Customer outcry can be a powerful thing and, after a month of fallout after announcing changes that would make it more difficult to earn loyalty status and cracking down on lounge access, Delta Air Lines (DAL) -) sent out an email detailing how it would scale back the unpopular decision.
“I have read hundreds of your emails, and what's been most clear to me is how much you love Delta and the disappointment many of you felt by the significance of the changes,” CEO Ed Bastian said in an Oct. 18 email sent to SkyClub members. At a Sept. 28 meeting at the Atlanta Rotary Club, Bastian admitted that the airline "probably went too far" in pushing forth the changes it announced at the start of the month.
The initial plan was to cap lounge visits for those with access to at most 10 a year and scrap waivers that allowed passengers to earn status by spending $25,000 on eligible credit cards. Instead, the tiers of SkyClub status would be earned by spending a respective $6,000, $12,000, $18,000 and $35,000 directly with the airline.
Let's try this again: These are the scaled-back changes for Delta's SkyClub members
Those have now been lowered to $5,000 Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs) for Silver, $10,000 for Gold, $18,000 for Platinum and $28,000 for Diamond. But the core principle of needing to spend with the airline instead of on qualifying credit cards remains the same.
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Lounge passes have been raised from 10 to 15 a year for Delta SkyMiles® Reserve cardholders and from 6 to 10 for those with the American Express (AXP) -) Platinum card but the decision to introduce caps remains unchanged.
"These updated status metrics are, at most, 20% lower than the ones announced last month," writes Zach Griff of travel website The Points Guy. "Relative to this year's levels, the revised thresholds are still between 25% and 67% higher — one of the most significant jumps we've seen from an airline in recent history. [...] As such, I suspect that some Delta flyers will still be pretty upset with these revised thresholds."
Here is why most travelers still feel tricked by Delta's SkyClub rules
"Don’t try to fool us by saying 'lowered' compared to the outrageous 6k, 12k, 18k, 35k MQDs," traveler Leslie Chang wrote underneath one of the airline's recent Instagram (META) -) posts. "5k, 10k, 15k, 28k is way too much still."
As frustration with Delta threatens to spill over, many competitors have been seeing opportunity among customers who feel like they have been giving Delta their business only to have the rug swept out from under them.
JetBlue (JBLU) -) and Alaska Airlines (ALK) -) both offered to match the status frequent flyers had with Delta at their own airline while Southwest Airlines (LUV) -) announced that it was bringing down the number of flights necessary to earn status with its Rapid Rewards program with a quip about how they were "making it easier" to earn status while other airlines are "making it harder."
Alaska Airlines also took a dig at Delta earlier this fall by saying that "loyalty is about more than just revenue."
