My biggest issue was, as I have called it repeatedly, including in the letter I sent Ed Bastian, the punitive devaluation of rollover MQM. I expected Delta to do something about rollover MQM at some point, but in my case they were taking away enough MQM for two years of Platinum and not even giving me enough for Gold, that was a complete joke. On top of that I now get Gold every year after that as a lowly 1MM, I can live with the changes. The main question for me is whether I keep my Delta Reserve or only my AMEX Platinum, I may go AMEX Platinum and just not worry about Delta except when it's clearly the best option over AA.
Originally Posted by
phongn
Isn't the difference that with AA you don't have to use their booking portal for Hyatt and Marriott (and thus could access hotel status and use corporate travel agents and booking sites) and with Delta you had to use their portal, waiving all the goodies?
Yes, the comparison of how you earned status qualification for car rentals and hotels was completely different between AA and DL, basically any miles you earn on AA with a few limited exceptions count towards status, Delta tried to copy but really restricted the mechanism. I'm actually surprised they walked back that change, seems like it should have still been lucrative for them.