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Death by 1000 cuts. I was hopeful 2014 would see some good news from Delta – silly me! First off, as posted by my friend Kathy who writes “Will Run for Miles” at First to Board that Delta has gone sneaky and is cutting yet another perk for GM, PM & DM flyers, that is access to some lounge benefits world wide starting on 1 MAY 2014 for elites. Pop over to her blog to see more or to see the full changes go to Delta.com to find out the new facs.
This is following the UBER unfriendly move Friday to remove business client and family access to the Skyclubs if you are a Diamond Medallion or have AMEX cards that in the past gave you access as well as your guests.
Oh btw if you have not checked your Skybonus lately, Delta is apparently enforcing the $5000 per year spend to keep your account and even go as far as, according to some, telling you if some of your flights look too “personal” to be counted as a business trip and still kicking you out of the program (try to log in and see what happens). It is so good to see Delta doing all it can to have our backs when it comes to business flyers and give us lots of notice we are risking being removed from the award program (I hope you understand I am being facetious)!
The last part is the total downgrade of 1st class seats on the way. Delta will tell you NET they are adding 1st class and have the most of any airline until the AA+US merger is complete. However, this total included in this total is adding a ton of seats to A320 jets that they had a few years back been REMOVED! Thus, when you think about it, they are just adding back what was there before. I know why Delta is doing this, they are giving away too many upgrades and why give away free nice upgrades when you can sell more cheap seats and let medallions remain in coach.
Keep in mind as you digest these latest “enhancements” that I am about as pro-Delta as you can get. I always try to look at the glass ½ full when it comes to our airline rather than ½ empty; I just hate to say it that my ½ full glass seems to have been left out in the sun to long. Please Delta, even though most flyers are hub captives and have little choice with only 3 airlines in the USA now, at some point, you are going to upset every single Delta flyer breathing! – René
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Nice to see Delta stepping up their devaluations to twice-weekly, instead of just one per week. Coming later this spring: free pokes-in-the-eye for Platinums and higher…even in economy!
For me it’s SkyMiles-burning season!
@QlobeTrotter – it is always point burning season for ALL programs. He who dies with the most miles is a fool. Earn and burn as fast as you can!
I just started following your blog a few months ago (LOVE it, btw). As a result, I started on a serious path of Delta loyalty (as opposed to my usual path of just booking the cheapest flight regardless of airline). I got the Platinum Delta AmEx and Business Reserve, began searching trips and now this! Before I even make it to SM (and I was aiming for PM by the end of the year), the rules have changed. Very disappointing. We’ll see how this year ends, but at the rate Delta is going, it seems I should cancel the cards and go back to my old ways.
@Zmer – I feel your pain but on a tiny plus side, low level business class seats on Air France are starting to show up from YUL-CDG for us.
Drip, drip, drip.
I cannot log in into my skybonus account now! What should I do?
@Pablo – email them or check in with them on Monday. My guess is they closed your account.
Pablo,
If you weren’t using the account appropriately, don’t waste your time. I had 250K points and all redeemed awards recaptured before…
Delta is pushing around its Medallions because it thinks we are powerless and defenseless against their onerous and dictatorial actions. Is there nothing we can do collectively to express our frustration and displeasure with the way we are being treated?
I’ve been concerned they might start weeding out those of us who who own small businesses and only have 1-3 people with the Skybonus number attached to our account. I’m sitting on a little over 70K Skybonus points; too little to really benefit but too many to forfeit because they don’t think I’m worthy. I guess I should cash them in for some Skyclub passes and drink coupons before they take them from me!
I’ve been concerned they might start weeding out those of us who own small businesses and only have 1-3 people with the Skybonus number attached to our account. I’m sitting on a little over 70K Skybonus points; too little to really benefit but too many to forfeit because they don’t think I’m worthy. I guess I should cash them in for some Skyclub passes and drink coupons before they take them from me!
Obviously not a lot of positives, however I still like how often Delta gets me home. Last we 2 cancelled flights and massive delays during the code. Got their late both ways but got there with most but not all agents being very helpful. Logged in tonight and saw they credited me with 25000 points. Not bad delta!
Yup, skybonus account is now gone too. I was pretty close to 5K. Absurd.
As a platinum medallion for 10 years now, I’m thinking moving my loyalty to no one. My last year upgrades were dismal. As a Platinum on B fare, I was 4th on the upgrade this from a non-focus, non-hub airport. The first class moneterization was okay with me since delta is running a business. The sneaky de-enhancement really is the last straw.
