Delta overhauling its SkyMiles Medallion program and Sky Club airport lounge access sparked deep emotions in people.
Many people aren’t happy. (But some others are downright elated because it means fewer people to mess with their upgrades and bother them in lounges.)
A friend of mine flew last weekend and tried coaxing details out of an airport gate agent. He said she did a great job of honoring her non-disclosure agreement and wouldn’t leak anything. But he added, “She encouraged me to write to corporate to let them know how upset I am once the announcements are made.”
Again, that was several days ago. But Delta employees already knew this would make longtime, loyal customers upset.
Can the Changes Be Reversed?
Part of me wonders if Delta is playing chicken. I think they inadvertently did it before. And it sets an interesting precedent.
Remember last year when Delta announced there would be no admittance to Sky Clubs upon arriving at your final destination? That ticked off a lot of people — who then complained and threatened to cancel their Amex cards that get them into the lounges.
Delta reversed their decision and again allowed us to enter Sky Clubs after arriving at our ultimate destinations.
That’s nothing compared to these huge changes.
Will complaining make Delta rethink these drastic policies?
I doubt it.
But consider this: we’re not yet at the end of 2023’s third quarter. There’s plenty of time for Delta’s and American Express’ stock to be negatively (or positively) affected. (Neither my blogger counterpart René deLambert nor I own stock in Delta or American Express.)
Let’s check out some of the reactions.
People threatening to move their travel to other airlines and cancel their Amex cards doesn’t sound great for the mothership or its credit card partner.
Excuse my tin-foil hat: does anyone else wonder if these changes are some dark, opening offer to Delta Medallions?
After all, they reneged once. Will they do it again?
Is this a new game of chicken?
I Want To Talk To Your Manager!
The best way to express your discontent is with your wallet. That might take a while.
For now, tell Delta what specifically makes you upset about the changes. MQD thresholds? Sky Club visits? No more MQM? Yes?
If you want Delta to know how you feel, here’s where you can go.
First, Chris Elliot’s “Delta Air Lines Customer Service Contacts” contains emails for several Delta corporate executives — including CEO Ed Bastian who once said to email him if you have any problems. Rachel Oakley provides some information on her site, too.
Next, you can submit a general complaint about SkyMiles through this page at Delta.com.
Finally, you can call Delta at the numbers listed on those pages. You can also call the Medallion phone lines, too. (Remember, though, that those folks need to help travelers with actual travel-related issues. Don’t take up all their time.)
Don’t Be That Person
Let’s be very clear about something: the people answering phones are not the ones who ordered the Medallion program changes.
DO NOT be rude to them. (The people in the stock photo at the top of the post? Don’t be them.) Please calmly express your frustrations. If you’re genuinely going to give your business to different airlines, you can tell them that. But please do not yell at or insult them.
The same goes for front-line Delta and airport employees (gate agents, flight attendants, etc.) Don’t be mad at them.
Final Approach
If you don’t like the changes Delta made to their Medallion program, tell them. But state exactly why you’re upset. Will they reverse course? Probably not. But they established a history of doing so with their Sky Club changes.
We think they might be playing chicken.
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.
Delta will tick off business travelers the most with these changes. Those that live in a primary Delta market will get hit the worst. However, may people will have the opportunity to be more loyal to someone else. Delta must have hired the Bud Light marketing team, as this is about as dumb a decision as Bud Light made.
Not worth the attempt. This new travel agency (or credit card company) with planes doesn’t understand what it takes to be loyal to an airline and all the sacrifices we make to fly them. They don’t want butts in seats, they want credit card spending, renting cars and booking hotels. I’m not interested in that model.
Cancelling cards, collecting generic points and signing up for a European or Middle Eastern/Asian loyalty program. Won’t pursue status per se but would pay for upgrades and premium services which would still allow me to use superior products to Delta’s at a fraction of the cost. I racked up avoir 2MM/Diamond status in the past 10 years, and I’m done trying.
I’m 100% sure they will reverse but not now… it will take them 3-5 years… this is very cyclical and they just took a big gamble.
ZTravel is exactly correct. Delta is restructuring their loyalty program to most value those services Delta doesn’t have to provide: hotels, rental cars, vacation packages, international partner airlines, and credit cards. While this may seem lucrative to Delta in the short-term, I question the value of loyalty in a program that doesn’t confer benefits to those outside hospitality providers.
