Occasionally a Delta Air Lines flyer gets hit with the realization that their entire life collecting SkyMiles has been a lie. Like a slap on the forehead by someone realizing they could have had a V-8, there’s a recognition that they’ve made horrible choices. They did all their spending on a SkyMiles American Express card because they chose to fly Delta, not because they’d given serious thought to actually getting value. And as a result they’ve accepted far less than they would have gotten elsewhere, because Delta just gives customers far less for its points.
To be sure, other airlines have devalued their points too but Delta truly has led the way over the past dozen years towards the enshittification of its loyalty program. And their tradition of offering customers less for their points dates back much further.
And here’s one SkyMiles member, prominent in social media, having just realized it assuming that others will as well and that it will cost Delta. But it hasn’t. I’ve expected that it would matter for many years, and maybe eventually it will, but the fact that it has not yet fundamentally challenges my core models of consumer behavior and microeconomic efficiency.
A travel expert just told me that my @delta mileage and status were worthless and the worst mileage program by 10x. He said 200,000 Chase points or United miles worth more than almost 2 million Delta miles. Said the Delta Amex is the worst mileage credit card. I’m apoplectic!
— Brooke Hammerling (@brooke) May 18, 2026
I agree… I explained that the experience is better than anything else, but they do need to figure out the mileage because more people are gonna figure it out. Like I can’t get to France this summer without paying retail and I have over 2,000,000 miles. Unless I fly multiple legs
— Brooke Hammerling (@brooke) May 19, 2026
It simply does not make sense to earn SkyMiles over other rewards as a currency. I have always said that Delta miles are not worthless. Just are just worth less.
That’s why it simply does not make sense to spend money on a Delta credit card, except to earn status. You may want to have a Delta card (for instance, for the lounge access if you fly Delta enough). But you do not want to use it.
So why have customers stayed with SkyMiles?
- Delta has strong positions in its core markets. Atlanta is an enviable hub, and its market position in ex-Northwest strongholds is unmatched. Northwest executives used to say about the Upper Midwest that ‘it’s cold, it’s dark, no one wants to go there.. but it’s all ours!’
- Delta has been seen as the premium airline.
- Relatedly, Delta has been the most reliable airline. Before Covid, they almost never cancelled a mainline flight for reasons other than weather.
- Customers chose Delta, and were stuck with Delta, so they simply assumed they needed to be part of SkyMiles if they cared about travel rewards. That’s especially true for passengers who traveled enough to earn SkyMiles status.
Scott Kirby began arguing, shortly after joining United Airlines a decade ago, that rebuilding his airline’s domestic strength was important for the credit card business because being the largest carrier in the market would earn an outsized portion of that market’s card adoption and spend – it wasn’t about offering value to consumers, it was mere scale of the airline’s presence.
There’s something to it, but it seems like there shouldn’t be – there might be a lag before consumers learn the difference, but that consumers would ultimately gravitate towards whomever is offering them the greatest value at least along enough of a margin to matter. And yet in airline loyalty that hasn’t seemed to be the case. Maybe the lag is just longer than I ever thought? Or Delta hadn’t pushed consumers far enough, but finally they have?
The status reason to stick with SkyMiles has far less force than it used to, because Delta has led the way in devaluing what they actually deliver for status.
The single most valuable benefit of status has been first class upgrades. Delta Air Lines led the industry in eliminating those. Twenty years ago 90% of first class seats went to upgrades and awards. Ten years ago it was about half.
Now only around 12% of seats are left for SkyMiles elite members. And that means on many routes and flights there are no upgrades at all. And Delta has had more success than any other airline in selling leftover first class seats to once a year flyers – for as little as $26 – rather than making those available complimentary to customers spending $30,000 or more a year with the airline.
Delta has lost its significant reliability advantage over competitors. They never really regained their operational edge post-pandemic. I originally traced this to the loss of their operations guru Gil West in 2020 and turnover of 31% of employees during the pandemic, which meant the loss of organizational knowledge. Now even their President has left.
