I fly several times a month for business and personal travel, and nearly all of my flights are with Delta Airlines (previously Northwest Airlines). With miles accrued via flights, credit cards, special offers, hotels, dining, etc. I had hundreds of thousands of miles that were burning a hole in my pocket.
I decided to use these miles this January to secure two round trip tickets to Santiago, Chile (one for me and one for my dad). My trip to Chile and Argentina was epic in scope and ambition (2400 miles in 7 days, crossed the Andes twice, took hundreds of pictures and even managed to catch the Minnesota Vikings playoff game en Español). It was also an epic drain on my miles balance; to the tune of draining my mileage balance down towards 0 miles.
I knew it would take at least a year of earning more miles to ever reach the epic levels that I would need to pay for another international flight (not to mention earning more vacation days), so I had pretty much ruled out the subject of international travel until at least 2011. That is, until I received an email from Delta with a brilliant subject line:
“Recharge with this Delta Sky Club special offer”
I opened immediately, thinking to myself “wow, this is some great triggered marketing!” They knew I drained my balance of miles, and now they are giving me ways to earn them back.
I was quickly disappointed when I found that the offer was actually just their same old overpriced Sky Club offer that they have peppered me with 200 times in the past. No, Delta, I don’t want to pay $90 for a 30 day pass… I don’t want it for the same reasons that I didn’t want to purchase it the other 199 times.
Delta: You had me and lost me.
