Delta CEO and policy makers,
I’ve been a loyal Delta customer for almost my entire 30 year career, I live in Atlanta, your HQ. I not only fly Delta, I pay for the sky club every year and I have a Delta American Express card. Even though I have to consider all airfare costs, all the time for my company, I prefer Delta and choose Delta whenever possible, until now. I have spent decades building up my points…Late nights, early mornings, delayed flights, 60+ overnight stays a year away from my family and more. It’s a lot of sacrifice to be able to take advantage of miles I’ve worked extremely hard for once or twice a year, only find out, Delta can manipulate markets and gauge customers like me and pull all those decades of earned miles right out of my pocket in an instance. And not a few thousand, 100s of thousands! Which brings me to my issue.
My fiancé is from Brazil. She comes from a big family with great tradition of family events and putting family first. Her parents are celebrating 50 years of marriage. We can not miss that event. I’ve been working on a trip to take advantage of my rewards from decades of travel. It occurred to me, that if I am to leave my native city (Atlanta) to Sau Paulo. The cost for us to leave Atlanta is outrageous. The points cost us more than double compared to other airports in the vicinity. We’re trying to work through it and be creative but it is a huge waste of time and energy. Not only in trying to source the trip and solve the problem, but also in having to fly to another airport just to preserve my hard earned points. And this email is just another big waste of my time.
To make matters worse you’re having us leave an airport (Miami) we don’t even want to depart from, only to come back to Atlanta and do a 10 hour layover. To make matters worse my fiancé can not afford to travel that day to Miami and back to Atlanta, because she only has a sitter for the Atlanta to Sau Paulo trip and we’re struggling to find a way to keep her in Atlanta, even if I have to go out of my way to Miami, just to protect some of my hard earned points. If I was to transition her ticket to the Atlanta portion only, the cost to my personal point status is crippling. I’m writing to you because I’ve been loyal for decades. I’ve supported Delta for decades (flights. Credit cards, sky club, etc). I’ve never complained. I’ve supported you and now your fleecing my points because you’re too rigid to solve this problem. I can’t accept the negative impact I’m being subjected to, after all the sacrifice I’ve withstood to earn my points. I don’t accept it. You tag line, printed on your napkin (see photo) states; THE WORLD IS BETTER WITH YOU OUT IN IT
What you’re doing to me, my fiancé, her daughter and our trip flies in the face of this tag line. You’re supposed to encourage us to venture out, travel, adventure, etc.. Not discourage us and penalize us. I’m not some one-timer. Look at my vast history. The fact that you’re setting markets up for price gauging with a personal impact to someone like me, is completely opposed to your messaging. So if you’re going to be an impediment to your own tag line, I’d suggest you stop using it