We understand you love redeeming miles (and many of you also enjoy earning them) for those last-minute trips or dream vacations. On the other hand, it seems harder to do while also avoiding fees.
Well, we hear your concerns and are doing something about it.
Effective today, we are eliminating SkyMiles Award Ticket redemption fees. This means you will no longer pay a redemption fee when you book an Award Ticket within 20 days of departure (a saving of up to $150 per ticket). Plus, we’re waiving all redeposit and reissue fees for our Platinum Medallion® members.
So redeem your miles today and enjoy fewer fees and more value for your miles.
This is the latest in a series of changes to improve your SkyMiles experience, including:
- Introducing a Diamond Medallion tier in March and the industry’s first rollover Medallion Qualification Miles for 2010.
- Launching a “first checked bag free” benefit – up to a $50 savings per person on a round-trip ticket – for customers with a Consumer or Business Gold, Platinum, or Reserve Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express, which began June 1.
- Increasing the allocation of preferred Economy seats to ensure the most frequent travelers are guaranteed the best seats on all Delta and Delta Connection flights by August 2010.
- Allowing Delta’s most loyal customers – Diamond, Platinum and Gold Medallions – flying on domestic award redemptions to be eligible for complimentary upgrades by September 2010.
- Re-engineering the online award calendar at delta.com to make it easier to find and redeem award seats. These changes began in May and will be completed by November 2010.
Learn more about these changes and catch up on the latest SkyMiles program news at delta.com.
And don’t forget that with Delta, you have more ways to redeem miles than any other airline – including airline tickets, mileage upgrades, car rentals, hotel stays, Delta Sky Clubä memberships, merchandise and 30+ gift cards. In fact, you and your fellow SkyMiles members redeemed over 230 billion miles for 11.3 million Award redemptions with Delta in 2009, making us (and you) a loyalty program industry leader.
So thank you for your business, and let us know what you think about these changes. Love ‘em? Don’t love ‘em? What else should we do to improve the SkyMiles program?
Scott M.
Manager, SkyMiles program
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:29 am
These are very nice changes, and much appreciated.
But I wonder if you’ve looked into making it easier for families to consolidate miles for awards without fees (or with a simpler flat fee). My family of four has accumulated about 50,000 miles among the four of us, but we are not frequent travelers. As a result, we will likely expire some miles or take years before we can each earn awards.
I’d love to migrate miles into one account to redeem for a flight for one of us and pay for the other three. But the costs are so high for moving miles even among related family members that it doesn’t make financial sense to do that.
If you made it easier for families to consolidate miles, then I would be vastly more likely to fly more on Delta, and would also be happier at paying higher fares for three of us, because that would still be less expensive if one of us were getting a mileage flight.
Thanks for your consideration! We loved flying Delta the last time we flew.
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:49 am
Very real improvements! Good job.
June 3rd, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Scott,
In regards to a previously booked Award Ticket, if we just cancelled the ticket less than a month ago, would this content apply? Would we still have to pay the $150 to have the miles redeposited? IF we would not be subject to the fee, and have already payed the fee, how would we go about getting the money back? That was the case with my brother, as we are traveling together. Thanks for your time and help in this matter!
June 4th, 2010 at 8:30 am
good news, but i don’t see how I recover the $100 i paid the day before the announcement….flying these miles today…any suggestions?
June 4th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
This change and the recent change to waive reissue or cancel fees for Platinum Medallion members are very nice changes. They do not impact me directly as a Diamond Medallion member but I think these are very nice changes for the majority of SkyMiles members. It is nice that Delta looks for and makes reasonable improvements. I also like the fact that they tell us what is coming and why it can’t come sooner (e.g., upgrades on award tickets). Communication with customers is a real plus of Delta (as evidenced by the Delta blogs).
I have been willing to criticize Delta for raising the number of miles to acquire almost any award ticket and for severely restricting the availability of 25,000 mile awards but the recent changes are well done and it sounds like they are woking on improving access to free tickets.