And it’s that reliability edge – combined with a far greater investment in branding than other airlines – that Delta’s executives say meant that they didn’t need to invest as much in SkyMiles. By contrast, American Airlines has had little else but to retain a strategic focus on ensuring their mileage currency is more valuable. The argument for staying loyal to American from its top management has been domestic schedule and AAdvantage.
Delta’s SkyMiles program has been less rewarding than peers for a quarter century. One of my lines that has stuck best was coining the term ‘SkyPesos’ for their currency, back in 2009. And this was from 2003 when frequent flyers rented a moving billboard to drive around on a truck outside the airline’s annual shareholders meeting:
A decade ago Henry Harteveldt’s consumer research suggested that SkyMiles members had been pushed too far to the point that there would be consequences for the airline, but there weren’t.
And this is one of the greatest challenges to how I think about the world. My mental model is that in the long run, quality matters and value matters.
On the one hand, Delta has the most successful frequent flyer program in terms of generating revenue. But maybe it’s less successful than it should be? In 2019 they signed a 10-year extension of their American Express deal. They projected at the time that deal would generate $7 billion in revenue by 2023. It didn’t – it just missed that target – but it was aided by over 20% pandemic inflation that hadn’t been expected when the deal was announced. In real terms they were more than 20% behind projections.
They were aided by a deal that has run deeper with American Express than American Airlines has had with its cobrand partners, and that United had with Chase (American’s new deal with Citibank inches closer in structure). And they were aided by a faltering American that fell over the last decade from number one in cobrand card spending to number three, and a market presence that declined in key spend markets like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Maybe Delta is running out of headroom. There’s no one left to sell an American Express card to. That’s why free wifi that requires SkyMiles membership is so important, why their Starbucks and Uber partnerships are so important, and why their DraftKings deal that was announced by never implemented could be so important – they need to feed the top of the marketing funnel with new blood because their existing members are tapped out.
In fall 2023 they tried to squeeze existing members to spend far more on their cards but hit a brick wall and walked back program changes as a step too far. They can’t get any more blood from the sone.
The people I know who swear by their DL AMEX cards do so because of the free checked bag benefit or the 15% discount on award flights.
They fail to recognize that they earn only 1 point per dollar when they use their card for other purchases, and that they could earn up to 4 points per dollar with a non-branded AMEX card. Those points would still transfer to DL which would effectively reduce the price of their flight to 1/4 the points they’d pay if they earned them on their branded card.
Still I do blame Delta for their high redemptions. They’re just not competitive with other carriers. And those who aren’t skilled at flying with points are easily deceived by DL.
And from my only limited experience the AmEx card is not taken by a lot of merchants because of its high costs to them, and for the average person the rewards it offers by itself are useless. So it’s a higher end card they are trying to use with a mass market Maybe Delta should take a step back and rethink its entire marketing strategy and whether this really is the company it wants to be associated with.
While all of the complaints about Delta are valid, trying to find summer travel to Europe at the end of May with miles on any airline isn’t exactly easy. Did this person expect there to be multiple nonstop flights available for booking?
A quick typo, @Gary Leff… It’s supposed to be “SkyPesos”… /s
One of many reasons to abandon the loyalty programs and become a straight-up “Want First, Buy First” free-agent. Schedule and price, everything else is secondary.
It’s one thing to fly Delta loyally, it’s another altogether to put non-MSR spend on their credit cards. That’s unforgivable. Having said that, skymiles are fine for domestic travel, but garbage for international. You just got to understand the strengths and weaknesses of these programs, but idiot influencers and their even more braindead followers can’t be bothered.
