Now that the dust has settled, I am trying to get a feel for how Delta Medallion elites will approach loyalty on Delta going forward. Will Delta Air Lines’ candor about its ultimate intentions deter loyalty now? When it comes down to it, will you fly Delta no matter what?
Will Candor From Delta Air Lines Be Rewarded With Continued Loyalty?
Delta Air Lines announced draconian changes to its SkyMiles loyalty program, then rolled them back partially after intense pushback. Next year, more spending than ever before will be required to attain status, but Delta – American Express co-branded spending will now count toward achieving that goal.
But Delta has been absolutely honest about its intention of making it far harder to earn elite status. This was again affirmed in a recent Bloomberg interview with Delta CEO Ed Bastian, as noted by Ross Feinstein:
“There were some things that we did that I thought were maybe too aggressive in trying to get to that equilibrium quickly. We pulled back and said we’ve got to go at this at a much more measured pace.”
That equilibrium per Bastian, is supply versus demand of premium amenities like front cabin seats and lounges. Delta saw too much demand for its limited supply and took steps to adjust it in a way that would reduce expectations while also promoting Delta’s best customer of all, American Express, by incentivizing more co-branded credit card spending.
And to Delta’s credit, it has been quite honest about this goal. In taking a measured pace, Bastian says Delta will continue to “build new premium clubs, new premium assets to allow the demand set to be satisfied, maybe in a little bit better manner.” That’s important too, as the most logical response to increased premium demand is to provide more premium cabin space aboard and in lounges.
There is some hope that as Delta increases its premium footprint, such a devaluation of its loyalty program will not be necessary.
But the sense I am getting is that Delta has little to worry about it. Because I know many readers who did follow though on cutting up their Delta credit cards, but far fewer who will stop flying Delta.
And that’s the point, isn’t it? Delta is banking on its image as a reliable, premium carrier (both claims are overrated) that with or without status, passengers will continue to fly. And they will also continue to credit on SkyMiles and use a Delta credit card because most folks will figure it is better than nothing.
I really question whether the high spenders on Delta co-branded credit cards will offset the many travelers who finally realize that using a credit card with flexible currency or even a cash back card makes so much more sense than collecting SkyMiles.
I focus on the redemption side of loyalty program, which is a huge driver of my own demand to seek elite status (on United Airlines or previously American Airlines). Both of those legacy carriers offer a far more valuable premium cabin redemption opportunity than Delta. In many cases, it is not even close.
And yet Delta’s flash sales in economy class offer value to the “average” customer and therefore my condemnation of the redemption side focuses on a narrow subset of the flying community.
Please, weigh in below. Because now I am feeling like Delta will get away with all these changes…and that makes it far more likely that American and United will follow. Furthermore, Delta’s positive changes to its Million Miler program will certainly encourage long-term loyalty.
CONCLUSION
Will Delta Air Lines get away with making it substantially more difficult to earn elite status? I tend to think so…but I would love to hear I am wrong. Let me know your thoughts on this and if you are staying with Delta, please help us understand why and what it would take to make you break away.
image: Delta
There isn’t a premium carrier in the airline industry. They all fail when things go back and they have no means to adjust to changing conditions. Weather is bad, lines back up and people can’t get calls answered in a decent amount of time (to me that would be 30 minutes or less, max). Computers go down, no redundancy so things largely halt and can take days to recover.
Delta isn’t any better than most of the airlines. Sure some like Spirit are worse but it is mostly a money grabbing industry that now has congress and presidents giving them money anytime they have issues. Maybe they shouldn’t be a public stock traded business.
Let’s wait for the copy/paste job from a certain Delta employee/cultist explaining how SUPER premium Delta is compared to the other two.
Delta is not a premium airline. There aren’t premium airlines in the US. Is it better than UA and AA? In my opinion, yes. I have been Diamond or 360 for 15 years and decided to give up on my loyalty to Delta after the announced changes. Now, I have no intent to move away from Delta domestically. It is the best option for me to fly non stop almost everywhere. Now, I plan to give up loyalty on international routes and look for more premium products as Delta won’t take me non stop to my final destinations that I usually fly to. Is $28k easier to achieve than $35k in spending for Diamond? Yes, but when I see myself in the #30’s for a domestic upgrade I see no value in being Diamond anymore. BTW, most of Delta’s domestic first class seats are sold. People that I see sitting there are not Diamonds. They are leisure travelers with no status.