To put it another way: Why would a traveler credit hotel spending towards Delta loyalty instead of crediting it to the hotel’s loyalty program? When spending only a handful of hours on a plane in each direction, but multiple nights in a hotel, the perks from having status at the hotel are much more valuable.
Other travel agencies like Expedia offer chain-agnostic benefits across hotels with their loyalty programs. If Delta is serious about wanting revenue from outside the asset-heavy business of actually flying, they are going to need to figure out how to make their loyalty program more attractive outside of their airplanes.
I’m not upset at these changes per se. I always thought that status should be based on a mixture of credit card and flight spending. I’m not happy about the 10K increase for diamond status but then you can now make that up by booking cars and hotels through Delta. It also seems that the whole ticket price will now count towards MQD. I agree that for many people including possibly me status will be harder to attain but I’m not opposed to that.
I would be irritated if the Amex status boost were not replaced with another benefit. They could say that the benefit is unlimited club access for more than 75K spending but you get that at the moment anyway if you spend more than 75K, and you get status boosts for up to 120K spending. I hope they will bring back the miles that used to be awarded for each 30K spending and/or offer bonus MQD instead.
What bothers me most is the continual devaluation of miles and especially regional upgrade certificates. Most of the time now it’s impossible to confirm First Class or Delta One on a cross country flight or flights to Hawaii without using a global upgrade as opposed to a regional upgrade. With the skyrocketing price of first class awards for international flights, global upgrades should only be required for international flights, not for domestic flights. Premium Select is not a substitute for Delta One especially when you have a special meal requirement and can’t get Delta One meals when upgraded within 24 hours, even if getting that upgrade will be easier with less Diamonds.
I switched from Southwest to Delta a few years ago as my kids aged out getting us priority family boarding with Southwest (which had a far better reward system with their u limited companion pass).
I chose to get a delta reserve credit card based on the expectation that 10 domestic round trips a year plus credit card spending would get me Platinum status and I liked the access to the sky clubs. I qualified for Platinum with the assistance of the MQM bonus for every $30k spent. Now that is gone and doing the math I am unlikely to get platinum status again (especially without rollover being available). I’m thinking I’ll wait out 2024 (since I’ve earned status already) and then look in 2025 to find a non-delta card with good rewards that makes it worth using. I’ll discontinue the Delta Amex as the rewards just aren’t worth the fee anymore.
I have no desire to book any of the other things delta offers (rental cars, hotels, vacations).
I think that it’s important in voicing our issues to Delta that we all be very clear in what precisely our issues are. It’s not constructive to say we want it all rolled-back, that will never happen. What might have some impact is complaining about items like the 10 visit limit on SkyClub visits, the terrible conversion rate of MQMs to MQDs for 2024 only, the fact that Delta has effectively mirrored AA’s model but with lower and more restrictive earning rates for CC spend and omitting things like shopping portals and dining from qualifying activity.
Delta also made a massive mistake in only delivering the bad news yesterday. There’s buzz that for those lucky few(er) that qualify for Platinum and Diamond the Choice Benefits will be better. They would need to be pretty amazing for me to have any interest in getting on the 2024+ SkyMiles hamster wheel. Like others I’m thinking about taking my current Diamond status and seeing what match I can pick up UA or AA.
That was my initial thought that these were trial balloons to assess reaction although in my mind any reduction will be minor. I’ve enjoyed being Platinum for the last 7 years and it seems next year will likely be my last. I’m extremely disappointed with these changes, but any adjustments probably won’t have much chance for me. Free agency awaits. Only 2 more trips booked for the rest of the year and any ones added will be based strictly on price and I’m pretty sure my flight numbers won’t start with DL….
Yes. The requirements are absurd for what you get in return. AA’s program is more like a game; DL’s program is more like an impossible pursuit, so why bother trying!
Domestically we need more airlines / competition… internationally there are a lot of options. After 2MM and being Diamond for years, earlier this year I started flying various European carriers like TAP or ME/Asian like Qatar and Singapore – paying for very reasonable upgrades and lounge options were plentiful! However I kept my reserve card and flew delta as well… but now, definitely going to cancel my Reserve card almost right away and I hope I don’t have to take Delta even for a connecting flight. My 2024 plan is use all delta benefits (4GUC, some credit and all my miles), cash out and have fun exploring more airlines, more airports and different products and stop stressing over what those exec at Delta are theorizing about!
