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| Delta’s Website displays this photo with the words “A Change to the Way You Earn Status” |
(note: this is my rant. I am sure there are lots of countervailing arguments, but this is my vent, my opinion and I own it.)
It has long been speculated feared that Delta will make a move to a “revenue-based” model for elite medallion qualification. If you fly Delta, you probably received the cheery feared email yesterday announcing this change which will take effect in 2014.
In the one day since Delta’s announcement, countless newspaper articles and blog posts have been written.
While the new requirement may have little or no effect on the business traveler, I believe the effect on the non-business leisure traveler will be grave, perhaps even devastating.
Briefly, as summarized on the Delta website, in order to qualify for each medallion level, in addition to the required miles (Medallion Qualification Miles, or MQMs, for short), or segments (Medallion Qualificaiton Segments, or MQS, for short) flown, you will now have to meet a new threshold requirement: annual spend (Medallion Qualification Dollars, or MQDs, for short). While Delta has not changed the MQM/MQS requirements necessary to attain each level of Medallion status, you now also must meet the minimum spend (MQS) requirement to obtain such status. This is the chart:
According to the Delta website, the MQDs requirement will be waived if you make at least $25,000 in Eligible Purchases in the qualification year on a Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express.
For many years, I have been a Silver medallion member of Delta, and this past Thanksgiving, somewhere over the Atlantic, my MQMs for 2012 exceeded 50,000 miles and I became “Delta Gold.” I was pretty excited. I felt like Ryan Bingham in the film “Up In the Air” as I arrived at the Air France Lounge at Charles DeGualle Airport ….
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| In case you were wondering, this is what Won’t Run For Miles looks like… (ha ha). Actually, he looks better. (ha ha) |
Beginning in 2014, however, in order to attain Silver, in addition to flying 25,000 miles, I would have to spend at least $2,500 annually on Delta flights, or to attain Gold, in addition to flying 50,000 miles, I would have to spend at least $5,000 annually on Delta flights.
For people who travel on business expense accounts the new revenue-based requirements probably mean nothing. Their companies pay top-dollar for the tickets. They spend $2,500, or $5,000 or even $7,500 in a snap.
The scenario is quite different for non-business travelers who travel the country or the world for leisure, including sport or hobby. We pay for our own tickets. We look and search for the best airfare we can find, at the best price. And we choose the airlines we fly on.
I am a non-business traveler. I don’t fly Delta because my employer chooses for me to fly Delta. Rather, I do so by personal choice, and my tickets are paid for by me, personally, with my own money. I have paid for every MQM that I have garnered. Because I “prefer” to fly Delta, I will do so even if flights are available on other airlines for less, unless the price difference is great. I do that for loyalty, and for the perks I receive in return from Delta for my choice to fly 25,000 or 50,000 miles with them instead of with another carrier. However, while I haven’t tallied my 2012 spends on Delta flights, I doubt I spent $5,000.
I love Delta. Its flights are plentiful from New York. I am comfortable flying with them. They have generally treated their elites well, even Silver Medallion members. I feel “at home” when I walk on a Delta plane and am greeted by Delta personnel. Delta’s main negative, in my mind, has been redemption of award flights. Cashing in on free flights with my accrued miles is difficult – generally, Delta just charges too many miles for award tickets. Adding the new spend requirement into the mix, may be enough to tip the scales. Perhaps it is time for me to think about changing my allegiance towards another airline (United and American Airlines, among others, have “status” challenge programs to fast-track to a comparable elite level on their respective airline), or perhaps to no airline in particular, and just cash-in on all of the miles I’ve accrued with various airlines.
A New York frequent flyer who elegantly combines her passions for worldwide travel, running a gazillion marathons all over the globe and staying fit ... without sacrificing her fancy for good wine and food.
Come on over to United! Their program (on the redemption side) is much more user friendly.
Unlike you, I hate Delta. All my travel horror stories (24 hour delay, 48 hour delay, cancelled flights) all happen to involve Delta, plus redeeming any SkyMiles I do have requires a great deal of finesse. I was really disappointed when they increased their New York service. Elite status isn’t my concern, redemptions are. I’ve pretty much decided to spend all my SkyMiles this year and completely abandon Delta. I don’t care how convenient the flight is, I’m not taking it. If only Delta goes there, well I’ll just have to change my travel plans. Lots of wonderful destinations are not dominated by Delta. I need to make the most of every mile I earn as leisure traveler.
I know there’s a lot of reason to your comment. I’ve been doing a lot of “earn” instead of “burn” when it comes to delta….
i think i’d have trouble making the $5k mark, especially since it doesn’t include alliance spending (which is how i get a lot of my united PQM) and doesn’t include taxes!
from the delta FAQ:
*quote*
MQDs are the total of the SkyMiles member’s spend on Delta-marketed flights (flight numbers that include the “DL” airline code), inclusive of the base fare and applicable surcharges, but exclusive of government- imposed taxes and fees.
Flight spend for travel on other airlines ticketed through a Delta channel (featuring a ticket number beginning with “006”) will also be included in MQDs.
Certain specialty tickets, including but not limited to unpublished, consolidator, group/tour and opaque fare products will not count toward MQDs.
