benolaa

So much for Amex last US Partner:


Notice of Change to the Membership Rewards Program

Delta SkyMiles Program Transfer Allowance

Effective January 1, 2015 Delta is making a program-wide change limiting the number of points that can be transferred into a SkyMiles account from any partner loyalty program, including the Membership Rewards program. As a result, there will be 2 important changes that will limit the total number of Membership Rewards® points that you can redeem for Delta SkyMiles: (1) the total number of Membership Rewards points that can be transferred out of any Membership Rewards account into one or more Delta SkyMiles accounts will be limited to 250,000 points per calendar year, and (2) the total number of Membership Rewards points that can be transferred into any individual Delta SkyMiles account will be limited to 250,000 points per calendar year. (A "calendar year" is 12:00 am MST Jan 1 through 11:59 pm MST Dec 31).

To view additional information regarding these changes please visit membershiprewards.com/delta or call 1-800-AXP-EARN (1-800-297-3276) or the number on the back of your Card.

As a reminder, through December 31, 2014, you may transfer a maximum of 999,000 points to a single SkyMiles account on any given day.

The detailed change to the Terms and Conditions of the Membership Rewards program can be found below.

Detail of the Change

The terms of the Membership Rewards program are subject to change in accordance with the program's Terms & Conditions. This notice formally amends the Terms & Conditions as described below. Any terms in the Terms & Conditions conflicting with this change are replaced fully and completely. Terms not changed by this notice remain in full force and effect. We encourage you to read this notice and file it for future reference. If you have any questions about this change, please call the number on the back of your Card.

Effective January 1, 2015, the Who can transfer points subparagraph of paragraph 1 of the "Using Points" section of the Membership Rewards Program Terms & Conditions is amended by inserting the following sentence at the end thereof:

"You can only transfer 250,000 Membership Rewards points per calendar year into the Delta SkyMiles Program."

We recognize this change will impact your Card Members but we remain committed to exceeding your expectations by continuing to deliver value through the Membership Rewards program. We greatly appreciate your business and look forward to serving you and your Company for years to come.

Sincerely,

American Express Customer Care

MSPeconomist

This will create some interesting strategic questions as the end of the year approaches, namely do people want to move MR points to DL miles before seeing how the five tier award charts will work in practice?

AFAIK you can still transfer as usual to certain DL partners. Depending on whether other rules change, there might be ways (I'm not an expert here) to transfer more through hotel programs.

ATL787

This has to only affect a very small number of people. DL is probably one of the worst uses of MR points, imho.

They haven't had a transfer bonus promo in I can't remember how long. Plus, who really believes that Skymiles are going to actually be more valuable in 2015? I can't there are really that many people that transfer more than 250,000 and upwards of 999,000 MR points to DL in a given year.

richardinmotion

What am I missing here? What percentage of AMEX users could possibly be charging more than $250,000 per year on their cards? Seems like it would only affect a very small percentage of people. I guess the MSers will be affected.

Edit: ATL787 beat me to it!

rylan

If you're charging that much, you'd likely have a Amex business card or a Centurian and be using the points for something that is a much better value. Not worth it to transfer to DL unless there is a promo.

baccarat_king

I think a larger percentage than you realize.

Not sure how a Centurion card would necessarily provide more value.

davetravels

DARN! No wonder my transfers weren't goin' thru!

rylan

Not saying the Centurion card provides a better value for the points, but that some people who charge that much may benefit from the other high end features of that card.

baccarat_king

Like?

Most of the "high end" features have disappeared in recent years. I "guess" US Cardholders still get Platinum Medallion Status. I had heard a rumor, that it was going to be "upgraded" to Diamond Medallion Status; I "guess" that could be considered a "high end" feature.

LizaVP

I have SPG Starwood points via my Starwood Amex. Would this affect me?

SuperG1955

If I use AMEX MR points to buy a ticket on DL through AMEX Travel, they have a value of $.01 each. I do get MQM's, RDM's and MQD's but not AMEX Spend towards status,

If I transfer the MR points to DL and use the RDM's, I get a minimum of $.03 per RDM on Int'l J Awards. Since I can book well in advance and have lots of date flexibility I can get Low Award pricing with no hassle. I will still transfer the MR points to use for Award tickets but obviously not to use for PWM.

I wish I had the problem of accumulating over 250,000 MR points in each of our accounts in addition to the 60,000 in each of our Reserve accounts.

I do know a few people who accumulate more that 250K MR's each year but they don't transfer them to DL.

MSPeconomist

Not so far, but more limits (to changing SPG points to DL miles) might be coming.

rylan

Oh I didn't know they've dropped features/benefits. Yeah PM is still part of it although DM really would be a better benefit considering the spend requirements.

MSPeconomist

They have. When Centurion started, it came with high tier elite status on most USA airlines and hotel chains and there were lots of private clubs that people could use.

javabytes

It sounds as though they certainly are, as DL is imposing this on all its transfer partners. It's SPG's responsibility, not Amex's, to notify SPG customers of that though.