OMG 330 posts already, I have some reading to do.

I was hundreds of posts late for the party and did something I've never done before: ate dinner at my computer desk... couldn't tear myself away.

And the worst part is, it's still all speculation based on a page DL made live apparently by mistake and was taken right - and I mean RIGHT back down.

Skyteam benefits for AS elites = none.

Agree... I suspect that DL management rediscovered the law of unintended consequences when they realized what they had done by allowing the mega-rollovers.

Enabling a situation where someone could still access DM benefits when flying DL (albeit infrequently), while spending multiple years qualifying for high elite levels on other airlines, was probably not what they envisioned when they were listening to the 2-years-after-his-MBA hotshot describing rollover to them. :D:D:D

Just finished pouring through the littany of speculation. But I'm guessing it'll be pretty close to what's real.

My initial thoughts was that $12.5K won't be that much, but then on second thought I realized that is a lot. UA decided to move away from the spend requirement didn't they?

Better, cause YQ really are fees from the airline, not taxes.

What I see that would be interesting is the PM that may fly 5 TPAC/TATL flights in J. That would say only be 100K MQM but if they paid $6K each ticket that would be $30K. That's what would be odd for the DM who hits that by flying more domestic for instance.

I wonder if there will be rollover MQD.

I should have been more specific and asked for the record for the DL forum. ;)

I get your point but they prices tend to be shown A/I. Many times it shocks me on a cheap fare how little of it is going to the airline and really wonder how they make money.
I have never taken a bump. Not once. But yet, I finished my MQY (Medallion Qualifying Year) with 3 segments paid with an e-credit. I will have to be honest, I am not sure where the credit came from.

So, why those and not others. I am not saying your are wrong. I am not all that troubled by this thing but the SkyTeam thing has a lot of outstanding questions about it. As some have already said...just go get your status on AS and use it on Delta. While always a joke, the one seemless integration thing will take a big hit. Fly whose metal on whose ticket stock....lots of questions there. And back to what I said before, will it get so complex that many people will just say screw it?

What about miscellaneous other fees? Do change fees count towards MQDs? Baggage fees? Options to pay the baggage fee even though you don't have to because you are DM? I always thought that a little odd. The people most willing and able to pay the baggage fees don't have to. SkyClub fees?

I have never thought of it this way before - that is an excellent point.

There is no rollover for the tier thresholds on the AMEX spend to get MQMs... correct?

My hunch... no rollover on MQDs either.

They probably recognize that doing away with MQM rollover would cause an insurrection. Can't imagine them wanting to saddle themselves with a MQD rollover scheme that they similarly would have difficulty doing away with later.

Presumably, the reason is that DL gets an actual slice of the revenue from its JV flights - everything is split according to relative levels of flying in the DL/AF/KL/AZ JV across the Atlantic. DL gets the same percentage of revenue for a DL operated JFK-LHR flight as it does for an AF operated LAX-CDG or KL operated IAH-AMS flight.

For the remainder of SkyTeam-operated flights, DL doesn't see one cent of the revenue. Even on codeshare routes, DL is essentially buying the seat from its partner at a pro-rated price so that it has the ability to offer an all-DL route to its customers. This is where the reverse becomes a question - if you purchase a KE-coded/DL-operated flight, DL actually does see most of the revenue. Will the program be set up to count this toward MQD when you didn't actually make the purchase from Delta?

I wish DL would do this, but why would they considering they just trampled on those of us locked into expensive M/SWU tickets?

I'd like to meet the people who are able to achieve Medallion status while not meeting such spending thresholds. Honestly, this does nothing to deflate the medallion ranks.

Well placed numbers
 

After lurking FT for some time, I got involved and began tracking my stats in detail and with total honesty to see how things look. I think many here posted interesting content reflecting their market position and current intentions. I believe this will be reviewed by Delta and AMEX.

I'm PM with a Delta Reserve. I rolled over more than 30K MQM so I can't say the AMEX put me into a higher status this year but it may in the future. AMEX sent me a survey asking about the value of MQM's vs other "rewards" and is also pondering adjustments.

The 75K+ MQM's earned via Delta last year resulted from just over 9K in spend. My flights span a range of T to M fares. This seems like they have really looked at the numbers and sought a reasonable threshold for each level (assuming 2500, 5000, 7500, and 12500) on the spending requirement.

The AMEX spend is what seems to be very vague. AMEX has high merchant costs when compared to other cards. My decision to use AMEX costs the vendor about twice the amount of using another card. It would seem that Delta and AMEX would want to tier my spend on the AMEX for each level if waiving the Delta spend requirement. Alternatively, they might add a value for AMEX spend to my Delta spend to get to a MQD figure. Either way, it seems inherently reasonable to expect revenue for status in some form or manner.

The reduction of MQM's for M class fares kinda sucks from my personal standpoint. This feeling, however, is made before all the details become available. It's possible the reduction will be offset by another benefit. Delta doesn't get it right all the time, but they have some smart folks working for them. I am curious to see how this all plays out over the next 24 months or so.

Thanks to all who shared their personal stats and plans. It is interesting reading and not too polluted by those who just want to be mean.

OTP

You cover a lot of points, and steex has pretty much covered it and I am duplicating his post as I was composing while that prior post was posted.

If Delta implements MQS, it would be reasonable to base it on dollars that Delta gets to keep. That would exclude taxes, but not fees. It would exclude codeshares (operating carrier gets most of the money), but JV flights would count as those dollars are pooled with the partners. And a SkyTeam (or partner airline) flight that is not even a codeshare provides Delta with even less money if any at all.

The UA trial balloon was far less official, as it merely consisted of leaked information to a blogger. It was strictly UA metal, and I don't remember if it included JV flights or not.

You and I share one thing, I have never taken a bump either. I get offers when I can't take them, and can't get a bump when I would love one. :(

edit: found a link to the leaked UA qualifying thresholds:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemil...-plus-program/

David