Why DM is worth it...

• Additional earning on DL spend
• The GUC's are easy to confirm at booking if you book well enough in advance. I have no problem using them ATL-ICN, ATL-HND, and ATL-CDG on the new AF 350. Last minute use gets you any available F seat domestically.
• C+ at booking is a nice consistent benefit, especially on domestic widebody positioning flights where you get the PS seat for a main fare.
• Never a worry about finding overhead bin space, even at the mid-cabin on a 757 thanks to early boarding.
• $700 AMEX credit is worth.... $700
• 30,000 SM's is worth $345 of friction-free use.

I view complimentary upgrades to F as gifts and never "expect" one.

That depends on how quickly they blow through the cash they brought with them to Vegas after arriving on Friday afternoon.

I think the other issue for a newly-minted Diamond is that Delta greatly increased the importance of million miler status. Since most DMs probably don't buy comfort+ (delta wants to change this obviously), your lack of MM status is probably lowering your upgrade priority significantly.

As a 2MM I'm finding that I'm at or near the top of almost every upgrade list. Obviously I'm still getting far fewer upgrades despite this change than was routine years ago though... just not quite as bad as your experience.

Here's my two cents on it:

I've had DM for a couple of years now. It was originally just a "bucket list" thing that I never expected to achieve as normally I would earn enough for PM and not much more. A few years back I found myself with DM in range because of all the Covid bonuses. Combine that with the ending of MQMs and status rollover, I've had DM ever since. This upcoming year (2026) is my last year of rollover status, so 2026 will be a year to see where my earnings end me for 2027. For comparison purposes this year I will end with $27K+ MQDs, just shy of the $28K threshold to make DM organically. There is a possibility some upcoming expenses on my DL Plat Amex could push me over the 28K mark, but I'm kind of hoping they will not be incurred until 2026 to count for 2027. But it's not expenses that are really within my control, so whenever they happen will happen.

As for DM being worth it? Or useless? Well, I'm divided on that:

As far as upgrades go? Not worth it. At least not on the routes I fly. There's usually 40+ people on the list for 0 or maybe 1 seat. Living in ANC flights are almost always full of paid F. And because of that, I myself generally buy paid F these days. I fly back and forth between AK and FL 3 or 4 times a year, and barring a family emergency, I have no interest in sitting in the back for trips that long. I buy F on DL (or occasionally AS or AA) and don't play the upgrade game.

RUCs/GUCs: Partially worth it. I've given up on RUCs because I don't want to play the wonky inventory games DL requires, as well as the IT headache of getting them applied correctly. GUCs fall into the same category for international D1 - you'll spend hours playing inventory games to actually use them. (And I say this because all of my trips involve connections, not non-stops). The sweet spot for me has been GUCs on domestic F routes or international routes where no D1 is offered (like BOG). Those are last seat availability so easy to confirm on all segments. That's one case where having DM is worth it to me.

Phone service: Worth it. You can get connected to agents much faster. Now the quality of the agent is always a concern, but you can always HUCA if needed.

Extra earnings on tickets: A nice perk, but not necessarily something to push it into the worth it category for me.

Better customer service: Eh, I can't tell the difference. I get thanked for my status on maybe 50% of interactions with DL employees. Most of that just feels like something they are required to say. Only occasionally do I feel it''s genuine (it is a business after all).

C+ Upgrades at booking: Worth it, but honestly PM gets the same. My husband is also DM and will be falling back to PM next year. This was where he drew the line for chasing status. He's found that he likes this benefit, and will work each year to obtain it by earning at least PM. For me always planning to buy F it kind of negates the purpose.

Increase in baggage allowance is also nice, but can be achieved with lower statuses as well.

Overall I'd say DM is something "nice to have" but it's not a "must have" in my book. Of course everyone's outlook is different and different folks prioritize different things.

Ah ok, but the missing piece of this is why anyone thinks the needs of people seeking free upgrades should come before paid F pax. THat's the part I haven't really heard a compelling argument for.

well this would be nice but do we have any indication that they're actually going to change any upgrade processes to proactively get ahead of this? I've got trips with my spouse later this month and I've definitely thought about this (I can handle IROPs for business trips but it's a lot more annoying during a leisure trip).

Agree with you on this. While comp upgrades are nice, for those of us that purchase paid F seeing seats get taken by comp upgrades doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for IROP situations.

It depends where you are, when you fly and what equipment Delta uses in your market. I�m Diamond and get upgraded around 40% of the time. Here�s an example from today of Delta upgrading every eligble person with any status or even just a Reserve card. And after upgrading the whole list they still have two empty F seats. (The flight was almost full.)

I think comp upgrades are fine at the gate and a nice perk that I enjoyed in my FO days (it would be dumb to fly out with J seats empty). On the other hand, if I bought J and have IRROPs, I do not want to be sitting in the back because J is full of comp upgrades that were handed out 5 days in advance. If you want to be sure you sit up front, you should pay for it.

I feel similarly about RUCs and GUCs as GagaPilot.

I don't find it useless. Myriad of ways to earn it, and then the benefits can be applied also in various ways. GUC usage has become more expensive in that previously you could use them on economy fares eg with KL vs C+/PS. But still not useless. Just need some flexibility. I booked to Europe a couple of weeks ago and got a reasonable fare not too much more than main cabin/economy and was able to apply GUCs both ways.

OP, I came from UA to DL, where I am only PM, and I've been able to use 100% of my RUCs on premium transcon routes. Contrast this with UA where I had zero domestic transcon UGs in 3 years. PlusPoints have been almost useless to me. I don't expect any complimentary UGs on either UA as a 1K or DL as a PM. This is the new age of airline travel. Buy the cabin you want most of the time and strive for status on the carrier that benefits you the most. I always buy only on price and convenience now and end up flying on DL and UA roughly equally.

I don't really see why this would be "dumb" at all.

Why not surprise and delight your best coach passengers with something that costs little and leads some to chase status, spend more, etc.? I think where it becomes a problem is when people expect or feel they are owed something they didn't buy or where it creates scarcity for customers who did in fact buy it. In my view if a paying J customer has IRROPs and needs a seat on a recovery flight they should oversell and bump someone who didn't buy it too, but I suspect that wouldn't be universally popular.

Because you want your best coach passengers to buy the most lucrative and expensive tickets on your airline as opposed to coach tickets.

That's what they have to do if they want to guarantee being in J.

If you’re that close to DM, I’d either 1) mileage run for it (even on miles since you’d get MQDs miles with basically zero out of pocket cash cost) or 2) buy a Delta gift card this year that will provide enough MQDs from the purchase aspect that you can still use for next year and at least the MQDs from flying will still be earned in 2026 for 2027. With no rollover it seems almost silly to be so close and not get above the DM threshold especially since you could get direct cash value that would offset the difference like the $700 AmEx credit and either miles or a Delta voucher plus get GUCs and such.