…if I ran an airline I would go with a revenue based system and reward those who spend the most. It looks like an ugly transition and it will certainly result in fewer “gaming” strategies going forward but I would be surprised if the whole industry doesn’t go that way.
It has been a good run…but I always viewed it wouldn’t last forever.
Will continue flying Delta – my pattern of business flying will mean, generally, MORE miles under the new program. Just got 4400 miles for what would be 13K next year!
After flying only DL/NWA and partners for 15 yrs. We booked a trip on AA yesterday. Looking at more AA and others for future flights.
No real choice here – I live in Minneapolis. Transfer to Alaska seems like the best choice.
I’d say John is an idiot. A fool and his money (or the government or his employer’s money) will soon be separated.
Tough to say. I’m DL Plat and AA gold. I was going to aim to renew AA status (or better) before DL 2015 changes. Until 2015, though, it will be hard to walk away from 100% RDMs bonus for DL. I will probably land around DL FO or gold for 2015 and just lapse from there. Too tough to justify the spend on DL when AA is giving the bonuses for RDMs and DL is basing it on fare price. Sad but true, DL’s most recent move really punished transcon/int’l biz pax.
The other shoe has yet to drop on this one. As much as they are trying to tout some flights/fare combinations will earn more miles, that’s meaningless of the award chart sees drastic changes.
If I were a Delta frequent flier I would not jump ship. I watched my boss get to the top tier much quicker once they started taking in to account ticket prices/booking classes last year. So, it’s No for me, but not because I am too invested as I am invested on another carrier.
I am US Airways preferred and would not jump ship if they did this. We book 2-3 weeks out for work so it would probably benefit me–elite quicker.
I tend to fly a lot of short haul semi pricey fares. Overall, Delta’s new math works out in my favor on the earning side. However, we only know half the story right now. In the end, it probably doesn’t matter. I live in Atlanta, and I’m only going to fly Southwest if there is no other option available.
As someone who is conceptually a target DL customer (someone who pays for long haul C transcon and intercon) I am not (yet) convinced.
Delta awards are already ridiculous to try secure (I only ever pay low levels for awards) and they don’t allow for F awards on partners. Now they are promising to change reward redemptions to 5(!!!!!) tiers and won’t indicate what the new award chart is until 4Q.
Thanks very much – but pass. I’ll wait for the other shoe to drop. In the interim if I can’t book away onto AA or UA I’ll credit to AS.
I have only been really traveling for about a year, but I travel 2-3 times a month. When I started I was not planning on choosing only one airline as I do not live near a hub, I was going to pick the quickest flight. What I found was that I enjoyed flying Delta over the other airlines, and began picking them more often than not – even if the flight was a bit longer. I was able to barely achieve status, and have really enjoyed the perks.
This change will greatly affect me as my company has worked with Delta to get discounted prices. Using the calculator I will get about a third of the points I’m getting now. I may not be able to get status at all.
I think at the very least it’s time for me to reevaluate the other airlines and their programs. And I had been debating about getting a membership to the skyclub. Will not be doing that.
I don’t live in a delta hub but on occasion fly to DTW from MDW. I prefer Southwest and for the most part my company doesn’t complain but they have a preferred agreement with Delta so we will see how that goes. As long as Southwest is the same price or less I should not have too much of a problem.
I’m a United person, and have suffered through the United-Continental merger with all of their changes. UAL has made changes taking dollar amounts into account but I will stick with them most even if they make this change.
I’m at a United hub and convenience is a huge factor to me.