Joe Brancatelli who writes the biztravelife.com “the home page for business travelers” has a blistering “R” rated MEGA rant about the move by Delta to hide the award charts from us all (at least we have copies to reference). I cringed over and over reading the piece, but it was to the point – Delta has, in kinder words, told us all to “go jump in a lake” by this latest move. So are they going to get away with it?
You bet they are!
I wrote a comedy bit of fiction this week about a Delta boardroom meeting that did not happen but sure could have. The one line in the post that is 100% true is this:
“We can do anything we want – it’s a frequent flyer program.”
That is the truth about it, folks. They can, for just about any reason, do just about ANYTHING they want and we just have ZERO recourse. The ONLY thing we do have some recourse about is once an award ticket is issued, unless there is fraud, they have to get us from A-B, and depending on where we are going, in the class of service we booked.
Beyond that they can shut the whole Skymiles program down (not going to happen) or cut and devalue it to the point that is just about worthless to be a part of (that has already begun btw).
Now you may be saying to yourself – HOLD ON – aren’t we seeing more and more of the mainstream press like Fox News TV, Atlanta papers like the Atlanta Journal Constitution and one’s like Joe Brancatelli spreading the word about this shameless act? That is true, and I do think MORE main stream press folks will catch on eventually what a MAJOR deal removing the award charts are and will bring it to light.
But it does not matter. Delta is not going to change on this latest move (and worse is on the way).
But why René? We are ready to organize, to start a new “SOS” or Save Our Skymiles campaign to pressure the mothership, Delta, into backing down on this. Why are you being so defeatist? Friends 2000/2001 was a very different time. Back then Delta cared about customer loyalty. ALL customer loyalty. Not today! They could care less. They are truly “Driving Every Loyal Traveler Away!”
That is why this year I “threw in the towel” if you will and have changed from a PRO-DELTA blog to a PRO-ME (and you) blog. I clearly see Delta does not care about loyalty anymore or me as a Diamond Medallion and could care less if we all went to another airline. If we do they will just park jets and still fly full. I have been told that face to face by Delta people. Seriously!
The really interesting part is the challenge for the new Skymiles VP (HT to Gary View from the Wing). This man comes from a credit card background. One would think he will be concerned over the fact that I personally think (and I have already canceled ONE of my TWO Delta CO-Branded cards this year) that Delta has either already added the final straw that has broken the camel’s back or is about to. I know Delta folks read the blog as dozens of visits a day are recorded, so I hope Mr. Dube see this and gets that his new job is about to get REALLY hard if what many think is about to happen – happens (if it is not happening already that is).
So where do we go from here and where is your Delta blogger going from here? I have had MANY e-mails and DM’s asking if this is the end of the Delta Points blog. Not a chance! For now, I am not moving over to AA or AS or some other airline. Also, once Delta IT gets around to it, I have qualified for Diamond Medallion status until 1FEB2017. As long as Delta does not dump rollover MQMs for 2016 I will, without paying for more tickets, have Platinum Medallion or better status until 1FEB2018. I have a BUNCH of flights booked on points this year and will, at this point, be flying some flights in 2017 (I will have to spend my bump vouchers after all)! After that, who knows. This does not mean I will not at some point next year status match with another airline and see how spending my flight dollars with another airline is! – René
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Rene, you can bet this sandeep was hired to a “yes” man and I wouldn’t bet on him doing the right thing coming from the banking industry. We all have trust in the banking industry, right? I would tell you and everybody else on the SkyRuble program to vote with your wallet but you are in a different situation and have too much at stake to leave the Titanic.
The sooner people stop flying delta is vital if we wait until the program is totally stripped of our perks they will only respond by adding the last few taken away as they will say well our flyers were fine for 18 months of taking perks away its only now they stopped flying so lets put back the last 3 perks only we took away. WE MUST ALL STOP FLYING TODAY which is the only way we will get back to our superior program we had!!! Delta has always responded swiftly when their revenue drops!! If we do not stop flying as a group all of us we can kiss the delta program we loved goodbye for ever!! your thoughts rene!! I think this of vital importance we only have power in a large group and delta only jumps when revenue down Your thoughts? We should start a drive now to get this done If we all do together it will noly be few months before we get our program back!!
What were they thinking??? Huge ad in the Detroit Free Press this morning: “Celebrating Delta People With Over $1Billion in Profit Sharing Payments”
“Today,along with175 million loyal customers, we are recognizing Delta’s 80,000 employees worldwide with record-breaking payments. Not only is it a token of appreciation for all their hard work in 2014, it’s motivation to continue to provide Delta customers with the most innovative products, thoughtful service,and unparalleled operational reliability.”
This may be appropriate for a company newsletter, but not for the flying public who is paying record-breaking prices.
This payout is to stymie Delta’s FA upcoming union vote and other unionization efforts at the mother ship 😉
@DDiamond – I agree.
I truly believe delta will care very much if a sizable portion of ffs stop flying delta and it must park planes and furlough employees and contractors. That will cost delta dearly and reward other airlines.
If you think about it, the customers who pay for BE/First all the time are the customers that Delta values. They don’t particularly value me, who travels to Greece on an economy ticket from Atlanta six times a year. I think that the Gulf carriers would, and so I’ll be lobbying to bring one to ATL. I could always use FCM for the few domestic flights I take within the year.
I will soon be at the same status as you for the next couple years … perhaps we can chronicle the status match together and the good times along the way!
I also attempted to book a weekend trip at end of March last night …. what normally would be 25,000 miles per person was now 57,000 miles. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!
When did Amex pay delta the $2 billion? And, when does delta expect Amex to pay them again? Lose too many cards and bet it won’t be anywhere near $2 billion next time.
agree on a lthe above PLUS ive moved to AS as my FPP but wil lalso hvae to fly detla some times also 1 less amex delta card for now maybe another soon
I think it’s great that employees profit share at Delta – no matter what the motive of the mothership. This is partly the reason for the generally good customer care we receive. But employees probably have little sway over the gutting of Skymiles. In the end it will bit them as well.