June 4th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Since you are asking for ideas for potential further changes to SkyMiles:
With the recent improvements for Platinum Medallion, the differentiation between Platinum and Diamond Medallion status is shrinking further. I think the improvements you made for Platinum and others are great but just noting that the extra 50,000 miles we fly (and the money we pay for tickets) to obtain Diamond Medallion status don’t yield much benefit beyond Platinum status. One change that would be of great value to me that Northwest previously provided:
When a Diamond Medallion member is traveling with a companion in the same reservation, upgrade the Diamond member and the companion on the Diamond schedule for upgrades. As you know, Diamonds are actually punished for including a family member or other travel companion in their flight reservation. I earn most of my Diamond MQMs on business trips in Business Class. It would be great if my wife and I were upgraded together when we travel together on leisure travel. When traveling with a companion who does not have at least platinum status, so far this year I have been upgraded on about 50% of my domestic flight segments. When traveling alone, 100%.
Thanks for listening.
June 4th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
It would be great if you would offer a one-way ticket for 1/2 of the miles. Right now, the mileage cost is the same for a one-way or round-trip ticket. I believe most of the other major carriers do this. That way, someone could book the outbound flight when the date comes in range, and then the return flight when the return date comes in range. Under the current scenario, I have to pay a $100 reissue fee (which is increasing to $150) to accomplish this.
June 5th, 2010 at 8:14 am
Thanks DL for bringing back the unlimited award redeposit waiver for Platinums.
I hope that next on the list is:
– Fixing the awards engine
– More “low award” availability
– Fixing the M-Fare requirement for SWU international upgrades
June 5th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Great changes! Thanks!
Upgrades for award seats. I enjoyed this with NWA, and happy to see it come back in September 2010.
So while I understand the wait is due to system changes that are required, why can’t this now just be honored at the gate or at time of checkin, for at least Delta Platinums & Diamonds? I travel enough with Delta to know it can be done.
A couple of weeks ago I was on an award flight (returning home from a family funeral) that had plenty of first class seats open and were even being offered to everyone on the flight for a $75 fee. When I inquired and requested an upgrade (I’m a Diamond btw), I was told, “sorry, we don’t offer that yet.” Huh? Not only that, but I wasn’t even allow to buy the upgrade because I had an award seat. What?!
I know the systems aren’t ready, but a gate agent can do this…and certainly can do it for one of your best customers. Delta is the worlds largest airline, and wants to be a premium provider for frequent flyers offering great customer service…but it’s little moments like these that I wonder if the service culture is trully embedded.
June 6th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
I would like to understand a little bit how the miles work. I have chosen Delta as my primary carrier and logged over 450,000 miles making me Diamond this and also next year. I went to use my miles to book a flight for my daughter to go to Milan, Italy and the Delta site offered the ticket for 110,000 miles. Amazingly, my wife tried hers and gave her 90,000 miles. Last year, at the same time, it cost me 75,000 miles.
I wonder, now as a Diamond, I accumulate 125% and my wife as Gold accumulates 100%. If I make the calculation, I realize that Delta gives me 25% more than my wife but charges me much more in miles for the same trip. Am I stupid or it seems to me that Delta is screwing me for flying more? Anyways, I used my USAir Dividend Miles and cost me 60,000 miles flying with Lufthansa. Go figure. Now, I am really upset since I have flown Delta going thru the worst hub in the USA (Atlanta), getting delays, sitting in the tarmac for at least 40 minutes waiting for a gate and I realized that it was a really bad choice. Can anyone explain to me how this is possible?
June 6th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
Thank you all for your responses. We know that it can be frustrating to hear about changes to fees just after making travel plans. It is similar to finding out about a sale at your favorite store the day after you paid full price. Unfortunately our fee change announcement is not retroactive. This change is still positive for our SkyMiles customers. We hope that you enjoy the increased flexibility in the future.
