Everyone and their family, friends and neighbors should get both a DL Platinum personal and business Amex for $500 and get $5,000 MQDs and 2 companion certs. Great deal.

They won't get SC visits with those cards.

You won't get any SC visits with that combination.

Then maybe the way to handle it is if you spend $25,000 in one calendar year, you get the $2500 head start at the beginning of next year's qualifying.

I like these changes. I think I could make gold with the lower limits. However, I’m a million miler, so I don’t need to do anything to get gold. I wasn’t going to be platinum much longer because I don’t fly as much these days anyway.

What I found peculiar today and from recent past interviews is that Ed did not flat out apologize by stating �I�m sorry that the announced changes upset you� nor did he take responsibility as the fall guy for �ripping the band-aid off�. Ed is still a tone deaf CEO.

Tone deaf to whom? Certainly not the BOD or shareholders.

So, I'm weighing this. I should end 2023 with just over 175k MQMs (give or take), so I'll have Plat for '24 and '25. There's no (practical) way for me to get up to 275k MQMs (to cover '26).

I think 15 days of flying per year (especially with the 24-hour qualifier giving cover for forced-overnight IRROPS) is probably a reasonable level for lounge access, and $50/day for further access isn't bad.

As to credit card use...I'm not sure there's any incentive to use the card(s) for quite a while, if ever, under this. I'd actually be tempted to get a Platinum under this, sock drawer the two cards, roll forward with my Silver status and 15 days of lounge access, and never credit a thing to DL ever again (I'm at like 360k Lifetime Miles, so that's a long path; if I credit to Virgin Atlantic, I'll hover with SkyTeam-based lounge access on international flights (incl. Canada), so 15 days might actually cover me for most of my domestic travel). But the 10:1 ratio on the Reserve is still a lousy rate for a card that has both lousy basic earn (no bonus categories to speak of) and weak TI.

With the Reserve card, $2500 MQD head start plus $25,000 in spend gets you to Silver, but then you need to spend $75,000 (total) to get to Gold if you're going that path.

Who pays the bills and keeps the lights on at the end of the day� the customer. And during a pandemic the US taxpayers. Apparently United airlines stated during today�s 3rd quarter call that status matches were drastically up.

Ultimately the head start appears to be an acknowledgement that Silver Medallion status is redundant with the Reserve card, so they are making it easy for cardholders to get to Gold Medallion. I had been considering upgrading my Platinum CC to a Reserve CC for the better MQD earning rate, but if I really am going to earn a $2500 head start per card with no spending requirements, it makes much more sense to open a second account and then get a full sign up bonus and second companion certificate upon renewal.

The 3 choices to rollover MQMs are really two choices. I'll have about 500,000 MQM at the end of the year. That could get me:
1. 5 years of Diamond
2. 250,000 RDM
3. 25,000 MQD -> this is pointless in light of option 1.

These updated changes arguably work even less for me than the original plan, but that's probably intended. As someone having credited Skyteam flights to AF/KL/OK for years and having qualified for FO by pure MQM in recent years, I'm not sitting on millions of MQMs or MM status and would be pushed further down the upgrade list (i.e. down to 35 of 35 from 31 of 35). The simultaneous change for MM qualification by BIS miles only makes it further out of reach for those of us below MM.

Moreover, with FO available by CC acquisition alone, the already busy 'priority check-in' will now be busier than the general line and the upgrade lists will continue to grow. And with most partner flights including AF/KL earning pennies on the dollar for MQD (even full Y is 25% MQD, cheapest bucket earns 5%), there's just no incentive to push for Gold when every 1MM will be Gold and every 2MM Platinum. No MQD modification for international members is just the last nail in the coffin. After decades of Skyteam loyalty, I'm moving to OW where Saphire is actually within reach for the frequent Y flyer.

I am suspicious about the Choice benefits with the MQM conversion. Based upon their formula, my husband could get two extra years as Diamond, and I could get one (or vice versa). But if we select that option , will we still get the Choice benefits, if the Diamond status is considered extended, and not earned? I won�t believe it until I see it on Delta!s website. The Choice benefits are the true benefit of Diamond status.

AFAIK, 360 isn't technically considered a Medallion status (beyond granting DM if one gets 360 without qualifying for DM), so I would suspect that it will not be extended based on rollover MQM.