Canarsie

By request, and with the unanimous vote of all of the Delta forum moderators (who truly want to help and assist our fellow Delta forum FlyerTalk members as much as we possibly can), we have decided to combine the threads dealing with the fate of the SkyMiles we have in our Delta Air Lines SkyMiles accounts and give this newly combined thread “sticky” status.

This thread is intended to serve those FlyerTalk members who are concerned with the fate of the SkyMiles in their accounts, given the financial crisis that Delta Air Lines is currently undergoing.

Although I have my own personal opinion about this topic, this thread is not intended to endorse any one opinion about the fate of the Delta Air Lines SkyMiles program. Rather, it is to offer the service of helping to calm FlyerTalk members concerned about losing the SkyMiles they worked so hard to earn by offering reasonable evidence as to why they should not panic, yet be concerned and wary enough to keep in tune to the details of the ever-changing developments that Delta Air Lines is currently undergoing and prepare just in case the day should (and hopefully not) come where we should start liquidating whatever SkyMiles are left in our accounts.

This thread is also to help alleviate new threads pertaining to this topic from being launched. By all means, the fate of the SkyMiles program should be discussed, but in a reasonable manner.

There is some more discussion (but also quite a bit of humor and comic relief) in the More troubles for DAL thread

Finally, if anyone has any questions, suggestions, or wishes to offer additional advice pertaining to the volatile situation with Delta Air Lines and the possible implications on our SkyMiles accounts, by all means please do so by posting in this thread..

To summarize: Don’t worry — your Delta Air Lines SkyMiles will not disappear tomorrow, next week, next month or, most likely, not even next year. However, in the possible event that our SkyMiles may become endangered sometime in the future, remain well-informed and please keep up-to-date as to the constant new developments concerning Delta Air Lines, and monitor the Delta forum in FlyerTalk — especially this thread — regularly.

Thank you.

Regards,

Canarsie
Co-Moderator, Delta forum

casper01

Recently I heard on the news a recommendation to use up the reward points saved up on Delta. (I think I heard this on CNN but have been in SJU so long I could be incorrect on the network.) The person in the segment stated in the past if a company went bankrupt or out of business, some other airline would honor the points. With over 500K in miles, I always assumed this would be true and was in no rush to cash in my miles. Long story short, the annalist stated this is a new time and don’t count on a new carrier to cover your miles if Delta goes under. They actualy said burn your miles now. (My words not theirs but this is what they meant.)

I fly out of JAX and Delta is the only airline that meets the flexibility that I need. Quite frankly I have not had any major problem with them and am happy to keep flying with them. However, my but is on their planes three to four times per month. If I lose that mileages that will be a major issue for me. I hate to burn the points when I don’t need to. Do you think if Delta goes under some other major carrier would NOT honor the points?

CoMooter

While DL might very well be headed to BK court in the epilogue chapter of the book on the fine, fine leadership of King Leo and his clueless minions - I would not worry about dumping DL miles - or even UA right now. These entities will survive in some format for at least the next few years - they are too big too worldwide.

US is another matter...

atl runner

What do you mean by "if Delta goes under?" If you mean that they are going out of business and liquidating assets, then you would have to be dependent on another carrier
accepting their miles. In the past, that's happened, but I have no crystal ball into the future. Times have changed but airlines still like getting loyal customers (at least in theory).

But if DAL declares chapter 11, that is not the same thing as "going out of business." In fact, chpt 11 is specifically designed to allow a company to keep operating while trying to restructure. Under that scenario, it is almost inconceivable that DAL would wipe out people's SMs. If you are reorganizing, you want to come out of chpt 11 with customers that will fly with you. Getting rid of everyone's miles would hardly inspire folks to fly with them.

So I guess it depends on how pessimistic you are. I don't know if DAL is going to need to resort to chpt 11, but I can't think of any scenario where they will cease operations and liquidate anytime in the foreseeable future.
Just my opinion though.

hnechets

They're (Delta) not at that point yet. And if they do get there, then as has been said, it will be quite some time before your miles "go away."

I'm not saying that you should not be concerned here, just that you have a good deal of time to evaluate and make decisions accordingly. Give it some time and watch developments closely.

Especially, let's see what DL rolls out come Aug 26.

prof1950

Gosh, and that's what I thought about TWA and my miles with them

platbrownguy

When TWA went under, AA honored their FFers' miles, right?

Canarsie

I flew Continental Airlines during the worst years in its history (late 1980s – early 1990s), and not only was I happy with their service during those years, but they served champagne on the flight I was on when it was announced that day that Continental Airlines officially had emerged from bankruptcy.

Some of those OnePass miles were earned on Eastern Airlines.

I still have more than 150,000 OnePass miles, plus more that is currently being used for an award trip.

My PanAm miles converted into Delta Frequent Flyer miles, which I shortly after instructed Delta Air Lines to merge into my existing account.

I have enough USAirways Dividend Miles for a round-trip award ticket anywhere in the United States, including Hawaii.

I never worried about my American Airlines miles, even though they never declared bankruptcy. However, some of those miles were earned on American Airlines. Others came from Trans World Airlines, and still others came from Reno Air.

I allowed my United Airlines account to lapse years ago when there was no way to extend the expiration date of my miles, but then again I only had 400 miles left in the account anyway after I transferred them into my Hilton Honors account at an incredible promotional rate, just before many of those miles were ready to expire. If I had miles in my United account today (if it still existed), I would not worry at all.

Speaking as a veteran who has had miles in accounts from companies which either declared bankruptcy, went out of business or was acquired by another company, I have not lost one mile due to any of those factors. Do not worry! The only time I have ever lost miles was from accounts which I allowed to expire, such as United (as described above), Midwest Express and America West — none of which I had enough miles with which to do anything.

prof1950

I have a contentious history with AA after the TWA buyout, so I'm not a good one to ask. I do remember AA telling me "this is the way it is now", too bad if you don't like it. I still refuse to fly AA!



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ejs20519

American may not have honored TWA's program rules (and why would they do that anyway?), but my miles were transferred seamlessly over to my AAdvantage account on a 1:1 basis with no hassle whatsoever.

RunawayNFly

I,too, am grateful that I did not lose my TWA miles. I had almost 250,000 miles dumped into AA due to it. I have no complaints.

I thought that I had read somewhere else on FT that Randy suggested now is the time for burning US miles since times today are different and he did not think that another airline would pick up their FF program.

flytomuch

When USAir and United both went into Bankrptcy Protection both compaines honored FF miles. They know that if they dump those all their loyalty goes out he window. Those will be the last to go.

RobertS975

TWA did not go under... it was acquired by AA on very favorable terms.

RSSrsvp

The time honored tradition in the industry is to not devalue FF miles during a financial crisis which results in a chapter filing and/or sale. FF miles are considered sacred. Any airline that violates that tradition especially during a chapter 11 filing would drive away their road warrior business that is their most profitable source of income. In short, they would be committing suicide. I seriously doubt that the top brass at DL are that stupid.

flyerfan

After getting the news of Delta thinking about chapter 11, I often wonder what would happen to our SkyMiles. Would the airline that buys Delta take over the miles with discount or they become useless? I am pretty new to the FF program and have not experienced a bankruptcy of an airline FF program. FF program gurus, pls share your experience.