But look at Europe it’s 3 airlines with legacy branding.
IAG – British, Iberia, Aer Lingua and Finnair is block one
Lufthansa – with Swiss and Austria and more and picking up ITA
AF/KLM as the third
Then two big budget airlines Easy and Ryan. Like the two budgets of the US
And a few independent scraps being fought over. ITA and TAP
Gotta repeat what my wife asked: when was the last time First Class service or meals was any good? The only value at the moment are bigger seats, even internationally. It blows my mind that anyone besides corporate execs and oversized people pay the current premium prices for C+, Premium Select, First or D+
Since Delta long lost any semblance of loyalty when Richard left and Ed took over, on the oversized people, if Delta wasn’t so much on the Woke train and wanted to really address their ‘our highest cost of doing business is fuel’ line that they pull out regularly and equate to the number and size of someone’s luggage, why not add dynamic pricing to seating based on weight? They set a threshold in lbs/Kgs and everyone walks across a scale at the boarding gate. Those above the threshold pay more, those below get some amount of credit over what they’d paid to get to that point. I’ve been the same 150 – 155lbs for decades, while over even a much shorter period DL’s mileage tickets have gone from the ‘chart days’ of 100K RT US Europe to regularly 300 – 400K, even 600 – 700K. A pound of a person is no different than a pound of a piece of luggage to the drag on the plane and fuel consumption. Of course broaching that subject will light all kinds of fires. I’m also in the 2MM+ and DM group, so my butt has seen a lot of seats and flights, although will more likely see seats other than DL soon.
Starting today, Delta has lost all my loyalty. I used to go out of my way to fly Delta. Not anymore. I will still always fly Delta if they are the only non stop option for me. Spending more time with my family is my #1 priority. However, anywhere I have to connect, I will look for alternatives. I never have to go to Amsterdam. But being in a Delta hub, flying to AMS gets me into Europe and from there I connect to other major cities. No more. Lufthansa just announced a flight from MSP to Germany. I can fly to Chicago or NY and fly an European airline direct to my final destination in Europe. Same for Asia. I would fly to another US city to fly an Asian airline to Asia. Thus, Delta will not be my priority anymore.
Quick question: Are the ten visits…ANY ten visits? Example: if I’m out of EWR…connecting in Atlanta and use both SC’s…is that one visit because it’s on the same itinerary or two visits?
That is a big thing to know when your limited to ten. In June DL cancelled my flight to Texas and rebooked me on a EWR-CVG-ATL-ELP itinerary. I visited SC’s in EWR, CVG, ATL. Would I have used 30% of my visits on a trip for which THEY rebooked me?
@WB – Two visits. It is even worse. Say you visit the club and then your flight is delayed and it is more than 3 hours since 1st check-in you get dinged for ANOTHER visit. The T&C does say they can not count the extra visit if they don’t want to but we are talking lounge dragons who love to give pain so…
Every time you step in a lounge is one visit. If your flight has 2 connections to your final destination, you will use more than one visit if you use their lounges on different airports.
I hold the Reserve Card. Quick question on the Sky Club change: Is it ANY ten visits…or would it be multiple visits on the same itinerary only count as one.
In June, DL cancelled my flight to El Paso, TX and rebooked me: EWR-CVG-ATL-ELP. I visited the SC’s in EWR, CVG, & ATL. Is that (3) visits (30% of my allotment) or is it only (1) visit.
If it’s (3) visits…NO way on earth would I ever keep my Reserve Card past 2024. The companion ticket isn’t nearly worth the fee.
From what I understand, each Sky Club visit counts. 3 stops on one trip = 3 of your 10 visits.
I already did this and let me tell you, going free agent takes a ton of pressure off that you don’t even know is there. I switched jobs and no longer had air travel. I also live in a Delta Hub. You couldn’t get into a SC if you wanted so where is the benefit of standing there looking like a goof with your client next to you and you can’t get in? The Priority pass clubs are just as bad. So, back to the gate or a sit down restaurant. The upgrade lists in Atlanta? Quite often, there are over 50 people in line for a 168 seat flight that has 8 first class and 12 Comfort Plus. Why bother? Seat near the front? Exit row? Quiet secret- there is always overhead space at row 40 and a free aisle seat.
There’s tremendous freedom in free agency. Yes, I still fly Delta because there are often better times flights available, but it’s a chair in the sky and to expect more at this point on any airline is not realistic. Now we are at “get me there at the least expensive price and I’ll buy an aisle seat”.