Delta is not a premium airline. Never has been. Never will be. It is simply, and for the time being, better run than its peers, more profitable, and more nimble (though it has lost quite a bit of that edge since the pandemic). It is susceptible to the same issues the rest are. American was once the bell weather for the industry. It isn’t any longer. Things change.
Delta being “honest”:
September 2023: “We’re going to dry-f*ck you starting in 2024. Bend over and get ready.”
October 2023: “Okay, we were a little aggressive. We’re still going to dry-f*ck you, but we’ll do it slower this time. Promise.”
FWIW, I’ve been a free agent for a couple years now and have moderately-high status across the the US3 and on AC and AF/KL due to BIS miles/spend. So I’m actually a fan of the new rules since I tend to fly J anyway and don’t have co-branded cards – thus I get all the “benefits” of status anyway. So my statements are about a neutral as they can be given Delta’s recent changes.
I sure will! I’m return I’ll stop giving them mixed signals as I give up “the chase” once and for all.
“I focus on the redemption side of loyalty program, which is a huge driver of my own demand to seek elite status (on United Airlines or previously American Airlines). Both of those legacy carriers offer a far more valuable premium cabin redemption opportunity than Delta. In many cases, it is not even close.”
And that I feel is the cusp of the problem. Delta’s performance metrics may be faultering as of late but before that they had built up a reputation as being more reliable. The premiumness gap between Delta and American/United may be shrinking but before that Delta had earned goodwill for this wider gap. Even now, if people get caught up in one of Delta’s faults, they can just say it was a fluke and Delta was good in the past, plus “look at all the miles I have saved up and my elite status!”
Too many people are just so latched onto and beholden to the benefits that elite status grants them and aren’t willing to see if the grass is greener on the other side. They don’t put any effort into figuring out what their pile of miles can be redeemed for. Miles are just a pile of assets for accrual, and no time or effort is spent on redemption. They don’t want to have the time and effort they spent being loyal to just be tossed aside for nothing. If there was only a way to say, soften the blow…
I am not staying with Delta and I have no plans to fly with them in the future unless there is a physical impossibility to reach my destination without Delta.
It really comes down to this – if I lived in a city where Delta offered the most flights with the most convenient nonstop or easy one stop options, I’d continue traveling on them. Ease and convenience are #1 for me. But I do not – I live in DC, and Delta is worthless here. If I lived in Atlanta or Detroit? Probably stick with Delta. If i lived in New York, would depend on where i live. That said, I have a relative who lives on the Upper East Side and is a diehard UA person, is Global Services, and doesnt wince at going to Newark for most everything. So in NYC or LA I’d have a tougher time, but most other places not so much.
They’ve definitely shown their hand, but they are also offering a good path for me to maintain Platinum through 2025. I’m an LAX flyer so I have lots of choices and have decided to be a free agent, but I am finding that Delta is often still my preferred option.
Next year will be where we see if any other carriers are really going to step up their game or if it’s still the best of the worst.
DCAWABN that was drop dead funny and oh so accurate!
But have they made it harder? Yes, 28K is a lot, but 2 credit cards cuts that to only a 3K increase. A little bit of spend on the cards, and it’s no increase . You’re also going to have Diamonds who will keep status for the better part of a decade due to the 100K rollover rule. Nothing is going to change over at DL. That’s great for happy DL flyers, but terrible for upgrades, and terrible for getting in to the Sky Club. It almost seems to me that DL just said “screw it, let ’em all be ‘elite.'”
But isn’t the entire point of this discussion that DL isn’t really interested in frequent flyers, prioritising instead its relationship with Amex?
At the end of the day, is there any reason for actual frequent flyers to stick with DL and/or its domestic rivals when complimentary upgrades seem to be a thing of the past and all the other benefits are available through status with their alliance partners?
