Delta CEO On Loyalty Changes: ‘We Moved Too Fast…We Will Be Making Modifications’ 

Speaking this week in Atlanta, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the airline would soon revise the changes to the Delta Skymiles loyalty program announced earlier this month. 

Those changes shifted the key loyalty metric to money spent with Delta – and sparked backlash from Skymiles members. 

Bastian acknowledged the response: “We are still assessing what we do. But there will be modifications that we will make. And you’ll hear about it sometime over the next few weeks.”

Bastian said the initial change was driven by a big increase in higher-tier loyalty members during Covid that the airline couldn’t serve.  

“We have so much demand for our premium product and services that are far in excess of our ability to serve it effectively in terms of our assets,” Bastian said. That included offerings like Delta One Sky Clubs, upgrade certificates and other perks. 

“We need to make certain that we can serve our higher tiers with the level of premium experience that you deserve and you expect. No question we probably went too far. In doing that our team kind of wanted to rip the Band-Aid off…I think we moved too fast. We’re looking at it now.”