SkyMilesTeam

Today, you’ll begin to read information through various sources about the 2015 SkyMiles program. We know how engaged you are with the program so we wanted you to be among the first to get the details of what’s in store as soon as we could share the details. Every SkyMiles member with an email address on file and any amount of account activity in the past 24 months will receive an email about these changes in the coming days with more information.

The items below don’t go into effect until Jan. 1, 2015 so that we are able to give you the most advanced notice possible, as well as to allow you to learn about the changes before making travel plans.

More details can be found at delta.com/skymiles2015, and we highly encourage you to visit the site for a comprehensive overview of the 2015 program.

Before we get too far into things, let’s begin with what’s not changing:

The way you earn Medallion status was already updated at the beginning of 2014 with the introduction of Medallion Qualification Dollars and isn’t part of these changes. All of the Medallion benefits you currently enjoy, like Unlimited Complimentary Upgrades, waived baggage fees, Priority Check-In and more will not change.

Miles don’t expire. Just like before, your existing miles and any earned going forward will not expire.

And now, here are the updates for 2015:

Earning miles
Miles for Delta-marketed or -ticketed flights will be earned based on ticket price instead of distance flown. This will make Delta the first U.S. global carrier to transition its frequent flyer program to a mileage-earning model based on ticket price. You’ll earn 5 to 11 miles per dollar (USD) spent on base fare and carrier-imposed surcharges toward Award Travel depending on your SkyMiles status. General SkyMiles members earn 5 miles, Silver Medallion members earn 7 miles, Gold Medallion members earn 8 miles, Platinum Medallion members earn 9 miles and Diamond Medallion members earn 11 miles per dollar spent.

Delta SkyMiles Credit Card Members will continue to earn up to an additional 2 miles per dollar on Delta purchases with the Card.

Flights marketed and ticketed by Delta’s partner airlines will earn mileage based on a percentage of the distance flown as determined by the fare class paid. More details will be available later this year at delta.com/partnerairlines.

Certain tickets where the fare is not disclosed, including but not limited to bulk, consolidator, cruise, vacation packages (including Delta Vacations packages), inclusive tour and other opaque fare products, will earn miles based on a percentage of distance flown as determined by the fare class paid as published at delta.com/exceptionfares.

You can find more information about the 2015 SkyMiles program at delta.com/skymiles2015, including a Mileage Comparison Calculator to help you understand how this will impact you. We encourage you to look at your typical travel patterns by adding origin, destination and an example fare in the calculator to see a side-by-side comparison of what this could mean for you.

Redeeming miles
Your top concern has been clear – you want it to be easier to redeem the miles you’ve worked so hard to earn, so we’re making Award Travel more flexible and giving you more redemption options. Just like today, you’ll be able to redeem miles for Award Tickets on any Delta flight — with no blackout dates, but the things you’ll be most interested in are:

We’re increasing Award availability at the lowest price levels and making it easier for you to find the seats that are most sought after. We’re also increasing the number of redemption levels overall to as many as five levels, giving you additional options requiring fewer miles.

One-Way Award Options. You’ve asked us for this consistently and starting in 2015, you’ll be able to book a One-Way Award ticket for half the price of a round-trip ticket.

Miles + Cash. You will be able to pay for a flight using a combination of miles and dollars. For example, a member may be offered the option to purchase an Award Ticket for 35,000 miles or a Miles + Cash Award Ticket for 25,000 miles + $159.

Improved shopping. We will improve our flight shopping capabilities to make it easier to compare a flight’s price in miles vs. dollars.

New Award calendar. We will launch an all-new Award calendar with expanded search capabilities and improvements to ensure it shows the lowest price for dates you select.

Q&A
We know that you’ll have a number of questions about the changes, so we have a full list of Frequently Asked Questions available for you at delta.com/skymiles2015 but have also included a few here.