Ed Bastain thinks he is running Singapore or Cathay Pacific. He runs a slightly more luxurious Spirit Airlines. The hubris is crazy. You are not a premium airline. And you sell most of your first class seats. Either add more or raise first class fares.
Exactly. The cult mentality that surrounds a blue chair connecting over Salt Lake, Omaha, and Atlanta one-way is ridiculous.
“And you sell most of your first class seats”
As opposed to giving them away? What airline doesn’t want to sell their First Class seats? What shareholder would rather they c9mp them then get paid for them? And yes, I understand the point about a reward for loyalty.
As always, you want a FC seat, you buy it. Period.
+1
Yeah for sure, Delta has the best connections and service to and from where I normally travel so not much choice but glad they back tracked a bit on the SkyMiles program.
I’m a Million Miler that no longer lives in Atlanta and whose job no longer requires significant travel. As a result, I will probably continue the airline selection process I’ve been using since 2020: selecting the most convenient option between Delta and American. Since my travel is 90% business, price is not important to me.
I will continue to buy-and-expense my individual Sky Club membership.
I will drop my Delta Platinum AMEX, but I was planning to do that anyway since I only use it for the companion tickets and find that it doesn’t really save my any money. Conversely, I find the Bonvoy VISA offers greater value, so I use this for all my credit card spending.
Moments like these make me jealous of people living in Seattle who can be loyal to Alaska, whose loyalty program still is mileage-based for both awards and status, doesn’t have a spend requirement, has good partner rewards, maintains award charts, and is generally a good airline.
Agree that they have shown their hand; loyalty is a one way-street to them/AMEX. Even with the partial rollback and better MM offering, it’s time to go free agent. That said, I’m not dumping DL entirely – it’s just they will now get the spend when they are the best option vs $28K to achieve a growing worthless Diamond status.
2024 will be my last year of intentionally flying with Delta after 20 years of loyalty and Million Miler status. Delta doesn’t care about loyalty and I’m going to choose on price moving forward.
I’ve had elite status with Delta for the last 10 years, with most of that time as a Platinum. Flying mostly on long haul domestic routes (JFK to SFO, LAX, SEA, and PDX) for work once or more a month, I relied on clearing the MQD requirement by spending 25k on my Delta Platinum Amex because my companies made me book the cheapest fare available. I tempered my expectations on upgrades but could consistently count on clearing into first 40-50% of the time before covid. In the past 2 years as Platinum I have been upgraded 3 times.
Now I’m being told to spend more money on flying more frequently (which I can’t do with my travel policy), or spend $100k on the Delta Platinum Amex card to get platinum status again which basically equates to “free” comfort seats and, if I’m lucky, first class once a year? The math doesn’t add up for me on keeping status against the opportunity cost of earning more valuable points on other cards. I will be downgrading my card to gold next year when renewal time rolls around and plan to spend approximately $0 on it. As for status, I’m either changing loyalty to another airline or just going free agent.
JetBlue made a serious effort to try to poach Delta elites, basically giving out free status and upgrade certificates until 2024. I will take advantage but at the end of the day they offer niche routes.
Did American or United really make an aggressive play for Delta elites during all of this turmoil? Not really.
I primarily fly Delta, with a mix of American and JetBlue. The rollbacks make it easier for me to maintain Diamond in 2024, and I can probably still maintain some low level of status on American and even JetBlue. So as of now not a whole lot has changed in terms of my actual flying or Delta card spending intention.
What would convince me to drop Delta? If club availability or quality meaningfully declined, if the schedule got worse, etc. But none of that is happening. I can even still get decent value out of SkyMiles.
Lol. I’ll still probably fly mostly DL through 2024. After that, who knows, will STE+ be worth it? I’ve done the math and FB Gold is very much easier to get for me if I follow mostly the same flying patterns… so maybe, for 2025?
I’m a 2M miler with Delta and go out of my way to stay loyal. Those days are gone. I working to create my own loyalty program getting cards for places I stay and cards for general points and working it from that angle. Delta has lost sight of those that helped put them on the maps. It’s too bad.
