DCflyer1222

The Points Guy broke the news - from some comments Delta's CEO made publicly earlier this week:"We're still assessing what we'll do, but there will be modifications that we will make, and you'll hear about it sometime over the next few weeks," Bastian said."

Link here:
https://thepointsguy.com/news/ed-bas...miles-changes/
I am someone who spoke to Delta, Amex, and anyone who would listen. Its sounds like others spoke out too

dw

I posted this in the other thread, but I firmly believe that regardless of what they end up changing for the time being, have no doubt that what they announced previously is the end goal. They may just roll it out slowly over a few years.

I have to say, though, this is probably the most drama I’ve seen in the travel loyalty space since… the last time DL tried to pull something like this (and it got reversed) ;-)

skislc

If unlimited SC access becomes more attainable at a lower opportunity cost (25k spend vs 75k?) I think that would go a long way to getting some of the "serious casual" flyers to stick around. Though my guess is we're more likely to see rollbacks to MQD numbers, additional ways to earn MQDs (e.g. shopping portal/skymiles dining, both of which earn LPs on AA), and an outside shot at additional benefits added to the cards and/or each tier (the big one would be C+ at booking for GM, which is offered on the equivalent status from UA/AA/AS/B6, all of which are now easier to earn than DL GM).

I could probably hit GM under the new program if I pushed some hotel/car spend towards DL portals and maintained 25-30k Amex spend. If I can maintain SC access and C+ at booking, with the occasional FC upgrade, I'm a happy customer regardless of what they call it. If not, previously set in motion plans for free agency continue.

shoodawg

they should’ve been much more incremental.

steveholt

I doubt DL will make a significant rollback. I could see DM being achievable at 250K instead of 350K, as an example.

sfozrhfco

Maybe they can give a 15% discount for CC holders The emphasis was definitely on we announced too many things too quickly--not that the end goal has changed. Many of the changes don't even go into effect until 2025, so they can just wait to re-anounce some of the the devaluations next year.

LowValueCustomer

Laying a marker now: the MQM conversion rate will be the only meaningful concession here, and the rest will be more or less fluff and nice words.
ETA: I mean the foregoing with regard to status qualification. I could see unlimited lounge access getting reinstated for the Reserve card, or at least a significantly higher number of passes.

coke cans and winglets

Oh but I thought the data scientists could do no wrong ever!

FlyingBeanCounter

I would not be too optimistic about this yet.

DL can lower DM to 30k from 35k. That is still a 50% increase.

You can see clearly that they want to thin the ranks of elites. The only way to do that is what they did. I would guarantee that they pulled the MQD's of diamonds and picked a number which resulted in the cutoff. I can see them doing something like a phased approach mentioned above to get there, but I don't see them standing pat on the revisions they put in.

DLASflyer

Did you read or watch what Ed said?

DLASflyer

Watch Ed's comments here: (starts at 29:00)

golfr

"No question, we probably went too far," Bastian said. "Our team wanted to kind of rip the band-aid off."

Get a new team. Is this a joke? You slapped us in the face and now you're jerking us around. Is this the "oh, we didn't mean to..." defense? Well, that's not going to fly(no pun intended).

Orange County Commuter

Yes WE aren't "reading a complete rollback into it" This is going to be like the "oh look you can now access skyclub on arrival" You are going to get something but not "we are going back to the old model which made all you happy" LOL!

dw

I can see some minor changes like: (a) some lowering of MQD requirements (with them to be slowly increased as time goes on), (b) tweaks to how many inclusive passes there are on the Reserve Card and (c) perhaps parity between the Amex DL Plat and Reserve cards for how spend counts toward MQDs.

FlyingBeanCounter

Slow death rather than a quick death.

Ed hasn't changed a thing - they still want to dump you but maybe in a way that you don't realize we dumped you.