When will the changes happen? - Flights flown on or after January 1, 2015, will earn redeemable miles based on the ticket price. Also beginning January 1, 2015, members may book One-Way Awards, take advantage of Miles + Cash Award options and enjoy new Award Travel shopping.

What’s changing with how I will earn miles? - You will earn redeemable miles based on your ticket price (base fare plus any carrier-imposed surcharges) instead of distance flown. This change applies to Delta-marketed (flight number with a “DL” airline code) or Delta-ticketed (the ticket number will begin with “006”) flights.

If I purchase a Delta flight in a currency other than USD, how many miles will I earn? - For flights purchased in a currency other than U.S. dollars (USD), the currency will be converted to USD based on the IATA 5-day currency exchange rate at the time of ticketing. Then the same mileage earn rates per USD will be applied.

How will I earn miles for partner airline flights? - Flights marketed and ticketed by Delta’s partner airlines will earn mileage based on distance flown and fare class paid. More details will be announced later in 2014.

When will the 2015 Award charts be available? - They will be available in the last quarter of 2014 and will be effective for new bookings beginning January 1, 2015.

As you can expect, we have a team of SkyMiles experts in Atlanta and across the organization who are actively reading your responses in the coming days so that we can address any points of clarification as quickly as possible.

We look forward to bringing you a better SkyMiles program in 2015.

SkyMilesTeam

CJKatl

How quickly will this thread explode????

Playing with some numbers: $0.20/mile seems to be the DM break even point. ATL-PHL breaks even for a DM at $272 r/t, or $0.20/mile flown. (GenMem $266, FO $238, GM $333, PM $296) As a DM, if you spend more than that per ticket (exclusive of fees I assume) you'll get more credit under this system. Less than that, you come out behind. For ATL-LAX, the break even fare appears to be $796 r/t, or $0.20/mile flown. These are not unrealistic numbers for many business travelers, but will likely make DL the wrong choice for leisure travelers. An ATL-LAX r/t at $399 earns half the credit under the new system than it did under the old system.

My first play at the numbers seems to indicate GM is hurt more at the break even point than GenMem, FO, PM or DM under this new system. The conversion seems to give GM a bigger haircut from the old to the new system. FO gets a 40% bonus (15% increase), GM gets a 60% bonus (40% decrease), PM gets an 80% bonus (20% decrease) and DM gets a 120% bonus (5% decrease). For those who spend less per ticket, the hurt will be greater. For those who spend more, the hurt will be offset by the gain.

Of course, each of us will interpret this through the lens of our own spending and flying..... For the record, I was at $0.28/mile last year, so I'm coming out ahead under the new calculation method. Had it been used last year, I'd have earned 40% more spendable miles.

It should be a loooonnnngggg day on FT. Hopefully I'm proven wrong, but the promise of more low redemptions being available put thoughts of r/t MDT-SCE in my head. Sure, they can make more low redemptions available, but who would want to fly that route?

Two additional notes:
Like this change or not, DL should again be commended for being upfront and early with this announcement.

At the bottom of the DL page with the calculator, it seems to indicate medallion qualification will not change for 2015. While it doesn't mention MQM required for each level, it does outline the same parameters for 2015 as were for 2014, including the AmEx spend waiver.

delanet

In on the first page for the history books! Terrible day!

Now for my more unique thoughts beyond the obvious about how dreadful this will be for those on a budget.

-5 redemption levels? Unless the promise of waay more seats at the lowest level this is a huge blow to other Sky Team programs how will a Flying Blue or Skypass member ever get a seat now?

- Basically this is a ,massive increase in the monetization of the program. Deltas own cost for awarding miles will fall and miles purchased by partners eg CC, car rentals, hotels will form an even larger share of miles awarded makeing the program even more profitable.

- Assuming redemption levels dont go completely crazy people who earn miles doing anything other than flying win their earn rates will stay the same, except they will be competing with less actual frequent flyers redeeming miles they earned flying. So in a sense Delta becomes an airline not to be loyal to, but just to maybe ticket a flight through with out points you might have.

