Delta Skymiles changes? (Atlanta: 2015, credit card, buying)

[arjay57]

I guess this is slightly old news, but is Delta sticking it to its most loyal customers?

I have got a bazillion frequent flyer miles that we were thinking about using to do some traveling with the grandkids.

Delta dismays SkyMiles loyalists with half-told story about frequent flyer shakeup - The Business Journals

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I guess this is slightly old news, but is Delta sticking it to its most loyal customers?

I have got a bazillion frequent flyer miles that we were thinking about using to do some traveling with the grandkids.

Delta dismays SkyMiles loyalists with half-told story about frequent flyer shakeup - The Business Journals

That was written before they announced the other side of the equation too.

They have since announced it, but no one has seen how many miles they will charge in practice.

What they have done is kept the number of miles to get a ticket the same, but they added two more levels.

http://www.delta.com/content/dam/del...5SMP-award.pdf

What this probably means is lower flight options for the cheapest award tickets, but it might also mean more options than what the next level up use to cost. Pro and Con.


With the Delta tickets I have... I'll actually do better on the earnings side. My real problem is about 50% of my travel is long-haul international, so I'm frequently on other skyteam carriers and tickets. The new policies hurt on earnings from other Skyteam partner tickets and hurt me on the new Medallion Qualification Dollars they started in 2014.

What I see happening is Delta is increasing competition within their own skyteam alliance at the same time they are rewarding those who must spend more on tickets. The problem is certain flight options and availabilities have me flying other foreign carriers. The flaw is they might scare fliers like me to other alliances resulting in a net loss for the alliance if they compete too much with one another. I actually have status with two alliances right now. This could complicate things for me or force me to change habits in the future.

[arjay57]

Thanks, cw. Sounds like it might make sense for us to go ahead and do some of our traveling this year.

[ATL Golfer]

I just cut up our Delta AMEX and replaced them with Southwest Visas.

I am Medallion and have been for years. Growing up my dad was a "Flying Colonel" and we flew Delta pretty much exclusively.

Their program never makes meaningful changes that benefit the customer, they only keep tightening the ability to utilize miles, earn status, etc.

As an example, I can almost guarantee you it is going to cost 40k miles to go anywhere in the Continental US. You may find a cheaper option, but likely the worst flight option of the day.

In contrast, I tested out SW when I got their credit card 3 yrs ago. Recieved 50k points. I booked two flights...to San Diego and to Phoenix from Atlanta. It only took 43k total points to get 1) two round-trip tickets, 2) On the flights I wanted. I cancelled that card after I redeemed the miles because I bought into the Delta snob factor. Not any more.

From that limited experience it was pretty easy for me to see that miles go nearly twice as far on Southwest.

If that wasn't enough, here is the kicker.

The Companion Pass LINK

Companion Pass requires 110,000 points accumulated in a calendar year. You don't use the 110,000 toward the purchase of the Pass, it is simply earned. What it is is free travel for the person of your choosing for unlimited flights for the year the Companion Pass is earned and the year thereafter. You read that right. Please read again if that didn't compute (can you imagine Delta rolling out something like this??...not in a million years)

So, what I have done is applied for a personal card with 50k point bonus sign-up, a business card with 50k bonus sign-up and now all I need is $10k in spending to hit 110,000 points earned (Unlike Delta, status points are also earned for each dollar spent as well as each mile flown... Delta does give some MQM's only after meeting very high spending thresholds). I will do that in a month when factoring both business and personal spending. Through my business I can also keep the spending pace to hit the 110,000 bogey year-after-year. My wife will fly for free with me from here on out unless they change this program.

Also, unlike Delta's Companion Ticket with the AMEX, you can book yourself a reward ticket and your companion can still fly for free. You don't have to have a paid/cash ticket for your companion to fly.

Bottom line, SW's rewards program is miles ahead of Delta's (no pun intended).

Delta got on a very slippery slope during the first mini recession in 2001. Then they just got comfortable ripping off their most loyal customers. They are suppose to the be industry leader, meanwhile the discount carriers are doing a better job showing their appreciation. But hey, the stock is up over 100% in the past year and they are posting profits... probably time to throw in another layer to earn status, increase mileage needed to redeem an award ticket, increase stand-bye / same day confirm fees, charge a little more for crappy food, or maybe raise baggage fees so everyone scrambles to pack as much crap ass possible into the overhead bins.

Delta has finally just made me sick and tired of Delta.

[westau]

Originally Posted by ATL Golfer

I just cut up our Delta AMEX and replaced them with Southwest Visas.

I am Medallion and have been for years. Growing up my dad was a "Flying Colonel" and we flew Delta pretty much exclusively.

Their program never makes meaningful changes that benefit the customer, they only keep tightening the ability to utilize miles, earn status, etc.

As an example, I can almost guarantee you it is going to cost 40k miles to go anywhere in the Continental US. You may find a cheaper option, but likely the worst flight option of the day.

In contrast, I tested out SW when I got their credit card 3 yrs ago. Recieved 50k points. I booked two flights...to San Diego and to Phoenix from Atlanta. It only took 43k total points to get 1) two round-trip tickets, 2) On the flights I wanted. I cancelled that card after I redeemed the miles because I bought into the Delta snob factor. Not any more.

From that limited experience it was pretty easy for me to see that miles go nearly twice as far on Southwest.

If that wasn't enough, here is the kicker.

The Companion Pass LINK

Companion Pass requires 110,000 points accumulated in a calendar year. You don't use the 110,000 toward the purchase of the Pass, it is simply earned. What it is is free travel for the person of your choosing for unlimited flights for the year the Companion Pass is earned and the year thereafter. You read that right. Please read again if that didn't compute (can you imagine Delta rolling out something like this??...not in a million years)

So, what I have done is applied for a personal card with 50k point bonus sign-up, a business card with 50k bonus sign-up and now all I need is $10k in spending to hit 110,000 points earned (Unlike Delta, status points are also earned for each dollar spent as well as each mile flown... Delta does give some MQM's only after meeting very high spending thresholds). I will do that in a month when factoring both business and personal spending. Through my business I can also keep the spending pace to hit the 110,000 bogey year-after-year. My wife will fly for free with me from here on out unless they change this program.

Also, unlike Delta's Companion Ticket with the AMEX, you can book yourself a reward ticket and your companion can still fly for free. You don't have to have a paid/cash ticket for your companion to fly.

Bottom line, SW's rewards program is miles ahead of Delta's (no pun intended).

Delta got on a very slippery slope during the first mini recession in 2001. Then they just got comfortable ripping off their most loyal customers. They are suppose to the be industry leader, meanwhile the discount carriers are doing a better job showing their appreciation. But hey, the stock is up over 100% in the past year and they are posting profits... probably time to throw in another layer to earn status, increase mileage needed to redeem an award ticket, increase stand-bye / same day confirm fees, charge a little more for crappy food, or maybe raise baggage fees so everyone scrambles to pack as much crap ass possible into the overhead bins.

Delta has finally just made me sick and tired of Delta.

That's great if you ignore how expensive it is to fly Southwest and what a horrible system they have.

The worst thing that happened to Atlanta travelers was Southwest buying Airtran.

[ATL Golfer]

Originally Posted by westau

That's great if you ignore how expensive it is to fly Southwest and what a horrible system they have.

The worst thing that happened to Atlanta travelers was Southwest buying Airtran.

Expensive, really? Flying is expensive. SW is the cheapest option the vast majority of the time.

All airlines are horrible and I don't see SW being an outlier.