Reflections from the Back of the Bus, or How Delta Turns Customer Loyalty into a Customer’s Nightmare

What do 1.5 million Sky Miles and Diamond status get you from Delta? A high hard one and 30 minutes of frustration. It continues to amaze me the opaque nature and arcane rules that govern frequent-flier and airline marketing programs in general. I had the privilege—or nightmare—of dealing with Delta reps to change a ticket that I had purchased last fall. I have more than 1.5 million miles with the airline and am considered a “Diamond Level” traveler. So you would think I would be considered a valuable customer and....