jimrpa

So, when I’m traveling heavily for business, I’m EASILY blowing past the DM spend requirement - without blinking an eye. I’m usually struggling to make the MQMs though and end up squeaking by thanks to my personal travel.

Ive never understood the purpose of the $25K waiver, other than to reward AmEx “whales”, and I don’t see how a person can hit 125K MQM without getting pretty close to the $15K spend?

jamesteroh

I'm really surprised Delta hasn't closed the foreign address loophole as well, at least for diamonds. I thought one of the reasons foreign addresses were exempt was because it was a lot harder for people living outside to get a Delta credit to meet the waiver. If that was one of the reasons, they should require the MQD for out of country residents as well seeing how hard it will be for most US residents to get in $250K in spend

jamesteroh

I know of one financial institution that allows boat and car loan payments to be made via a credit card for no fee. However they don't accept Am Ex, just visa or MC.

jamesteroh

Rollover and/or Am Ex spend. Also Hilton gives 250 MQM's in q4 on stays of two nights or more so easy to rack some MQM's up there as well. If someone is going to put $250K on an Am Ex next year for 2019 diamond status I hope they are using a personal and business reserve and plat. If they do that gets them 100,000 miles. All they need is 25K MQM's which shouldn't cost them anywhere near $15K

More of my MQM's right now are from rollover and Am Ex spend than BIS miles (but I do fly a lot).

RobertS975

And many of us have told you that it is relatively easy AND relatively common to hit 125 MQMs without coming close to the the $15K MQDs. But now matter how often this is repeated, some refuse to see it. Credit card bonuses, rollovers, partner flights and pay with miles for starters!

trnflyr

MQD does not work for us. The Amex waiver has not worked for my spouse and two minor children, the four of us always had Plt of Dia status since the kids were two years old. We travel together and not for business. We don't have a need for four Amex credit cards so we can't all four benefit form a waiver. With the cost of fares domestically, it is impossible to even make a $9000 MQD spend. Since the spend went up to $9000 and $15000, we just end up with the lower medallion status even though we have the MQM. Makes DL less valuable to us.

Suffice it to say, unless the MQD changes, or a single credit card spend gives a household waiver for spouse and children, we will be changing to OW when we hit 2MM lifetime status. We will use the Sky Team Elite international lounge access privileges when flying sky team internationally and then just fly AA/OW domestically.

GrayAnderson

As noted, there's at least a nominal value to the SkyPesos insofar as they can be used for certain legs. IIRC availability tends to be pretty good on Virgin Atlantic, and if you can shoot from the hip on a vacation then Virgin Australia is another workable option. Consider that on a VA award LAX-SYD/BNE you're looking at...95k points in J IIRC, so if you're able to bash two such trips (or one round-trip) then you're probably going to be in the black on that alone. Of course, that also requires having a way home...but a pair of tickets to Australia ain't a bad prize at the end of the day.

kitkat77

I travel almost every week of the year, all for business with maybe 1-2 personal trips. Some years my work route (always the same, not my choice, restrictive travel portal engaged, usually domestic) means high MQM, MQS, MQD. Some years, like this one, it's a squeak into the finish line with help from the 10K boost and rollover from a good year.

Last year was a 175+ segment, 160K+, 25K+ MQD year, this one will probably approximate a 100 segment, 140K (with 45K boost from rollover and cc), 14K MQD year.

I guess then, I would fall into the Amex "whale" and rollover camp, that all the "pure and true" qualifiers hate. Those who seem to forget that MQD wasn't even around 5 years ago and are feeling very holier than thou at the moment and na-na-na-ing and those who aren't quite good enough (until the MQD spend winds up above whatever they are currently spending, because I can almost guarantee it will).

It was nice to have the cushion of the MQD waiver, the 10K boost, and the possibility of using PWM to mileage run into DM in a lean year, but oh well. It is what it is.

Back to the topic. I believe that vouchers count for MQDs, no? So that is a very remote possibility for those on the edge... just hope for a $1K Delta voucher or two that can be redeemed for a mileage run?

Kwaj boy

^^^^^

jimrpa

Please don't misunderstand me - I've no objections to the AmEx "whales". I think it's totally reasonable. I just find it kind of surprising that, if you're flying 175+ segments and 165K+MQMs for business in a year, you're not getting pretty close to 15K MQDs. You must be getting some very inexpensive flights (less than an average $170 per flight round-trip assuming your flights are direct)? I think the idea is that, if you're hitting $14K in spend, Delta's hoping to get that last $1K somehow.

kitkat77

My point is that the 175+ MQS and 160+ MQM years, I did make the MQD requirement with no issues. It's this year when my route became direct and cheap (direct competition with JetBlue/Southwest), that I will not quite make the MQD and will only make the MQM due to rollover and boost. All of my stats would be firmly PM (MQM, MQS, MQD). I don't have the extreme rollover I've seen around, but it was enough.

The MQD waiver was a help for a lean year like this one, but like I said, is what it is. At least they told us now.

My prediction is that next the MQD will be raised by ~$2k every year.

CKDGM

Based on previous experience I bet that if buying in advance, I could make a SEA-BOS RT every two weeks for a year and spend less than $7500 MQDs (avg $289/RT once taxes and fees are subtracted) while flying almost 130K MQMs; no rollover, no CC miles boosts. I'd be way under the MQS pace, but my Butt would most definitely spend a lot of time and miles In Seat.

A bicoastal consulting job could easily generate that sort of travel pattern; it's not like cheap mileage runs to SIN or HKG or wherever. That's all nonstops, so no minimum segment mileage for bogus connections. Perfectly legitimate and very frequent flying, but in a competitive enough market that the MQDs aren't there unless you're buying F/P/A/G all the time.

papertec

...as it should be.

BenA

Yes, I believe so. The personal data profile leak that happened back in 2013 certainly included Amex CC spend data and whether you had hit your spend waiver, and Delta even shows your spend progress on your Delta.com profile.

I doubt specific individual merchants are shared, but it's entirely possible that general demographic analysis information (marketing segments, and possibly spend on competing airlines) is shared as well.

ATOBTTR

Wouldn't they have to given that your progress towards the $25K MQD waived displays on your profile? Thus Delta knows how much you're putting on a DL branded AmEx.