Rumor: Delta Considering Drastic SkyMiles Changes

While I will be very disappointed with the changes and not being able to use Delta for their current high value awards, I am sure there will still be some degree of use for them. The same way the doomsdayers in the BA camp thought the world ended with the change to Avios, there are still very high value redemptions within the program.

Southwest and Virgin American are superb for frugal travellers who are just as happy as 1st class elite class when plane making the touch down ; if Delta can come out with the silimar to wanna go away fares as Southwest that would be coool 50K for $800+ worth of wanna get away flights cool cool

Doesn’t SW already do this?

I literally just started flying Delta, no sooner than two weeks ago I took my first delta flight ever.
(Flights to SLC/etc encouraged it) and I was ‘graced’ with a status match from my 1K to a Platinum.

In 2 weeks I’m nearly done with my status match of 26k miles to keep Plat for the year, but this has me greatly concerned. I was considering being a two-vendor flyer based upon value prop and opportunity but I fear I may then need to find *another* vendor to use for my ~250-500k of travel a year.

Quite upsetting if this is true!

As someone with a choice there is no doubt Delta would go from preferred to “only as a last resort’. Sure the employees are amazing and make travel nice but I am going out of my way at this point to fly them. Sometimes I’ve flown south to go North, or even west to go east. I don’t always buy the high fare B or M fares, but I definitely buy those sometimes, though I’m usually a T/Q flyer. I must be naive to think they care about my once or twice a year international travel. That travel is always in a premium class of service but can easily be changed to another, most likely much more convenient, airline. My family goes as I go, and with family members who fly to Europe multiple times a year and constantly across the country and often at the last minute, I’ve estimated we spend 30-40k on Delta a year, while maintaining status as two platinums and one gold.

If this RBMA system were to go in to effect a significant portion of travel would change hands and Delta would be down to under 3k a year of our family’s travel expenses.

Don’t destroy what I believe is the most loyalty rewarding program in the United States, no more drastic changes.

I much rather they enhance the earning of members who spend more money then to take away for people who make the bulk of the plane. But given I no longer have elite status with any airline I no longer care and go with best time/fare combo.

I think the airlines are playing with fire mucking around with their loyalty program.

Personally, I fly for leisure. I fly Continental (I mean United) primarily due to the Frequent Flyer program. If the airlines reduce the value proposition enough, I would make the following changes to my behavior:

(1) Fly Asian Airlines to Asia. It is a better experience. Stewardesses are prettier. Food is better. They are cleaner. Service is better.
(2) Domestically fly Jet Blue or Virgin America whenever possible instead of United because they are nicer.
(3) Stop doing 20K a year in mileage runs. (Unfortunately, I have to fit my runs into my vacation, so I do not get the cheap ones.)
(4) Use up my stranded FF points as fast as possible. (If everyone did this, it would create liquidity problems).
(5) Get rid of my airline points cards. After all, I have them to get points.
(6) Stop buying electricity from a points provider.
(7) Stop spending money in the points shopping malls.
(8) Stop buying points. I have purchased US air points, United points (when they were offered cheap), Continental points (when they were offered cheap), and elite maximizer points. (Let’s face it, when you need cash, having customers to buy points is great.)

I would do none of these things out of spite. I would be changing my behavior to maximize my comfort. What the hell, I am not a charity.

What do they say about killing the goose the laid the golden eggs. Well, shaving off some of the feathers make the goose less happy, and she lays fewer golden eggs. In a low margin proposition like the airline business, that could be the difference between profit and another bankruptcy.

Listen closely…can you hear it? That’s the sound of Membership Rewards points becoming even more useless.

There’s probably something to this – - It’s not the first time I am hearing it. A friend who has a friend that works for Delta told me that it is coming.

If they go this route, I’m sure they will lose some valuable customers (like me). I’m finally a Diamond with Delta this year and have been enjoying it. However, I’ve already been considering a jump to American or United since I first heard about the changes. Living in New York gives me choices. I’ll wait to hear the details about the changes to their program to see just how it will impact me. But I usually, I book far enough in advance to get the lower fares, so I’m not sure how this change could be positive for me.

Big changes like this may cause Delta some real consequences in the short -term; but if it works, unfortunately the other major airlines may just follow their lead.

Sucks for us here in the ATL. Have over 500k SkyMiles between me and the wife, and can never find the 120k business redemptions we want for trips to India/Asia this year.

