HDQDD

You made some false assumptions in your response. A) The miles aren't even in the top 5 reasons I care about status, B) I re-qualified for DM months ago (due to a ton of rollover MQM), C) currently I have Silver Status on UA (because of Marriott tie in) and I won't get any higher this year. So I'm a "free agent" for the rest of the year. Why would I fly a connection flight in coach when it doesn't help me get or maintain status AND I can fly in F on a non-stop...

Thanks Captain Obvious! FWIW: It also works the other way, I'm not going to stick to an airline because of what they did in the past.

Ok? Don't care about AA, but in the case of UA, I can hit 1K with significantly fewer flights (spend is mostly irrelevant, cause I'll hit that at UA or DL).

Mostly false. Elite status exists to get you to spend more (you got that right). Full stop.

It doesn't exist to get you to "take double connections". That doesn't even make sense. When someone is willing to chase status by choosing 2 flights instead of 1 *at the same price*, the airline is losing money on the deal...and losing the goodwill of those of us who value our home time. DL's $60K/yr MBAs might not have figured that out yet, but they have at UA and AA.

Like I said, I ain't mad at DL. They can do what they want, but this is a discussion board, so I've voiced my opinion on the matter. I would prefer to fly DL if their program was competitive with their peers (for my spending pattern).

Adelphos

I don’t get the focus on connections, segments, etc. Delta requires segments OR MQM, and then spend. You can rack up a lot of MQM on Delta purely flying direct flights (Transcons, transatlantic, ATL to west coast, LAX to a bunch of destinations, partner international flights, etc). AA is the only one with a segment requirement for “real” EXP. Very easy to Delta domestically with minimal connections

DiverDave

Winner winner, chicken dinner - same here!

David

beachmouse

So. I was pondering a bit while I was out for my run, and is the increase in MQD in part the other shoe dropping to offset being able to get MQMs on standard award tickets?

I mean like a lot of folks I cam out of the pandemic with a stupid number of redeemable miles and the first 20K of my MQMs this year came on award tickets. It’s going to be somewhat similar for 2023 for us- have $817 each in ‘sorry we messed up’ credits to burn before I start dipping into the miles stash again. The amount of cash paid for plane tickets from my household ends up reflecting maybe for 35% of travel consumed.

And while you get MQDs on award tickets, if you’re redeeming for main cabin, they’re really pretty token. So is the move here to better reward people who are actually paying directly for tickets rather than getting their tickets indirectly by charging their groceries to their co-branded credit card?

Which hey, can’t hate on Delta if that’s part of the logic. (Provided the MQD silver remains in place so I’m not impacted by it and all.)

manacit

For me, this is mostly a welcome update. Last year I was able to meet the MQD requirement for DM thanks to D1 being expensive + the boost they offered, but even with rollover MQMs didn't qualify. This year I'd make the DM requirement on MQMs with rollover, but I don't quite have the MQDs thanks to some cancelled travel due to COVID. I might do a mileage run in December depending on how some things shake out - I'll be in the range of 2,500 MQDs short based on what I have booked/planned now.

Moving forward, I'll likely be able to still make PM without worrying about needing to fly DL for every flight, but probably won't be able to flirt with DM anymore. With GUC devaluation and an Amex card that gets me access to the SC, there's just not a huge reason to make the push. I don't really care about upgrades (WFBF), and even RUCs have been pretty useless this year. The remaining benefit that I appreciate is the guaranteed C+ - with the free award redeposit not being important anymore, the reasons to chase higher status are diminishing more and more.

If this keeps the numbers of PMs and DMs lower I am fine with the increased requirements, mostly because it doesn't impact me.

troyintn

I was/ am still thinking they will do something with 360 or create a second invite-only tier. I am always close 60- 75K/ per year but never make it, AA/ UA requires 50k for their invite levels, and Delta is closer to 90K from what I can figure.

ElmhurstNick

I stopped flying with a mix of OPM and my own in 2019. But at the same time I moved to a market (RDU) where DL had the largest pre-covid footprint, and they kept on extending my PM through COVID while I kept on hitting the 25k Amex spend for more MQM.

GM is useless for me. I have PM for C+ at ticketing, the occasional off-season upgrade as long as I avoid ATL, and the RUCs to upgrade RDU-LAX/LAS/SEA at ticketing for leisure travel. When DL still was CR9 heavy out of RDU, it was fantastic, lots of easy upgrades, and I'd gladly pay the extra $100 to buy up to first on what was then my quarterly RDU-AUS OPM westbound flight.

