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With less that a month to go Delta has at LONG last released the charts for 2015 earning Skymiles on partners. Keep in mind that Delta ticketed flights i.e. those that are DL numbered and booked on Delta.com are going to be DOLLAR based for Skymiles earnings. You can check out the OLD charts HERE btw with the WayBackMachine.
When you are talking about partner ticketed flights, then it is distance based earning for Skymiles based on a percentage of the fare class ticketed.
Lastly we have 4 groups of partners. ONLY group one partners, with all qualifying fare classes, will pay out 100% MQMs (those are the points for elite status). Groups 2,3 & 4 can pay out 100% or even ZERO. You will have to look at each partner to see the new earnings.
So for example Let’s look at KLM, Air France & Alaska, all group 1 airlines.
No real shockers here and they are very similar to what I expected to see once we saw the Alaska announcement last week about earning flying Delta and crediting to Alaska Airlines. The upside is those who fly 1st class (real 1st class that is) with Air France as the bonus can go up substantially. What about a group 4 member?
Ah Skyteam founding member Korean is in that bottom group and pays out ZERO MQMs regardless of fare class as they did after the last adjustment. The only workaround is to book a DL code share and most times pay a much higher price.
The real punishing parts of this is the really cheap fare class tickets with partners like Air France or KLM that did, under the old system, earn 100% are now paying as little as 25% of distance flown. Ouch! That hurts and sorry if you have booked tickets already in those fare classes for travel next year.
What do you think. Was this what you expected? Will you credit Skyteam flight to Alaska from now on to earn full points? – René
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So, appears SkyTeam continues to implode upon itself. I will continue to look for the best partner to book with or the best alliance as I don’t have a customer that blindly pays me to fly.
Thanks for the quick update Rene!
@Stan – Yep – before it was simple – just book Delta. No more. Now gotta look at all options.
It is about time.
I would not book anything while waiting.
I no longer loyal — a free agent. Feels great to this diamond medallion
So, I’m a bit confused here. I have a ticket booked next year LAX-CDG-MAD-AMS-LAX (AF going KLM returning). I get that it says I now earn a total of 125% miles as opposed to the former 150%. Ok, but then it says there’s still a medallion mileage bonus of 80% (I’m PM). So, would that be 125% of distance flown, plus an additional 80%? For the sake of simplicity, call it 10,000 miles flown. Would it be 12,500 + 80% (10,000) = 22,500?
@Garrett – Is it Delta.com ticketed? Then plan for the SkyDollars number. If Booked on AF or KLM you can look at that chart for points if crediting to Delta.
woops, meant to say that’s all on a Z fare
@Rene, it’s Delta.com ticketed. So, basically then it’s just 9x what I paid before taxes and fees? (Thanks for always replying, by the way)
DL management is counting on elite status (earning/retaining the status and having the travel benefits) being more addictive to SkyMiles customers than earning redeemable miles from flight activity.
@GUWonder – Txs for commenting on the blog (A FlyerTalk Posting Legend) and I agree. The funny thing is I have a B class (well 2 of them) booked as MRs next year and I have to decide if I want to credit to AS or DL. I am fighting JUST what you said. I am MQM “drunk” but may have to sober up and go the AS way! Txs – Rene
Last straw Delta–I’m out at CVG!
If I had any other choice other than US Airways I would change in a heartbeat and may drive the extra two hours to do just that. It’s the principle. I’m a PM not and close to Diamond status. Delta can scream customer service all they want but they have shown they care nothing about loyalty.
This is all a great pity. I preferred DL over any other US carrier. It shows they are really only interested in their most frequent and first class passengers. MY last flight with them will be over Christmas and then I will try another airline next year. A great pity that those who were loyal are being treated this way!!!!
Rene- when are you going to host the next seminar for us Delta Diamonds to discuss challenge matches et. al to move to AS and others? Sign me up. The drunken “Diamond Haze” is fading and time to move on I am afraid…..
Rene:
I’m trying to figure out how this works and need your help. Let’s take a simple JFk-CDG flight in Z class for $1000. If booked on DL, the flight would earn 5452 MQM (3625 x 1.5) and would also earn skymiles based on the price of the ticket x medallion status multiplier–a platinum would have a multiplier of 9, so the ticket would earn 9000 sky miles.
If booked through AF, would the flight would earn 5452 MQM (3625 x 1.5) and also earn miles based on distance and multipliers 5452 skymiles (3625 x 1.25) plus another 4362 class bonus miles (80% bonus for platinum), for a total of 9814 sky miles.
However, MQD would only accrue at 25%, to the extent that mattered to the passenger.
So, booking through Air France would lead to a slight increase in sky mile earning with a decrease in MQD and the same MQM. If the passenger wanted more miles, they would book through Air France; if thy didn’t care about small difference in miles, they would book through Delta and get the MQD.
Am I missing something here?
Thanks!
@Nolalala – If you care about MQMs you should book Delta. If you care about redeemable miles you should consider Alaska Air program to credit to 🙂
Hi Renee. If I fly Air France out of Europe on Air France ticketed stock in Business class, will I earn full MQMS on Delta? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
@Rich – You can see the AF as well as other partner earnings on Delta.com here: http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/skymiles/earn-miles/earn-miles-with-partners/airlines.html