I don't really know much about this potential merger between US Airways and Delta, I just know I don't want to lose my SkyMiles. If you want to sign a petition to voice your opinion, click here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Join with me as I comment on movies, TV, music, and anything else that comes to mind while I ponder pop-culture.
3 comments:
If I were predicting, I would say that if you are ever disappointed with your Skymiles, it will be because you can't find any award travel seats on the flight you're looking for, rather than because they have vanished. Here's why:
1. The merger is not going to happen. The feds will not approve it because it would create near monopoly power in too many markets. They refused to approve a United-US Airways merger a few years ago which would have been much less anti-competetive than this one is.
2. Even if the merger does happen, the combined airline will not do away with the Skymiles program because it would tick off its repeat customers and because it costs an airline relatively little to run a frequent flier program and grant award travel seats. Here's why it costs relatively little: they only make a small fraction of seats available for award travel and only on some flights, and the frequent fliers who don't get those seats often decide to take the flight anyway but pay cash for it and then wait for some future date to try again to get the award travel. Plus the airline's partners (i.e. American Express) pay a lot of the costs of the program. And a huge amount of frequent flier miles just sit in people's accounts (interest free) and never get used and never will be used, either because the owner doesn't care, never gets enough miles for award travel, or can't find available seats for award travel.
3. Delta could have eliminated the Skymiles program in their bankruptcy but they did not. Every major airline has a program (Delta's is one of the bigger ones) and Delta management intends to have a successful, independent airline after the bankruptcy. By the way, for those of us who like a Salt Lake hub, we should be hoping that the merger doesn't happen--US Airways has a major hub in Phoenix that they don't intend to close and it's too close to Salt Lake to keep Salt Lake as a major hub.
Hope this makes you feel a little better about your miles.
Jon
I like what you have to say here, and it sounds credible enough. But if I end up losing my SkyMiles, I'm holding you personally and financially responsible :)
You sound skeptical. Why not just give me your miles and then you won't have to think about it anymore?
Jon
Post a Comment