@ Gary — As I am sure you are well aware, but this Brooke person is a bit of an idiot. Multiple legs? Oh, the horror! I guess she wouldn’t be able to comprehend positioning flights and separate tickets? We have been able to book nonstop ATL-HND-ATL and ATL-ICN-ATL for less than 200,000 miles twice this year. If you are too dumb to think outside the box or to understand that a super convenient fortress-hub to fortress-hub nonstop on the precise day you want will cost alot, well, maybe you should pay cash.
@Mantis — Are you incapable of not calling others silly names like “idiot” or “braindead” or some equivalent insult on here? There are better ways to express disagreement.
Oh Gene… *faceplam*
It’s been a trash airline and program for the most part for many years with mostly poor customer service and ancient lipstick on a pig aircraft
I am still haunted by experiences from 30 years ago but at least I haven’t been ripped off all those decades later.And the few times i did fly them out of last resort situations it was far from a premium experience.Even in the 80s folks talked about how bad they sucked
Not much has changed except for a nice lounge at lax in delta one and the occasional new a350 which can be found at other airlines for a fraction of the price in miles or revenue
I pity those that live in Atlanta or any hub Delta has parked themselves in
RUN/Avoid.Delta and Frontier hel# no
@ rkt10 — Bingo!
@ Gary — Oh, and to clarify, our two redemptions were in business class. I tend to forget that “economy” anything even exists.
And my favorite line of all from our friend Brooke — “I explained that the experience is better than anything else.” Where has she been? Apparently she is one of those people that “travel internationally all the time” to…Jamaica and Mexico.
I’m shocked at how much leeway delta has in terms of brand recognition.
In most ways delta is below many of its peers in FF program, on board service and reliability. They are continuing to cancel flights because of a flawed pilot bidding system.
They crash jets occasionally in Toronto too.
It’s purely ego and Americas incessant love of “brands”.
I’ve had nothing but frustration with DL.
I will have to give credit to UA. They are now the premium and global carrier of America. Although the ego is starting to go up just like DL.
They will get a reality check.
How do SkyMiles keep losing value but Ed spends more time planning his next operational meltdown escape trip to Paris? Claude said it can do what Ed does for $30M less.
So she is basing her opinion and you’re spreading it based on the opinion of an anonymous travel expert. It would be helpful to know what caused this sudden outburst.
Delta is a premium airline as Southwest is a discount airline.
@Isaac. C’mon man. Just because we like our airshows here in Toronto, doesn’t mean you gotta name us as a Delta perk.
Delta isn’t the only airline that’s massively devalued but they are the worst. What bothers me most is that Ed Bastian either believes or pretends that it’s sh-t doesn’t stink. NY Magazine’steveny puff piece didn’t hurt their image either. But it does some things well. After hours of delays and cancellations at ORD I received a text with food vouchers while waiting for rebooked flights and as soon as the one was cancelled I got a text with vouchers for decent local hotels, round trip rideshares, and breakfast almost immediately And their people are still a little nicer, even on Endeavor.
I’m Platinum but mainly fly Delta for the NYC- ORD flights I have to take. Free C+ is fine on them- first isn’t much better and of late the app only show the number
of seats available for upgrades with 1 or 2 but more often no pax listed. I’ve not seen any cheap upgrade offers which they’re probably reserving for those with no or lower status.
My only spending on Delta cards is on what it takes to use all their perks, which are the most generous of any airline card that I’m aware of. The Alex Plat pays for flights, helps with lounges and its perks also pay the AF.
Except for companion fare flights I’m a free agent, and most of my cc spend mainly goes on the Bilt or Venture X cards.
I carry the DL Plat Amex for a few simple reasons. I live in the southeast, Delta is the dominant carrier. The card helps me maintain my Plat status and club access. I’m not foolish enough to worry about first upgrades, I really only care about getting on the plane early to get a bin and being able to select C+ shortly after booking. Yeah the miles redemption isn’t great, first upgrades are almost non-existent, I get it. I value it for the small things. It is what it is. BTW – the club benny is nice, but I rarely wait in a line. If it’s more than a handful of people I find another option.
