Delta Flushes its Promise of More Award Seats for Fewer Miles Down the Memory Hole

The page that describes changes for the 2015 Delta SkyMiles program (“2015-skymiles-program.html”) used to promise more seats for fewer miles.

We already know that the instruction to ‘check out the 2015 award chart’ isn’t possible, since Delta flushed those down the memory hole.

It turns out they’ve even ‘disappeared’ their commitment in the description of 2015 SkyMiles of more seats at the lowest levels. It’s simply no longer on the page.

To a pretty good approximation I’ll stop earning SkyMiles July 25.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. As a 2 Million Miler+ and with 25+ years of Delta loyalty – I too have finally had enough! Am winding down my SkyMiles account (once had 4 million+) and moving over to AA. Management should be loyal to 3 stakeholders – investors, employees, and customers. Customers are now overlooked with profits as the only key driver – some day, when the economy inevitable turns sour again, Delta will suffer the consequences of their behaviors. A short-term only on profits will likely come back to haunt them!

  2. Yeah, that “commitment” died a couple months ago. For example, there are ZERO low F awards SFO-ATL through the end of schedule, whereas back in January they were plentiful. I guess I am supposed to take consolation in the fact that many of these round trip awards are ONLY 75,000 Pesos, rather than 80,000 Pesos last year.

    Basically, Delta is run by a bunch of greedy liars. This was likely the plan from the beginning, but these jerks chose to lie to us all instead. My Delta paid flying was dropped sharply this year, although thanks to rollover MQMs and DeadBird, I will still re-qualify for Diamond. Next year, maybe not…

  3. Delta clearly doesn’t want (or thinks they need) a FF program. I no longer fly Delta routes that are operated by KLM, (formerly a large part of my Delta revenue business), as KLM doesn’t give a cr-p about Delta Diamonds on premium economy fares with upgrade certificates and would rather leave the seats empty (and nothing burns me more than those empty seats in business while I’m flying coach). I’ve written Richard Anderson about this each time it happens and I’ve never received any reply. He does not “have your back” if your a Diamond Medalion multi million miller (me). It makes me sick to hear him say it on each pre-flight safety message.

  4. Thankfully I have been AS for the last 15 years after moving west and DUMPING DL!

  5. I agree, they don’t really want to have a loyalty program, and what they do is for show. I’ve drained my account down to 19,000, so pretty soon I’ll be gone entirely. If I fly on a revenue ticket, credit will go to Alaska.

  6. Delta would be thrilled to ditch its FFP altogether. At this rate, pretty soon Spirit’s FFP will be better, or at least more practically useful, than Delta’s.

  7. Beginning of the year, I was excited. Great awards fair use of points. Then it changes and went away as fast as it arrived. I was ready to cancel my delta card at the beginning of the year then the positive change, I began spending heavily. Now the negative, I have sopped using the card and will cancel. Ironically they just increased my credit line. What is the point of earning miles with them.

  8. Add my tales of woe: I”ve been trying to book 2 pax in F or J from Florida (MIA/TPA/MCO/JAX) to southern Spain or Morocco for fall 2015, and the only options I have are to pay 62,5K miles o/w and go through SVO on Aeroflot, or spend upwards 100K to go Az. If I want to fly DL it’s appx 195K miles (yes, 195K o/w) to go through JFK. Not worth it! And with the Suntust devaluation, my incentive to fly DL has dropped to zilch.

  9. So what was the point of this post exactly? Highlighting a webpage edit seems a bit desperate for your biweekly Delta bashing. I’m getting great use out of my DL miles lately, and I’m not having to fly dingy planes with miserable employees to earn them. Just recently snagged low-level awards to the UK on DL/VS, and to NYC, and MS (seeing plenty of low-level awards inside the 21 day mark too, so that doom and gloom hasn’t held up either).

  10. Surprised that it took you this long to no longer be a customer of SkyPesos. I strongly suggest (and hope) that others vote with their wallet and tell Delta that this total disregard for loyal customers shall not stand!

  11. It’s kinda sad when you look wistfully at Delta’s awards from half a year ago.

  12. Haloastro – glad you don’t mind paying Delta’s egregious service charge (about $150) on awards from Europe back to the US. Recently I checked flights LHR-SFO for late May; found plenty of availability for both the VS and UA nonstops, but Delta charges the extra $150, which goes straight into their pocket (unlike fuel surcharges for AA partners). (Yes, you can avoid the charge by booking round trip originating in the US, but didn’t Delta promise us good value with one way awards? And yes, UA has been copying some of DL’s changes, but at least UA hasn’t destroyed their credibility with their best flyers the way DL has.)

  13. @Ryan E – there’s a lot I will say about SkyMiles. Comparisons to Spirit’s Free Spirit program? Not one of them. No airline redemption partners, expiring miles after 90 days of inactivity, ‘close in’ booking fees within 6 months of travel…

  14. Question for everyone:
    If you are buying the ticket and DL has the only nonstop, and is 15% cheaper, do you still book away?
    I have purchased my first DL ticket in years because my answer was “”yes” despite needing AA BIS miles

Comments are closed.