b8b

Another change coming to Centurion (not for the better): Starting March 1, 2015, and effective for the 2015 Medallion year, the Platinum Medallion status offered as part of Centurion Membership will change from "earned" to "complimentary."

There are currently two differences between earned and complimentary Platinum Medallion status:

1. Complimentary status does not include the Medallion mileage bonus on paid flights.
2. Access to Platinum Medallion Choice Benefits will become available only after the member flies a minimum of 8 Delta-marketed and operated flight segments during the Medallion year.

bubu-SNA

ouch...Centurion benefits really are on their last legs if true. What is the source of this information?

b8b

Amex.

turkeyRIOO

Only 5 miles/$ for a plat? Delta seems to be trying to increase the value of their currency for next year. I hope we see a real increase in award availability in 2015.

PMFR

Can you be just a little bit more specific: URL; letter; email????

scubadu

You might want to consider adding the possibility of "inside" information to your list...

Regards

Centurion

^Scubadu has it on point. Flyertalk is monitored by Amex. All of you should just thank the OP and move on so this forum does not also go downhill just like Centurion card benefits.

bubu-SNA

...if I'm going to be a "complementary" Platinum on DL and differentiated as such, DL status is going to erode. Its a slippery slope...likely to turn into "earned" plats getting upgrades ahead of "comp" platinum regardless of fare class.

This is horrible news for the centurion product.

PWMTrav

Delta is a very profitable airline right now. The industry itself is doing well for the first time in like 15 years and DL is at the top of that heap. On one hand, they probably don't need the liquidity that their credit card partners brought them in the past via bulk mileage sales, but on the other I'm really surprised that Amex didn't have a tighter contract around these benefits. At one point, Amex was a big reason DL stayed afloat. It could be that any lockup provisions in the partnership expired and DL is letting some benefits go, though.

I'm really not seeing what Centurion has that's worth that much more than the Platinum card now, though. I don't know that I'd personally pay the annual fee difference for DL Platinum status (earned or comp) outright if it were offered.

This might be the entire industry's flagship product, so I'm very interested in seeing what Amex does.

Centurion

You are correct. Amex bailed out Delta and it is public if you read the Qs. I never ever thought Delta benefits would be reduced. Some major mess ups are happening at Amex. If Amex were a smaller company people would be fired already. Mistakes show up quickly in small companies but Amex is so big someone just might round the Centurion downfall away in the numbers.

PWMTrav

It could be that Amex doesn't care, or it doesn't make sense to incur the costs of caring. I wonder if Centurion members are really leaving/downgrading at any meaningful rate. And even then, there's probably someone waiting to get a "black card" to take their place.

xolinlevh

IMO thats how it should be. 'earned' status holders should get the upgrades before 'comp' passengers. I dont think its ever realistic to expect a comp status to trump loyal customers to Delta. The calculations to determine your position on the upgrade list take into account many factors such as status, fare bucket, ticket cost, your total MQMs, MQDs, etc etc. I dont think its reasonable for a Cent holder who flys 1 Delta flight a year to expect to be given an upgrade before a plat card holder who flys 60+ flights, with 100,000 MQM.....

Just my 2 cents.

stimpy

+1.

There have been plenty of rumours about Centurion here in this forum that have proven to be false. I'll believe it when I see it. Not that it's a huge deal anyways. If you fly enough to where the extra miles really matter, then you'll have your normal status anyways. This means nothing.

scubadu

If someone flies enough to earn "normal status" anyhow, then they wouldn't need/care about gaining status from a credit card, no? That's sort of the whole point of the benefit is it not?

Regards

stimpy

Right. What I'm saying is that the loss outlined in the OP really doesn't mean much. We will still get all the other DL Platinum benefits. If you don't fly that much, the loss of bonus miles won't really affect you. And the Choice thing was getting lowered just about every year anyways. So what have we lost?

Personally I use the status for buying award tickets and getting taken care of well the few times per year when I fly DL and I run into problems. I will still get those benefits assuming the OP is correct.