My partner and I are both Diamonds, and we spend about $15,000 per year on Delta. We aren’t exactly High Value Customers, but we certainly aren’t bottom feeders either.

Effective immediately, we are spending zero on Delta. It is time to burn our 3 million miles while they still have some value. I wish we had cashed them all in for AMEX gift cards back when that was an option.

“Rumors” like these don’t get started without some reasonable credibility, that’s for sure. I haven’t flown DL since they acquired NW, and probably won’t. My biggest concern is the trickle down effect — I’ve been accumulating miles faster than I can burn them

United miles still work charmingly for last class flyer

This would be mixed news for points enthusiasts. It would mean the end of buying Delta fares for me. Instead, I would accrue miles through cards and other promotions. Then with those SkyMiles, I would book very cheap fares, not in absolute terms, but in relative terms for what you’re getting. So a $200 transcon, a $600 west coast to Europe, $300 LAX-HNL. And on cheap fares, the miles necessary would be a pittance. (Note: this is the current best strategy with Southwest miles.) This would replace the current best strategy of buying the cheap fares and using miles for expensive fares. But there would still be more programs with the latter strategy (United, American, US) than the former, and I happen to think that a diversity of programs actually helps frequent fliers more than if all programs have the same rules. I’m in the minority, but I definitely think Avios changes are good for fliers because it increased the diversity of programs. Therefore, this is mixed news, and it depends on the specifics.

Thanks for the reply. For now, United FF redemption works ok.

If Delta does this, my gut is that other airlines (including United) will follow.

I think the changes to redemption are a lot bigger and costly to them in terms of customer loyalty. Fare based redemption throws them into the same pot as Amex and Chase pay with points doesn’t it? Why would anyone transfer to skymiles when they could fly any carrier with AXMR or UR? Is a fixed cost per mile what the redemption system would look like or am I totally wrong?

Fly Korean they were awesome! It’s going to be super hard to book (call in for availability and blackout dates) but they open up tons of award space in Business (O), and it all books into low, and they fly out of ATL.

In your case over the Atlantic is probably faster (but not much) and AF/KL space is usually pretty open too, but consider KE!

This will create a problem for AMEX too. Both my wife and I have Delta Reserve cards and spend about $135,000 per year on AMEX in addition to the $450 fee we pay to AMEX for each card. Given that most of the spend is reimbursible business expenses, it has made sense to eat the fees and use these cards. Make the skymiles program substantially less valuable and I will stop showing any loyalty to Delta; indeed, I can often save money by taking SW/Airtran but have stuck with Delta to keep accruing the skymiles. Moreover, I also will drop both of these cards and stop shopping for other rewards accross different cards, which are not likely to be AMEX. I doubt I’m alone in this. Delta should tread carefully.

This sucks! I doubled-down on Skymiles banking 100K miles just in 2012 thus far. Going to this new model kills me. I can kiss all my benefits goodbye. I’m taking a long, hard look at other programs and preparing to make a drastic switch – including re-booking a couple international business class trips I had planned for the summer. No point in racking up more useless Delta miles.

If Delta made that big change to Skymiles, I wouldn’t necessarily stop flying Delta, I’d just find a new Skyteam program to credit to. Isn’t that the easiest shift for everyone to make?
I’d appreciate if the blogger could put in the time to examine all the program options in Skyteam, and tell us which ones he thinks are best to replace Delta Skymiles as your program of choice? I personally think any Skyteam program that has a set expiration date for miles should rank low, because for most of us that type of race-against-the-clock proposition is worthless.

Delta, my hometown airline, has stopped carrying about its customers long ago!

Like 5-10 years ago! Now, it’s the archetypical American corporate behemoth: self-centered, bottom-line, raking in millions for its executives by shafting its customers and employees.

I could still slam myself silly for signing a petition, “Keep Delta, my Delta!,” when it was under threat of being taken over by US Airways.

My Delta vanished a long time ago. And flying out of Atlanta, I still prefer AA or US Airways!

I just flew Delta from JFK to Narita – ancient plane, no wifi, grungy, harried staff, no electricity working at ALL in my row (and several others) as in, no lights, audio , nothing.

Then I flew Narita to Manila. Guess what? AGAIN, my seat power is dead.

Flew home from Manila, via Narita to JFK… this time the audio works intermittantly but at least works. But the plane is still an old and grungy 747.

