MSPeconomist

Sadly Best Buy points expire at the end of every calendar year regardless of whether the account is active.

gooselee

As does Hilton.

To clarify, my earlier question was specifically about earning status, not rewards (though with many retail programs the earning method is the same).

TheMadBrewer

When status and rewards are purely revenue based, SkyMiles really becomes nothing more than a rebate program. It is not hard to see purchasing entities requiring those "points" being returned to them. The old answer was "it is my butt in the seat, I deserve the rewards" but with a totally revenue based program the butt doesn't matter...

naples_flyer

I have been a Diamond since the beginning and I have grown increasingly ambivalent about the program. As Delta once proclaimed "When everyone is elite no one is".

If this change happens it will either propel me to leave or step up my spending and stay. I had a lot of Amex Membership Rewards points with the 50% back on Amex Platinum Card. I used them for two flights in 2018...a China Eastern flight JFK-SIN in J and an Air France JFK-BCN flight in F. As I understand it I will get MQDs based on miles flown so I should easily requalify for 2019. I want to try one year with a "thinner herd" before I make a long term decision. I hope this change happens.

yohanson

The program fills my needs and probably will until retirement. Then I'm not sure. Like I said before in the beginning of this thread, I don't need the waiver. I will, I'm certain, after I retire. I don't have $15K budgeted for travel right now.

MSPeconomist

Either you're much older than I suspect or you're failing to consider that the DL FF program will change many many times before you retire.....and most of those changes will not be in your favor.

yohanson

I'm 52. I plan on checking out at 56-58. I've weathered all the other storms and my MegaCorp thinks of me as a superstar. I'm not worried.

scracer14

I'm puzzled a bit by this. Would your "six figure spend" go away out of spite, or because you only spend on Amex for the waiver?

If the latter is the case, you only need 25K as it stands now.

If the former is the case, then you should currently be only spending 25K on a delta amex, and the rest of your spend should be on higher return cards, no?

What I'm saying is that if you value the Amex program regardless of the waiver, why would you leave? And if you only value the Amex program for the waiver, why are you spending 6 figures when you only "need" to spend 25K for your perk?

StayingHomeIsBetter

You are spot on there. ^

gooselee

On the RDM side it already is a rebate program, and a pretty good one, honestly. If you're a DM, you're basically getting at least 9-10% back on each and every purchase (taking off some for taxes and assuming PWM as a floor). Stack that with credit card earnings and it seems quite solid in comparison to other programs, no?

GatorBlues

I fly and spend at a Platinum level. I max two reserve cards (one personal, one business -- $60,000 each) for the MQM bonuses to make Diamond. I typically go over the spend threshold a little on each card and thus put about $125,000 to $130,000 on Amex skymiles cards each year. If I no longer need so many MQMs because I can't make Diamond through a spend waiver, I'll downgrade one reserve card to a delta plat amex, put only $25K on it (one MQM bonus and a spend waiver just in case my ticket spending falls a little short of the Plat requirement), and cancel the other card. If I no longer need MQM bonuses, the money would be better spent on Chase.

Again, my situation may be so unusual that Delta isn't going to worry about people like me in designing its program. That's fine. Given how generous Chase is right now, it might make sense to shift more spend to Chase even if Delta doesn't change its MQD waiver rules. Upgrades have been so sparse lately that pushing for Diamond may not be worth it. On the other hand, Diamond has been very helpful for getting rebooked in a couple weather or mechanical travel disasters over the years. It's tough to put a value on those kinds of soft benefits when evaluating Amex versus Chase.

pvn

I don't see why the method used to calculate the miles matters at all when determining who gets them. There are already companies that do this with distance-based programs.

jamesteroh

Please delete posted in error

jamesteroh

I'm in the same situation. Reserve card for both business and personal as well as a Platinum for both business and reserve. If this change goes through I will keep the personal Reserve just for the Skyclub access and one companion ticket. Other ones are going bye bye which is $1,100 in annual fees lost to Am ex as well as the transaction fees on all the spend (I always spend just enough for both MQM boosts on every card). IF I make any spend on the reserve it will be $30K for one MQM boost. I should have enough in MQD spend to make PM and definitely enough MQM's but if I will require the waiver then I'll do $30K for one MQM boost and the waiver and that card goes in the drawer until 1/1.

If there are a lot of people in our situation that is going to hit Am Ex. If there are only a few people likes us in that situation won't be a huge loss, but if there aren't that many DM's depending on the waiver why would they spend all this time making the change?

There are a LOT better cards to use the spend on than the 1 skypeso/$. Even for Delta purchases the 4.5% on the CSR is a better return most times than 2 skypesos/$.

I'm looking for PM to get hit next. I wouldn't be surprised if they eliminate the MQD waiver in a couple years for that and/or raise the MQMs back up to 100K.

pvn

The weirdest part about this all is everyone is mad at Amex. I'm gonna stop my amex spend. Amex gonna lose my annual card fees.

If this change happens, it's 100% Delta's decision. There's no way Amex wants this to go away. Yet nobody seems to have plans to hit Delta in the wallet.