Dieuwer

You seem to missing that I was talking about cost, not mere spend.

xliioper

Not missing it at all. You seem to be missing the actual revenue picture. Revenue from spend on an AMEX card is very fundamentally different from revenue on direct spend. Treating them as somehow the same is just plain silly. $25K spend on a DL AMEX card represents far less revenue to DL than $15K in direct spend on DL itself. Yes, they don't provide a service in the former case, but they are also taking in only a small fraction of that $25K in spend. Also, they have a mileage liability with that AMEX revenue. If they are getting a 15% margin on the $15K spender, that person is likely quite a bit more valuable than the AMEX waiver person.

Unlike the AA/Barclaycard tie-up, you do not actually "earn" MQD from DL Amex spend. You get a full and complete waiver regardless of your overall DL spend. Your argument would make some actual sense if you were applying it the AA/Barclaycard relationship. It makes no real sense when trying to apply it to the Amex MQD waiver.

baccarat_king

Actually, MQD earning can be much inflated if Delta can not "see" the actual spend and has to interpolate based on fare class. I've had 055 stock for Air France flights (for my kids, since I have the MQD EU Waiver) credit MQDs at 6x+ the actual amount spent on the ticket. Of course, some of these are extreme cases. It's seldom bad if Delta can't see the actual purchase price and has to "guess" based on fare class.

You might want to add, those who fly "cheap" routes with decent MQM earning. For example, someone who typically travels between LHR/SEA (even on the nonstop). Fares can be very cheap. My calculations have shown you can make Diamond Medallion with around £7000/$8600 in spend. True, not as good as the days when you could make Northwest platinum for around $3000'ish. But, still pretty darn good.

In any event. I've often argued that "top tier" should be based on spend. Since you can't really be "top tier" if you spend less than $10,000. I know, you also have Delta360, but both should be based on spend. There should be no waivers for Diamond Medallion. And there should be a significant spend requirement in comparison to Platinum Medallion.

But, I'm going to guess, Delta get's more bang for the buck having more Diamond Medallions and offering fewer perks than a much more selective pool of high spend Diamond Medallions.

In any case, I'd never be in the "high spend" Diamond Medallion category. Since my tickets are all on my own dime. But, I appreciate the fact that it "might" be good business to restrict access to your top tier to those who actually spend the most. I've seen that with other loyalty programs. And, I do believe it's does create the most valuable status perks for those that actually earn the status level.

Zorak

The SIN MR is frequently available in the $800-$900 range (sometimes less) and is almost 25K MQMs if routed through ATL...

baccarat_king

I believe my point further emphasised. Hence, why have such loop holes? At least for "top tier" like Diamond Medallion. I still stand by my assertion it just dilutes the value of Diamond Medallion. Though, if one can coordinate getting Diamond Medallion in the course of "normal travel" for $5000'ish; that's awesome. Heck, Delta has left the "gate open" for the possibility. Why not take advantage.

Zorak

I don't think anyone disputes that more elites = dilution. But while less dilution is better for the elites, it's less clear that's better for Delta.

baccarat_king

I think Delta has made it very clear, by allowing a credit card waiver applicable instead of MQDs for Diamond Medallion.

Hey, those who spend the least and still earn Diamond Medallion are doing it right. (of course, those fortunate enough to qualify via OPM is a pretty effective and low-cost method of earning/keeping status...)

Formulanone

Amongst most Flyer Talk members, flying 35 weeks a year with a connection outbound and inbound, or piling up 125,000 miles...is still a lot of flying. Those kinds of numbers can get diluted in our self-created hyperbole. Of course, you can live out of CVG, XNA, and/or HSV and spend your way out of those problems.

Typically, hardcore members of any specialist forum might be the most passionate or most enthusiastic, but are usually a tiny percentage of an industry's customer base.

I think it would be more interesting to know who racks up the most in $200 change fees. (I probably hit 10-12 changes a year, none of which moves the MQDometer.)

dinanm3atl

There are a few partners that do get MQD and actually get MORE than Delta metal. For instance I flew MU(China Eastern) JFK-PVG-NRT RT. The ticket was ~600 dollars. I netted 1334 MQDs. Delta Metal would have gotten ~400-450 on the actual fare.

AND MQMs were more because 2 of the flights had a 150% MQM Bonus PLUS with the Medallion bonus the amount of miles I earned and MQDs were better than a Mileage Run I did which was all Delta metal and costed more and flew more miles!

dinanm3atl

Think this is something a lot overlook.

How many flyers on any given light booked because the flight was the cheapest on Kayak? Or because it was recommended to them "Oh you flying to see your parents? Most options on Delta because you live in Atlanta".

I'd wager most are not 'frequent flyers' in the sense that a majority of us are. Many trying to 'game' the system with 800 dollar flights to SIN once a year to supplement our actual travel. I did that this year and will next year again to get Diamond. Do I 'deserve' less perks? Or deserve less upgrades to someone that flew 5 times to Asia for work in Business class? I dunno.