Auto upgrade to BE from M+ on all international flights
Use miles or SWUs to BE from any international coach ticket

That would make me feel appreciated and ensure my continued business with DL.

The rest is fluff……..

Systemwide upgrades are good and it is reasonable to require purchase of M class or above. Otherwise, business class would fill too quickly and Delta would not earn the added revenue that comes with an M class purchase. Remember that the purpose of the SkyMiles program is to help Delta make money–I don’t mind that. Restricting the number of seats available for upgrade from M to business class with SWU is bad. At that price point, any M class purchase should qualify for upgrade anytime a business class seat is available. It is also unfortunate for former Delta Platinum Medallions that they will lose two of the six SWUs they used to receive.

Rollover is good for most people and good for Delta. I am a NWA Platinum since Platinum level was created. Rollover will put more people into Platinum level and likely make upgrades more difficult to obtain. Yes, I may earn Diamond status more easily with rollover miles but I don’t see very many significant benefits of Diamond over Platinum. Here is a question: will miles rollover for multiple years? For example, if I earn 150,000 each of the next two years, I will earn Diamond status with 25,000 miles “left over” each year. Does that mean that 50,000 miles will rollover into year 3 or will I lose the rollover miles from year one since they were not needed to qualify for Diamond in year 2? If the miles do not continue to rollover, this is a zero benefit for Delta’s most frequent flyers (those who consistently fly over 125,000 miles per year).

Here is a very BIG loss (to me) from a benefit I have enjoyed as a NWA Platinum: with NWA a companion booked in my reservation would be upgraded five days in advance along with me. Now I have to pick to either separate our reservations which creates problems when there are flight disruptions or wait to be upgraded after silvers. I will qualify for Diamond next year and I will still be upgraded after silvers anytime I take someone with me on a trip. This is a very big loss from the current NWA program.

Another loss: “guaranteed upgrades” so that I receive 1000 miles for any segment on which I am not upgraded. Even with Platinum status, I have probably received this 1000 mile consolation prize maybe 10 times during the last year.

Here is another loss that has already been implemented: As a NWA Platinum Elite, I received 125% bonus miles until Delta acquired NWA. Now, that has been reduced to 100%.

Here is perhaps the biggest loss of all to me: the three tier award system. I have been appalled since this was implemented by how extremely difficult (read almost impossible) it has been to obtain award flights at the lowest level even when I plan months in advance. This has resulted in very large increases in the cost of obtaining a free flight. And, when the lowest level is not available, the system has shown that the highest level of miles is almost always required to obtain a ticket. Add to that the increased complexity of trying to find free tickets and this three tier thing is a real loss.

It’s frustrating to me that, for giving consistent business to Delta over AirTran, I can’t even switch to a seat on an earlier flight that will otherwise lie empty. A decade ago standby was a standard offering available to every traveller. If Delta could offer me that at Silver level, I’d be sure to fly them every time, rather than considering AirTran.

Does it cost Delta much of anything to offer Silvers a free standby option? From my perspective, it wouldn’t cost them anything more, as I ask frequently, and about half the time, I’m able to sweet-talk the gate reps into letting me on the plane anyway when there are seats available (meaning not July or August).