I am a Gold Medallion… I fly a little over 60000 miles per year and essentially fly them all on Delta… my friends often say things about me like “there he goes again, talking about how Delta is the best airline…”
And the truth is, I really like Delta – the have the best in flight experience, and the rollover miles help retain status (until they cut those, too)…
BUT,
WHAT THE HECK, DELTA?? I stay loyal to you DESPITE being based in Miami and it’s cut after cut after cut! You “upgrade” the transcon business elite and take away medallion upgrades, you “upgrade” the sky club and cut our access to it, now you “upgrade” first class by taking out seats and making it less likely for us to get upgraded!
Guys, I realize you feel that too many people are getting upgraded, but you don’t seem to realize that these perks are one of the main things making your frequent flyers happy! Except for those of us stuck in MSP, DET, or ATL (sorry guys), you’re going to lose your loyal flyers.
Again, YOU’RE GOING TO LOSE YOUR LOYAL FLYERS… even DM’s
I say this as a friend… I don’t want to switch, but if you don’t make it worth it to stick with you, AA is looking pretty good right now…
DeltaPoints, do you still find that Delta is “the best airline in the world”?
All this and your still a Delta fan? I was considering getting Gold via card spend, but what is the point now. I guess DL doesn’t want all those exchange fee revenues. What are they thinking over there…?
Rene: You’ve been a terrific asset to me as I have added Delta to my many years of flying Southwest Airlines. I enjoy both for different reasons and different opportunities. Why do you say this: “Most flyers … have little choice with only 3 airlines in the USA now.”? Delta, United, Southwest, American … that adds up to 4 airlines, right? Please don’t leave Southwest out. They work for a lot of us. I don’t think “most flyers” is accurate by any definition, and I wish you wouldn’t go there in an otherwise-enlightening blog.
Super depressing news over and over with these guys. I am a a GM again this year but a going to look elsewhere. I live in Los Angeles so it shouldn’t be a huge problem. I just opened a reserve card so that will be closed in a year. They are taking away perks every day it seems.
Just had the option to book Delta to Mexico City or AirTran for about the same price. Normally I would have booked Delta without even thinking about it, but guess what? (EDIT) DELTA! I am so done with their crap, I will never again book a flight on their airlines unless it’s so cheap and I feel like they lost money on me. Southwest it is from now on!
As I know you’re tired of hearing but we have been a delta frequent flyers for as long as delta has had the program. I admit we came late to the game on credit card miles but I did come. Guess what delta? As of December 2014, my credit card usage is done. I’m going to go to my discover card exclusively because, at the very least, I get cash back and then I can use that cash to do anything I want. Don’t have to worry about the spend requirements because husband is a business traveler and he spends big bucks on last minute travel. With all of the devaluations it’s not going to matter if you are platinum or silver – you’ll get the same nothing perks regardless. I also don’t care about having a card so that I don’t have to pay the luggage fee because that is a business expense. Maybe if delta felt the pain of my not only not flying them but also lose the money they make on my spending on delta then so be it. I’d rather go back to the days when there weren’t loyalty programs and we were ALL treated like the cattle the airlines think we ar.
When I tried to get into my SkyBonus account it said “inactive”. I called the SkyBonus center, 877-832-5211, and the rep reactivated my account and warned me that there is a $5k per year spend requirement on Delta that they hadn’t been enforcing, but that their computer went through all the accounts on 12/31 and inactivated all accounts that hadn’t met the requirement.
@Mark – txs for update that we can call and re-activate and then make sure we meet the spend each year! – Rene
I’m confused about which lounges starting I will and won’t be allowed into as a DM on int’l economy travel. For example, which of these four lounges in Frankfurt will/won’t I be allowed in? http://goo.gl/PVNjOR
@Ken G – we are all confused since Delta did not TELL US about this sneaky change and we are not sure just what will be what. Maybe before 1MAY they will tell us at last just what is what! 🙁
My husband who flew many mileage runs to earn platinum status has been reluctant to change his airline alliance. After spending 20 minutes on the phone today with the Skybonus folks that has changed. He finally hit the wall with all of these enhancements. The representative lied repeatedly that they had sent us an email every month saying this was coming. We had our IT guy pull the records and there is nothing. Furthermore she sent us an email that if we could provide 5K in ticket purchases for last year they would reinstate the account, but we would not get our points back. Nice customer service Delta. We will burn our points and move to American. BUY!