Delta flyers, unhappy with changes to the Skymiles frequent flyer program, formed a coalition called Save Skymiles.
Their logo is a business traveler with a parachute, and the dubbed Delta (D)riving (E)very (L)oyal (T)raveler (A)way.
This group rented a mobile billboard which they sent out to various airports and parked in front of the Delta shareholders meeting. Photos are available here.
Today they ran an ad (Adobe Acrobat) in the Atlanta edition of USA Today. While Delta representatives met with the Save Skymiles group, and Delta made some cosmetic improvements to the program, in the end only lip service was paid. So this group has decided to stop trying to save Delta from itself, and send its lucrative business to other airlines.
A condensed version of the text of the ad:
- We are Delta Medallion Flyers. Just a few months ago, most of us would never have considered flying any airline except Delta…
Sadly, Delta’s management has lost sight of the needs of its customers, the wishes of its employees and the company’s responsibility to its stockholders. …
Cuts in services, laying
off loyal employees and refusing to deal with the reality of what
Delta’s most loyal customers truly want are signs of serious problems
within Delta’s management. The SkyMiles program, once the best in
the industry, is now more an insult than a benefit, and despite our
attempts to help right the airline’s course, we continue to get false
assurances that management is doing what “we” want. …
Leaving an airline that you’ve trusted for years and employees
with whom you have developed relationships is difficult. However,
after realizing that Delta’s management has no interest in our perspective and cares little about you or about us, we have decided
to take our business elsewhere…
We wish you well and continued safe travels.
Signed,
5,700 Delta SkyMiles members living all over the world and
representing over three billion SkyMiles.
(I’ve shown where I cut from the text above, but do click on the .pdf file for the full document. My editing may or may not be a fair rendition. I wanted to provide the gist without making it too long.)
I’m glad to hear that someone is standing up to them. I left Delta years ago after they stopped letting you pay for an upgrade if you had a L class ticket. I walked across the terminal to American (Who let’s you upgrade on any fare I ever had) and never looked back.