Tomorrow I have a meeting with my friend Steve who I previously mentioned in my July 13, 2012 blog as someone who likes flying Delta. I am not a Delta fan but Steve likes it for his travels between California and New York. The reason he likes Delta is he often gets upgraded for FREE.
There have been rumors that Delta Airlines will be going the way of Jet Blue and Southwest Airlines. With both of these airlines you earn frequent flyer miles based on the price of the ticket versus earning miles based on the distance traveled. For me, purchasing a $12 ticket on 12-12-12 with Jet Blue isn't going to earn me a lot of miles. I want to earn miles based on how far I fly so I can buy the cheapest ticket possible. My $12 ticket between Long Beach and Portland, Oregon earned me 12 award miles with Jet Blue but if I had earned miles based on distance traveled I would have earned 846 miles. If I am short on miles, in order to earn elite status, I want to do a mileage run (a flight that is taken for the sole purpose of earning airline miles). This would not work if Delta changes its way of awarding mileage.
Last week Delta took a step in what I describe as the wrong direction. Beginning January 1, 2014, in order to earn elite status with Delta for the 2015 year, travelers will need a combination of qualifying miles and now qualifying dollars spent on tickets. Right now the revenue based mileage (ticket price) is just for status and you can still earn miles for how far you fly but I would not be surprised to see this change in the future. I can only hope that United and American don't follow Delta's lead.
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