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When I first started blogging as “Delta Points,” the frequent flyer landscape was so very different from what it is now. Even before I became a full-time blogger, I remember the utter joy of reaching Silver Medallion for the first time on segments (my wife made it, as well). We had a number of trips for personal and business each year and thanks to living in South Bend we could almost every trip book 3 segments each way. Not only did this bulk up our qualifying segments, but it also resulted in massive amounts of bump vouchers that helped fuel more trips for free that also added to our yearly segment totals.
Way back in the day — even as a Silver Medallion — I would now and then get a free upgrade to First Class and it was so much fun. Then I added some yearly mileage runs to make it to Gold and then Platinum. Finally, I discovered the secret of reaching Diamond on the cheap with Delta partner flights and even when huge MQD numbers became a thing, cheap Delta partner first class flights helped keep me at the top of the Delta elite food chain.
Most regular Delta fliers know all of the above. They also know that in the current environment, as we have seen firsthand and in the latest Delta investors day presentation, “free” first class upgrades — even for top elites — is becoming more rare than finding a good SkyPennies price award to Europe in business class (but can be done with hard work).
But why will I not miss being Diamond?
It really is simple – I already get or can buy the same perks!
Let me explain.
One of the perks of Diamond is free CLEAR Plus membership that I do really value. But my Amex Business Platinum gives me up to $199 each year for a CLEAR Plus membership charged to my card. (Terms apply.) So, there won’t really be a loss there.
It has been years since Delta has offered free Sky Club membership to Diamonds and using my Choice Benefits for this is a stupid use of this great perk. Plus, the Amex Business Platinum (and several others) mentioned gets me in when I fly a same-day Delta-operated or -marketed flight.
Also, as I already talked about, upgrades really are not to be expected anymore.
Back in the day when I was near 100%, I could very simply justify any efforts needed to attain and hold Diamond. But now when it is so highly unlikely, it is smarter to just book cheap First Class SkyPenny awards at strange times and wait for the mighty schedule change to hit and move to the perfect flights. Either that or use SkyPennies to upgrade if cheap enough.
For years, calling the old Northwest Chisolm Platinum line resulted in perfect service and I kept using it even as a Diamond because they were that good. Pre-COVID, the Diamond line was a close second best. But today, again as we all know, most of the best Delta phone reps are gone — and the current crop is hit or miss at best. In other words, I am simply not missing out on that much by no longer being a top elite.
As a Platinum for the next two years, I will still benefit from RUCs (Regional Upgrade Certificates) and have already claimed my 2024 perk and used 2 of the 4. Other than COVID years, when no one in their right mind was flying until vaccinations became widely available, I have always picked RUCs. In all my years as an elite I have only ever had 1 cert expire unused. I will miss Global Upgrade Certificates — but the change that you must buy, either with cash or SkyPennies, Premium Select (i.e. premium economy) seats to use them makes these so much less valuable than they once were.
Not earning 11 SkyPennies per dollar. Since I am spending so much less on Delta each year missing out on this 11% rebate in the form of SkyPennies is not a great loss. Besides, back in the day, I highly valued SkyPennies as I could get great value on business class awards with stopovers along the way.
The death of partner club access when not flying business class. We are already seeing the spread and holding high status while flying coach will not let you into lounges (already implemented here and there and TRUST ME it will spread as time goes by). I am better off just booking business class on other airlines when I fly internationally than trusting Delta.
In my case, I am a Delta Million Miler so I don’t have to worry about bags unless Delta changes things. Yes, I will miss the extra baggage allowance and may have to tinker with plans for some flights. Still, even if I have to pay for an extra bag now and then, this cost is not a driving reason to reach for Diamond.
I don’t like being arrested while renting a car, so while I get free President’s Circle® Status as a Diamond, I don’t ever intend to rent from Hertz again.
I will no longer, once I fall to Silver in 2026, get expedited bag service but, hey, that may mean more shots at free 2,500 SkyPennies for “Bags on Time” claims so I can live with that.
Sure, I will miss getting 4 HOOU or Have One On Us coupons each year (again when I drop to Silver for “life”) but since I intend to book 1st class for most of my flights this point becomes less of an issue. Beyond that, I like to drink wine on my flights and until Delta dumps the beyond undrinkable disgusting caned wine, I am really not missing out on anything here. And that assumes the drink tickets even show up in my account.
All the other tiny things they toss in mean nothing to me. Thus, the math for me makes my choice really simple – I will not miss being a Diamond.