The last round of changes with the ASAM program and the Delta Reserve card changed my travel planning after 30+ years.
The Card gets only Delta flights charged and spend is on other cards. Using my “devalued miles” for FC upgrade in Emirates is a better place to bank low value points accumulation.
I still fly DL regularly. The lifetime status and benefits still outweigh starting over. And the other airlines in the market are either multi stop to go anywhere or budget single destination out of Florida.
I dislike travel cards that push you to book benefit travel through their website. That costs other benefits with hotels and airlines.
Since I live in Atlanta, I leverage Amex points for Delta flights. You are correct in that keeping points currency in Skymiles is a poor use of points accumulations.
Yes, Delta constantly devalues Skymiles, which is why I accumulate Amex points, due to their much wider use as a points currency.
What drives me up a tree with Skymiles is that if you want to use them and have an Delta existing credit or travel voucher, you can’t use both, only one or the other. If you have a free companion voucher (courtesty of a Delta Reserve card), you have to buy the first ticket at full price to get the free companion ticket. The lessening of options like this significantly dimishes the value of these perks.
I am also dissapointed with Amex’s point system in that while Delta may have room on direct flights, if you try to use points on the Amex travel portal the direct itinerary you saw on the Delta website is not available. Amex no longer has the 35% point rebate available for first class tickets on any airline outside of your desinated airline.
All of these things point to dimished returns when you try to leverage your limited perks which I am obviously not in favor of.
Redemptions on SkyMiles requires strategy.
1. Don’t accumulate miles faster than you can use them.
2. Redeem at sweet spots, like DEN-SEA economy winter time, 2,500 miles one way
3. Redeem US to Europe March or early April.
The pandemic allowed me to get off the frequent flyer miles rat race and burn hundreds of thousands of miles. Down to the last 350,000. Hopefully all gone by early 2027.
The number of miles needed for award tickets are getting obscene. A shame. The programs were so great, until they cheapened them more an more. Greed kids.
More vapor ware from Delta
Driving Every Loyal Traveler Away is correct
OK, I sat on around 100k Skypesos for at least a decade. At the beginning of that holding period, I could expect to fly business class internationally on Delta or its partners, but over time with several devaluations and diminished award inventory, those 100k pesos just sat there losing value…
Fast forward to the past year, and I’ve been shocked at the value I’ve gotten from Skypesos, to the point that its been my most valuable currency. Hard to beat 85k for D1 to HKG (or 60k on AF for 12+ hours in their business class). Sure, I need to make two connections but unlike the lady who is complaining about flying to Paris in the summer and only wants nonstop I’m pretty happy with the deal.
Meanwhile I found AA n/s transatlantic for 57,500 and 65,000 this summer. The ads are out of control today btw.
We have not been impressed with Delta. First class meals that are meh. Constant schedule changes that result in ruined connections which lead to changing plans, and poor reliability due to mechanical issues (not complaining here, just noting). Ed talks a big game but it’s all spin that we now see right through.
United, in comparison, has treated us better when irrops have occurred, and their long haul first class meals have been very good (except that dessert they call “Jetstream Dream”. “Contrail Fail” would be more accurate).
Sorry to say, but after having their AMEX card for many years this is the year we hop off that hamster wheel.
@1990
And now the biggest windbag on the board is insinuating Mexican currency “pesos” are worthless and making fun of a particular race of people at the expense of his malformed joke.. Sure sucks when it comes right back at you no? Let’s see the back pedaling inane comment this brings on. Had anyone else made that stupid comment you would have jumped on them and gone on one of your typical rants.
Really didn’t want to engage, but your utter hypocrisy is mind numbing
Flying to earn an upgrade is just plain stupid. I am both a AAdvantage member and a Skymile Member. When both airline started devaluing and selling through credit card, I just stopped trying for upgrades. I book First or Business now and just pay. Having a Life time membership in both SkyClub (CrownRoom) via my Northwest membership and a Life Time Admirals Club member means I don’t need their credit cared or chase miles. As a small business flyer, who trips have been reduced through Covid and age, chasing mileage for status is not worth it. Nice article through.