Add to this that they charged $210 for an upgrade to an “economy plus” seat that was virtually no better than a regular coach seat; and far worse than a standard coach seat on JAL; and that it was impossible to use mileage to upgrade unless I had a full fare ticket.

there is NOTHING good about Delta.
that’s WHY you’re “one of the few defenders”

Nope.. transfer at 100% was much better

Unfortunately there aren’t any knights in shining armor when it comes to other Skyteam programs. I”m going to research Korean (since they are a Chase transfer partner), but it won’t do much good if you want domestic upgrades on Delta.

I’m sure American Express, who has a huge stake in Delta Skymiles, will want to make sure the changes don’t negatively affect their cardholders. This may be one of the big reasons why these allegeded changes don’t happen.

You are correct. For us savvy frequent travelers, there’d be very little reason to accrue Skymiles when we could use Amex/Chase/Citi for up to 1.33 cents a point AND earn miles on those flights.

I learned a long time ago to go against the masses. I hope this means more upgrade availability when everyone “leaves” Delta.

Southwest does, but they’ve never had high value awards since they aren’t a part of an alliance and don’t fly internationally. When they moved to RR 2.0 it was a change, but nothing drastic (and even better for those who redeem for Wanna Get Away fares).

If Delta did this and stripped the value from international and premium cabin awards, I think it would get very messy, very quickly.

Diversify! These types of changes will always happen- it’s just a matter of preparing yourself for the inevitable

Been platinum for 5 years now, (I commute from NY to LA) but with this model I’d be gone in a heartbeat.
Time to start spending miles…

Well I guess I should start burning my miles now. No sense in holding on to them at this point.

Brian — does this mean that the NOV miles run I have booked from EWR-MSP-SIN will not earn me the 20,000 miles I had been promised????

I’d probably recommend US Airways if you value mid tier elite status (you’d get upgrades on US whereas you wouldn’t really on American), plus US is a part of Star Alliance which has more redemption options than AA.

AA is good for a lot of things, but they are going through bankruptcy and there are a lot of changes to come- heck theres even rumors that US is buying them!

AA allows one way awards and has the 40k to Europe vs US charging the same amount for one-way as roundtrip. They all have pluses and minuses, but I’d probably go with US.

I have 100,000 + MR points I was waiting for Delta bonus to come around to book a US to Europe trip…is it premature to think about converting MR points to SPG..and then possibly converting them to US AIR with the current promo ? I need help please..thanks

So Brian, We need your expert advice on what to do with these MR pts that us card churners -non Delta elites/flyers have now from the multiple 75K offers they were throwing at us….do we dump them into BA? Korean? I think we all that have these want to redeem them for executive class flights.

Well it depends. You may just want to do 90,000 Amex to Aeroplan depending on where you are going in Europe and what carriers have availability.

You have until March 31, 2012 to decide if you want to do the SPG-US transfer.. I doub’t a Delta transfer bonus will come before then so you really just need to do a little research and see whether Star Alliance or Skyteam is best for the places you want to go.

thanks..one quick question..I’m trying to go to Paris and where I live I do have access to US Air, Delta, and United….as a general rule are the miles you need about the same for all three or would there be a benefit to looking at one airline over the other two. I know there are a number of factors that affect amount of miles needed but just asking in general terms. Thanks and thank you for your great blog. I read it every day

Oh Delta…Say it isn’t so!
I moved nearly 350,000 Amex points to Delta last year SPECIFICALLY because of the way they structured their mileage rewards and bonuses. My husband added a Delta Amex earlier this year so that we could continue to heap on the Skymiles. I sing Delta’s praises every chance I get, especially lately, given the fact that my status gets me the upgrade 9 out of 10 times…even on the infamous SFO-JFK Biz Elite run. (Not a bad success rate for someone who’s still only a lowly Gold Med)! I frequently pay for the 1st class seats when they aren’t too horribly overpriced and I book our entire family exclusively on Delta whenever we fly, even when their competition offers a direct when DL doesn’t and even when DL is the more expensive option. I fly a pretty good bit every month and I have to say Delta takes care of me.

