Delta Announcing Changes to Status Qualification

A big factor in the rollback is evident in the news today. State Department advises all Americans overseas 'to exercise increased caution' in worldwide alert.

DL stock continued to slide today as the airline sector has generally. It's during uncertain times that travel demand softens, particularly international. DL management probably considered it wasn't the best time to alienate the most loyal of flyers.

It seems highly unlikely that the current situation in the Middle East, seen a short term factor for travel, is what drove this change.

And tomorrow they may start a new program - skykilometers and all this may go away ....

It's not the worst idea. I have to figure out my strategy. I currrently average about $350k a year on credit card spend, so I was hoping to migrate a lot of that spend to a regular Amex card to have more flexibility in redeeming miles for longhaul J since DL's pricing structure is out of control. Essentially, we the 7 year stretch, I can remain diamond while being able to maximize J redemptions without having to worry about requalifying.

All fun things to think about!

Amex had no choice but to follow Delta on this and once the .... hit the fan, were able to make a case for keeping Platinum cards relevant

Thanks

Who cares what Marriott has chosen to do or not do. Should delta follow others or be a leader!

hmmm. The State Department says the world is dangerous

where is the warning for traveling in the country where kids go to school and don�t come home or people go to work and don�t come home because a gun is the solution to everything


this frequent flyer thinks a lot of the world is safer than the country the State Department represents

At $28k for Diamond, that is still a huge increase over the past 2 years. The fact they are trying to sell this as a positive is laughable. I am really wondering what value I would get from this status & spend.
As I travel more international than domestic, GUC's were the highest value to me. But restricting them to a 1 class upgrade reduced the value dramatically, as Premium Select is sometimes similar to other airlines business class fares.
In addition, Delta continues to inflate the cost of using Skymiles to ridiculous amounts. A r/t business class to Asia can be 650k miles, compared to 160k on other airlines.
American/Alaska still seem to have a better value for the spend. 2024 will be an easy Diamond qualifier with rollover mile conversion, but after that? I think many longtime flyers in my circumstance will jump ship.

Enhancing the MM program gives people like me the incentive to continue flying DL after hitting the highest MQD threshold we�ll reach in a year. (Previously rollover MQM provided that incentive)

I don�t have a credit card and have about 7000 MQDs per year. Which has been enough for GM but is just FO in either version of the new program. I know I�m unlikely to hit 10k MQD.

In the original announced program I figured that I�d spend the 6000 MQDs each year (and land at FO) and go fully free agent after I�d locked in that much spending each year as there�s little benefit to flying DL after that.

Now with the MM changes, it makes sense to continue flying on DL after hitting 5000 MQDs to build up BIS miles for that.

I�m still not thrilled with the program changes but this has probably done what they wanted in terms of getting me to keep more of my business for DL.

Hey All,

New here. Looks like I have hope of reaching DM at some point in 2024 (I'm PM now and for 2024), but I'll need at least that double headstart of $2,500 because I don't have many MQMs to rollover (like 40K after deducting for PM). Are we sure you get the headstart bonus in multiples with multiple cards? I only have a personal Reserve now...do you think I should get a Reserve business for the second headstart $2,500? Or would I be paying too much for duplicate benefits with two Reserves? I have a regular AmEx Platinum but not the Delta one, so I could go for that but it earns MQDs at half the rate if I understand this all correctly. Also, do you think I should go for the signup bonuses now or wait to see if they have a bonus of extra MQDs sometime soon? Appreciate any advice! Thanks.

Cheers,

Derrick

so Amex gives Delta all that money and has no say 😂.

I never realized Amex was that poorly managed (hint it is not)

I cannot figure out why people want to exonerate Amex from any responsibility for any decisions. Implying that they have totally incompetent management is so much better 😂

I love you. That is all.

So if I'm reading the new rules correctly, in 2024 I will get 2,500 MQD towards 2025 status for EACH Delta Amex card I hold, regardless of what I spend on those cards? So if I have a Reserve and a Platinum, I will get a total of 5000 MQD's in 2024 without having to make any spending thresholds on them?

Also, going forward are there any status boosts for miles towards the next million miler threshold? Are there ways to earn more than actual seat miles by either buying a higher class fare or using one of the Delta Amex cards to buy the tickets?

I'm just trying to figure out how to get to 2MM now that the whole MQM system with credit card boosts has gone away. I'm only about 100K miles away from 2MM, and now that they've upped that from Gold to Platinum, it might be worth it to me to max out my Amex spend in 2023 to get the remaining MQM boosts before that goes away in 2024.

You, sir, ma�am, or other, have won the Internet today.