The MM boost was a brilliant move by Delta, which virtually insures loyalty amongst the MM census, for very little cost to Delta, especially in terms of RUC and GUC, I believe. I think we all know that free upgrades will continue to be less and less available due to buy-ups and FCM. Delta simply chose to give many millions of non-MM elites the illusion of premium status for another year or two or three.

maybe you’re speaking for yourself, but as a 2 million miler, nothing, Delta did yesterday changed my buying habits. I don’t automatically, buy Delta because I have status and they love me.

Unlike a lot of you, I didn’t have to realize that I had been granted free agency. 😂 I have always known they were lots of other airlines. I’m sure some of you will now go back to only looking at delta.com because Delta loves you but the truth is they don’t (it’s an airline it’s incapable of love) and if you slavishly, give your money to Delta without doing any other research on other options, don’t blame Delta


as someone who now has platinum status and doesn’t have to do anything to get it this actually makes me probably less likely to book Delta. They just flooded the ranks. I think this just made want 1st buy 1st more important and so I will be checking all carriers on a flight when I would like to have first. For example, flying to California last month I wanted first so i booked on American. basically the same service $300 cheaper than Delta’s first. (and I honestly I really dislike American but flying Delta made no sense)

So basically what I'm hearing is... 'I am only happy with program changes that would benefit me and screw everyone else'.

Yeah - I actually wonder why Delta went back so far to reward MM and those with big rollover MQMs. Shouldn't people who are currently driving the most spend through Delta get priority over those that did in the past? Don't take stuff away from MM members, and maybe don't totally get rid of the big rollover balances, but fundamentally, a 30 year old road warrior (presumably without big MQM rollover and who has not reached MM yet) who is making DM organically every year with current spend should get priority over those that are rolling over Diamond and/or are MM, but aren't flying or spending as much today...

...but spend maybe even more a few years back when Delta needed every penny for recovery and therefore are now able to roll over these balaces. If they aren't flying that much today they can't take away those upgrades. And lets see what your now 30 year old road warrior thinks at the age of 58 reaching 3 MM.....

Post 1/1/24, does anyone know if partner airlines count towards MM?

As a 2 million miler who has had "false" Platinum for the past few years I am shocked. I am not the "profit" now and personally I think Delta needs to quit rewarding me but.... Status should be based on current BIS not "look I used to fly a lot" IMHO I have no idea why Delta keeps rewarding me for past history. From a business POV IMHO it makes NO sense, but....


And a lot of us didn't fly that much "a few years back" and are being rewarded for minimal effort (Trust me, I meet that criteria)

They current 30 year old will probably be just like a lot of posters now... DYKWIA I USED TO FLY A LOT I SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE STATUS! LOL!

There is zero chance that these changes are due to 'whining'. DL was seeing impact to their business as a result of the announced changes, so they adapted.

Yesterday the changes included language that said hotels and cars booked through Delta until October 31 to qualify for MQDs in 2024. That language has disappeared� Ideas? That�s a pretty big bait and switch if you ask me since I already made bookings based on the original language.

No they panicked. They didn't give the changes long enough to work through and believed the whiners when they said "I am never coming back" (which meant "I am never coming back until Airline X makes me mad next week" ) I know people who screamed in September who were already back with Delta after their hissy fit

Short term vs. long term and they let short term win. Unfortunately in the long term that may be bad for the airline.

Just saw an email that Delta Platinum and Reserve Amex cardholders will now receive 2K MQDs each year. That has me thinking about getting one of those cards again.

I remember people saying this at the time, but I definitely got choice benefits both years of the extension.

It's $2.5K MQD per year

And - the email from Dwight James that just hit clearly indicates you get the $2.5K boost per card.

Any Delta Reserve holders now considering picking up a Delta Amex Platinum for this $2.5K boost? I have held both cards in the past... Companion passes have value.

I think Delta is actually better with this path long term. The push to book hotel and rental car through Delta was probably going to lose them several metric tons of business flyer bookings with major business customers who have their own portals for that.

Us individual flyers aren�t even a data point but if a senior VP at Coca Cola in charge of travel services starts talking to their contact at Delta about how the changes don�t work for them then those kinds of corporate agreements are big enough for Delta to notice.

The revisions are more business flyer friendly while still throwing us relatively frequent leisure flyers a few bones.

The fact that they connected lower thresholds with removing the ability to earn MQD with hotels stays and car rentals does seem to indicate they expected a lot of travelers to switch some of their personal hotel travel bookings to Delta Stay. But still - I would have liked to retail the option for earning MQD via Delta Stays, like American has with BookAAHotels.com. Maybe they will do some promotions around this next year. The more ways to earn MQD, the better IMO.