Delta increasing Diamond MQD Waiver to $250,000
 

Every once in a while I pop over to Rene's Points to catch up on his blog, and today I'm glad I did - he's got what appears to be the scoop on a serious issue for those us who are in the DM zone using DL branded AMEX cards.

Bottom line: DL is planning on limiting the MQD spend waiver to Platinum and below. So you'll need to hit $15K on DL ticket spend for DM qualification, instead of qualifying via the $25K waiver.

http://renespoints.boardingarea.com/...edallion-year/

He's got contact info on the above for DL & AMEX along with good suggestions on how to make noise about this horrible devaluation.

I'd be interested to know how big of a problem this really is. How many people are able to fly 125k miles for less than $15k? They should get diamond as a consolation prize as that would be miserable.

OK, I'll poke the bear.

Wouldn't this be the *opposite* of a devaluation for folks who actually meet the spend requirements for DM? And even for PMs meeting spend requirements on BMHQK fares who now are competing with other PMs on LUTXV fares, vs. those LUTXV fares being held by DMs who then trump our higher-priced ticket?

Thinning the ranks and all...

I agree it'll thin the ranks... lol... as I'm one of them.

I'd have to check my ticket spend for the last two years, but I suspect I wouldn't have made DM without the $25K waiver the past 2 years.

My 1st year as DM I had some F long haul that gave me a bunch of rollover, so I'm guessing I'd be 1/3 years of DM w/o the waiver.

A mixture of an upgrade and a downgrade
 

I think it upgrades the value of DM and the Reserve card and downgrades the value of the other cards.

DM upgrade: Fewer DMs reduces competition at the top

Reserve upgrade: If allthe former DMs are PMs, then PMs with a Reserve card will generally do better.

Non-Reserve downgrade: No longer helps with getting DM

fwiw, last year I made > 145kMQM for <$10kMQD. I have no idea how common or rare I am.

I do enjoy DM and would be sad to see this implemented, but I'd not be very worked up about, or feel that DAL had shortchanged me. My 2016 flying is almost certainly _not_ who they want to reward with top tier status.

Let's hope this went the same way as Rene's breaking news that you would no longer be able to double dip on Amex boosts.

Answering earlier question WorldTrvl -

Flights to SIN, BKK or KUL via NRT OR to JNB from East Coast achieve approx. 20,000 miles. They cost typically under $1,200 coach (due to route competition vs. other carriers) depending how far in advance they are acquired.
It is possible to take 5 of these flights within a year or with some combination of roll-over and obtain 125,000 flying miles for under $15k.

I suggested this possibility several months ago, and most poo-poo'ed the idea as they believed the AMEX spend was far too valuable for DL to do that. Not that I'm happy with the move, but I'm not particularly surprised. At least I'll be saving quite a bit of money every year on mileage runs :) Fortunately, it was more of a hobby for me than a necessity and I'll just move on. The one positive is that we'll no longer have to listen to Rene crowing about how early in the year he hits the MQD waiver spend threshold. As usual, Rene has difficulty in separating the personal from the professional --

" This will cost Delta and Amex as I foresee, if this does roll out as expected, massive CO-branded AMEX card cancellations (think Costco worthy dumping numbers of cards)."

So we are to believe the population of DM members using the MQD waiver for status is roughly equal to the number of Costco members who held Costco Amex cards? Sorry, but I'm pretty confident there are several orders of magnitude in difference there.

I have been DM for years and my average YTD spend is usually around $3,000 MQDs. I usually earn at least 100k MQMs from Amex boosts.

Im NYC based, so I benefit from relatively cheap and consistently low airfares for domestic travel and almost all of my long haul flying is J through skymiles redemptions.

This would certainly have an effect on me.

Would LOVE to be wrong on this one - sadly I am not.

There is limited time to make voices known or this will become the new policy.

144 segments last year with under 10k in spend. Needless to say, I would not bother to spend a penny on the card if this was removed. (Much better currencies out there, obviously). I would also have to seriously consider just giving up on DL, period. My primary reason for flying them was that I could get to DM as apposed to AA Platinum or Plat Pro.

Agree this is a benefit to those that actually meet the spend--but there are a few of us out there that Delta and AMEX would miss out from, I imagine.

It always struck me that there should be different Amex spend thresholds for the waiver for DM and lower levels. What about $25k for PM and below, and $50k for DM?

United was known for copying Delta, but the tables seem to have turned.. Delta first copied United in adding 15k miles to partner awards, and now, potentially this..

This is quite the devaluation. I'm going to hit DM with about 7 or 8K in spend this year, and the Amex waiver. I will absolutely be writing and calling in as Rene suggests. I certainly hope the group outcry has an effect.