Originally Posted by
Adelphos
If you reserve $10,000 of hotels via Delta.com, you get $10,000 MQD…. but if you spend $10,000 on a Delta Reserve card, you get $1,000 MQD. Gigantic difference that most Delta customers wont be used to
Its the same with AA and their branded CC to a degree. 1 Mile and 1 Loyalty Point (LP) per dollar spent on the card (sometimes a bonus category like buying AA flights earns 2X). Use the partners AND the AA branded CC to purchase, and you get higher returns for the dollars spent (such as the hotel platform. If you don't have the AA card, then you get like 100 miles and LP, whereas if you have the card, you can get perhaps up to 30X or more, per dollar spent. Its all about pushing you to partners who have already bought millions (10's of millions? more?) of Skymiles from Delta.
I realize the programs are not the same, but in a general sense they will function similarly. However, at first glance, Delta seems to be looking to eliminate a lot of Elites with this new scheme the first year. With AA, the first year of switching to just LP, they offered ridiculous amounts of LP. If you did it right, 13 nights at hotels could earn you Platinum Pro Status for maybe $3000 spend. 20 nights and you could be EXP - this has all since been tampered down on year 2.
EDIT: For reference, AA;s levels are Gold (ruby) at 40K LP, Platinum (Sapphire) at 75K LP, Plat Pro (Emerald) at 125L LP and Executive Plat (Emerald) at 200K. But spend and partners make it relatively easy.