Originally Posted by Tomphot

This is my situation as well. I've had years where I've hit the $15K spend, probably not this year. I charged over $200,000 on AmEx using 2 cards. If this change goes through, I will be cancelling 2 of the cards and moving spend over to another card with better returns.

Originally Posted by jamesteroh

Now Am Ex will lose all my business. Seeing the MQD waiver won't allow me to maintain DM and I can be PM on my own I'll just cancel those cards and send the $220K in spend to Chase or Citi.

Originally Posted by kitkat77

Also, FWIW, not everyone who is DM only values it for the upgrades. Sure, they're nice, but some of us who do fly 40+ weeks a year for business travel also value the other DM benefits like SkyClub access, the DM line, higher priority in IRROPs rebooking, higher priority for SDS...

Originally Posted by bennos

Eh, except for SkyClub access (which you can buy for a few hundred), I've found the other benefits effectively the same as a PM.

Originally Posted by Renes Points

I can all but guarantee that is not the case in this situation. In fact quite the apposite and think Delta is rather furious this has leaked out.

Originally Posted by jdrtravel

Does anyone know how much money Delta gets from Amex spend? What is $25K spend worth to DL?

I know that full rate Amex merchant fee is 3%, which would be $750, though plenty of merchants pay less. If Delta gets half of that (and I have no idea what they actually get), plus some part of the $95/$195 annual fee, we are talking no more than $500 to Delta for $25K spend.

If people are actually getting away with spending much less than $15K, I can see why DL would want to eliminate the spend waiver from DM which comes with very valuable perks, especially GCU's and SC access.

Originally Posted by sdbike

Yesterday I wrote to several top execs at AMEX to convey my intentions with respect to my card loyalty should Delta announce the move to eliminate the $25,000 waiver to qualify for Diamond status in lieu of flying $15,000 worth of MQD's. I got a call about 4 hours later from a number I did not recognize and let it go to VM. I listened to my VM and it was an Exec Secretary or Assistant to the Executive team that wanted me to call back. I did. She was very concerned and alarmed by my email. She said she consulted with their social media dept, fellow colleagues and some Execs and they had not heard anything about this. I explained that this was not an announcement but a rumor at this point, where it came from and how we, as customers of theirs felt about it. She was most interested in that so i gave her the name of several blogs where she could read the comments from their own customers about what all of our intentions are. I said specifically in my email what cards I had with them and where I would be transferring my spend to, (Chase) and implored them to do all they could to help change Delta's position should this rumor come true. I told her that we all vote with our wallets, and she can see how much I spend with them. She understood that my reason for spending all my money with them would go out the window if Delta pulled this move. Her apparent lack of knowledge about this and concern was either the greatest acting job in the world, or was a sad commentary on the communication between Delta and themselves. She was very appreciative of the info I gave regardless of whether it was a rumor or not. It was extremely interesting to talk with her as it showed a level of honesty and customer skill I would like to deal with at any company. But I feel sorry for them if they really did not know anything about this, and it does come true. How much of a partner can they be, if something like this leaked out to the blogosphere and not to the top brass at AMEX first?

Originally Posted by dinanm3atl

Interesting. Could you PM me the email addresses?

And beyond that what are the proper channels to contact Delta?

I know back in the day sites like Consumerist provided the basic info to do an executive email blast(like to Comcast) and that worked well for me in the past with horrible horrible service. Literally had an executives assistant call me to schedule a call with said executive and the problem was fixed and more. Having an account with Comcast for almost 20 years seemed to have some benefit... and now new house they wouldn't price match AT&T on fiber internet and bye bye comcast!

Originally Posted by dannyboy888

What we really need is more competition to drive prices down.

Originally Posted by dannyboy888

I think Delta is the one really calling the shots in this situation, not Amex. They really wanted to thin out the DM herd so this is the best way to do it. They want everyone to spend $15k. It won't be long before they start prioritizing upgrades by dollars spent.

Originally Posted by erasmusmrr

So if the DL Amex isn't the card with best returns, why do you charge anything more than the minimum required to get the waiver? ie, your ~$180 - $200k of spend should already have moved to other cards.

To max out all 4 cards to get all 4 bonuses you need to spend 50 + 50 + 60 + 60=$220K

Originally Posted by dinanm3atl

Many I would think would be in the spend all on one card/family of cards and get those benefits. I spend well over the waiver and multiple mileage boosts and go beyond that beacause it's easy to track my family's spending in one place. Waiver is nice and it's useful to me and it's one reason I have it. No waiver to DM I can just change spending to get PM but use another card completely.

So just the waiver is one thing but how many people are spending beyond that?