Airline News: Delta Goes for Skymiles Money

Well, imagine that!

An American carrier is doing an SQ.

Years ago, Singapore Airlines changed their elite PPS program to a revenue based qualification.  In a year, you would have to cough up SGD 25,000 to be part of this special group of travelers.  Back then, the change was also known as PPS culling, where members who used to qualify based on sectors flown, were not able to match their number of flights to the dollar value given to the airline.

Delta recently changed their program to mimic this.

From 1 Jan 2014:

• US based Skymiles members will qualify for Medallion status based on the member spends annually, as well as meet the existing Medallion Qualification Miles or Segments criteria.

• The threshold ranges from USD2,500 to USD12,500 depending on level.

MEDALLION QUALIFICATION
	Silver	Gold	Platinum	Diamond
MQDs	$2,500	$5,000	$7,500	$12,500
	and	and	and	and
MQMs	25,000	50,000	75,000	125,000
	or	or	or	or
MQSs	30	60	100	140

Delta balanced this out with changes in the miles members can earn on their flights.

Delta Op flights:

• First and Business F, and J classes earn 100% bonus miles
• Economy M Fares will no longer earn 50% bonus miles

My thoughts:

Clearly Delta is prioritizing revenue and its premium tier passengers. For business travelers, the dollar spend is very achievable since one Business Class long haul could easily achieve Gold qualification. The bonus miles is of course a welcomed change.

Even at the highest tier, Delta's requirements are no where close to Singapore Airlines' dollar amount. And of course the joke is, almost everyone in a premium cabin on an SQ flight is usually a PPS member. Imagine.

So while I am sure Delta Skymiles members may bitch about it for a while, they can take comfort in knowing that hey, it isn't so bad. There are other airlines got greedy earlier and are asking for a way lot more!