IF, however, they make an unthinkable move like this, they will find me hightailing it to another airline faster than you can say BAIT AND SWITCH! For Delta to even contemplate this is to essentially “penalize my loyalty” when I actually take advantage of the offers they send my way every week. An inbox full of “vacation deals” and “web fares” means nothing to me if I know that they will be pinching pennies should I decide to pony up and grab one…or several! Having the miles I fly “nickel and dimed” because I found a great deal through their own company website is exactly why I don’t give my money to any of the other airlines that have gone down that road. DON’T DO IT DELTA…I’M BEGGING YOU.

I would be truly disappointed to find out that this was the case. I have gone out of my way to use Delta only even though it cost me more money.

Delta has always been my airline of choice since they merged with Northwest but now that I don’t live in a Delta hub city I would never fly Delta if I didn’t have to.

I just switched a Beijing bound Business Class Paid ticket to United from Delta, I was thinking about it anyway, but the Flyertalk thread pushed me over the edge…wife and I are both Diamonds who spend big bucks and enough is enough. Last year I had 11 paid business class trips to Asia…this year it will be none.

This is why I hate to see you take freebies from Delta, they basically use you to push product and your readers in the end get the shaft.

I think there are several significant downsided to moving towards a revenue-based mileage program. Here are the most significant ones, in my opinion.

1. The more clearly the reward is based on ticket price and the reward has a clearly defined monetary value, the easier it is a for a company to negotiate a new net fare with the airline with removes the reward completely, and thereby eviscerates the loyalty program for that company’s travelers.

2. The more clearly there is a defined monetary value, the easier it is for the IRS to begin taxing the award value.

3. One of the beauties of the reward programs is that the linkage is a little vague and undefined, make the award more mysterious and appealing. It allows for aspirational awards, like first or business class travel, which may otherwise be financially out of reach. It allows for us all to value the awards at that inflated basis, even though many of us will in fact redeem them for something less valuable, so we perceive high value while the airline’s cost is low.

4. If managed properly, the airline distributed inventory which it otherwise couldn’t sell, or could only sell in the low revenue fare buckets, so the airline is using low-value inventory to fulfill awards. It also allows the airline to effectively discount unsold inventory without affecting the integrity of their published fares and advance booking deadlines.

5. Finally, if some fares are high for last minute travel, do they really need to give that traveler an increased reward vs. someone who booked earlier? The last minute traveler may actually have fewer options and be required to traveled, vs. the person who booked earlier who had more discretion and more choices. Just because the last minute traveler generated more revenue, doesn’t mean a larger loyalty reward would shift more beusiness or revenue, and the rewards should really be based on the incremental revenue, not baseline revenue.

I have no idea if I am a representative example, but I wholeheartedly agree with the comments above. I am a work-at-home leisure traveler, and I take many unplanned trips without reason. Because I can take my work on the road, I jump on fare deals, miles runs, and otherwise fill airline inventory that would be unused. I book well in advance to plan for the best value, and I gravitate toward deals. I guess it is all sort of a game and a hobby — but I just earned lowly Delta Silver and have been plotting my move to Gold this year. I am DEFINITELY leaving for one of the star alliance carriers United/US if they pull this on me. Delta is proposing a total waste of my time spent on coach class miles runs…..

AND I already have a 20+ hour Singapore run booked for November. If they change to a revenue-based system between now and then, I want a refund on my ticket.

Friends, AmEx bailed out Delta buying billions of SkyMiles. Delta can make small moves to devalue those miles (the three tiered award chart comes to mind) but not entirely change the system. They have obligations to honor.

I believe the redeemable miles system will remain unchanged, or minimally changed something like 50% base miles on LUT&E fares.

The revenue based points system, if it is true, will likely only be for elite status earning, currently called MQM. It stinks for me because my corporate travel is only 30-40k per year, and I’ve made Platinum for years by flying T fares to New York from the west coast.

Will they devalue our SkyMiles? Probably a little, but not as drastically as some predict here and other blogs. If you’re really worried, burn your miles bank and book your award travel for the winter holidays now. I’m sitting on over 300k SkyMiles right now, and I’m not too worried.

Delta is the best legacy carrier, by far. I’ve been a Medallion for 11 years and seen a lot of changes, some for the worse and some for the better. The only thing constant in this game is change. I, for one, am eager to hear the details but certainly not fretting over rumors.

Thanks, Sean

I think you’re not being very fair. Each program has it’s pros and cons, and each and every one will be devalued over time. The best strategy is to diversify your points portfolio over the 3 alliances and the domestic programs, and that includes Delta. It has always been possible to get great value out of the Delta award chart, if you used it right. It was just *hard*. And until something changes that remains true.