@D Fray — Oh, you really think I (‘1990’) came up with the phrase ‘SkyPesos’? Aww, I suppose that is high praise… (also, rest assured, those who fall for Delta’s scams are not a ‘race’…)
(They are very special people, though. ‘Keep Climbing,’ forever!)
@1990
I didn’t say you created the term—I pointed out that you chose to use it. My issue is that the phrase itself relies on tying something negative to a real-world currency and, by extension, a culture.
It feels inconsistent to call out others for insensitive language while casually using something that follows the same pattern. That’s the only point I was making. However, instead of admitting and accepting it you deflect. You are pathetic
They used to at least have sales now and then when you could get good redemption values. Now the rare time that happens internationally it’s only for economy. Are there any decent values these days? Short haul US, anything?
@D Fray — What in performative outrage… (happy to play along with you, newbie.)
Let’s ‘explain the bit’ together, shall we… You may recall that Argentina, Chile, and Mexico each have the ‘peso’ as their official currency (along with several other countries around the world), and those three countries have experienced historic hyper-inflation (1970s-1990s, especially).
Here’s where Delta comes in… It’s frequent flyer program, SkyMiles, is metaphorically similar to these currencies because while it used to be more affordable to redeem on flights, especially long-haul, business class, it is no longer as easy or affordable as it used to me. SkyPesos is a worthy criticism of their corporate greed, specifically, and trends in the industry of corporate pseudo-currencies, generally. Perhaps, better regulation could ensure consumer protections, adequate notice of changes to programs, stable values, etc. Or not, some on here loathe ideas like that. (You’ll see.)
Now, are you defending Delta, the airline, in-particular, like our pal @Tim Dunn would, or are you pretending to defend these countries and their currencies, or merely trying to ‘cancel’ me, suggesting that this use of ‘SkyPesos’ is offensive to all Latin Americans or Hispanics or Spanish-speakers, or people of those nationalities, descents, ethnicities, etc.?
Ah, probably the last one. Okay, so please also consider the Hungary (1940s), Zimbabwe (2000s), Germany (1920s), Yugoslavia (1990s), and Venezuela (2010s) as other examples. Do you prefer SkyPengő, SkyZimDollar, SkyMark, SkyDinar, SkyBolívar? I donno, those just don’t have the same ring to me. Let’s keep the bit as SkyPesos.
@Isaac—You said, “I’m shocked at how much leeway delta has in terms of brand recognition.
In most ways delta is below many of its peers in FF program, on board service and reliability. They are continuing to cancel flights because of a flawed pilot bidding system.
They crash jets occasionally in Toronto too.”
Do you think Delta Air Lines should get additional recognition not only for their bad approach resulting in a jet crash, but also additional bonus points for flipping the aircraft and landing upside down?
View the Delta Air Lines flight 4819 crash landing video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61xlr3YJ3gU
@1990
Ahh…. Selective bigotry.. I get it… It’s ok when I do it because I’m righteous and evolved. You’re trying way too hard. You are a joke
@ Jon — I agree 100%! @ Jay — Were these AA awards on BA metal?
No post from Tim Dunn? Rather disappointed.
@D Fray – Criticizing a currency is bigotry? Talk about fake performative outrage.
@JetsFan
I see lots of biz award availability from the NYC area for end May. Mostly via BA, with its high fees, but stiil.
@D Fray — Mocking a multi-billion dollar corporation’s point devaluations isn’t intolerance, and an av-geek insider pun isn’t harming marginalized communities. Trying to equate corporate critique with actual bigotry is a massive reach, too. But, hey, if you’re going to ‘police’ that phrase every time it’s used on this blog, you’re going to be very busy… *clutching pearls*
@Jon F — For real, where is @Tim Dunn? Wait, could he be trying out new aliases? @D Fray…
Anyway, maybe Tim is enjoying a vacation somewhere nice… put those GUCs to work!
