MSPeconomist

NO the problem IMO is that this change does NOT eliminate the waiver. It just reserves the waiver for those willing to do extreme amounts of MS and a few others who can put a quarter million dollars of business expenses on their DL AmEx cards. People who are spending $250,000 with DL AmEx cards for their own personal expenses are probably hitting well over $15,000 MQDs so it doesn't matter for them (and by doing this, they're losing out on benefits that they would get from other credit cards).

jamesteroh

And with United if you get enough MQMs after 100K they give you additional SWU's.

Problem is for those of us like me who are hub captive where DL has almost a monopoly on flights I have no choice for a lot of flights

If I lived in a city where there was competition I'd be dumping Delta in a heartbeat. For people who live in NYC or LAX or SFO and take JFK to either of those cities on a regular basis why stay loyal to Delta when you can't get upgraded on that route but you can on American with 25K fewer miles a year and a lot more lax MQD requirement/waiver.

I would love to see Jet Blue add DTW/JFK and DTW/LAX-Longbeach and DTW/SFO non-stop and I would give them my business on all those trips.

enconline

THIS. I have a colleague who is 360, has enough rollover to be DM thru 2021, but do to a position change, his travel has fallen dramatically, and he will drop to PM. He is NOT happy.

I guess Delta's view is "Even though you have been one of our best customers for several years, what have you done for me today".

bmmook

I am a personal traveler who has been DM since implementation. This will now leave me looking at other programs to join as I will never meet the $ thresholds to qualify for DM. I'll be DM next year and if I keep the AMEX card I will qualify for PM in 2019. I will probably cancel the card as there will be no benefits to me at PM level. Will never see upgrades. Good bye Delta after 20+ years of loyalty. Good bye AMEX as you offer no benefits to me going forward.

Dick Ginkowski

Been that way for over a decade.

Up to me they'd go back to BIS miles.

jamesteroh

I think Am Ex is going to be a LOT bigger loser over this than DL.

If I go back to being PM then Am Ex is going to lose over $200K a year in spend from me. I know they make no money in interest off me since I never carry a balance (which I'm sure all the big chargers do) but they are losing a lot in annual fees and merchant fees (I know they have the highest merchant fees out there because when I've asked a couple places I frequent why they don't accept am ex that was the reason I was given every time).

If I go back to being PM then my LHR trips will go to virgin and for personal overseas trips I will either be redeeming my RDM's (Delta would have gotten a paid coach fare out of me if I had an SWU) or if I can use chase points or do a cash fare through JFK you better believe that is going to the airline with the best business class product which definitely isn't Delta and I'll start using Amtrack or the cheapest carrier to Chicago. But being a hub captive I'm stuck using Delta on routes like SFO, LAX and SAN if I don't want to connecdt but I'll just RDM's to upgrade either as mile upgrade or do PWM

I'm sure most diamonds meet the PM MQD requirement anyway so no reason to keep the DL amex card for that unless they want the skyclub access/companion cert but if they keep the card why waste $25K of spend on it when it can go on a card with a lot better return

RobertS975

You will lose the upgrade simply because more will be buying FC seats with money or miles.

HeadInTheClouds

It is basically eliminating the waiver. Which on one hand would have been a simpler way to handle this. But Amex carved out an exception for people who are willing to generate >$75,000 in fee revenue to AMEX (at 3%). I can see how they would be willing to go out of their way for such people to make sure they are satisfied customers. They are paying Delta for this benefit in one way or another, something Chase apparently wasn’t willing to negotiate on behalf of their high spenders with UA.

The notion of spend being manufactured or not isn’t particularly relevant; of course they’re going to reserve the waiver for people putting that much cash on the bottom line for Amex. Any smart business would fight to make sure those people are happy.

MSPeconomist

Credit cards are profitable, but 3% of $250,000 is NOT $75,000.

jk88usa

FWIW I think there's a lot of us out there with this problem. Granted I'm only Silver and there is never hope this DM problem will come close to applying to me but so far I'm on the same sort of pace: 56k MQMs and I haven't even hit the Silver MQD threshold yet ($~2800 thus far), let alone gold.

I would venture to guess there are way more people that fail to hit the MQD requirement for tier levels than MQMs, since a lot of companies and personal travel get booked at the lowest price point possible (though FT folks may be a bit misrepresented).

xolinlevh

Roughly the same, a handful of long haul (MSP->SIN/MXP) flights for work, which always puts me in the back, means I can rack up MQM but much slower on the MQD side. Im only just over gold MQD even though im passing 140k MQM right now. Ive always relied on the waiver, and while in theory i could make the new waiver amount if i shifted ALL my spend to my DL card...i wont be doing that. Points on my other cards are far more appealing to me then SkyPesos

bubbashow

I understand some are upset because they can't keep a status they enjoyed, but there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong a level of "eliteness" actually being elite. If you can't spend 15k on Delta, there is NOTHING "elite" about your travel habits.

seanp7

So shockingly high, it's laughable. I agree with others - they should have just abolished it rather than this oddly poor PR move.

Flamenguista

I feel the same way.

DeltaFan4Now

I'm unfamiliar with card with these kinds of cash rebates - which one(s) give 3%? Or even 2.5%? I'd love to have one!