Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
First, let’s look at the Delta Medallion Choice Benefits options that were presented to me. You will see why the choice I made for 2023 Platinum and Diamond as well as Platinum for 2024 – and yes, you get both when you make Diamond, and yes, you can already choose 2024 if you have already earned 2024 status.
- Had I made 2024 Diamond, the American Express Statement Credit $500 is clearly appealing vs. 25,000 SkyPennies because, well simple math, that is twice the value of a SkyPenny right? But my last 2023 choice did not allow this “new” perk for 2024.
- Starbucks stars? – Pointless
- Sky Club Membership? – Has been pointless for years now
- MQMs? A SkyTeam partner mileage run is WAAAAY better for earning MQMs.
- Delta Vacations Credit? Why when they can just give you $500 toward Amex!
- Sustainable Aviation Fuel Contribution? – Buahahhahhah!
- Delta Travel Voucher? – Why, when SkyPennies are worth the same and don’t expire like vouchers?
So above is the breakdown of my choices. As I have talked about for years, I have always, with hard work, burned all of my Regional Upgrade Certificates (or RUCs) at a great value. My most recent was paying only 11,000 SkyPennies and flying Delta first class to Alaska for my amazing 7-day NCL cruise.
Global Upgrade Certificates (or GUCs) was in the works but then I used SkyPennies to book on Delta partner Air France in business class for under 100,000 points, so I used GUC for some very long domestic flights as I will not have time to burn them internationally before they expire.
Gold Medallion status. I have a very dear friend I was able to gift status to for a full year. There is real value and joy in helping a friend out.
So, lastly, we have what I redeemed the other day for my likely last-ever Diamond Medallion Choice Benefit selection. I chose the “best” of the remaining options open to me: another 25,000 SkyPennies because after all my bookings my balance was as near zero as it has been for over a decade flying Delta. Thanks, Delta, for my last $250 in value back for all my years of loyalty.
Also, as mentioned at the top of this post, I have already burned all my GUC and RUCs including my 2024 ones for flights I have booked over the next 12 months. For my 2025 choice that I will have access to as of 1 FEB 2024 (after slamming my Delta Amex with 25k spend in January 2024 plus rollover MQMs) I will again choose RUCs as I will have all of 2024 and 2025 to fly them and that will not be a hard task to accomplish.
Have you selected all your Delta Choice Benefits yet? Have you used them? Let me know! – René
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
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.
I am now getting excellent value for my SM these days on domestic flights with the Amex 15% discount. The old value used to be close to 1 cent per mile but my new range is easily 1.5 to 2 cents per mile with the Amex discount. Especially when booking far in advance and taking advantage of schedule changes to move to better, more expensive flights for free. And often the price in SM goes down over time so I am able to get all of the difference back.
@Frankie – You have been reading the blog I see! 😉 (well done)
maybe I missed it but curious as to your choice for 2024 Platinum. I haven’t picked mine yet but debating on either 20,000 miles or $200 statement credit. For 2023 I took the 20K miles and same in previous years as the RUCs don’t really have a value to me. I’ve never made Diamond and it’s probable that 2024 Platinum (which I have already made) will probably be the last time I have one of the top 2 status tiers. Delta is becoming less valuable to me, unfortunately – and I am a retired Delta pilot.
@Benjamin – I chose RUC for my 2024 Platinum CB and have already applied them to trips that are on the way. I take it with flights so full you do not want to non-Rev?
Thanks Rene – non rev – last time I did was probably 8 years ago. Being retired and commuting out of Orlando as a non rev is no fun I just suck it up and pay for my tickets like everyone else – particularly if I have a place to be, like catching a cruise or something. I keep thinking of trying when I don’t have a need to be somewhere at a certain time. But as of now I just buy tickets and not as much on Delta as I used to.
This year you can gift 2 people Silver status as a PM so I chose this. In previous years it was only 1 person.
Thanks Frankie – Yes, that’s a good one – if you have 2 people that it can benefit!
As Frankie said earlier:
The AMEX discount on the reward travel is actually quite good. Just booked a non-stop to SLC. Price for Main was $548 or 43000 miles (so already a value there)…but then with the 15% discount…only used 36500. Now sure, I’ve got to play the am-I-getting-upgraded-game but was able to book Row 17 which is a one-y on the exit row. So even if no upgrade…I’m pretty happy with the outcome.
gifted gold to a daughter and RUC/GUC not sure I will get DM after this…
I have used all but one of my 2024 RUCs and all of my 2023 RUCs. I have used all of my 2023 GUCs. I wish it were possible to choose more than one set of upgrade certificates since these are the most valuable (although regional upgrades are becoming less valuable since, much of the time, you can only confirm domestic upgrades using global upgrades).
Rene/Chris – update as of 24 August 2023 – I took my 2024 benefits as 4 RUC and have applied them to a ticket purchased for March/April 2024 – The RUC was available for 3 legs and I have confirmed FC seats for those 3 legs – however, 1 leg (PLS [Providenciales Turks & Caicos] – ATL, only GUC were available so I am wait listed.
Do you have any experience at the chances for the wait list to clear? Last minute, before the flights, or not at all?
“Do you have any experience at the chances for the wait list to clear? Last minute, before the flights, or not at all?”
This is going to be extraordinarily unhelpful. But to be honest: all of the above.
No worries, Thank You Chris!
I recently booked a 5-leg trip from San Jose to Greensboro, NC and applied RUCs. 4 legs cleared immediately, but I am wait listed for GSO to ATL. This flight is on one of the 737-900ERs that only has three rows of first class, so I am not optimistic, but it’s a short flight.
On the plus side, I just noticed that Delta swapped planes and now I am on a 767-300 with a Delta One seat for the ATL-LAX leg. Delta never sent an email. All the people that selected aisle seats on the single aisle aircraft have been mapped to the center seats. I imagine that many of those people would move to a window seat if they know about the change.