It’s small stakes, but I had a deceased buddy who’d preserved his lifetime of flying DL in his Skymiles account. He once thought 150,000 miles would get him and the wife to Paris in First Class. By the time he passed in his 60s? I don”t know if 150,000 SkyPesos would have gotten him from MSP to MKE one way in BASIC.
It’s the Delta Way– overpromise, underdeliver. Just ask the AMEX “freeloaders” now frozen out of their access to the Lounges.
As for SkyPesos– keep in mind there were people stranded at ATL for a week who got a token 5,000 SkyPesos. Pretty insulting, no, Mr. Tim Dunnnn?
Skymiles has solid intraKorea redemptions on Korean Air. Sometimes intraAsia as well.
@1990
Nope—those words are meaningless to me regardless of who says them. I consider the source (in this case, you) and move on.
As usual, you missed the point entirely. The statement was intentionally absurd—I was feigning outrage. But that nuance clearly escaped you. I can’t expect someone so eager to react to grasp irony, especially when you’re operating on assumptions about my views that you’ve completely invented. I haven’t felt the need to broadcast my beliefs, unlike you, who seems compelled to turn every discussion into your own political performance.
As others here have already pointed it out—without the theatrics—you routinely make yourself look foolish while being convinced you’re clever. You posture as a champion of every cause imaginable, act to obnoxiously righteous, and yet somehow miss the substance in front of you entirely.
TTFN
Several years maybe decades ago when I had a large stats of these pesos I called Delta and asked for an award seat any seat at any time over the next year from LAX to NRT. The lady joyfully told me they had none. I burnt all the points on a Long hotel stay in Lyon and with one exception have never flown Delta again.
Folks I did my bit the past 25 years – 1mm with AS and 800K with DL and Amex and BofA cards etc – but the thrill is gone and these holding these ‘rewards’ has all the excitement of my Metro City Bus Pass! I just booked first time r/t on Southwest saving about $150 on fare over AS next best option. Like baseball I’m now a free agent to meet my needs by fare, comfort and upgrade ($$) as I choose.
I have Diamond Medallion on Delta and have for the past two years, main reason why is I fly from LAX to ATL 2-3 times a month in first class because they have the most convenient time schedules. The points are not worth much, especially if you try to book international. Other than Atlanta, I’m rapidly becoming a complete free agent. I wasted a few years chasing American status but that turned out to be a bust as well. At this point, the free bags and early boarding are pretty much the biggest benefit outside of my wife flying domestically with me when we travel for personal reasons.
@ D Fray — Don’t free bags and early boarding come with your first class ticket? No need for Diamond status if you buy F.
@D Fray — so not performative outrage, but feigned performative outrage? Nice work showing how you want discussions to deal with travel topics.
I will say that deltas domestic travel can sometimes be decent use of Skymiles.
Foreign travel — especially biz, I’ve commented on that before hundreds of times …
@Gene
I don’t usually waste the money when I travel domestic for personal travel, that’s where the status helps. I use the points to fly my wife for free.
@Jon F
Totally right, and I stand corrected. I got annoyed by an irritating fly that sucked me into his toxic vortex. I’m done with that.
Almost all comments are so lopsidedly tilted towards DL , you have to ask is it corporate bots or some DL fanboy with multiple screen names ?
@D Fray — If only I could understand ‘nuance’… or ‘sarcasm.’ *sigh*
On Medallion status, for real, congrats on Diamond! It’s a big deal, no matter who you are or how you earned it. Hope you got/use your RUCs, GUCs, Amex statement credits, or whatever Choice Benefits you prefer. I’ll admit it, I’m just a lowly Platinum these days after years of Diamond. Bah!
