Bottom line, it is IMPOSSIBLE to find seats at the lowest category. Even worse, even if you pick the mid tier seats on the calendar, they end up being the MOST EXPENSIVE. I challenge you to find BE seats at the lowest category for the NYC - BOM segment - for ANY DATE over the ENTIRE CALENDAR YEAR. Go ahead, try.

You promised that the calendar would be fixed.
You promised that the inventory allocations wouldn’t be changed.

Your promises appear to be as empty as the claim that your 3-tier system is “industry leading”. Notice that no other airlines have cared to follow your alleged lead: you’re not leading if no one’s following. Unless you’re trying to take the lead in losing your elite flyers to competitors.

You’ve diluted the values of SkyMiles by anywhere between a half and two-thirds, and to claim this as a “benefit” is plain insulting. Please scrap this customer-shafting program if you wish to retain your customers.

Again, thank you for all of your feedback. I’ve spent a good deal of time reviewing and thinking about your comments, and I want to respond to the issues that have received the most attention. So, here goes:

• Technology Glitches: Due to the technical complexity of launching a program change of this size and scope, we experienced problems with our Online Award Calendar when the system launched, and I apologize for this. We’ve worked to fix these glitches and, as a result, we’ve seen a drastic decrease in customer complaints. I hope you find that your user experience is much improved, and that you’ll continue to let us know when you run into issues.

• Award Ticket Allocation: I understand that you’re concerned about the availability of tickets at our 25,000-mile level. I want to assure you that we have not changed our inventory availability strategy in our lowest tier. Let me state that again for emphasis: The inventory allocated to the 25,000-mile level is the same as it was prior to the launch of our new Award structure.

• International and Hawaii Award Levels: Many of you have expressed concern that redemption levels have increased for Award Travel to Hawaii and Europe – and for Business Class Award Tickets. As you may know, our Award pricing structure mirrors actual ticket pricing, so as ticket prices increase (especially for the last few seats on a flight and around major events, holidays, etc.), so do mileage redemption levels. But with our new mid tier, you now have access to inventory at a level lower than what you would have previously redeemed for a SkyChoice ticket, and many of the Award Tickets previously available at the SkyChoice level have been allocated to this new mid tier. And you have access to last-seat inventory at times of peak demand. Since we launched our new structure, more than 65 percent of customers who previously chose the SkyChoice option have redeemed miles for Award Travel at that middle level.

• The New Structure Is Different but a Benefit: My goal as head of loyalty programs is to create the best program around, and I believe our new Award structure gives members more options and flexibility when redeeming miles. In the 30 days since we launched the program, the average number of redemptions is up by more than 3 percent; the average number of miles redeemed per redemption has remained flat; and, as I mentioned, 65 percent of SkyChoice customers have redeemed tickets for fewer miles than before.

• Waitlists: We discontinued our waitlist for Award Tickets because, with our new Award structure, you have access to the last seat on Delta planes anytime, anywhere – with no blackout dates. This change eliminates the need for waitlists because customers have more award ticket pricing options and ensures you get where you need to go when you need to be there – no question about it.

I hope I’ve addressed your concerns. Please know that we’re reading and listening even if you might not see us comment in the future. I firmly believe this is a win for both customers and Delta.

I live in Greece, thus my flights originate internationally.

1. The mileage for flying to America from Europe is increased by 10K miles minimum. I collected 50K mileage for visiting Bahamas and the US on late 2008, now I need 125K for same trip..
2.Airlines like Air France, KLM, Lufthansa still require 50K mileage for transatlantic award travel.
3. Delta’s electronic system does not permit me to find out the dates and sky team airlines on which I can fly using Delta’s minimum required mileage for my destination. This fact indicates bad intention and is not compatible with long Delta’s transparency and quality practice.
4. It should have been foreseen an early notice and a certain amount of time for the transition period to facilitate passengers travel plans.

To my opinion, the new Delta’s skymiles approach needs to be reconsidered.

Maximum Respect,

Manolis Alifierakis Eng.D.

What change was made under your new proposal to the percentage of seats allocated to the LOWEST TIER?

In other words: What percentage of these were taken and moved to the MID tier?

And finally, given that what you now call the “mid” tier was formerly the “highest” tier, can you explain why you believe that your medallion customers are simple-minded enough to accept this move as a “benefit”?

You aren’t reading “positive and negative” feedback on this blog, Jeff - the negative feedback outnumbers the positive 50 to 1. Further, with the use of terms like “bogus”, “nickel and dimed”, “bait and switch”, “insulting” in the angry responses you’re reading - “negative” is a serious understatement of the depth of revulsion with which your proposal has been received.

What is even more disappointing is that you’ve chosen to respond to this flood of protests with more marketing spin. Claiming that the “average miles redeemed has remained consistent” is meaningless: for one thing, the program hasn’t been introduced for long enough to have a meaningful statistical sample. Furthermore, it’s likely that you’ve had far fewer redemptions occur in this financially turbulent month: seeing one’s savings account drop a third in value doesn’t exactly prompt one to blow one’s FF miles on an optional free trip. The average mileage redemption should have gone down - if it’s stayed steady, it’s likely due to the increased mileage requirements.

This isn’t the best way to address the numerous requests you’ve had to stop touting this cheap marketing ploy a “benefit”. You ARE going to lose a significant proportion of your valued customers to this disastrous excuse for a program, and this blog will be the paper trail that will prove you were forewarned.

And also just as a second matter the fact that when most of us try to make a skymiles reservation no seats can be found at the new ( or old) minimum levels anyway. No matter how “flexible” we are.

So I guess what Im wondering is– if maybe we should take our discussion to another location also besides here where more people can read it rather then just Deltas present customers– I mean where we may get more attention. I know of several good sites that many travelers read that will certainly be read by alot more people- and possibly even “published”.

What do you think?

I’m wondering how should I interpret the recent increase in mileage for redeeming Round-The-World awards.
There are no added tiers, nor increased availability, otherwise I imagine you guys would have advertised that as yet another enhancement, rather than pass it under complete silence.

Please, show me what benefit for SkyMiles members is there: I want to believe.