Remember airline point currencies have one of the highest inflation rates this side of Zimbabwe. Earn and burn.

Wahhhhhh!

Hi PJ. To answer your question about the bonus…YES! I actually transferred points to my Skymiles acct, my husband’s and our son’s. With the additional status bump DL offered just a month or so later, it made it more than worth it to us! I have hardly used any of these miles as I love to take advantage of great fare deals when they pop up in order to pull in loads more miles on the cheap. My main tool in achieving this is utilizing the free same day flight change benefit that we get, so as long as there’s add’l avail on other flights, I’m flexible most of the time. I’ve reaped over 20k skymiles for a coast to coast RT that cost me less than $250…just thru creative itinerary planning at the last minute and being willing to add some connections. (Last one was FLL-LGA-ATL-SFO). My Amex Plat got me in the lounges if I had any wait time so it was no biggee. It also allowed me to nearly guarantee first class upgrades on all segments where my originally booked flights had little or no avail upgrades. I’m still learning but TPG has been a great mentor in that dept! I have done this on award tix as well w/ 100% success so search out the lowest mileage award tix then switch if you can. Good luck PJ!

This would be the end of me flying DL nearly exclusively for the past 5 years – though being somewhat a hub captive in CVG (the term hub being used loosely here…) I haven’t had lots of choices. Bye, bye DL Plat AMEX and hello to Chase and UR for points most likely for me as well as a status match likely to AS where I can accrue DL, AA, etc. as well as AF/KL/LAN/CX, etc. Luckily I have diversified somewhat with several hundred K of US (thanks to the GS and the Barclays card) and working on building up United now.

I thought I should add that if you are a Delta high level FF and have personal relationships with the people at a local office that has developed over the years (20 years in my case) it certainly helps. It does however scare me that Delta would change the rules of the game at this stage (I have over a million miles and was planning a round the world trip in business on miles)… This sight is great and I hope that Delta reads it! Thanks

Is there anything we can do to try and stop them from doing this?
What if we got together and made a online petition- forming a drastic stance against them.
Do you think Delta would change their plans…if enough of us spoke out against this…and stating we will drop delta and move to another loyalty brand?

TPG, I’ve complained about some of your posts recently focusing too much on CC’s, but this post is great and much appreciated. By you calling attention to this hopefully Delta will realize they are going to make a bad decision.

Keep up the good work, and I hope you continue to draw attention to problems like these!

Some years back, Hoover (vacuum cleaners) announced a deal where if you bought a Hoover in Ireland, you would get two pacages for the World Cup in the USA; the package was airfare, hotel and tickets… the deal almost bankrupted Hoover.
I mention this story because it seems to me that someone, somewhere, somehow lost their way with the meaning of FF Loyalty Programs. It was meant to identify and reward Frequent Flyers. I know people who get hundreds of thousands of Delta miles without ever stepping on a plane.
The currency of FF miles is equal to any monetary system and when you can earn the points without even flying… it seems to me that it devalues the entire concept.
I earn my miles flying and they are worth less and less everyday; thus, I am in favor of an overhaul of the system but one where there are 2 currencies based on miles. One where you get miles for flying and another where you get miles for buying flowers, dig food etc. Perhaps “travel related miles make sense, but only if you book everything through the airline that offers the deals.

That’s my opinion. I already get less miles for the class and price of the tickets on Delta’s partner airlines AND when I buy business class and get the same miles as someone in coach, it does not seem fair (to me). But, when I want to use my miles that I’ve earned from “Flying” and the price of the service that I request costs 2X the value that it was a year ago… I am simply pissed off.

Tony Hayes

One of the reasons in my opinion that Delta airlines has been able to devalue skymiles is due to airline consolidation. As an example my hub is DTW. Delta “the world’s largest airline” as some may view has a monopoly on the market. When a company is allowed to have such a large market share historically, consumer interests go down and corporate revenue becomes outweighed even if it means decreasing customer service. A more competitive market forces there to be a balance between both customer service and corporate profitability. Let’s face it, they are in business to make money. The BIG question to ask is at what cost to the consumer now that there is a lack of competition. I would not be surprised if in 5 years we see airlines become more regulated like they were in the past to protect consumer interests. As a medallion member, Delta Reserve holder spending LOTS of corporate expenditures a year, and most importantly an ACTUAL frequent flyer, I’m curious to see how the fall out between consumer and corporation will play out if these new ideas come to fruition. Perhaps it’s a test by Delta to leak this. Look what happened when Bank of America imposed new fees last year. The consumers took to the internet and voiced their opposition and threatened to take their business elsewhere. Within a month B of A retracted their new fees. Only problem is if I decide not to use Delta…. Who will I use? I have no real other options.. Food for thought

