Why Delta did not win anything at the 2015 Freddie Awards (it's not all that hard).

Delta was an amazing host for this year’s Freddie awards – they truly
were. The event, at the Delta flight museum that I reviewed HERE was just about perfect. Also, just like Delta food on-board, was VERY good.
There is not anything but heaps of praise that can be bestowed on Delta
for all they and the other partners did to make this one of the most
memorable Freddie awards ceremonies EVER!. There was just one teeny, tiny, problem…
Delta was not even nominated for any awards by voters


Yep, Delta not win anything at all because they were not even
nominated to win anything and that is kinda a pre-requisite before you
can win. So why did this happen? It really is not that hard to see why
and it is all about loyalty rewards (or the lack thereof). Let’s make it
simple and look why.


The end of stopovers on award tickets. This is the most crushing change Delta has EVER made to their award program. If you do not agree, you do not understand SkyMiles at all.
Stopover’s is what for years and years made SkyMiles, to those who know
and value the program, a jewel worth treasuring and keeping. It
allowed, not just a stop along the way to explore some amazing part of
the planet, but it made hard to find awards possible all at LEVEL 1
awards in coach or business class (or a mix as well). Stopovers on
awards was the “oil” that made the SkyMiles engine work without
overheating and dying.


Hiding the award charts. Delta still uses the 5 level award charts.
They are still CLEARLY there as they use them when coding the
redemption level of any award. Who in their right mind would vote for
SkyMiles to win anything when you are hiding the award charts. This must
be fixed.


Charting 2 or 3x what an award should be.
Thanks to the end of stopovers and the end of mixed award with partners
you can end up paying for 2 or even 3 one way award tickets to get from
one place to another. What other frequent flyer program over charges
you for one single trip 2 or 3 times what it should cost you? This must
be fixed and bringing back stopovers would take care of much of this
issue.


Revenue based earnings. Delta is NOT going to change
this one. They feel this is “innovative” (unlike the program of the
year AA that did innovate and pays MORE miles for big spenders). That
program IS innovating, that is, rewarding those who fly a little and
really rewarding those who spend the most. Those who say it is just a
matter of time before AA does what Delta did is living in a fantasy
world. AA is #Winning and many are switching to fly them for just this
reason.


10k coach seats don’t cut it. Delta has twice now come up with el’Cheap’O
10k SkyMiles limited award tickets. Who cares! Delta seems to think
that lots of coach level redemptions shows the new things they are doing
are working and that “the numbers don’t lie”. But you know what won at
the Freddie’s? KLM with their promotion that offered coach AND business
class seats at up to 50% off. Now this is hard for Delta to do since
they hide their 5 level award charts. You maybe see the point I hope.


I could really do this all day long like charging more SkyMiles if not 21+ day bookings, removal of more award space for medallions and Delta AMEX card
holders, cutting Platinum and Gold upgrade shots from JFK to LAX &
SFO, SDC changes, E-Class non-medallion upgrades and so on. There is so
much busted with SkyMiles that in a good way there is just about no
where to go but UP from here. So we at least have that. Delta needs to
fix what they broke and really innovate for a change.


If Delta did not have a frequent flyer program at all, they would,
hands down, have the best airline in the USA! No questions asked. I
think most would agree with me here. But they do have an awards program.
They do, on paper at least, say they want to reward those who spend the
most with Delta. It is time they started to show that by the slogan “Keep Climbing“! – René

 - Delta PointsDelta Points