There is so much to love about Delta. I have had elite status with many airlines and I think the Delta reps are the best in the business. For those of us who fly a bunch, either on high price tickets or those of us who fly a ton of LUT flights in the dozens, the value to our airline should be clear. Heck even those of us who get our status via AMEX RESERVE cards are supporting the financial institution that helps Delta fly.
Rumors are often based on at least some facts. There have been a bunch of little bites out here and there like the job postings from JDC below (now pulled btw):
Official company representatives have declined to comment on this or about EOS ( Evolution of Skymiles ) other than advising:
“Delta is always reviewing various aspects of its business as we constantly strive to improve our customers’ experience; however we have made no recent announcements regarding changes to the SkyMiles program.”
This in response to this posting on FlyerTalk from “itsaboutthejourney” with a supposed transcript from a Delta corporate meeting. If the FT post is true (it’s not btw), it is sad that we who love our airline, care about our airline, want to fly our airline as much as we can are looked upon as “cheats & gamers”!
So will a change happen on May 1st? Will plan “Z” be the Zorro slashing the medallion ranks to only those who spend $XXX dollars per year AND xxx BIS miles? Will Skymiles become harder or easier to spend going forward (we can hope right)? The question I want to know is will these changes drive high value customers FROM Delta. Will these type of changes drive those who Delta MOST wants to keep to another airline? You tell me!
If you are concerned about this (or other changes) I suggest tweeting Delta. It seems as of late once Delta enacts a new policy, they dig in their heals and push back like the 72hr rule. It may be better for us to speak now before the change happens if we want our voices to be heard! – Rene
▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
American Express – RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
Click here for more information
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
That post seems extremely fake, written as humor in the style of a cheap drama novel. Interesting discussion topic none the less.
@Nathan – it has that ring to me too. But I bet we see change before the year is out! Good to plan ahead and give feedback to our beloved airline on what we hope for – Rene
I think it is fake.
Rene – I have it on good authority that the post is fake, but hilarious nonetheless.
@D – 😉 but fun to talk about! Right? In all seriousness, we do want our voices heard about what may or may not come in the near future. We also know, like the 72 hr rule, it is better to be proactive when it comes to input – Rene
Although the post is a fake, I believe the End of SkyMiles is near! If you’ve got a multi-million mountain of SkyPesos like we do in my household, then my advice is: Burn baby, burn, Delta inferno…
@Gene – well I would not go so far as to say “End of Skymiles”. I think some good things are one the way for us. That said, nothing like a little silliness to get the conversation going! 🙂
@Rene — Good things? You are the eternal optimist! You are right — if Delta completely overhauls the SkyMiles program, they will surely throw in some good things along with the bad. I’m not too worried about the accrual of miles and elite status going forward, but primarily about the potential further devaluation of our existing stash of SkyMiles. As I’m sure you know, it is very difficult too keep Diamond status AND burn all of your miles along the way, especially when Delta’s redemption options are less attractive than those offered by other programs.
The program has been devalued enough, I’m just getting used to these redemption levels – I hope the change is in the best interest of us loyal flyers…
I’m willing to bet all of my SkyPesos that what I heard from my sources and wrote on the FlyingTalkers.nets is 99% factually correct…. or is that factually incorrect?
@itsaboutthejourney – love it. love it love it! Well done 😉
@Gene – yes, I admit it, when it comes to my dear Delta, I am the eternal optimist. I also love puppy’s and kitten’s and milk with my cookies 🙂
As I stated on FT, I have stopped using my DL Reserve until further notice, and I’m sure I’m not alone. I’ll just build up SPG points in the meantime, and if nothing changes by November I will get past the $60K threshold for the MQM’s by the end of the year. But if things do change that I don’t like, I’ll switch over to another card for miles/points. And I’m a pretty big DL optimist also, just not dumb.
Its interesting to watch all of this. Skymiles are currently some of the easiest to accrue with some of the worst redemption levels. They cannot devalue them any further. Perhaps they can make accrual harder but that would require changing their credit card programs which I can’t see happening – ie they will stay with Amex and Amex is easy to game for sign up bonuses.
Sure they could change their elite program. But it’s pretty hard to game their program and obtain anything higher than FO or GM without flying at least a moderate amount. I think all this hubbub is nonsense. I guess we’ll see.
I could see them changing FO and maybe GM to just be eligible for Econ comfort upgrades. But that would position their benefits significantly worse than competitors.
BTW, I would allege that job posting was fake, too. A “couple people” saw it then it mysteriously vanished into the ether…