Delta Announces Enhancements to SkyMiles Elite Program

[kangarooflyer88]

Yesterday Delta Airlines announced a number of key changes in how elite status is earned effective January 1, 2024. One of the key changes is the elimination of MQM (i.e. mileage flown * bonus for class of service) for overseas members to be replaced solely by MQD (i.e. $ USD spent when flying Delta excluding taxes and fees or small percentage of miles flown on partners [i.e. 40% of miles flown when travelling on Air France discount business class]). This represents a major downgrade for us in terms of earning status since it used to be possible to earn the 50,000 MQMs to gain Delta Gold Medallion status (which gives you things like checked bag allowance, lounge access, etc.) by simply taking two trips to Europe (via the US) in economy on Delta which ordinarily would sell for $1400/person return. Instead to earn said Gold status one must accumulate 12,000 MQDs on Delta and SkyTeam partners. If flying China Eastern (a SkyTeam airline currently offering a fare for a comparable amount) that would net you just 2128 MQD (10% of mileage flown) barely making a dent on the requalification. Contrast that with the old MQM based system where you would earn a minimum 100% mileage flown toward the MQM requirement which would get you 21,280 MQM or nearly half of the way towards the MQM requirement.

Another key change is that lifetime status will still be around but will now be based on actual miles flown with Delta and partners (i.e. no class of service bonus as before). Delta will transfer the lifetime MQMs earned so far over at a 1 to 1 rate, so at least the quality time I spent keeping those KLM J seats warm will be recognized. Also, as before it's 1,000,000 lifetime miles for Delta Silver, 2,000,000 for Gold, 4,000,000 for Platinum, and 6,000,000 for lifetime Diamond. Not as nice as Air France which awards lifetime top tier elite status upon members achieving 10 consecutive years of top tier status but still better than United which solely counts flights taken with them towards lifetime status.

There are some changes for people who hold an AmEx Platinum card, something that I suspect impacts very few of us on the forum (i.e. just 6 Delta lounge accesses provided every year by AmEx instead of unlimited as before) as I suspect few of us took advantage of the perk. In addition, it is unclear whether overseas AmEx members are impacted by this change. For instance, when AmEx required US cardholders to spend $75,000/year on the Platinum to gain the ability to guest 2 people into the Centurion lounge that "enhancement" never made its way to overseas cardholders. In a similar way, the new guest policy also has a stipulation saying if you spend $75,000/year you can have unlimited Delta Skyclub visits.

Full details can be found on One Mile at a Time (OMAAT) or as I call them One Referral at a Time (ORaaT).

Details: Delta Overhauls SkyMiles Elite Status, Sky Club Access

Huge changes are coming to Delta. Delta is changing how SkyMiles Medallion elite status is earned, and is adding new lounge restrictions.

onemileatatime.com

-RooFlyer88

 

[Jenya]

What a surprise...Air miles inflation is real and happening everwhere.
If you have lots of miles accumulated spend them ASAP

 

[kangarooflyer88]

What a surprise...Air miles inflation is real and happening everwhere.
If you have lots of miles accumulated spend them ASAP

This has nothing to do with award miles. This has to do with how one earns frequent flyer status on Delta Airlines. Remember there are two parts to the frequent flyer game: frequent flyer miles which can be used to book award flights and elite credits which are used to determine whether you qualify for elite status. Delta obliterated the former years ago by switching from an award chart to dynamic pricing. Right now you would be lucky to find a one-way business ticket from the US to Australia for under half a million SkyMiles and that was the case for many years now. The latter, making solely money spent with Delta is the major new change and one that I think will turn many of us Australian members off of the program. The fact of the matter is, if you are spending $12,000 USD on base airfares with an airline, chances are you don't need elite status.

-RooFlyer88

 

[elanshin]

This seems like it's guttered SkyMiles and delta in general as a FF status unless you're using their CCs. Time to research which other skyteam programs are useful for us here in Australia.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

What a surprise...Air miles inflation is real and happening everwhere.
If you have lots of miles accumulated spend them ASAP

This is true regardless of any program you are looking at.

The Delta changes are more about altering the level of high status flyers and lounge access:

- There were previously much lower thresholds to earn status through credit card spend. This combined with "rollover MQMs" (which meant you could roll over excess 'status points' to start your following year) meant that on FlyerTalk there were some flyers who had top tier Diamond status with Delta locked in for 4 years out just from the rollovers. When everyone is elite, no one is elite, like 'exclusive' offers mailed to an entire customer database
- Their Amex partnership meant that lounge access was granted through a whole series of cards which has caused significant crowding or even capacity restrictions in many of their lounges (search for photos of the queues to ge into their JFK SkyClub)

 

[jase05]

This seems like it's guttered SkyMiles and delta in general as a FF status unless you're using their CCs. Time to research which other skyteam programs are useful for us here in Australia.

VS is very underrated

 

[kangarooflyer88]

VS is very underrated

I'd argue that Air France is better on account that you can earn lifetime top tier status after 10 consecutive years of top tier status with them. Contrast that with Virgin which requires more:

And if you’ve been a Gold member for ten consecutive years and earned 7,500 Tier Points on Virgin Atlantic flights in that time, you’ll be made a Gold member for life.

