Having had the weekend to read all the ranting around here, and also reflecting on things more reasonably, there seems to be somewhat of a path forward for Delta and myself as a soon-to-be free agent. I am a 1.5 million miler, with about 90-100K BIS miles flown per year (ex-pandemic), mostly international. The new "status" for me seems to be 2MM. When I fly TPAC, the Skyteam lounges in ICN, TPE, etc. make a real difference. (In ICN, for example, the Prestige Lounge is not nearly as crowded as the PP Matina Lounge by Gate 250 and the 7/11, and they open as early as 4:30 AM just as the LAX flight arrives. In LAX, let's not even talk about the Centurion Lounge - the KAL Lounge is peaceful and quiet). By 2026, I will lose Sky Priority because I will drop to FO, because there's a snowball's chance in Hell that I would spend money on any Amex DL cards. It will suck a bit, but there are other options to SEAsia.

It should have taken me between 3-5 years to reach 2MM, but now it may be 10-20 (perhaps more). Korean Air and China Air are actually quite good, but so are Japan Air, CX, SQ, NH, BR, etc. If the price is right, I MAY fly ST and credit the paid flights to Delta. Hopefully, this price-based and performance (as opposed to 'loyalty') rationale will pay off, and I will live long enough to see it.

So thanks again Delta. You made me realize how I need to be more loyal to myself. If our paths intersect, so be it, but I wouldn't be too sure. The world is bigger than you, despite all your attempts to suck everyone into that maelstrom you call your Delta ecosystem.

People mention "loyalty." A reminder these programs are NOT loyalty programs but marketing programs.

I feel like the path that DL has taken will be the path that other airlines take, sooner or later. With this, I feel like it will just be a matter of time before the FF programs become obsolete.

Pre-pandemic, most of my friends would bank their miles as points on generic cards. I never understood why they would not bank it on only one alliance? One of those friends recently flew on a half-paid, half-redemption on SQ. The other one flew JL in business with all her miles. Imagine my envy!

After mapping out all my flights for next year, I will make it to Silver again easily with MQDs to spare. No more rollover MQMs? Not worth it anymore! Why have I been restricting myself to mostly DL all these years???

basically it's a microcosm of the world in general.

Clutching at pearls dejavu again and again
 

Seems like a lot of pearl-clutching by a MINORITY of Skymiles members reliant on their AMEX to get them lounge access and better Medallion status for domestic upgrades. Per Delta, 70% of Skymiles members do NOT have a Delta-branded credit card (https://www.fastcompany.com/90934980...ards-its-a-lot).

Ease of climbing the elite-tier ladder got more difficult, but this has always been the case for all airlines year by year, and every "frequent-flyer" worthy of the label ought to be used to it.

I recall the similar furors when Delta stopped publishing award redemption charts. And when checked bag fees were introduced. And when in-flight drinks stopped being free. Wonder how many of those who promised to stop flying Delta actually left.

LOL, we're all still here and will still be here in 2025!

Typo. You mean 2035.

To me the climb is doable I will need to put a little thought/effort into it. My real question is why, what will I get in 2025 as a DM? That is the missing piece to this equation. AA CK used to require 50k ish to qualify now DM is pretty close to that level. What do I get for DM with 35K

Still minimal upgrades, thin the ranks but FCM has made UPGs pretty rare.
unlimited Club access is based on amex spend, I haven't heard anything about choice benefits good or bad
Better phone support, but overall the DM line is a shell of what it was, they answer quicker, but hard questions they need to transfer and have the same hold issues
Irops stresses Delta period, no next flight guarantees like AA
F baggage rules ( 3 bags 70 pounds) can't recall when I ever used that

Has Delta announced the 2024 conversion of rollover MQM’s to MQD’s? My wife and I will have about 200k each of rollover miles.

20 rollover MQM yields 1 MQD or 2 rollover MQM yields 1 redeemable mile. Note that this is rollover after deducting the MQM required for whatever status you earned in 2023 for the 2024 year, and that there are five choices for allocating the rollover between MQD and RDM.

Thanks!

The 5 choices are 100/0, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75 and 0/100.

That is the REAL question for any tier in any FF program!

Corporate marketing excels at convincing consumers that 'wants' become 'needs' become 'deserves' become 'entitlements'. [I made a good living in Product Marketing and Sales Training doing this :) ]

As others have already said, consumers *ought* to be thinking rationally and transactionally when spending their own $. It will help their finances and their emotions when airlines continue their annual benefits devaluations.