Hi all: Sorry not sure why my two posts…posted!
BTW…did anyone read the email Delta sent this morning. It might just be the most insulting thing any company has ever sent? How gullible do they think we are?
So…here you go…the United Infinite Card…$525/year and unlimited United Club access. I live near EWR so this is a no-brainer!
https://www.theexplorercard.com/rewards-cards/club-card
I saw the announcement. I was wondering how they were going to position this. Simplicity? They “heard us”? Wow. Wouldn’t want to have been the marketing person assigned to write that one. Yes, very insulting. Just got many more upset. Can’t imagine they will change anything. They are moving toward families, vacation travelers, and premium paying passengers. Regular business travelers are no longer the target .. for now.
The 20:1 rollover MQM:MQD conversion is insanely bad. 4:1 would be the correct ratio. If there is any area ripe for backtracking, this would be one.
Exactly. I may or may not like what Delta chooses as their rewards program going forward, and I can choose accordingly . What I can’t do is go back in time and spend that $400K+ of my money on other cards/programs to earn the rewards Delta just retroactively took away. By not allowing a one time rollover of MQM’s at anywhere near a fair rate, Ed Bastian has just mugged me for at least $10,000 in cash. Why would I ever trust their new “rewards” program when they retroactively screwed me on the last one big time?
Why would they? They may modify some aspects for equity (IE: rollover treatment), but the program in its primary form will likely remain unchanged.
Any thoughts on joining FlyBlue program and get Delta flights into that program? Would having the highest status in that program be the same as Diamond?
I live in Germa y. It have chosen to collect all my travel in Delta. Flying blue would have actually provided me with better better benefits as I prefer travel to/from the US on KLM. I did contact Flying Blue today to see if I can match or transfer my 968,000 miles. Delta has in their relationship with Flying Blue not stood by reciprocal benefits. Due to travel with a Assistance Dog i Must use KLM as does not allow Service Dogs in cabins in the EU unless they are further certified. By a UK training group – rather a silly waste of time and Hugh money for a Trained a dog who could teach the UK Program. KLM and Delta are glorious wonderful for Disability Travel. I only have obtained silver or Platinum Status yearly – free luggage is a money saver. Club visits are helpful – Flying Blue if they will accept my miles – will serve me better and I spend Euros anyway . No one in their right mind with any sense of financial responsibility would book Hotels, Rental Cars or Vacations on the extra expensive Delta site for third party bookings . The rates are often double the price. I seriously doubt that the Delta third party sites will ever Present negotiated lower rates. Like many -I chose extend routings and short t miserable layovers to fly Delta as this did. offer a benefit and Of course Service was American Quality! I’ll complete the million miles on Kl and AF – and enjoy Silver for life (IF THIS IS ALSO NOT CANCELLED!!). The greed of seeking Uber spenders and ignoring business travelers Sky Clubs will be for those who can afford – United has a more affordable membership
And no requirement to first become a Medallion Member to
Buy or renew -and additional
BASE FARE ( taxes not included) $6000 on Delta spending . No thank
You Delta!
I wouldn’t run to UAL yet. That airline has not yet announced its 2024 changes. I suspect they will also change their program to reflect revenue based “loyalty” recognition just as DAL and AAL have done.
I thought they already had, in fact these changes by Delta seem to be modeled on what the others do.
In business school you study why companies lose their most financially important customers and how that moves downstream to other top customers. I will reach around $32,000 MQD’s this year.
Delta sent me a report, 95% of my purchases were premium seats. Delta said, use our ‘travel services” to earn MQD’s. Example, Hilton Hotel in Chicago, my corporate rate (CR), I selected a business day night, CR was $228 a night, Delta travel services was $348 a night. Those 10 nights that would be over $1,200 more to use Delta travel services just to earn MQD’s.
I am 100% positive if a Delta Employee spent $1,200 more, just at one hotel to earn points, that person WOULD BE FIRED, AND SHOULD BE. Delta, you just became generic.
I understand Delta want to make people at the elite level, (In their words, be special), and they want to drive more cash through their AMX (again, their words), by using their travel services, which are much higher priced, see example above.