@Jon F — Yeah, more like feigning ignorance; in the other post, D Fray’s all… ‘no politics.’ Psh.
I never consider FF miles when booking my International travel, just cost and routing. This generates enough miles to get me my infrequent domestic travel in FF for free. I’ve had a lot of AA miles (much transferred from TWA) for a while. The only international J trip I was able to schedule was an Australian trip departing December 2020. Obviously, that never occurred.
I think the right attitude is not to expect much and be pleasantly surprised when you get something nice for your miles.
Delta Premium GREED at it’s finest.
Two million SkyMiles and still can’t get to France? That’s wild. What do you think the major issue is with booking flights nowadays?
It is called Slypesos for a reason…
I hate that my wife and I are forced to pay AFs for both DL Amex and Chase UA biz cards. Basically $$$ flushed though theoretically we recover most of the AFs through coupon book credits on hotels etc.
Alas the alternative is to earn fewer miles from paid flights and pay more miles for award flights. And for no elites the fee waivers are significant.
But I resent that the airlines force me to play this game and I rarely use these cards for anything not tied to a bonus.
Airlines try to get people to pay more all of the time. The ultra low cost airlines have proven that there is a market for those who do not have a lot of funds. Delta is going after the people with a lot more money. Some people have the cash to buy first. In the past they did not need to because they were commonly upgraded to it for free, especially if they flew a lot. By not giving them a free upgrade, Delta is forcing their hand. Now if they want to fly first they have to buy first. And I think that Delta has noticed that more do. Sell the extra first seats to coach travelers for not too much. Maybe some of those will convert to spending a lot more money for a better seat. Why give away the expensive seats for a mileage program reward? Make that dear in terms of miles or points. I think that Delta is being clever about this and the other airlines may follow.
@ D Fray — How is domestic F a waste and international J is not? You are likely to be just fine after flying exonomy on both. If you book ahead and jave flexibility, domestic F is pretty cheap.
If she’d credited her DL flying to Flying Blue, which is what I do, she’d probably be able to find a reasonable saver award to or from Paris (on AF).
Several months ago I realized that holding an annual fee Delta American Express card was a losing proposition. I called to cancel it and try as they may to keep me paying, I was successful. However, AmEx did move me into their NO ANNUAL FEE Blue card which works for me as I usually travel F or J anyway and DL miles for Domestic.
@One Trippe — Why keep Blue? Wouldn’t using a Platinum card (5x airfare) be better?
@Gene
Because I primarily fly for work and because of my position, I am allowed to fly first class on all my business flights over 1 hour. I rack up the points and miles, hotels for me are no different, they expect me to stay in premium hotels so I have top tier status with IHG and over 3mm points in that program
@D Fray — Just over 1 hour? Wow! That’s a really favorable corporate travel policy (for you)! 5-6 hours seems to be the average (so TATL or further, though, business would be nice for transcon.)
@1990
Yes, it comes with the title and position in the company, very generous since roughly half of my flights are 3 hours or less. Takes the stress out of business travel knowing you don’t have to do the overhead baggage roulette game.
I typically choose the best flight with a reasonable price instead of trying to accumulate rewards. Delta has been OK, but ANA is the best airline I’ve used, except for during COVID when they moved all the non-Japanese to the left side of the plane.
D Fray is living in an alternate reality. Anyone can say anything about themselves on the interwebs, even things that aren’t true! Plus he seems to think he’s some kind of messiah for the anti-woke crowd, descending on this thread and making noise about petty things. lol
@WearWatchdog — I’d imagine there is some puffery goin’ on here… bah!
I’ll say, I’m reminded of the Mel Brooks classic, History of the World, Part I (1981), whenever I see ‘D Fray,’ I can’t help but think of Count the Money… I mean, de Monet!
@Watch Puppy and 1990
You guys crack yourselves up, just mad we are not discussing political bents for a change. You can think or believe whatever you wish, but as usual, we go off topic. Messiah, that’s a new one.
