Prashant Sharma is out as Vice President of Delta SkyMiles. The airline confirms his departure to me, and says “we do not have anything else to share regarding a replacement at this time.”
Three years ago, Sharma laid out an intentional strategy to deliver less value through the program than other airlines do.
- He explained that SkyMiles wants to offer “consistent and sustainable value.” Consistent means low average value, and sustainable means inexpensive to Delta to offer.
- If you want high value awards, don’t look to Delta, “so we are not necessarily trying to play the game with customers or with bloggers.”
- Delta “look[s] at value more holistically” and being able to use your miles is only part of it. In other words, you stick with Delta and SkyMiles because you like their product, schedule, reliability and marginally friendlier non-union cabin credit – not because you’re going to get as much for your miles.
Make no mistake, though, the enshittificaiton of SkyMiles has a long history. It’s hardly at Sharma’s feet. A decade ago a predecessor acknowledged that the program had always been stingy with reasonably-priced award availability.
That’s obviously gotten much much worse, not better. They even devalued their miles multiple times during the pandemic when planes were empty and prices were low, but they hoped nobody was paying attention. And they really don’t upgrade even their top tier customers anymore.
Fifteen years ago a SkyMiles head before that described their view that frequent flyer programs were ‘over-rewarding’.
On the one hand, despite their miserly approach to members, Delta’s program became the most successful by revenue. Which is to say their American Express partnership drives more revenue than competitor cobrand programs. That’s a testament to Delta’s hardnosed bargaining (in a 50-50 deal, they take the hyphen). And it’s a testament to their privileged positions in Atlanta, the Upper Midwest, and increasongly New York and Los Angeles.
But the American Express partnership is underperforming. At over $7 billion annually it’s huge, but lagging the projections that were made when they re-upped their agreement for 10 years back in 2019.
At the time, they expected to hit $7 billion in 2023 without the numbers being inflated by pandemic-era inflation. So you need to knock over 20% off where they are now and you’ll see just how poorly they are actually doing.
They’re using free inflight wifi as a way to feed the top of the funnel and get more customers to market the card to. There’s a hope that their Starbucks and Uber partnerships can help do the same thing. This would give them another product to sell – because the current slate of products offered to the current group of customers has been mined as deeply as possible. There’s not just much headroom for growth.
The challenge that the next SkyMiles leader faces is convincing superiors at 1030 Delta Boulevard that they need to deliver value to customers in order to attract both new members and greater wallet share from existing ones. They have at least realized that just pushing existing customers even harder without giving them more isn’t going to work.
Why does Delta need to change anything? They are the most profitable US airline. They are running a business not trying yo make bloggers and people that chase points/miles happy
Queue Mr Dunn
Problem is, UA is already much of the way there in turning MileagePlus into SkyMiles. And while AA is better, their dynamically priced awards on their own metal seem to be on a slow devaluation where prices constantly increase every few months. 400k one way in J from the US to Japan? Yes, that’s on AA now. I don’t think there is any incentive for DL to make SkyMiles any more rewarding, when their biggest competitors aren’t going to be providing much more value in the long term.
the gambler gets it… with the caveat that every business strategy requires continual tweaking.
I doubt if anyone left or was forced out for not being willing to tweak the SM program. and while Gary is correct that SM has not grown the SM/Amex program to the degree that DL once said was possible.
And, as I have repeatedly asked Gary to do, all of the major US airlines publish the amount and value of their mileage awards in their 10Ks. It is not hard for anyone who wants to complain about SkyMiles to do some basic comparisons of award numbers and amounts.
Doing so will show that DL does give comparable if not better numbers and value of awards as its peers.
There is an excessive fixation with the highest value seats and the price of them to the exclusion of where actual redemptions are made. DL simply discounts its business class products less than its peers – including discounted award prices – and that is part of how it gets higher average fares.
The number and value of awards between the big 4 airlines is not markedly different.
Can DL tweak its program better to enhance customer benefit and financial returns? yes… but so can every other business – which is why they wake up in the morning and come to work.
As a Delta Million Miler now retired 20+ years, I fly Delta only when I can get an award flight via AF or Virgin. My main route is ATL-LGA and I can stand SW there.
I was looking at award tickets for later this year to LHR. Using my Atmos Rewards points (terrible name, but much more valuable than SkyPesos), I had my pick of dates for 70k round trip in J, which as an Emerald would include using the Cathay F lounge in LHR (sorry Dulltah One lounge, you’re not in the same ballpark).
Same dates, Delta wants 50k SkyPesos for whY. If I want J, that will be 500k.
I’ll give Delta credit for having a higher average fare. It also doesn’t help that until recently, long haul business class cabins on Delta planes had 29-34 seats, which is a bit smaller than AA and a ton smaller than UA.
But… this is why I don’t bother with Delta.
SkyPeso’s name is very familar to many. Their worthlessness is so stark, it is so easy to see.
I just priced a trip. 22,500 miles on AAdvantage, 42,000 miles on SkyMiles.