Now all of this is much due to the fact that I no longer fly Delta every week and have no desire to push all my frequent travels over to Delta. If I were still flying every week, my thinking may be different but I am just not sure. I may have to cover that in another post one day! – René
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Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Is the red canned wine really that bad? I don’t mind drinking the Imagery chardonnay. It’s not that bad.
@FNT – It is undrinkable as I am sure others will 100% agree. The white is, imo, mildly acceptable.
The thing is, you can package good wine in non-glass bottles.
The can isn’t necessarily the issue.
I imagine Delta has to buy such huge quantities of wine that it can’t, for example, regionally source wine so that flights to/from New York have Finger Lakes wine, flights from Detroit have Michigan wine, etc. They need to buy such a large, consistent supply for their entire fleet.
The thing is, Imagery isn’t that cheap. Retail, a full-size bottle is $10-$16, depending on the market. There are certainly much cheaper wines than Imagery. Thankfully, Delta isn’t serving Barefoot or the crap it served during the pandemic — the South African juice exported to France and bottled there in mini-plastic bottles.
Before the pandemic, I remember regularly seeing Wente in domestic first-class. Wente makes a decent wine. It’s probably $2 more a bottle than Imagery if I remember my retail prices correctly.
The question is, why Imagery in cans?
I can’t imagine Delta is really saving that much money because (a) Imagery isn’t the cheapest wine and (b) I imagine the weight of the cans is actually heavier than a glass bottle. One can of wine is equivalent to almost 1.5 pours from a bottle of wine.
One wonders if Imagery is paying Delta for product placement.
I can tolerate Imagery’s white in domestic first-class. I would prefer something else but it’s tolerable. The real issue is international or domestic Delta One. As Gary at View from the Wing has documented, some of the business-class wines served by Delta are cheaper than what’s being poured in magnum-sized bottles in economy. Other wines in Delta One have been hybrid grape wine out of Europe. You can’t even get a French white wine on a Delta flight out of CDG.
@rene I dropped from Diamond to Silver this year. How do I become Lifetime Silver?
@Rick – 1 Million milers get “lifetime” (old wording – now called annual) Silver Medallion status.
Yeah, I’m Platinum this year. I wonder if I ever really will need to check as many as three bags for free. I’d rather eat in a low-grade school cafeteria than most domestic lounges, and tend to book comfort class cabin for my long legs. Unless I get acknowledgement and respect from staff for my elite status, I likely will not renew my loyalty, next year.
I was Diamond from the start, now Platinum 2 Million miler closing in on 3 million miles with Delta, it is truly sad how you are treated. It has been a great ride. Keep climbing …
With covid rollover everyone and their brother is now swimming in MQMs as a PM with the very low bar of spending just $25k on a DL Amex. So there will be a glut of PMs for the foreseeable future and fewer DMs as MQDs increase to $20k.
The number one reason for having some/any status is during IROPS. That’s why I don’t subscribe to WFBF (want first buy first) on any airline. During IROPS even with a FC ticket I will still have to lineup or wait on hold forever to rebook with no status.
So DL has unwittingly encouraged the masses to hit PM with their very low bar and going for DM is only worth it now for very frequent DL road warriors.
Hi @Rene
So I am told aluminum cans are more ecologically friendly than plastic for recycling purposes
So I’m glad they are being used.
Several California vineyards are using them for individual servings of wine.
I am flying to New Zealand with michael in December for approximately
44,000 miles PP All I
Bought main, auto upgraded to C+ and GUVs to D1
Not a bad deal !
I still love the delta touch. Call me a dinosaur .
I am grateful for your generosity of shared knowledge
And kindness throughout the many years you have been
A doctoral level of professor of sky team
And celebrate you . I am sorry you are so hardened and disheartened with delta
.
I would love to hear wonderful
Stories about your experiences and personal touches with other airlines ZZ
Keep
Well safe healthy and be happy
Nina
Back in the day when I had a real job, I would fly all over the US and then home and back out of EWR. I got to know the EWR people quite well and they would often upgrade me for nothing, just to be nice. Then came the time of MQD’s and I retired. At the time I had been very loyal to Delta, but some millenium accountant screwed up the points system and now I am only loyal to the cheapest flights and yes book those odd hour business class tickets and hope for changes.
It was good while it lasted.
@Byron – A great new slogan for Delta you have “it was good while it lasted” – SkyPennies!
René, you speak the truth about status! I am not sure we will make the DM mark this year because of the MQD amount. I am closing in on 2MM but that will not help! We have had to try other airlines and that has not been a fun experience either. Not sure what the future will hold for us with Delta!! Safe travels and Floating.