- Seems like there is a choice that has to now be made for the budget conscious flyer if you are still going to fly Delta. Do you still want to earn free tix while flying Delta in which case you would join another ST FFP like Aero Mexico's or do you want status (still distance based all be it with a minimum spend on a CC)in which case you can stay crediting to SM.

MSPeconomist

Careful. This depends on whether the ticket was in a fare class that earns 100% MQMs or not.

ptguard

I am always very close to the platinum mileage each year. sometimes i'm just under & sometimes just over. however, I always make it in segments (158 last year). I don't see any mention if segments will be considered so i'm guessing not?

Zamees

YTD, I've earned 53,000 Skymiles as a GM. Under the new program, I would have earned 25,920. Interestingly, my MQM without rollover is 25,300.

So basically for me, this new change has wiped out the 100% miles bonus. Assuming the low level awards aren't going to go anywhere close to a 50% decrease, so the point valuation in my case has been cut in half.

BER Flyer

"The way you earn Medallion status was already updated at the beginning of 2014 with the introduction of Medallion Qualification Dollars and isn’t part of these changes. All of the Medallion benefits you currently enjoy, like Unlimited Complimentary Upgrades, waived baggage fees, Priority Check-In and more will not change."
The way i read this you will still earn medallion status based on distance miles flown ( or segments ) + the new MQD requirement?

rwoman

dl.com: 2015 SkyMiles Program
https://www.delta.com/content/www/en..._announce#earn

It includes a comparison calculator if you want to judge the changes in earnings.

Using cheap LHR-JFK fares, it looks like I'll earn about 60% of the miles I'd have otherwise earned.

Most of my redemptions are on domestic or ex-USA award tickets for friends and family since the fees ex-Europe are ridiculously high.

DLdweeb

Thanks for the update. Is the 500 mile minimum still in effect?

Grouchy

That's the way i read it as well:
No changes how you earn MQM's, MQS's and MQD's only for miles.
And non-USA memebrs without the ability to get a DL SM amex card miss out on the extra 2 miles per dollar spent.

amolkold

"We’re increasing Award availability at the lowest price levels"

So you add more levels so that there are more of the lower levels?

BondAir007

Good morning! Wednesday!! Watch out for the online traffic ramps this morning. About 20 popcorn trucks flipped on their sides around the Virginia Avenue area near the Delta HQ in Atlanta. Plus couple egg trucks caught engine fire near the DL Tech Ops center.

Also in the news, at DL main midwest hubs DTW and MSP. The rats and cockroaches came out with signs saying, "We want first class crumbs!" and "Give us moldly 5 day old food leave it on the floor!" This is according to King Rat Anderson and Jeff Roach.

While at JFK and LGA the SkyMafia were stealing and posting the new fresh and exciting news. As they were selling 'FFMiles wood' to anyone who wanted a raging fire to keep warm.



(this is post is met to be silly)

readywhenyouare

I would think only for the purpose of MQM's.

Zamees

What's the breakeven on an international flight, say, DTW->NRT->BKK? Normally a $1500-$1800 international flight gives you enough miles for a free domestic flight, now, you'd get enough for about 1/3 of a domestic. 66% decrease in miles earned from international discounted economy seats.

TheMadBrewer

Now I know why I woke up in the middle of the night

So a DM who requalifies and just makes MQDs will earn 137,500 SM (11 x 12,500) instead of 281,250 (125K x 2.25) quite a drop.

A PM will go from 150,000 to 67,500 (again assuming just hits the minimum MQM and MQD), a GM will go from 100,000 to 40,000, FO from 31,250 to 17,500

No mention of "old" miles vs "new" miles so I guess my current "horde" will still be good?

No question previous earnings were way too generous -- at least for everybody but FO but unless a couple of these new levels are lower (with availability) then this is truly a massive reduction.