I’m so glad that I burned about 290,000 SkyMiles last year. That got me a one way economy class Augusta, Georgia to Atlanta….just kidding. I’m down to about 35,000 SkyPesos! Never felt better.
Heh…”enshittification”…I like that word…it describes all of Tim’s posts when he and 1990 aren’t fellating each other here.
In all business you’ve got to give something…to get something.
Will be interesting to see
what happens next? I’m still “banking” that we’re going to see the unveiling of the new super duper mile high delta amex card. That’ll definitely help raise some revenue.
I dunno about being stingy…if you make rewards easy to get you’ll get more passengers, right…Vice versa gets less…KISS principle, no…and how’d this guy get to be VP of the sky miles program anyway?
Maybe he went to go work for @KerrPoints: https://jobs.gem.com/bilt/5529606004
All the poor business travelers, complaining about devalued SkyMiles they have “earned” courtesy of their employer paying for their travel.
Coming home to roost. When you depend on credit card revenue, you are in a space where value for accrual and redemption is top of mind. Delta fails on both accounts and they’re seeing it in their numbers.
The consumer is much more aware of redemption value than 5 years ago, and they must deliver more value.
in another comment section, someone suggested that this person might be gone for ethics reasons. If so, being dismissed is not about what he has or has not done to SkyMiles. An ethics violation is not good but it is not a reflection of mismanagement of SkyMiles.
I don’t know the reasons but let’s deal w/ facts even if that might not be convenient for some people.
As a recovered Delta fan it would take a great deal of increase in value to have me consider returning to the fold. All I’ve ever gotten for my years of loyalty was wildly variable service, a statistically improbable number of flight cancellations, and a cornucopia of Skymiles devaluations. I never, ever got an upgrade for my years of near-fanatical loyalty; when I was Silver with United (free via Marriott) I was upgraded the first time I took an award flight. That illustrated just how bad Delta is to loyal passengers. One bitten twice shy.
Wonder if we’ll actually learn what happened with this guy.
Inevitably, a post like this has a tendency to become a Delta-bashing session, but still, it’s comparably light. Give it time, I guess.
For consumers who actually fly Delta a lot and earn/redeem SkyMiles, it has been a long road, real devaluations over time, but there’s still value to be had. I’m glad to get that 15% Delta Amex discount (‘TakeOff 15’), which helps a little. Yeah, they went a bit far with dynamic pricing on the long-haul DeltaOne (1 million points for a one-way to Europe?!)
@Steve — According to you, it’s ‘enshitification’ when Tim and I aren’t ‘fellating’ each other? Odd. If you meant it as an attack on us, you may want to re-word your criticism.
Premium enshittification going on at Delta.
The only reason I am loyal to Delta is because I live in the Detroit area and the options are limited.
Im a Million Miler + and have been flying Northwest/Delta for over 40 years
I dont see staying with them much longer as their pricing without collateral benefits arent cost effective for me anymore.
You dont need to be a blogger to want to get good value for your $.
Delta Platinum Medallion and Million Miler. Just booked a trip to NY for end of Sept. DL is looking for 85K SkyMiles for F/C upgrade. Enough said!
Delta apologists excuses aside, Delta is not the airline it was. It’s feeling like its best days are behind it. The branding issues with calling itself a premium airline as becoming ever-more apparent as other catchup and surpass.
Of note:
1. Excessive lines at SkyClubs. When you enter there’s no where to sit, no where to charge devices and you’re fed the same food you’ve been fed for the last sever years.
2. Inconsistent D1 product. 763s and 764s are shameful.
3. Paper cups are not “premium.” They are now in first, and economy and busier skyclubs. I don’t want to hear about the environment. It delta cares about the environment they’d use reusable eating and drink ware.
4. Planes are old, old, old. They have been tested but lack modern amenities.
5. Pitch is awful.
6. Inflight service has degraded to the point that if there even a small bump the FAs duct tape themselves to their jump seats.
7. SkyPesos has been devalued to the point that it’s worthless. Everyone is elite and there’s hardly any benefit.
8. Operational reliability has tanked.
I’m sure others will tell me how wrong I am, but my opinions and my experiences are my own and I’ll believe what I see and experience.
I am close to 20 years of not having crossed another million mile lifetime threshold with SkyMiles despite flying Delta & SkyTeam more than enough to have done so if it weren’t for the SkyMiles devaluations and Delta’s sleazy ways with the airline loyalty program over so many years.
While I am back to doing 18k+ miles of flying a month, most of these flights are being credited to non-US airline programs unless Alaska Air’s program is a good option.
Smells like ethics violations with Delta being so mum in their response. Heard this guy speak one time…clueless about loyalty programs. Unfortunately no one at Skymiles is knowledgeable.
I like DL but they don’t seem to care much for the West Coast so I have little reason to fly on DL often. When I do I typically use skypesos to upgrade to C+ which makes the flight tolerable, and then I enjoy the nice Sky Club courtesy of Amex Plat.
I feel sorry for the people who are stuck with DL (hub captives, corp contracts) because they receive skypesos instead of miles that have value.