 

[jase05]

I'd argue that Air France is better on account that you can earn lifetime top tier status after 10 consecutive years of top tier status with them. Contrast that with Virgin which requires more:

For Australians though you can earn top tier SkyTeam elite plus without stepping foot outside of Australia or on a SkyTeam aircraft.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

For Australians though you can earn top tier SkyTeam elite plus without stepping foot outside of Australia or on a SkyTeam aircraft.

Sort of. Yes you can earn tier points on Virgin Australia flights but not many flights:



In that case you are looking at 40 flights in business class on most Australian domestic routes to earn the 1000 tier points necessary for Virgin Gold. For those handful of routes where Virgin crosses the 2000 mile mark (i.e. SYD > PER) then you are still looking at 20 flights in business or again 40 flights in economy to earn Virgin Gold. Not the easiest way to earn mid-tier frequent flyer status in my mind.

-RooFlyer88

 

[jase05]

Sort of. Yes you can earn tier points on Virgin Australia flights but not many flights:

View attachment 343814

In that case you are looking at 40 flights in business class on most Australian domestic routes to earn the 1000 tier points necessary for Virgin Gold. For those handful of routes where Virgin crosses the 2000 mile mark (i.e. SYD > PER) then you are still looking at 20 flights in business or again 40 flights in economy to earn Virgin Gold. Not the easiest way to earn mid-tier frequent flyer status in my mind.

-RooFlyer88

True, I didn’t say it was easy only that it was possible. Having Air NZ and Singapore Airlines earning TP’s is handy though.

 

[dajop]

Interesting, wonder how long before AA and UA replicate? DL seems to lead the charge with "enhancements" with the other 2 following over the next 2 or 3 years.

 

[SYD]

Interesting, wonder how long before AA and UA replicate? DL seems to lead the charge with "enhancements" with the other 2 following over the next 2 or 3 years.

UA have already made some similar enhancements.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

12,000 USD spend to qualify for Gold level seems simply wild. That said, I’m sure they know what they’re doing.

The message this sends someone like me (someone who consciously chose to fly DL 2-3 times per year for work trips and earn Gold/Platinum in the process) is not just that DL doesn’t care if I chase status with them, but actively doesn’t want people with patterns like mine achieving status at all.

These changes don’t just change the game for me; they wipe me out. In one fell swoop I’m simply done with choosing DL over other carriers.

They would know that, and it suggests to me DL is far more interested in ensuring that those who form part of their dedicated corporate contracts and/or pay the absolute most revenue are able to benefit from the status perks that have otherwise been watered down in a world where so many have status. A calculated decision to annoy many to satisfy a very lucrative few.

Time will tell.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

12,000 USD spend to qualify for Gold level seems simply wild. That said, I’m sure they know what they’re doing.

If you thought that was wild consider the fact that $35K USD in spend is now required to earn top tier Diamond medallion elite status, a threshold that not too long ago (i.e. 2019) United would start to consider you being part of their invite only Global Services program.

The message this sends someone like me (someone who consciously chose to fly DL 2-3 times per year for work trips and earn Gold/Platinum in the process) is not just that DL doesn’t care if I chase status with them, but actively doesn’t want people with patterns like mine achieving status at all.

You absolutely still can earn said status on a couple of trips, you just need to make sure you spend mucho dinero on the flight. I reckon one or two trips to Australia in J ought to do it!

These changes don’t just change the game for me; they wipe me out. In one fell swoop I’m simply done with choosing DL over other carriers.

Many programs have moved towards an entirely dollar based spend requirement with Delta being the last hold out (i.e. United moved to that back in 2020). There are workarounds such as flying partners with particularly cheap J fares but will agree that it does change the game in the sense that we cannot solely look at milage flown as a factor for earning status.

They would know that, and it suggests to me DL is far more interested in ensuring that those who form part of their dedicated corporate contracts and/or pay the absolute most revenue are able to benefit from the status perks that have otherwise been watered down in a world where so many have status. A calculated decision to annoy many to satisfy a very lucrative few.

That might work for them. What I fear will happen, though, is that those who spend tons of money on flights don't care about things like status since they get all of the benefits of top tier status by simply buying that J ticket. In which case loyalty doesn't matter and all that matters to them are things like routing, schedule, hard and soft product and price. In that regard Delta doesn't exceed in many of those categories. For instance, you cannot compare the SkyClub to dedicated international J lounges like United's Polaris lounge with its sit down dining. If I had $10K burning a hole in my pocket for a J ticket, why would I bother with the likes of Delta?

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Agree @kangarooflyer88.

Delta is simply following a trend though in some respects it does seem they’ve taken it even further, faster.

To your point though: the spend requirements are so high that the only chance most of us would have to meet them are booking into premium cabins, rendering most of the benefits of status moot anyway.

I do wonder if what feels like a fundamental shift in dynamic and attitude towards loyalty will work for them in the long-term. I won’t be going out of my way to choose Delta going forward, and I have — often but not always — in the past. Again though, I think it’s safe to say that for now, DL doesn’t care.

Relatedly, I rarely use the Delta SkyClubs more than 6 times per year anyway, but that new restriction (at least on US Amex Platinums, I haven’t bothered to research impact on AU cards yet but assume it’ll carry over) certainly is rather drastic as well and I imagine will tip the balance into the negative for some who subscribe to the card.

 

[elanshin]

Looks like Delta has assessed the room and realised its in deep hot waters. Their CEO has announced they will reassess and modify the changes in thr upcoming weeks.