Delta makes a major change to popular rewards program that will have serious impact on travelers flying for business

Delta has announced that it is revamping its popular business rewards program to make it increasingly restrictive. 

The existing SkyBonus program rewards small businesses around the world, whose employees fly with the airline, but from October it will be limited to companies based in the US and Canada. 

What’s more, the new SkyMiles for Business offering will no longer apply to basic economy tickets. 

A spokesperson told DailyMail.com: ‘Basic economy earns in SkyBonus today (at our lowest level). In the future program, we are aligning with the SkyMiles policy of no earn on basic economy tickets.’

To qualify for SkyMiles for Business and earn miles, companies must spend at least $5,000 USD in eligible flight revenue and have at least five unique employee travelers each calendar year. 

This puts businesses in the airline’s ‘plus’ category.  

However, ‘companies that have negotiated discount fare agreements, travel agencies, wholesalers, consolidators and other sellers of travel’ will not be able to participate in the program. 

There will also be an ‘elite’ level, which requires a company to have $300,000 in eligible flight revenue in addition to the five unique annual employee travelers. 

Companies in the ‘elite’ tier will receive all the benefits available to ‘plus’ members, along with a 15 per cent mileage bonus. 

To maintain ‘elite’ status, Delta says the company must continue to meet the two requirements regarding spend and employee numbers. 

When conducting business travel, employees who are SkyMiles Members will still accrue their personal miles while their company also earns miles in the company account. 

The new SkyMiles for Business offering will no longer apply to basic economy tickets

To ensure both the individual traveler and company earn credit in their respective programs, Delta highlights that both the employee’s SkyMiles number and the company’s SkyMiles for Business account numbers must be added to the reservation at the time of ticketing. 

There will be no changes to ID numbers, so employees will not need to update their existing profiles. 

The new program will change its currency to miles as opposed to points. 

After customers opt into the new program, existing SkyBonus accounts will carry their Plus or Elite status into the new program, with any accrued SkyBonus points being automatically converted to miles. 

The conversion rate for existing SkyBonus accounts will be three-to-one based on the value of each currency.