@D Fray — No such thing as ‘on topic’ at VFTW. It’s the most laissez faire of travel sites. Bah! More French-words… de Monet!
This story is curious to me. I just bought business class tickets in Vietnam air from Sydney AU to London Heathrow for 380,000 points. That’s for 2 people as well. It’s seemed like a reasonable deal to me(?) I’m curious what other think of that.
I haven’t booked this way yet because I’ve found better deals (or itineraries) on other airlines but I was surprised by how many less points you needed to book a Delta flight through Virgin Air.
A recent example I texted a friend that flies out of Atlanta about (which is why I have the numbers to pull up):
25,700 points booked thru Delta.
11,000 points (same flight) booked thru Virgin Atlantic.
And Virgin Atlantic has more transfer partners and often has decent transfer bonuses.
@1990 people are just mad you did not call out inherent racism on the term Pesos so they can be mad at you for doing so-
People, appreciate that the trump presidency has improved things such that SkyPesos is no longer racist! Is that not the progress you were hoping for? Now that a liberal is trying to be tolerant of a joke you can’t just jump on them!
Delta is doing fine, making money and as you point out leveraging its position to keep customers coming so no need for them to do more- UNTIL something disrupts this situation (mergers? mega-recession?)- Then they will find their customers leaving fast- its at that point that will either have to compensate majorly and bleed some money and fast or get hit hard. Until then companies like Marriot and Delta will continue to give less and less because they can.
Honestly, all these mileage programs have become garbage. I fly my father from Brazil to the US every 6 months using miles, and Delta doesn’t offer a flight using miles from his location, even though they see you one through a partner from the same location. United wants the passenger to change airports in one of the busiest cities in the world, São Paulo, but at an out-of-town airport, which is a risk, to say the least, for an 80-year-old-plus passenger. American is a crap shoot on what we can get, but I haven’t seen an upgrade in years, even though I always reach the top tier and have the platinum card. The only redemption that still seems to make sense is hotel points.
My principal airport used to be Detroit. Million miler and formerly mainly platinum or diamond (last year), now gold and going down. No interest in the airline anymore. Main issue is business international prices to Europe and Asia are 2-3 times higher than Toronto. I had 1 upgrade last year, and also had them change a flight time that was gonna get me home at 2am (instead of midnight) so I switched to a following morning flight that they charged me more miles for and I ate the hotel cost. Their once bulletproof reputation for noncancelation and nondelayed flights is no more. Older planes that used to have supreme maintenance are now often causing major delays on long flights. Diamond dedicated hotline used to be 2-5 second pickup, now up to 30 minutes. New 3-tier second-screen tickets requires premium upgrade to economy ticket to even be considered for upgrade (that probably will not happen). Talk of forcing similar upcharge on business ticket to use the lounge shows they have become nothing more than a short-sighted, money-grubbing outfit. The devaluation of skymiles has been insanely bad. Add it up, and they have clearly sunk especially with respect to treatment of platinum and diamonds and (multi)million miler fliers. I got the message loud and clear. Recent trips to Europe and Asia on Air Canada (whom I used to never fly with) and a variety of Asian carriers show I can get more and better treatment at <1/2 delta's cost. I'm done. Ed's strategy is paying short-term benefits but it will come back to haunt them.
It wasn't always like this. One time they left me stranded in Toronto and each time I called the platinum hotline they told me to stay put, my plane would come. Long story short, they stranded me. When I finally found delta people in the airport, they acknowledged they totally screwed up, and, amazingly, they brought in a repositioning airplane (737) to pick up only 1 passenger (me) and take me back to Detroit. That cost them a ton of money, but showed that they didn't mess around with premium passengers.
I’m DL Platinum. I get lots of upgrades. The perks are nice. The staff are kind. The website, app, and IT systems are terrible. Overall I feel like I receive a lot of value. If that changes then I’ll move on.