Major airline overhauls frequent-flier program

Delta frequent flyers are facing some major changes to the airline’s SkyMiles loyalty program and its Sky Club airport lounge program in the months ahead, and not all of them are positive. Starting Jan. 1 of next year, Delta said, SkyMiles members can use only one metric to achieve Medallion elite status in the program: Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs), as it’s eliminating Medallion Qualification Miles and Medallion Qualification Segments from the equation. The MQDs earned in 2024 will apply toward status in 2025. This is similar to the change American Airlines made last year in switching to spending-based Loyalty Points as the only way to gain status in its AAdvantage program. 

On the plus side, Delta noted that members will be able to earn MQDs next year not only for their spending on flights from Delta and its partner carriers as they can now, but also for booking rental cars and hotel stays through Delta.com, and for buying Delta Vacations products. Some Delta American Express card spending will also provide an MQD boost. The changes in elite qualification rules won’t change SkyMiles benefits for non-elites, who can still earn and redeem miles as usual. SkyMiles members who have already accumulated Medallion Qualification Miles that they expected to apply toward an elite status threshold will be able to convert them into MQDs, redeemable miles or a combination of both starting Feb. 1 of next year.

But online loyalty program specialists who dug into the Delta changes discovered that “these updates aren’t pretty,” as The Points Guy’s Zach Griff observed, since the MQDs that members must earn in 2024 for elite status in 2025 will increase considerably from their current levels. The current levels of MQDs are 3,000 for Silver status, 8,000 for Gold, 12,000 for Platinum and 20,000 for Diamond; next year they’ll go up to 6,000, 12,000, 18,000 and 35,000 respectively. And this comes on top of increases that were already applied the year before. There are also big changes in MQD earning for spending on Delta’s co-branded American Express credit cards, which amount to “a pretty big devaluation” from current levels, The Points Guy said.

As for the airline’s Sky Club policy, holders of Delta/American Express Platinum cards and passengers in Basic Economy regardless of card type “will no longer be eligible for Club access” starting Jan. 1, 2024, Delta said. Beginning Feb. 1, 2025, Delta SkyMiles Reserve cardholders will be limited to 10 free visits per program year unless they spend at least $75,000 annually, while Platinum card members will only get six visits per year. Simple Flying called the new access limitations on cardholders “quite harsh… with Medallion status now the only way to get you guaranteed entry.”  

Since a federal judge agreed with the Department of Justice in May to terminate the JetBlue-American Airlines Northeast Alliance, JetBlue has been making concessions to bolster the chances for approval of its Spirit Airlines acquisition — which is also facing a DOJ lawsuit. The antitrust lawyers at DOJ have the goal of preventing companies from gaining excessive market share through acquisitions and protecting consumers against the loss of low-fare airline competition in key markets.

So in June JetBlue said it would divest Spirit’s holdings at New York LaGuardia to Frontier Airlines if their merger is approved. And this week it announced another deal — to transfer Spirit’s assets at Boston Logan and Newark Liberty International to another low-cost carrier, Allegiant, along with “up to five gates and related ground facilities” at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport in Florida. The Spirit assets in the Northeast include two gates at Boston, two at Newark and 43 takeoff and landing slots at Newark. “The divestitures are subject to approval by the local airport authorities as well as FAA/DOT and are conditioned upon and will occur after the closing of JetBlue’s planned combination with Spirit. JetBlue expects to close the transaction with Spirit in the first half of 2024,” the company said. 

A new Southwest Airlines promotion is making it a little easier for its Rapid Rewards members to earn a coveted Companion Pass, which lets a second person fly with them for free (except for mandatory taxes and fees). Members who register online and buy Southwest flights for travel through Nov. 30 can earn double Companion Pass-qualifying points for those flights, and business travelers who book through swabiz.com, Global Distribution System or Southwest Partner Services distribution channels can earn triple Companion Pass qualifying points. The promotion also lets registered participants earn one Companion Pass qualifying flight for every Rapid Rewards award flight paid for with points, also for travel through Nov. 30. And holders of Southwest Chase Rapid Rewards credit cards earn double Companion Pass qualifying points per dollar spent through Nov. 30. 