Rene, does Delta ever reach out to you to better understand? So many of us are sharing same thoughts. Guess if Delta is really moving emphasis from business flyers to family flyers, they may not care and just try and hold business flyers as long as they can with less perks.
@Aland – I speak to Delta PR reps at events, and even talked the CEO Ed once, but rarely do we see changes that we want. Plus they are getting away with charging a ton, devaluing SkyPennies by the day, and jets still fly full so they have no “need” to change for the better.
Delta served wine from glass bottles before the pandemic. Glass can be recycled.
My colleague is a 2 million miler with Delta. He was diamond for at least 8-10 years. He stopped flying Delta a year ago and switched to American. You might think someone from Delta might notice his account went from 200,000 MQMs to 0 and reach out to find out why. Nope. Never.
Delta cares more about their CC users than their very frequent flyers.
Rene! “it was good while it lasted” for sure
Why bother with ‘Diamond’ – and you won’t be alone, this will hit Delta and Amex in the pocket book with the big reduction in your spending on those cards – maybe you will decide to forgo Platinum next year and take your card spend away
Then Delta will need to figure out how to be competitive
Delta: “It was good while it lasted” is a keeper. How about the second one from this post: The New Delta Diamond: “book cheap First Class SkyPenny awards at strange times and wait for the mighty schedule change to hit and move to the perfect flights.”
Carry my bags for me and I will give you a free drink coupon if you are polite.
@Bob – Not until I am Silver – those are the “rules” 😉
I agree with your assessment. I’ve asked this question before: What benefits does tier status provide that a premium cabin ticket does not? Points per dollar, sure. Other than that, the typical answer is support during IRROPS. But, if someone has lounge access, Lounge Angels provide that support. (As you not: Internationally, a premium cabin ticket provides lounge access; domestically, one’s Amex Platinum or Business Platinum provides lounge access as well as Clear, etc.) All other benefits are the same. Then, consider the various opportunity costs associated with attaining/retaining tier status. Tier status is simply not worth it.
Not all outstations have a SC and during IROPS phone hold times can be many hours. Even at large hubs like ATL the line for a SC agent to assist can be very long. In these situations it is crucial to be able to get through on the phones relatively quickly.
And, as Rene said, services via the phone are not what they used to be. Long wait times combined with less skilled agents. In dollar terms, what’s that service worth? The value to any given person is subjective.
Diamond tier status costs about $4000. That’s opportunity cost. Please don’t ask how it was calculated or dispute the number. Just go with it. If the person thinks the IRROPS phone service is worth more than $4000, great. If not, consider another path.
The 4 GUCs plus other 2 choice benefits ($500 Amex credit, gifting 2 people Gold, SkyClub for the family, etc.) easily compensate for the $4,000 cost to achieve DM.
For you, super. But, as I said, the value is subjective and each person will assess it. Consider the person who 1) is successful in the points game, 2) is able to book every flight on points and in a premium cabin (first or D1), and 3) has the Amex Platinum (personal or business). It is a position to which many aspire. To such a person, there’s not even an opportunity to earn tier status but it is interesting to ask what incremental benefit a person is not receiving by not having tier status.
My recent experiences attempting to communicate with Delta has completely turned me off. When I have a problem, I prefer “speaking” with someone at the time of the problem, not via email or text. With Delta, I now find it’s nearly impossible.
I am Diamond and will make it for next year. I do fly every week. But I am getting upgraded on 3 out of 4 flights pretty much every week (connections). I fly out of Nashville which has the highest number of Diamond Medallions in the US (according to the Delta rep who came to our breakfast a few years ago) and I still get upgraded out of BNA almost every flight.
I did 117 segments in 2020, with the majority coming after May 2020. I flew for work, as the industry I am in doesn’t stop. [removed false info].
As a DM, I’ll be glad you’re not staying one. I’ve already hit Diamond as of 6/30.
You’re correct about is the lack of upgrades. I usually book M or B fares…and I rarely get upgraded now.
@Mark – Removed your attempt to spam with false info and sorry you had to take such a great risk and travel so much during the pandemics worst point.
Nothing spam or false about it. Great risks?! Come on now. My son, at 15 months old caught it, he had a fever for one day, was fine within 3 days. Just because you feel differently about it doesn’t make it false.
@Mark – Millions dead, including a dear older friend of mine, are the facts.
Let me summarize the article–
I was one of the cheap freeloaders who made it to plat.
Now I can afford stuff. I still game the system.
You’re welcome.
LOL..just joshing….good article.
You saw my Gold card!
@FlyOFten – Oh I paid many thousands to Delta partners in business class often via JustFly or Priceline and loved every flight and earned massive MQMs, MQDs and SkyPennies! 🙂