A while back those who say worked on a cruise ship and had the company purchase tickets for them were really upset when Delta axed decimated enhanced lowered the earnings for these very inexpensive, negotiated rate tickets. I spoke with a comedian (yeah, I know, funny) who did the cruise gig for a while and he was understandably most upset as his status and his amount of miles earned on the Skymiles side was going to be a bunch less when flying on discounted company paid for tickets including his MQMs.
Fast forward to the horrid disastrous nauseating new and improved Skymiles2015 program set to begin just months from now. “Most” of us and dreading every flight departing after 00:01 on 1JAN2015 as we will see our Skymiles rewards slaughtered in a similar way that happened to those consolidator fares a few years back (yes, now we know how you feel too). But look at what is happening to those poor unappreciated consolidator fares! Things are going to acutely improve for many under Skymiles2015 (side note – funny that some who pay the least that is the dirt cheap discounter fares Delta sells will be rewarded MORE than those who pay more).
Not only are they going to earn FULL MQMSs on Delta and many Skyteam partners, unlike the current system, but their Skymiles earnings are looking better under many circumstances. I mean seriously, look at the perks even at 50% Skymiles earnings fare class. Say we take JFK-LAX for example.
The above trip that will pay out 2,475 Skymiles or 50% of the flight miles compared to 25% currently and they get MQMs. Q, K & L class also get an additional 25% bump in earnings or 75% of base miles.
Now I know what you are thinking before you even ask; you are thinking “how can I get me some of ‘dem dar consolidator fares“! There could be times us non-cruise ship employees could end up earning MORE Skymiles from one of these fares we are buying under Skymiles2015.
I hate to tell you getting one of these is just not that simple for a bulk of flyers. Yes, there are times the AMEX Travel will book you into a fare class that is consolidator as well as Delta Vacations, but you just cannot be 100% sure this is going to be the case. If you already book via these methods, and want more Skymiles, it could well be worth the gamble and see what happens. Keep in mind that you will not be earning MQDs, but as long as you earn your MQD waiver that should not be an issue!
I will be following up on this development and look forward to feedback once Skymiles2015 is live and seeing if there are in fact ways to game the new system to eke out a few more points on our travels! – René
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I have wondered about this and hesitate to let a vaca package book my plane as my guess was i would not get the miles in any shape or form on any airline they made the deal with. do you know if that is true? thank u
I can’t wait for Skymiles 2015. I’m going to have so many miles next year I won’t know what to do with them all. Take my flight to Buffalo this week: This year I will only get 2936 miles, but if it were 2015 I would have gotten 10800 miles. 2015 cant’ get here soon enough.
@Jacob – you are one of the 4% that Delta is targeting. The rest of us, not so much!
I am with Jacob. I will enjoy my extra miles.
I can’t believe Delta has such a bad plan for 2015. My International flights earning 40K+ points this year will earn roughly 26K point next year. It is a sad fact that Delta doesn’t value their Diamond members and doesn’t plan to try and keep us in 2015.