Our CEO sent out a quick memo asking for feedback about this program. We have 273 employees who travel. A few years ago, 86% flew Delta, last year it was 67% who flew Delta. Our CEO wanted to know out of the 180 or so leaders who currently fly Delta, how many would be loyal to them now? The number was stunning, only 23 said they would continue to fly Delta.
Regarding me, count me as one who will now not be loyal to Delta anymore. This is another “Business School” case study, in how to lose your most loyal customers. I just order a Hilton AMX, I booked two 1st class seat on American from ATL to LAX and Chicago. I am no longer going to chase status.
Shock and denial – check
Pain and guilt – check
Anger and bargaining – check
Depression – check
The Upward Turn – in progress
Reconstruction and working through – also in progress
Acceptance and hope – coming soon
As upset as I was initially, there is something liberating about no longer being tied to one airline. I’m just 78,000 MQMs away from Million Miler status, so I’ll probably try to get that wrapped up ASAP. Then I’ll be a complete free agent. It will make my Chase Rewards much more valuable to me, so that’s who will likely get the bulk of my credit card spend. I’ll also get a lot more use from my complimentary Priority Pass membership than I do now.
Didn’t read through to see if anyone else had posted on this but to me as a 25+ year business traveler (based in Atlanta) who has historically been very Delta loyal, I am sensing that my loyalty is coming to an end. Sure, I will still fly Delta often but not as exclusively as I had been. The issue for me (and I assume for many business travelers who work for large corporations) is that corporate travel policies at my company get tighter and tighter every year and this has been accelerating coming out of the pandemic over the last 2 years (and resulting economic slowdown that continues to impact businesses globally). So much so that for those of who still travel often we have set budgets and “tools” with tight controls that keep us from booking the higher priced tickets domestically + internationally rules have been tightened around when/if we can fly first class. Furthermore, we are never allowed to book hotels or rental cars on Delta.com. Speaking as someone whose business travel comprised 95% of their overall travel in a given year, I don’t really see a practical way to maintain or advance medallion status under these changes as I will be hard pressed to hit these new threshold limits without any of my hotel stays or car rentals counting toward MQDs. And on a final note, reading the impacts to Delta Amex and trying to understand why Delta is devaluing their Plat/Reserve card holders so much, I am definitely not going to be renewing my Delta Reserve card next year. They have pretty much gutted every benefit that makes those cards desirable.
Is there any possibility of a Class Action Lawsuit? Seems like a huge bait & switch based on the conversion rates.
Even if I thought it warranted one, I can’t see what benefit a class action suit would do. Regardless of the outcome it would cost Delta money which would be passed on to us ultimately. Usually the main benefactors of class action suits are the lawyers involved.
@Barry – Delta has (maybe) more lawyers than jets
True but they are not the lawyers that would make money from this. The lawyers who would make money are the ones bringing the suit.
You can make this up the execs making these decisions not only pissed off their delta loyal members but also just FU’ed their Amex platinum members and biggest partner. U gotta wonder how disconnected those execs are saying that they made the decision based in consumer feedback. Yeah people complained about the crowds but there are I’m sure a whole lot of other ways to handle without just POing everyone.
This must have happened with the knowledge, input and agreement of American Express. Unless you are working at Delta in the loyalty department you have no way of knowing what all customers want. A lot of Reserve card holders won’t be subject to the 10 visit limit as they will be spending enough to waive it. It would make sense for many people with a credit card who like flying Delta and visiting Sky Clubs to be signing up for the Reserve card if they haven’t already. There are plenty of people that will do so. In general happy people don’t share their agreement as much as unhappy people complain. While the new limits are on my opinion too high, I like the fact that you no longer have to choose between credit card spending and flight spending to make Diamond. I would not be happy if they backtracked on that. I would be happy if they lowered the thresholds.
I do think it was wrong to limit the number of visits that a Reserve member can make, even though it won’t affect a lot of Reserve members. It was also wrong not to replace the MQM boost. When you pay for a service and cut the benefits, you need to make up for them somehow and that hasn’t been done here.
I’m actually more annoyed with Delta though over the continually shrinking number of opportunities for medallion members to upgrade. On several recent long domestic flights there were no upgrades given at all.
The new Delta medallion rules are particularly bad for people living outside the US who cannot easily use the credit cards Delta is pushing. I can´t help but think that Delta is now more of a credit card company than an airlines.
“I can´t help but think that Delta is now more of a credit card company than an airlines.”
Yep. That’s what a bunch of people are thinking.