Delta CEO on controversial SkyMiles changes: "We probably went too far in doing that"
MINNEAPOLIS — The Delta Air Lines CEO seems to be walking back some major changes the airline recently announced to its loyalty programs, saying they "probably went too far" in overhauling its SkyMiles program and lounge access policy.
Ed Bastian said the changes announced earlier this month were designed to make certain that Delta could serve all of the loyalty tiers at the level that is expected. This week, though, he said that changes will be forthcoming.
"There will be modifications that we will make, and you will hear about it sometime over the next few weeks," Bastian said on Monday at a Rotary Club of Atlanta event. "Our team wanted to kind of rip the BandAid off and didn't want to have to keep going through this every year with changes and nickel and diming and whatnot, and I think we moved too fast."
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In September, the company implemented changes that would make it more difficult for American Express cardholders to access Delta Sky Clubs and earn Medallion elite status, taking effect in 2025.
The airline's move suggested the notion that too many customers had elite status of some kind. It got to the point, Bastian said, that the company couldn't effectively serve those elite status holders, including upgrade certificates and agents on special phone lines. During COVID-19, the number of diamond-level members almost doubled, he said, after the company allowed status and miles to roll over while customers weren't traveling.
Where do things stand now?
WCCO's Erin Hassanzadeh talked with Kyle Potter from Thrifty Travel about how things stand. It will likely be a matter of weeks until the announcement of further modifications.
Potter says the airline business, at this point, is now a credit card business that also happens to run as airlines. The American Express relationship for Delta is on track to be an almost $7 billion dollar industry this year alone.
Here are portions of their conversation.
Kyle Potter: The things that they did primarily was make status much, much harder and far more expensive to earn. So these changes were supposed to be phased in, you know, some starting at the start of the new year and 2024, others starting later in 2025. But they kicked a hornet's nest. This kind of backlash was unprecedented, you know. I think to people, it came across as a slap in the face that after years of being really loyal to an airline, that loyalty was a one-way street.
Erin Hassanzadeh: Let's jump ahead to today's headline of the Delta CEO saying, wait a second, we may have gone too far.
Potter: They have said they've made a mistake, that they're going to claw some of this back. What that is and what, you know, the Delta status program or Delta Sky Club access is going to look like, I have no idea.
Hassanzadeh: It seems like every other person I know is like, "I only fly Delta." Is that a Minnesota thing?
Potter: It certainly is Minneapolis thing. ... For MSP, Delta is really the only game in town.
Hassanzadeh: I want to know what the other airlines are doing, the major carriers, and if it applies to us here in Minnesota, or if anyone else is trying to drum up some of the business from some of these angry Delta customers.
Potter: Some airlines, including Alaska and JetBlue, have come out with what they call status matches. But look, here in Minneapolis, it doesn't really move the needle. I mean, you can fly Alaska to Seattle, and that's it. You can fly JetBlue to Boston, and that's it. ... It's not even apples to oranges. It's apples to some other fruit that nobody really cares about.