Airlines have been reducing their schedules to Maui since that island’s devastating wildfires, but the island’s economy is heavily reliant on tourism, and officials are now lifting some of their restrictions on visitors to the western part of the island. According to GoHawaii.com, the state’s tourism website, the town of Lahaina in West Maui, which was virtually destroyed, “will remain fully closed to the public until further notice,” but starting Oct. 8, other areas of “West Maui (including Napili, Ka’anapali, Honokowai and Kapalua) will be open to visitors again.” Those areas along the island’s northwest coast include a number of prominent resort hotels. “Beyond West Maui, other areas on the island (including Kahului, Wailuku, Kihei, Wailea, Makena, Pa’ia, Makawao and Hana), as well as the other Hawaiian Islands of Kauai, Oahu, Lanai and Hawaii Island remain open and welcome visitors,” tourism officials said. 

In Bay Area international news, the slow return of China service continues as View from the Wing reports that China Southern Airlines has filed plans to resume service beginning Nov. 4 between San Francisco and Wuhan. The carrier reportedly will operate a 777-300ER flight once a week, departing SFO on Sunday. Oakland International is expected to get new service to Central America from Dec. 11 through Jan. 29 when Avianca operates four weekly flights from OAK to San Salvador, El Salvador. The carrier plans to use a 180-seat Airbus A320neo on the route, with flights operating on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Avianca will also introduce service from New York JFK to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Dec. 11 and from Chicago O’Hare to Guatemala City, Guatemala, Dec. 13. 

Germany’s Lufthansa Group has announced an expansion of its North America operations next year, increasing capacity on U.S. routes by 16%. In early June, Lufthansa plans to add two new U.S. gateways, launching year-round service five days a week from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, to Frankfurt with an Airbus A330 and from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Frankfurt with a 787. The German carrier also plans to add new West Coast service from Seattle to Munich for the summer season, flying an A350-900 on the route, which supplements its existing Seattle-Frankfurt route. The announcement says Lufthansa’s summer schedule will boost San Diego-Munich frequencies from three flights a week to daily service, sister company Swiss will start daily flights from Washington Dulles to Zurich on March 28 and Lufthansa will boost capacity from Dulles to Munich by putting a 509-passenger Airbus A380 super-jumbo onto that route for the summer.

In code-sharing news, United Airlines this week started putting its UA code onto three transpacific routes operated by its Star Alliance partner Asiana Airlines, covering Asiana’s flights to Seoul Incheon from San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. British Airways and Level Airlines, its sister company within the International Airlines Group, have started code-sharing, with BA’s code going onto Level’s flights to Barcelona from San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York JFK and Boston. Delta plans to add a code-sharing route from Amsterdam to Beirut effective Oct. 29, operated by Transavia, a budget airline that is part of the Air France KLM group. And American Airlines next month plans to put its code on domestic flights operated by the Brazilian airline GOL from Rio de Janeiro to Florianopolis, Curitiba, Goiania, Navegantes, Porto Alegre and Sao Paulo Viracopos/Campinas. 

Low-cost carriers Frontier and Spirit have tweaked their schedules for the fall, according to Aeroroutes.com, including the elimination or suspension of some routes. The site said Frontier has suspended San Francisco-Orlando, San Diego-Orlando and San Diego-Atlanta service through Nov. 15, and has discontinued service “for the remainder of 2023” between Atlanta and Ontario, California, as well as Las Vegas-Miami and Las Vegas-Philadelphia, among other changes. Aeroroutes said Spirit Airlines has halted service on its Oakland-Philadelphia, Sacramento-Austin, Los Angeles-Boston and LAX-Orlando routes; cut frequencies on its Oakland-Orange County route from daily flights to four a week; and increased frequencies between Oakland-Dallas/Fort Worth from five flights a week to seven, Oakland-Newark and OAK-San Diego from four a week to seven and Burbank-Las Vegas from 14 flights a week to 23.  

Last month, we reported that United Airlines opened a new 24,000-square-foot United Club in Denver International’s A Concourse, and now the airline has cut the ribbon on an even larger one — at 35,000 square feet, the largest club in United Airlines’ entire network — in the airport’s B Concourse. The new premium lounge is near Gate B44 on the eastern side of the concourse, built across three levels and offering more than 600 seats. Along with the usual amenities, United said the new club focuses on “brewery-inspired elements,” offering a “beer tasting experience” at its mezzanine-level bar with a seasonal rotation of 10 local beers on tap. The B Concourse club has concrete flooring, exposed ceilings and “a variety of locally sourced furnishings and artwork,” United said. Last year, United opened a scaled-down lounge facility in the B Concourse called Club Fly, where members in a hurry can find grab-and-go food and beverages, and it said that in 2025 it will cut the ribbon on “an additional revamped club location” at the airport, giving it a total of more than 100,000 square feet of United Club space at DEN.