Interesting development. I will probably drop down to Gold for 2025 and then examine whether I actually need a higher status (vs. just buying first/comfort at booking).

I still believe there there will be an "unlimited" option added to the Reserve card for SC visits (perhaps 50% off a membership for Reserve Card holders), and possibly to The Platinum Card as well, as I do not think either DL or Amex want to see heavy users dropping their premium cards if they have to pay for a membership.

The 2,500 MQD "headstart" for holding a card also suggests that bonuses could come back as a means meet revenue targets from Amex. Very easy to implement promos or reinstitute permanent MQD bonuses based on spend.

All-in all, it does seem like DL is heading where it needs to, namely, drastically reducing the elite ranks at the top to preserve value in the program, while recognizing the expectations/loyalty associated with existing rollover MQMs. I am 175,000 miles away from million mile status--with Silver as the reward, I'd never consider that a reason to remain loyal (I actually didn't know my lifetime balance until today), but I'd actually consider it one going forward.

Exactly. DM ranks doubled during the pandemic and a majority of current DM�s are swimming in hundreds of thousands of rollover MQM�s that the bloated high tier ranks will march on to 2025 and onward towards 2030. Only saving grace is MM status will be the third tie breaker for upgrades in 2024, that�s if there are any upgradable seats available once FCM is turbo charged.

Not on DL, but for many years I flew a lot of airlines with AA miles but almost never flew AA - had the miles and lifetime status only from spend.

I was silly enough to get miles on SPG then and "gave" it to my kids to make them LT Plat first before me - age 10!
I figured I was going to buy C tickets while they can get in on status.
Many promos in 2008-2012 - 50% bonus on AA transfers etc etc = so real cost to me was 600k SPG for each MM on AA
(and SPG allowed many card applications and many transfers among people just by having same address on account ....
Of course I used up the miles by going on family trips 70k each x 4 x2 = 560k x 4 = 2MM
So the kids LT plat on AA is just a bonus

Then, as my experience grew, my family and their families flew in Bz too for the cost of acquiring miles
.......... and we kept on going towards the LT goal for each of us
We are a family of AA Plat LT, but AA itself is steadily shrinking .......
BA lounge still helps on our trips to UK and in UK on trips from LHR to GLA etc

I am certainly happy to be lifetime GM instead of SM on DL, although they took away lounge access I think for GM

Just get a Reserve card and a Platinum card or 2 platinum cards (personal and business) and for $500/$800 you are Silver on 1/1 before getting out of bed.

I believe "complimentary" diamond status would not include choice benefits.

I'm a Vanilla AMEX Plat holder and I realized I had 50 legs this year. That means I'm already 40 legs/visits over the 10. I suppose the SC lounge access is what makes most sense for me.

Even if it does for the 2025 medallion year, I'd fully expect them to move the choice benefits to specific MQD thresholds (and to drive the point home, they can follow AA and have them be at thresholds that aren't the status thresholds).

Delta reversed their medallion member philosophy. They originally were trying to make it more exclusive, more valuable to the customer. They wanted to do away with excess MQMs, which were accumulated by their best customers, the ones who stuck with them during the bad times (COVID). Now, they made it easier than ever to get up to Platinum Status.

$1600 per year in annual fees + some combination of 1:1 Delta tickets or 10:1 Card spend for another 5k MQD/yr gets me 30 skyclub days, 2 FC and 2 MC companion certs, 1 choice benefit and C+ at booking, plus all the other benefits.

Agreed. Nothing is "lifetime" except, possibly, the paid lifetime club memberships... and I'm not fully confident of that.

I think your rollover is 125k = extra 1 yr

Individual happiness, more crowds though -The number of LT GMs increased. The number of DMs increased
Rollover means the bloat from 2020 will go on for years [MENTION=2]100K[/MENTION] / yr- How is this getting anything that "most of us" want??

Precisely!
Everyone is now an elite - I thought they started this fiasco because they had too many elites??

I actually think it's a bit odd that they've now made 1MM = Gold, which potentially devalues Gold in terms of upgrades. However, since upgrades are so elusive anyway, maybe that doesn't matter much. Gold does get you into lounges internationally which is a pretty big win.

The lounge access changes are pretty good, though. I have an Amex Platinum AND a Reserve, and the Platinum more or less pays for itself. With these changes I get 25 lounge visits/year, which is enough to cover my typical flying patterns. And you can get a SkyClub membership now as a choice benefit, so that rewards the super frequent flyers.

I grudgingly admit these changes actually make Delta a viable choice for me again - except that it still is pretty awful for international redemptions. AA remains much more interesting for those sorts of points.

I'd just note that if you use your Choice Benefits for MQMs (I think you can do that for all of them), five years of Diamond (with 3 at Diamond and 1 at Platinum) would kick out 475k RDMs over the resulting five years.

Or you could just purchase a sky club membership, then purchase some combinations of goods and services with that $905 balance, spend that fifty thousand dollars on a reasonable annual fee cash back card, and then spend that $1500 on another combination of goods and services.

Also if PM is as easy as you say it is, I suspect the benefits will be diluted; either directly through choice benefit reductions or indirectly through making upgrade certificates near impossible to use.