Interestingly, my 360 membership was not renewed this year (2025), when I spent $70,000 on Delta in 2024, 1/2 first class, 1/3 International, no credit card. In the past I had spent $55,000 and was a member in 2023 and 2024. I am based on the east coast of Florida.

I will certainly miss the upgrades which honestly was 95% of what made the membership interesting.

The Porsche transfer program was useless in my opinion with 1 transfer in 2 years when I had 2 hours between flights and zero transfers when the situation demanded it (and I had called to request it) and as a result missed a few connections.

The DeltaOne club at JFK was nice but when I fly international I fly first or business and would normally have access to it, should I decide to still fly Delta.

The early boarding has been hit or miss with most of the boarding staff not boarding 360 first with military, a situation not helped by the absence on 360 mark or recognition on the boarding pass, a huge miss by Delta.

Recognition at lounges and inside the planes was weak, with generally 10% of cases of flight attendants treating me special with the rest not really caring and still giving me a tough time when I try to avoid checking my bag and for them to try to store it in the generally empty coat cabinet upfront.

So overall I will miss the upgrades and the easy connection to customer service but little else. Note that to soften the blow, Delta offered a Diamond membership to a person of my choice. A nice treat for my spouse I guess.

Not sure about my next move about this. I wished Delta was clearer about the requirements and this black box approach similar to a country club membership like the ones I am part of in Palm Beach does not sit right with me as I generally prefer a meritocratic system with rules and targets. I was completely caught by surprise by their decision considering the spending level. I did not always have the best interactions with customer service, especially once after they bumped me from a flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta, despite having bought a first class ticket in hand, and it took an inordinate amount of negotiations to get me a seat on the plane, all this despite status and all, which clearly meant zero under the circumstances.

Also I think Delta missed the fact that I am responsible for much more than the $70,000 I spent and if I include my immediate family (spouse, children) who accompany me on flights, usually in business, I spent easily $125,000 on Delta in 2024. That is easily supported by the Delta invoices on my AMEX. Naturally that entire spending is up for grab now by any airline. I think my strategy will be to reach Diamond and then to shop status with other airlines. With $18,000 already spent so far on Delta as of 1/18/25, I expect to reach Diamond by February and will then try to reach similar status on AA, United and JetBlue, none of which are great airlines, but what this experience tells me is that I need to diversify airline providers after being snubbed by my main carrier.