findark

The DL MM program is extremely generous, so I can't say I am surprised.

I switched to DL in mid-2019 and have flown about 80k BIS since then across all DL earning partners. What surprised me was to learn that I am already 25% of the way to earning 1MM. I spent years with Star Alliance before that doing 80k or more per year and my MM balance on United is less than that!

At that point I finally understood why the DL MM benefits were next to worthless. I suspect MM earning on DL will be far slower in the future with the program changes.

And then of course there are the people who have actually spent multiple decades on planes.

DrMilano

OP has to realize that the upgrade list isn't full of MM’s. I suspect there will be a higher proportion of MM’s on international flights, especially in the D1 cabins, and there are no upgrades. OP has to also realize the good ‘ol days of domestic complementary upgrades are over and you’ll waste your time looking at the upgrade list as you’ll be depressed. Thus why I check in late at night and don’t bother wasting my time during the day to redress the app list knowing that I’m #1 of 69 for 0 F seats.

busdriver11

Who are these people? They are you, in twenty years. They’re people who have flown a lot, every single year, for decades. What I want to know is who are the 6 MM’s. I’m guessing people who have traveled for business for 30+ years.

safigan

Hate to break it to you, but priority #2 is no longer fare class starting 1/1/24. Look it up on the DL site.

josephstern

Think there are more than 10 of them?

ND76

My sister-in-law's husband, a lobbyist in Washington, DC, is a 6 MMer. He is in his 70s now, but has been flying the Big D at least one RT per week since the early 80s. Many of his trips are multi-city.

Interestingly, almost all his flying is domestic. I was a bit surprised that Delta never offered him 360 membership. Now he's got it. I'm very happy for him.

renfield90

The MM changes are some real "pull the ladder up behind you" energy. Change my mind.

(To be clear, I'm not mad at MMs for taking advantage of what they're offered, and not really mad at DL either because I see the business sense, just calling it how I see it.)

speede racer

The only 6MM I have met in the wild was on a SEA-ATL flight a number of years ago. He indicated that he commuted ATL-NRT twice a month, and had been doing so for his entire working life. He looked kind of tired.

It is interesting that the folks fessing up to be xMM here have mostly done it BIS; this is my scenario (at 1.8MM) too, with as far as I remember exclusively main cabin purchases and no credit card boosts. I travelled quite a bit 2010-2020 ish (1.3 or 1.4 MM). I really don't know where my first 1/2 M came from, as I do not remember traveling anywhere near the same extent as I did after 2010; maybe some NW promotions related to Seattle?

ND76

Delta had not made an announcement like this on any of my flights that I can remember since at least 2019. They used to frequently make announcements like this, and the FAs would come up to me and thank me in person quite a bit, particularly when I was sitting in coach or C+. When I checked in my bag for my flight at BHM on Friday evening the extremely nice counter agent there thanked me for being PM and a MM. I very much appreciated it.

indufan

I would have rather done that than me getting to 2.5MM without leaving the country.

sydneyracquelle

Wow! 800k BIS miles in less than 2 years is pretty impressive.

scubadu

Well, if by that you mean making it harder, then yes, I suppose that is true. But that is true across pretty much all facets of all travel loyalty programs (including airlines and hotels). The bar keeps (and will keep) getting raised across the board. Whether that is how much you have to spend to earn elite status each year, how many miles an award costs you, how many times you can enter the lounge, or yes, how hard it is to achieve million miler status, the trend, my friend, is towards harder not easier unfortunately.

In my experience, having been in this game awhile, people always perceive the "good ol' days" as being the days before they were in the game...

Regards

mot29

NW became my airline of choice when I took a job in St Paul in 1997 and I became a MM with the NW/DL merger in 2009. As I recall I had about 800,000 NW miles and 400,000 DL so the merger put me at about 1.2 MM. Hit 2 MM in 2014 and retired in 2017 so a lot less flying now and on my dime. I'm now at about 2.5 MM and the bump to comp Plat is very much appreciated!
One of the ways to build miles for me was AF premium economy tickets (A/S/W). AF had some great PE fares from the US connecting in Paris and on to Asia, return to Paris then to somewhere else in Europe and then back to the US for US$2200-2800 and they carried a 50, maybe 75% mileage premium. I think I did 1 a year for 4 years. Hong Kong and Copenhagen, HCMC and Prague, Japan and Kiev. And I would get op-uped on the CDG-Asia-CDG flights.

sydneyracquelle

And people who accumulate hundreds of thousands of RDMs are holding onto a highly depreciating asset.

busdriver11

I wonder. There's likely more than we think. If someone was flying constantly and also spending heavily on their Amex cards for MQMs, and took advantage of some of the promotions (like SEA-Asia triple MQMs), that could build up. I'm at 2.075 MM's at age 60, but likely could have been at 3MM if I'd made the effort. Didn't seem worth it to focus on that, with not even getting PM until 4MM. Seemed like a waste of effort, but if I knew I'd make DM at 3MM, I would have made the effort before I retired.