Originally Posted by
wooootles
Also we’re almost 50 pages deep in this clown show but I don’t believe we have heard from the $250k MQD DM waiver guys. I wonder how this changes their gameplan.
Keep on spending, as what's an other $100,000. This demographic is the self-employed/small business owners, which Ed "knows" can spend more with DL.
Originally Posted by
dburns
If Delta was smart, they could make one simple change to reduce the pain and lock in loyalty in a similar fashion to what AA does with their LPs:
.
- Platinum automatically gets $5,000 MQD to start the next year
- Diamond automatically gets $10,000 MQD to start the next year
Think about it -- if you hit Diamond, you would get an automatic boost of $10,000 MQD to start the next year. That would be a strong incentive to stay in the Delta ecosystem, and make the $35,000 MQD requirement for Diamond a more modest $25,000 MQD, and not a huge increase over the current $20K. It would also make you strongly not want to lose Diamond status after achieving it since you'd lose the $10,000 MQD to start the year. Similar logic would apply for Platinum. - $5,000 MQD to start would make future re-qualification $13K vs the current $12K, and likewise create a strong incentive not to lose your Platinum status or else lose the $5,000 MQD to start the next year. AA does something similar with LP where if you have higher status, it is easier to re-qualify, and you don't want to lose that advantage.Giving Diamond/Platinum starting MQDs would function in a similar fashion to reward and lock customers in.
Maybe this is what they have in mind for future Platinum/Diamond enhancements. Just speculating, but I think something like this would make a lot of sense.
UA 1K status which requires 18,000 PQP and 54 segments deposited 2,250 PQP into my account for 2022 program earning CY--this bought United MillagePlus similar to Delta DM spend of $15,000 MQD. (I status matched to UA 1K in 2021 after I organically re-qualified for DL DM and Delta subsequently extended status for 2021 that outraged me). I'm not switching to UA as I can't stand connecting in either IAD or EWR, however, the Polaris lounges were nice. The pandemic year of 2021 was great to free agent all 3 legacy carriers, as Hyatt had a Globalist promo with AA for Platinum Pro, but CLT is awful connecting in and the CLT CL was a packed zoo. The DFW CL was also packed in 2021.
Originally Posted by
DLHubber
Aside from the shockingly high MQDs, the fact that you have to start from scratch each year regardless of the status you earned the previous year is the most surprising change.
This is going to be a BIG wake up call, as it will be similar to the current 360's if they will be invited for the next year into the program as their CY spend resets each year.
Originally Posted by
Palladio
Same situation here in San Diego. Alaska here I come.....
I see no reason to keep any of my Delta Amex cards going forward. The points were already a poor currency compared to other cards, and now that I've learned Delta has no problem retroactively devaluing over $350K of my credit card spend awarded MQM points to near zero, why would I trust them to honor whatever system/currency they are offering this time around? Fool me once, shame on you....fool me twice, shame on me. I can't believe I was a big enough sucker to stick around after they devalued all my Skymiles the last time around.
Having the Delta cobranded card is the same as being in bed with devil (Delta). Hopefully this is lesson learned to stay away from co-branded credit cards and stick with a vanilla Chase or AmEx card for the respective UR and MR.
Originally Posted by
DLHubber
What? You must be thinking of the Covid 100% rollovers for everybody, which isn’t what I was talking about and definitely didn’t happen for 22-23 either. I couldn’t tell you when they started, but normal Rolliver MQMs for Medallions absolutely existed well before 2020.
The days when J.W. Roberston was Vice President - Loyalty programs and DL CEO Richard "tricky Dicky" Anderson, as I found the e-mail from July 28, 2009 announcing
"Rollover MQMs" - an industry-first that allows you to now roll over any Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs) above a Medallion threshold. Now 14 years, 1 month latter, RIP Rollover MQM's.