For me, I moved from MSP to ELP area and am now retired. DL has only 2 flights out ELP per day to ATL. I have 4.7MM so LT Plat (yes yearly) and back in 2002 purchased LT NW WorldClub so now Skyclub which says it expires in 2079 (so I will be 120). DL now only makes sense for us to East Coast and Europe and I have switched to AA for most flights. Reducing the number of elites will help me with upgrades I think and the SkyClub will be less busy. So I guess this helps me but if I still was in MSP, I would NOT be happy.

this is not necessarily true. I have flown less than 2000 miles on D L in the last 2 yrs and have been Plat every year with rollovers and cc waiver

I am indifferent at this point. I only buy FC now days and DL's pricing strategy typically keeps them in the running for limited runs from my BHM home. I status matched on AA to Exec Plat from DM and snagged their Citi Card. The extra non-stop options I get from AA have really made them more and more attractive prior to 9/14 and this just is the icing on the cake.

I'll miss the MQD for 2024 DM and will roll over about 500K MQM. I'll just keep snagging FC tickets when it makes sense and now just buy the most direct way to wherever I am going. I've been very happy after giving up chasing status.

And then it just goes back to the time before "loyalty" or "frequent flyer" programs existed. People fly based on pure choice and the airlines then have to provide incentives... It's a never ending circle.

Cool!

That is not an apples-to-apples comparison. I can get into virtually any high end restaurant in Atlanta because of my track record and loyalty. I don't expect an upgrade from chicken to steak (actually much of the time, I might prefer chicken). But these restaurants recognize my loyalty in a meaningful way. At any rate, different industry and different standards.

If the airlines, and particularly Delta, don't want to recognize loyalty, that's fine. But I suspect that Delta is on a slippery slope here. I am fiercely loyal to Delta, and will continue to be, but there are tons of folks who, through clever Delta marketing and the tie-in with Amex, have become pretty loyal. Not on my scale, but loyal nonetheless. For their 5-7 trips a year, they look at Delta and no one else. Not sure that continues under this new paradigm. They night do 3 trips on Delta, a couple on AA, one or two on WN, and the international trip on BA.

Perhaps this loyalty pattern will continue. I just don't think so. In the aggregate, this could have a substantial effect on the carrier. Not saying it will, but it might.

I just don't understand why, at a time where the airline is printing money, you take this step. Just seems like changing things for the sake of changing things. It's a total crap shoot IMO.

They increased MQD requirements from 15,000 to 20,000 this year, which is a substantial increase. But that wasn't enough. And with the new rules, hotel stays will count, but the problem is that you don't get hotel program recognition or credits on these Delta-marketed hotel bookings. Not making arrangements with the major hotel brands to count these as full-benefit bookings was a huge mistake IMO. It will be the difference, for me, between making PM and DM going forward under the new rules.

But, then, PM may be the old DM, and DM the old Delta 360 under this program. Just no way, on airline spend alone, that I reach 35,000 MQDs. Won't happen. And I don't have an Amex card of any type.

Either way, you have an admittedly hub-captive fiercely-loyal DL customer here who is less than enamored with the changes. But I will deal with it. I probably bought more front cabin seats in the last year than any year previously. Going forward, some of those might go to competitors if the situation is right. Not going to inconvenience myself, but all else being equal, it will be about value (which is different from being about price, I might add).

Ditto. Have been DL Plat for 4 years due to pandemic rollovers. Will miss it but not enough to charge 180k on a DL Amex. Cheaper just to buy up.

There were furors in the past, but I don’t think they were quite the same. Many people have been mad for many years at the devaluation of RDMs into SkyPesos, but the thing people tend to care the most about is status, and status has still remained relatively attainable. The MQM threshold hasn’t changed in decades. While the introduction of MQDs was obnoxious, you could pretty easily get around that by putting $25k that you were already going to spend on a DL AMEX. And even if MQDs made things harder for some people, Delta also introduced changes that made it easier to hit the thresholds (rollover, earning MQMs and MQDs on award tickets, the COVID bonuses). The program definitely shifted from earning RDMs for a great award redemption to earning MQMs/MDQs to get some perks while flying. But those perks were, to varying degrees, worth chasing and were relatively attainable.

It was not really until now that Delta really messed with status. And they did so pretty dramatically. Now the status level that many people have become accustomed to feels totally out of reach for them. Unlike the gradual RDM devaluation, it’s going to be very obvious to people that they’re not getting anywhere close to what they got the year before, even if their activity hasn’t changed. And unlike the RDM devaluation (and other changes), this time, there’s nothing really left for people to chase. Status was pretty much the last thing remaining.

So, this one feels different. Whether it makes a difference to Delta, we will see. But I think it’s fair to say that Delta definitely botched the roll out. I don’t remember any of the past devaluations by any of the airlines getting anything close to this level of attention

The $250k spend waiver for DM was introduced well before the pandemic; now it is $350k using all spend on DL
So some one who was flying 10k MQD and spending to get the waiver then will still get DM with same pattern of spend
10k MQD flying and 25k MQD from 250k spend- no real difference.
Factoring in inflation in costs and in ticket prices, the number of such DMs will not be affected.
A great analysis on perceived value from the program.