*end quote*
I’m a pretty loyal Delta flyer, but my mix of business/personal with them is about 70/30 so my annual spend is pretty high. DeltaPoints blog this morning had a good review about the WORST parts of this (and they’re pretty awful). Government taxes and fees on the tickets don’t count toward your annual spend AND neither do additional “extras” like EC, baggage, wifi, etc.
I’m just imagining all the possible 2X “spend” promos delta could run during the year. I think it might make for a humorous follow-up blog post for tomorrow, so send me ideas at willrunformiles@gmail.com!
Not a rant at all; what you are doing is a smart re-evaluation based on DL changing the rules of the game.
As much as I don’t like what has happened to both UA and CO post merger into the new UA, they’ve recovered from some of their problems. Depending on where you live in NYC, EWR is ok to get to. Despite the crowds, the EWR Terminal C hub for PeoplExpress -> Continental -> United always worked well for me. Both when I lived on the Upper West Side and worked downtown, and nowadays when visiting. Not the worst international gateway either. I know, faint praise.
As a former DL/NW Silver sometimes gold, and then former partner Alaska gold or silver, I’ve been on Delta a lot. You’re right, onboard they are good at service, and their GAs are pretty good too. But CO-dba-UA isn’t that bad, and both the current airline and its two immediate predecessors were and are far better at redemptions than Delta is with SkyMiles.
Better own-airline availability. One-way awards at half of a round-trip/open-jaw. Essentially all of their partners both outside and in Star Alliance available for online search and booking. No partner redemption fees. No inside-72-hours-no-cancellation policy. No surcharges on awards that originate in Europe. And currently, at least, they don’t have a revenue-based regular elite (Premier) status program and may be less likely to go to that direction. That’s because they already have a revenue-based parallel program in United Global Services (and the former Continental Presidential Platinum status and CO STAR).
Plus Star Alliance. Which has a far bigger network, including multiple choices of what partner to fly in most any area of the world (DL is big in China partners but weaker elsewhere) compared to Delta’s Skyteam. You get choices out of JFK as well as EWR for international travel beyond UA’s own EWR-centric global flights.
I’d go with them over Delta, especially now. That said, I dropped UA MP after I no longer flew enough to regularly keep at least UA Silver or Gold (used to be 1K or Plat), switching to AviancaTaca LifeMiles as my *A program. But moving to South America had a little bit to do with that.
Not everything though; there are reasons to consider LifeMiles even if US-based. 22,000 EQM for Silver, non-USA airline program so no taxes on miles credited to it on car rentals and if you make Gold you can use UA/US lounges on domesticflights; a great cash+miles sliding-scale redemption option.
I suggest that LifeMiles, United Mileage Plus, American AAdvantage all might be better choices as your primary FF program. AA serves NYC decently and even better if the US merger happens, and will be the surviving brand. LifeMiles or UA MP lets you leverage both United and US Airways domestically, the very decent Air Canada for international via the excellent YYZ hub, and of course all the other Star airlines at JFK and EWR.
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan MVP (silver) gets you the same bag and seat benefits on Delta as you get as a Delta Silver Medallion. Plus a single bucket for earn/burn/status on both Delta and American, unique in the industry. A few downsides: Even an AS 75K member is below the lowest DL Silver on upgrades, but as a DL Silver you rarely sit in the front cabin free anyway. You also get bag/boarding benefits on American. Redemption on both, and RDM earn/burn on some but not all of their Skyteam (KL, AF, KE) and oneworld (LA, BA, QF, CX) partners. EQM on AA, LA, DL, KL, AF. I always enjoyed using miles earned on Delta for a ticket to South America on American:) For the “I can make just make Silver in jone program” flyer, it’s a good option if you don’t need Star Alliance. Even if you never fly Alaska.
They do charge a partner redemption fee, no 1-way awards, and online booking is only AS, AA, DL; others call. But that is pretty much a wash with Delta.
Even though it probably did not come across in my couple of blog posts about this, I am very sympathetic to what you are saying here. I personally think the other programs are going to eventually follow along. I won’t say that I hope I’m right about that, but it’s the way I feel. Like you, I enjoy the Delta inflight experience. Fortunately, my biz spend is enough to make this change a non-event for me, but I am sympathetic to those in a different situation. I don’t know if American would work for you or not, but if I didn’t live where I live (ATL), I’d probably be flying AA…. AAdvantage tops SkyMiles by…miles. 🙂 Although I prefer the DL flight experience to AA.
Yes it sucks but you can do $12K a year in amazon payments and some vanilla reload/bluebird or whatever for the AMEX spend and live happily ever after. If you were already doing that for a different CC, then yeh, devastating 🙂
yeah, I guess I’ll have to decide whether to do the spend, stick with silver, or move my loyalty…. I think there are a lot of people who will have to make that decision – that’s why I wrote this post.
As someone who spends a lot on airlines, I’m glad to see the new spend requirement. I’m tired of being lumped together with people who have same status but are mostly profitless flyers – but who nevertheless compete with me for award space. Frankly, I think the spend quotas are far too low a bar – particularly the top spend for Plat/Diamond status.
Did they bother trying to spin this as somehow adding value to the program or did they come right out and say “we got drunk and bought two airlines and an oil refinery and the bills just arrived”?
I love your comment, Adam!