DeltaFirst

Haha, that's right. Delta Second!

jamesteroh

Just got off the phone with Am Ex. They do pay attention to the snail mails so I recommend everyone snail mail the people listed on Rene's blog post.

An assistant to the one of the execs I emailed called. It was a 336 area code from Geensboro as an fyi for those that screen their calls.

Lady was very nice and thanked me for my concern and notifying them.

Reading between the lines from what she said it sounds like she has made several calls concerning this. She stated that no one at Am Ex was aware of the changes and that Delta is telling them there are no changes at this time and for the time being I should just consider it "business as usual" and she would be emailing me her contact info if I have any future concerns.

I'm surprised with a change this big that Am Ex isn't being kept in the loop on it. I figured there was some kind of contract between Am Ex and Delta concerning the benefits the card offers. If enough people write to Am Ex maybe Delta will realize what a foolish decision this would be and/or make changes similar to American's policy where they will give 50 percent credit towards the MQD or do a tier base for the MQD based on spend.

The Am Ex rep said that hopefully it is just an internet rumor. I told her there have been several "rumors" posted about Delta changes that didn't involve Am Ex on the sources I got the info from and they have materialized a couple months later and wanted to express my concern to Am Ex in hopes they could help prevent this one from materializing. I also told her that I get a lot of benefits from my Delta Am Ex cards and if the MQD waiver goes away for diamonds the MQM benefits will not be of any use and I'll be closing those accounts and taking the spending elsewhere and I know there are other diamonds who will do the same.

I realized after I sent the letters out I didn't include my phone number so she obviously had pulled up my account based on the address and name on my letter to get my phone number and I'm sure they are looking at the spend.

The lady from Am Ex was very nice and professional. I wish reps from every company I had to deal with were that professional.

I think it would make sense to do a tier spend, i.e. 20K for silver, $50K for gold, $75K for PM and $100K for DM. There are some years I don't have $7,500 in MQD but I could live with having to meet that with a $25K AM EX spend, I could just do a couple paid first trips on routes that are hard to get upgraded on.

Renes Points

Thank you James for your efforts to put pen to paper! Yes this does matter.

Do keep in mind Amex was blindsided with the change from 1+2 for Delta Reserve card to just card holder. I think Delta tells Amex very little of what they are planning to do until it happens.

I do agree we can maybe, just maybe, prevent this from happening if we make enough noise!

Halloweverybody

I think they should credit 1k in MQD for every 10K in spend.

jamesteroh

I wouldn't be surprised either if Delta takes away the MQD waiver and then brings back a benefit where if you charge $25K you get a partial credit for the MQD or you have to charge $100K for the MQD waiver making it sound like an enhancement.

They did it with the Gordon's. They put Gordon's in the skyclubs for a while and it came back to bite them and then brought back the free Bailey's and different midshelf brands then they had before and sent out an email making it sound like an enhancement (I don't remember any emails going out when they took away the free Bailey's and when the substituted Tanq and Skyy with Gordon's).

They used to allow up to like 8 people on your reservation to upgrade to C+ and then eliminated all companions and then a couple months later they sent out an email saying they were making enhancements to the program by allowing a +1 to upgrade to C+ and First (this is something I do consider an enhancement though and am glad Delta limits it to +1 in C+).

ty97

This may have changed, but my understanding a year or two ago was that AA only offers FCM such as this when they will have open seats in F after clearing all elite upgrades. IOW, if there are 10 seats open in F and only 6 elites on the upgrade list, AA will try to sell 4 seats. But if there are 20 elites on the upgrade list, there will be no FCM offers.

Again, this was my understanding when I was flying AA regularly, so it could have changed.

DeltaFirst

What if this is just one big self-fulfilling prophesy?

StayingHomeIsBetter

IIRC, Amex promised those of us who complained about the above that there would be an off-setting benefit forthcoming... which never materialized.

The "take away a real benefit, give something lesser back, and call it an enhancement" scam has, indeed, been run multiple times.

Sort of like the reverse of the Washington DC logic that claims that trimming a spending increase that has not yet been implemented is actually a spending cut.

StayingHomeIsBetter

How so?

RobertS975

Not a single post or piece of news in three days. If the rumor is true, I wouldn't want Delta to think that they have already weathered the angst of the masses (if DMs can be considered "the masses")..

dinanm3atl

Nothing happening would my guess at this time. People that care emailed and got whatever response they got. Seems now it is a wait and see.

I would think 100K spend would be pretty high for a DM Waiver. 50-60K Is doubling the spend and I would think that would do it. Still rough as the benefit as stood for quite some time and I don't believe it really is costing them anything. The benefits, some have a cost, but many others don't have real cost to Delta. IE a free upgrade at the gate.

Renes Points

September or October was the date I was told this news would come out. The last mega change years ago was ~Oct 14th as a data point.

I think those who care have taken the time to put a letter in USPS as those seem to matter. Yep, now we wait to see what if anything happens and if efforts have had any impact at all.

dinanm3atl

Something of this size the decision was likely made. I hope it doesn't because I make it via waiver, and spend well beyond that, but likely would only make Platinum on pure Delta spend. And not going to just spend 5K or more just to do it.

New strategy would be some MR on partner airlines that earn on distance flown. Which brings up an interesting point. You can fly from JFK-PVG-NRT and back on MU for 600-700 dollars and get a T, B, B and T Fare. The MQDs earned is FAR more than the same flights on Delta unless it's booked at a very expensive time. They want to delete waiver but you can still fly this route a few times and rack up MQDs and the money spent isn't even on Delta.

gooselee

This is true, but I'd suspect it's a very, very small fringe population that would realize/discover/execute that option when compared to people who purposefully pursue the Amex waiver.

1) Amex waiver is marketed/advertised and quite visible. One would imagine that its lack of application to DMs would be equally visible (they'd have to disclose that the waiver doesn't apply for DM).
2) Only a small subset of people actually know/have calculated the nuances of partner earnings to that extent (even within the FT/MP population).
3) Only a subset of people are inclined to fly MRs.
4) Only a subset of people inclined to fly MRs would actually want/be able to do this.

The intersection of #s 2, 3, and 4 is required to find someone who would purposely take a very specific partner MR to circumvent MQD rules. DL is banking that the vast majority of people just respond to #1 by either being happy with PM or moving more travel back to DL to get their MQDs up.

Renes Points

Yep. If the hammer falls it will be MU & AM cheap biz fares for the win. Even a low dollar base fare earns a ton of MQD spend. The funny thing is so little will go to DL for those who do this to avoid MQD spend at DL.