Delta has made a couple more changes to the SkyMiles program, and as one might guess, they aren’t good for the consumer. This week’s changes include removing the option to hold a reward reservation while trying to confirm plans or to see if a better routing opens up. Most significantly, this will kill the ability to hold a reservation for one segment at 330 days in advance while waiting for the return trip to become bookable. In other words, if you want to take a 14 day trip from the 1st to the 14th and someone else is willing to travel from the 1st to the 10th, they can book the seats earlier, because the return seats will actually be bookable. The only option now is to book the one way trip and then pay a change fee later, assuming the return seats are available. (Discussion here.) Delta has also reduced the hours for the call center to make the reservations, so that makes it even harder to book a reward ticket. With the other issues the SkyMiles program has announced, including removing last seat availability from reward tickets, even for 2x miles (and possibly completely, though that announcement is still pending) and trying to link redemption to the ticket price rather than the routing, things are looking particularly grim for SkyMilers.
And although it isn’t posted on their baggage details page yet nor on any Delta press release I can find, at least one source is indicating that Delta will be following US Air and United in charging for a second piece of checked luggage for non-elites. (Discussion here.) It looks like it was mentioned in the JP Morgan investors conference, not as a press release, according to this article.
It is only a matter of time before lavatory access will be a per-charge item with the way the “a la carte” pricing approach is going.
And they announced the closing of some Crown Room Clubs a couple weeks ago.
Not a good time to be a Delta customer at all!
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