as a 2myn miler- if Delta does this, frankly they can kiss my ass goodbye

this “rumor” will happen…i was a member of a focus group delta put together last JUNE where they interviewed us about this. we told them it was the worst idea in the world, but they wouldn’t listen to us. we were all platinum and diamond members in the group. i will seriously look into switching my status and going to another airline if they do this

being a flyer out of LGA/JFK, i am going to have a difficult time finding an alternative airline, but i am going to do so.

i fly 1 or 2 round trips per week, but on fairly cheap tickets due to restrictions on fare spend from my company and clients. i get a bunch of segments and miles but i don’t spend a lot of money. obviously, delta does not care about travelers like me.

i fly delta because i want to use the miles i earn from being away from my family during the week to buy tickets for family trips. if i can no longer do this with the new program, i will not spend another penny on delta if i can avoid it.

i am angry about this, and i WILL leave delta in retaliation. i will find a better option that allows me to earn and spend the way i like and i won’t cry as i leave.

in the mean time, every time i fly a dirty, junky MD-88 out of LGA or get squeezed into an oversold flight out of JFK, i will hope that there is greener grass somewhere.

You’re a little off regarding the Hoover promotion… it was not in conjunction with the World Cup and the deal was for flights only. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_free_flights_promotion

The real point of FF programs is not to reward loyalty, the point is to make money for the airlines. They do not “appreciate your loyalty” because it makes them feel good, they appreciate your loyalty because they appreciate your money. Fairness is not the point here.

This would be a good change for some flyers like myself, who fly ever week on a $500 ticket, but only receive 500MQMs. I flew 46/52 weeks last year but only accumulated gold status based on segments. If it becomes revenue based, I will fare much better. The system as it stands today place to much weight on miles flown, allowing international flyers to achieve status much easier than someone who flies weekly but not very far. The international flight may only cost 3 times as much but they receive 10+ times as many miles.

While it may be easy for many fliers to book on airlines other than Delta if you are from the Detroit area there really is no other choice. They must control at least 80-90% of the flights in/out of Metro. We are the ones that really get shafted!
Unhappy with Delta!

I’m also a reserve card holder, the benefits aren’t worth it as it is. As a 2 year Diamond who fell to Platinum, I rarely get upgrades anymore. I see no benefit of flying Delta any longer.

Go southwest

I can in my miles all the time for AMEX gift cards! It’s only 21K for every 100.00 dollar gift card!

Well, I got hosed…bought a round-trip ticket for business from a travel agent, Indianapolis to Tokyo via Detroit. Just got my November statement and immediately realized that my mileage total was not correct. Contacted Delta and was told the ticket “class” was for the discounted rate. I then communicated my extreme displeasure with my travel agent, who basically apologized and told me there was nothing he could do, at which time I told him “YOU were the one who booked the ticket” and gave me no knowledge or information about the reduced miles. BTW, I got 3,200 miles, when I should have received 13,340 miles…and I am even an “Elite” status. Long story short, I have all my correspondence and will be pleading my case to Delta, though I am sure I am “barking up a tree”. Oh, and I fired our Travel Agent too…what else have they been “forgetting” to tell me. In the future, I will book all travel directly through the Airlines Web site, and turn the invoice in for payment. Delta should also be FIRED! And now they just announced buying into Virgin Atlantic. Branson, get ready for Delta to ruin your airline too! Boy I wish for the old Northwest to return…

Delta sucks… I have just shy of 15k miles which isn’t a lot but could’ve been redeemed for something like a hotel stay or car rental but now I can touch my miles at all because I have to have AMEX card to use them.. I’m out of luck as I won’t be getting one of those any time soon… So I switched to United which is way easier to use and a lot more choices oh and I can use my miles however I want! Oops Delta you just lost another customer and what a waste of time saving up my miles!! Oh yeah and I also tweeted numerous time to my 15k followers on twitter too. Have a great day!