Since it looks like DL is going to continue to deemphasize the RDU destination map, in the long run I can achieve a similar objective by just buying the UA E+ domestic subscription for $599. That didn't work for me when I was using OPM because most of my tickets were purchased 7-8 days in advance, pre-covid when load factors were high. But going into 2023 almost all of my travel will be purchased 45+ days out.

I do have 340k DL SkyPesos to use, so a mix of judicious PWM, one VS PE round trip per year out of IAD/BOS/JFK, and DL card spend will be my path forward. I suspect I will end up with 45-49k new MQM per year. Eventually I will alternate between PM years and SM years and use the PM years to drive the SkyPeso balance down with transcon PWM purchases combined with RUCs, and use the SM years to fly PE to Europe where status doesn't matter as much. Given that I can requalify for SM strictly on a PE ticket, a transcon using my companion ticket from my Amex and 25k of spend, there's no real reason for me to totally abandon Delta.​​​

FireEmblemPride

The URL is still broken, so I'll ask here.

Are the new Choice Benefits listed replacing the previous options, or being offered in addition to them? I imagine it's the latter?

Do DMs still get to choose of them?

Also, maybe random but I'm going to end the year with 250K MQMs; when my rollover occurs, do I get both my PM and DM rewards at the same time?

Mr. Tickets

The link should work if you sign into your delta.com account first and then click on the link. The choice benefits are basically in addition to the previous benefits. I don’t really see anything new to get excited about.

You will get your choice benefits for the new year as soon as you get the MQD’s for each level or the Amex waiver for each level.

SuperG1955

If you end the year with 250K MQM, you should now show that your 2023 status is DM. DL will deduct 125K MQM from your balance to 'fund' your 2023 status. You'll then have 125K MQM remaining and since you don't have an MQD requirement with your foreign address, in February 2023 when they do the rollover you should show your 2024 status as a DM and be able to choose your 2024 PM and DM Choice Benefits.

The new benefits are additional choices.

TrojanTraveler

I agree this will “thin the herd” in regards to upgrades, but I think upgrades would have gotten easier next year even if the requirements hadn’t changed. There are a huge amount of RUCs and GUCs out there, due to pandemic non usage and then rollovers. I have been using these certs on routes that previously I would not have, even flights of 500 miles, just because I have so many of them, and now they will all expire by next January. Aside from JFK-LAX, I have found it very easy to apply these certs at the time of booking this year. (Even when, say, there are only 4 seats left.). I’ve also noticed that when on these flights, the amount of people getting upgraded at the gate is very few to zero.

These excess certs will be gone come February 1, 2023. I could be wrong, but I believe complimentary upgrades will become better for Diamonds after that. If not, then I’d seriously consider not attaining Diamond. For intercontinental travel, I generally buy business class tickets (and at times have found that non-Skyteam carriers can be a better value/experience for my money), but buy coach for domestic travel. If complimentary upgrades are difficult next year, I really don’t see much value in attaining Diamond status.

josephstern

With you 100% on the coach for domestic, business for international. And now with the GUC change, I'd have to buy PE for international to get business, and even that's very tough. Most of my international is just on other carriers these days. Haven't flown Delta to Europe since 2019.

If I go DM next year, my plan is to get all RUCs and use them on domestic D1 routes and maybe Hawaii recliner routes.

wooootles

I was considering downgrading to Gold for 2024 qualification (Platinum now for 2023) and earning MQDs instead of waiver, and get more useful points like UR or Venture miles. Guess that's not happening. Congrats Amex, I guess I'll spend another $25k for Skypesos if I want to gun for status again.
Or I can free agent 2024 and redeem UR/Venture miles for more premium airlines like SQ or EK.

captaink

I'm still amazed that people think spending upwards of $100k annually on a DL branded credit card is a commonplace thing that is "too easy" - the fraction of the US population who have no trouble running that kind of spend (either their own, OPM, or business expenses) through a CC is vanishingly small, and only a fraction of those people are chasing airline status, and that group is further diluted by people who direct their spend to UA/AA because of where they live/fly.

Adelphos

- The number isn’t $100K - it’s $25K. I would imagine tens of millions of American households have more than $25K of after tax spending
- The number of Americans that fly 25K mikes a year is vanishingly small - yet it’s enough to impact upgrades and such for those that fly