June 10th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
I would like to provide additional comment to the above statement about the increased # of miles required for flying. This seems to be getting out of hand. When you state 25000 miles, you should have plenty of seats at those values. I just read a good article online about this and Delta was about the worst for having seats available (12.5% of time).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100610/us_time/08599199559200;_ylt=AvbHs8AnBRCKvrxc_t2qKTKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNrZGlocGI0BGFzc2V0A3RpbWUvMjAxMDA2MTAvMDg1OTkxOTk1NTkyMDAEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM1BHBvcwMyBHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDZnJlcXVlbnRmbHll
I fly Delta because I like their program and they have treated me well, however, if I can’t use the miles then its not worth it. It may be time to switch to another airline.
June 12th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Hi UpsetFrequentFlyer,
This is exactly what I was talking about. I don’t even mean ” boycoting” Delta. Is just a natural change to a company that really cares about their loyal customers. I have completely changed my traveling patterns by either flying on Continental and USAir (therefore completely avoiding one of the worst airports in America – Atlanta – where you either have to sit on the tarmac 45 minutes to get a gate, of 1 hour to take off…just a mess!) or using the national carriers to where a fly to – Brazil (TAM), Chile (LAN), Germany (Lufthsansa) and so on. They have a much better customer service and serve decent foods besides the infamous ” Chicken or Pasta”.
Regarding Scott’s reply, just remember that we’re not talking about purchasing a flat screen TV and asking for the store to give me the discount after I purchased. We are talking about purchasing a flat screen TV every week, paying the highest price because you are “loyal” to that store and then the store owner decides that you still have to pay more, drive further and accept a later delivery for your TV when the World Cup started 2 days ago.
So, I guess, as a customer, I have no other option but buy somewhere else or watch the games at a friend’s house.
June 16th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Relating to SkyMile program improvements: how about making it easier to claim miles on parter airlines after the flight?!
I flew on China Eastern Airlines originating in Seattle and went to Xian China and back two times recently, totaling over 22,700 miles, and am running into nothing but trouble from your Atlanta GA Service Center in my efforts to claim them. China Eastern wouldn’t accept my Delta member number and told me to deal directly with Delta later. Now I’ve sent many pages of copies of my electronic ticket invoices, itineraries and boarding passes, but the Service Center people keep telling me to send more information without specifying what’s missing!
My distinct impression now is they are hoping I’ll give up so the miles don’t have to be awarded. My next step may be to complain to the DOT Aviation Consumer Protection Division, but I hope it doesn’t come to that.
June 26th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Thank YOU (!!!) UpsetFrequentFlyer for posting the much needed amunition to help us fight this money hungery demon that has all the evil as the Seven headed hydra!
They think of not just one or two ways to knife us every time we have no option but to submit to their service.. but at least seven or more!
Hope you will post more and also find the blog on FACEBOOK as well…
June 28th, 2010 at 11:17 am
G2Jim,
Didn’t China Eastern just sign an agreement that were just going to start the process of joining SkyTeam? I think you may want to give Delta a little break on this one.
July 8th, 2010 at 10:19 am
I think Delta has the best FF program in the air. I have a lot of friends who travel on other airlines and they are starting to agree with me. As I watch other programs, I see some of them are adopting Delta policies. A FF program should reward the most frequent fliers the most…and this one does! Thanks Delta!
February 14th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
I have been a loyal customer of Delta for 10 years, Today I learnt the hard way that Delta does not care for its “Frequent Flyer” customers and is looking at them as a means to generate more revenue. As one of the bloggers stated above, more miles are now needed to book a trip as compared to before. I tried multiple dates even tried dates 9 months down the road however the number of miles that are needed now are ridiculous so I guess I will have to go to another airline since buying miles is costing me more that what I would have to pay to book the entire trip at another airline. So much for being a loyal customer!!!! The fewer fees mantra is just a way of hiding the real problem. I guess Delta does not care that they will loose loyal customers for good and the word of mouth is strong and ofcourse facebook, twitter, CNN, ABC news!!!