Out of DFW….very few alternate convenient choices
As long as they don’t value those who actually fly the airline, there’s no reason to fly them. Removing MQMs is what did it for me. Although I have over 700K MQMs which would allow me to extend my Diamond status, I won’t do it. Sick and tired of all their changes. Flying back from Asia in paid D1 and while having the Reserve card, it took the geniuses at the lounge 5 minutes to figure out if I can enter or not! Ain’t worth it… def not a premium experience. Sadly DL (and most America airliners) FAs don’t know what hospitality is.
Cancelling cards & flying whomever tries to win my business and offer a good premium product at a reasonable price.
In 2016, I quit Delta and fly them only if their flight is the beat choice. Until now, I only made a half hearted attempt to burn Skymiles. In 2024, I will actively burn miles, even on a domestic economy class ticket except for corporate travel.
I recently burned all my United miles.
The ironically named “Loyalty Points” made decide this is the last year I will be Platinum Pro. I stopped maintaining Exec Plat when the spend got to $15K – it was the miles chasing equivalent of waking up in the gutter with an empty vodka bottle – a real epiphany. But I loved my little green dot and first class international lounges were honestly the only perk I ever used (SWU’s were too risky because I couldn’t clear them when the ticket was purchased and I don’t fly economy anyway).
So I went to Delta. Status match, far better lounges. But they’re going the way of American.
If someone like me (who was keeping two people Exec Plat for several years) isn’t a big enough spender, it’s just time to stop chasing that nonsense.
So in the end I travel less and just purchase premium cabin tickets up-front. I think given how much extra travel I was doing to maintain status I’m probably saving money.
Also, American tried to downgrade me to economy three times on a paid first class ticket in one six-month period. I didn’t pay for that ticket to be offered a measly $200 credit and a middle seat. At least that hasn’t happened with Delta yet.
But it’s been good for me and the boutique airlines like La Compagnie (which I’ve had pretty much universally good experiences with). Now I don’t sweat using them instead, because I’m no longer worried about the miles.
Around a decade ago I was a rabid Delta loyalist. I didn’t fly much on paid tickets but if I did, Delta was my only choice. Just about all my spend went on Delta Amex cards. For that, I earned Silver Medallion status. Over the course of about five years I never was upgraded or otherwise rewarded for my loyalty beyond some Skymiles. Then, over time, Delta grew to view their rabid partisans as dead weight and commenced a never-ending series of devaluations. That – along with some memorable and singularly unpleasant experiences – broke me out of this abusive relationship. I tore up my last Delta credit card a couple of years back when they did three devaluations in a single year. During Covid.
So no, I’m not going to “reward” Delta for their non-apology apology. They’ve made it absolutely clear that they intend to screw over every engaged loyalty member as much as humanly possible. Maybe I missed the college course where they taught how destroying beneficial business relationships is awesome; It certainly seems that Bastian was in attendance though. For me, I will not hand Delta any further money except in the most extreme need.
I truly don’t get why anyone would chase status or miles on Delta.
The miles are basically worthless. So there is no point in accumulating them. Especially from credit card spend.
As others have said even top tier status doesn’t get you much in the way of upgrades or benefits. So why pursue it? If you have to buy the premium seat to sit in it then what’s the point of pursuing status? Plus lounge options are only continuing to expand with a multitude of non airline lounges being rolled out so I don’t see lounge access as being a great incentive either.
The whole point of loyalty programs is to drive marginal spend. You want to give people a reason when all else is equal to choose your brand. And a good loyalty program will get people to be willing to spend extra to stay with the brand. You drive that loyalty by offering people something in return. Miles that can be redeemed for that dream trip in a premium cabin. Free upgrades to first class. Access to lounges etc. Earning these perks for free gives people a reason to get on the status hamster wheel. But if those miles are worthless, if status doesn’t actually bring benefits that are at all worthwhile, then there is no reason at all to run the race.
That’s the Delta Sky Miles program today. A totally and utterly worthless shell that delivers zero value to any customer at any level.
Been Platinum for 12 years now, with me changes I’m struggling to make gold. As soon as I hit my million miles status I’m done with Delta unless I have no other options.