Delta Air Lines Boeing 717-200 airplane as seen on the ultimate approach landing at Recent York JFK John F. Kennedy International Airport, NYC, USA.
NurPhoto / Contributor
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said the airline will make “modifications” in the following few weeks to its loyalty program after a recently announced overhaul that will make it costlier for a lot of travelers to earn elite status and get into airport lounges was met with a backlash from customers.
“No doubt we probably went too far,” Bastian said on the Rotary Club of Atlanta on Monday.
This system changes, which Delta unveiled earlier this month, would reward customers with elite status based on how much they spent, a model much like that of American Airlines, and reduce access to Delta popular airport Sky Club lounges for a lot of American Express cardholders.
JetBlue Airways tried to capitalize on some customers’ anger over Delta’s changes by offering frequent-flyer status matching, saying “we have made it easy so that you can cozy as much as a latest loyalty program and see where it goes.”
Delta has been grappling with a surge in elite travelers, bolstered by pandemic and post-pandemic spending, and swarms of travelers attempting to get into its lounges, resulting in long lines for many purchasers. The airline and rivals including American and United have been racing to construct greater airport lounges to cater to swelling numbers of huge spenders.
Bastian said the airline will announce the updated program changes in the approaching weeks. A Delta spokesman declined to comment further on the changes.
“It’s gotten to the purpose, truthfully, where now we have a lot demand for our premium product and services which are far in excess of our ability to serve it effectively when it comes to our assets,” Bastian said.
He said that over Covid, the airline has doubled the variety of Diamond Medallion status members.
David Neeleman, CEO of Breeze Airways and founding father of JetBlue, told CNBC on Wednesday that he has Delta Medallion status and that he tries to make use of Delta’s airport lounges but that sometimes “there’s an enormous line and it is not price it.”
Delta last yr announced several changes to crack down on overcrowding on the clubs, corresponding to barring employees from using them when flying standby with company travel privileges, even in the event that they had qualifying bank cards. The Atlanta-based carrier also raised prices for club memberships for normal customers.
