Originally Posted by Adelphos

It is true that the lack of rollover MQM is a big change, and a disincentive for credit card spend. But Delta was the only airline with any kind of rollover for years; AA and United seemed to have survived fine without a carrot that encouraged people to spend or fly beyond when they hit any individual threshold.

On the other hand, excess rollover, in the form of huge MQM balances, was a problem Delta claimed they wanted to fix. They gave people with huge rollover balances, and a lot of MM, huge perks via extended rollover and enhanced status. I was worried that this would basically permanently freeze out elites and flyers that didn't have these big MM status or big MQM balances. However, the more I read these forums, the more I wonder if some of these super customers will now simply be less engaged in the program, flying less and spending less on cards, and actually leave more room for upgrades and such for others. That seems to be the reaction on Flyertalk (though Flyertalk is definitely not a monolith). It seems like they want spending on the card to be focused on those that are still pushing for status (PM, DM), flying more regularly (and therefore need to use the club more than 15 times, etc). We will see if Delta can hand the spending burden over from one group of customers to another.