News and notes from around the interweb:
- Because of course they did. No more international Sky Bonus certificates (they’re keeping US and Canada certs) and you now redeem points in the program for dollar credits to be spent against the prevailing fare of an itinerary.
Overnight Delta made SkyBonus revenue based. No announcement, no warning.
— Richard Kerr (@KerrPoints) March 1, 2022
- 30% bonus on American Express transfers to Hilton through March 31
- Barclays Aviator business card 70,000 mile offer returns
- Aeroplan now lets you book lap infant tickets online
- American Airlines phones are stuck in the 90s (NSFW language in this Instagram rant, so not embedding in the post)
- British Airways passengers spat on employees, who had to take their uniforms off to escape airport in disguise after the airline’s IT crashed grounding flights. There was lots of speculation that the outage was Russian hacking, but I presumed BA was completely capable of an IT meltdown without any external assistance.
- Air India’s incoming CEO resigns before starting on the job. Now they need to find a new one, and this has to be one of the worst top jobs in aviation, better perhaps than CEO of Pakistan International Airlines but… On the other hand, the airline can only improve or stay the same, it’s hard to imagine someone making its problems worse.
There ought to be a consumer protection law requiring loyalty programs to give 6 months notice of changes.
I agree with the NSFW video. American Airlines phones are stuck in the 90s. In 2022, it is good to learn American Airlines is keeping up with computer system technology by upgrading their departure gate computers from Windows 2.x to the less error-prone Windows 95.
The Skybonus devaluation is actually massive . Really morally reprehensible to make such a move without any notice . This was an ethically bankrupt move .
Skybonus tickets were also available for use on partners such as AF KL KE and VS . This is a game changing move that requires more attention .
If anyone is still surprised that Delta would make an unannounced move that screws their frequent flyers I really don’t know what to tell you. This has been their MO for a long time. They’re the pioneers in the war against loyal customers.
@gary – you should take a look at the valuation that was placed on SkyBonus points when a person was prosecuted for defrauding the airline by improperly obtaining over 40 million SkyBonus points . I believe that the valuation was around 4 cents per point . Now …. not so much .
Skypesos!
Fool me once, shame on you
Fool me twice, shame on me
I’m not even sure where to go when Delta has fooled customers dozens of times in the past few years. I suppose you could argue that hub captives have little choice but to stick with Delta but for anyone else: run, run quickly.
What’s even worse then Skypesos? Skysoms?
@Christian:
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me three times, as I have Delta Diamond Medallion or Delta 360° status.
Regarding the SkyBonus elimination of overseas flights, they might as well have simply ended the program, as far as I’m concerned. The value of these points has dropped from roughly a penny apiece to 1/3 of a penny, in the unlikely event that I’m going to fly Delta domestically before the end of the year for an unreimbursed ticket. That’s 1M+ points, out the window, on Dec. 31.
More than any other airline I can think of, Delta shows an absolute contempt for frequent flyers.
@Doug: Well said. It is so true. Simple question – if Delta, American, or United does not value loyalty, then why should flyers be loyal to them? You know that you earn “Skypeso”; You know that you are being screwed over and over and over… and you still want to be loyal to Delta, American, United, then why are we complaining here? Are the FF programs of those three are the best comparing to other members in their alliances? If not, you know what to do.
@T: I don’t think there is any real value left in any US airline frequent flyer program. I think that the bank programs make sense, but only because of multiple partners and transfer bonuses. It’s absurd that Avianca has a much better Star Alliance program than United does, that Iberia has a better oneworld program than American Airlines does, and that Skyteam — thanks largely to Delta — is all-around hopeless.
A family member just scored a business-class seat to London for 10,000 miles and $950 — not on any US airline, but on Virgin Atlantic. Another family member got a business-class ticket back from Paris for 37,500 miles — not on any US airline, but on Air France. For Delta, it’s game over, with United and American soon to follow.
SkyPesos are now SkyRubles