Delta is adjusting the required AmEx credit card spending required to obtain Diamond Medallion status. It currently requires either spending $15,000 with Delta (plus flight miles) or spending $25,000 with AmEx. They are now increasing the credit card only spend to $250,000 per year starting 2018!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -expensive

Now I can see $25,000 might be low for CC spend total if DL wants $15,000 directly with them if you want top status but the increase seems very steep. Obviously Delta is working to make the top status far more limited and exclusive (and expensive). AmEx is also obviously losing some of its relationship with Delta for such a big change.

This has me wondering if the other airlines will follow with a similar increase in cost to attain top FF status. It seems to be the way things are going.

Tugg

You understand this is just the EQD waiver that you get for spending money on their credit card right? It's not the actual spending requirement for Diamond status. As you seem to completely misunderstand, I'm going to suggest deletion.

Tugger wrote:

This has me wondering if the other airlines will follow with a similar increase in cost to attain top FF status. It seems to be the way things are going.

Tugg

As mentioned above, this is about the waiver on the spending requirement for Diamond status. Both AA and UA have never offered a credit card waiver for the spend requirement for elite status so there is really nothing to 'follow'....

9w748capt wrote:

You understand this is just the EQD waiver that you get for spending money on their credit card right? It's not the actual spending requirement for Diamond status. As you seem to completely misunderstand, I'm going to suggest deletion.

I don't think the OP is confused. Seems pretty clear that they're only referring to the MQD waiver that you can get with Amex spending. Either way, with the continual decline in upgrade availability thanks to upselling domestic first class, I've found that FF status means a lot less. Frankly, you get the biggest bang for your buck at Gold which unlocks all of the Skyteam benefits. And then if you want domestic lounge access, you can still get that through Amex.

Frankly, the MQD waiver meant less money spent directly with DL so maybe they just had enough of that. Seems like this is more of a crackdown on people who do mileage runs for status than anything else.

9w748capt wrote:

You understand this is just the EQD waiver that you get for spending money on their credit card right? It's not the actual spending requirement for Diamond status. As you seem to completely misunderstand, I'm going to suggest deletion.

Yes I understand that this is "equivalent spend". As I said I can see that $25,000 in overall spend on AmEx was low for top status. And that adjusting it higher makes sense. It just seems very high as compared to where it is now.

panamair wrote:

Both AA and UA have never offered a credit card waiver for the spend requirement for elite status so there is really nothing to 'follow'....

That I did not know.

Tugg

Tugger wrote:

9w748capt wrote:

You understand this is just the EQD waiver that you get for spending money on their credit card right? It's not the actual spending requirement for Diamond status. As you seem to completely misunderstand, I'm going to suggest deletion.

Yes I understand that this is "equivalent spend". As I said I can see that $25,000 in overall spend on AmEx was low for top status. And that adjusting it higher makes sense. It just seems very high as compared to where it is now.

panamair wrote:

Both AA and UA have never offered a credit card waiver for the spend requirement for elite status so there is really nothing to 'follow'....

That I did not know.

Tugg

If you have the Presidential Plus (old CO card) on UA, I believe the spending requirement is waived for all statuses except 1K. Card membership has been discontinued for quite a while now, though.

9w748capt wrote:

You understand this is just the EQD waiver that you get for spending money on their credit card right? It's not the actual spending requirement for Diamond status. As you seem to completely misunderstand, I'm going to suggest deletion.

Honestly I never knew this was available as an atlernative way to get Diamond status. Seems shockingly low. No idea where they've come up with 250k, but 25k as an alternative was rather low.

9w748capt wrote:

You understand this is just the EQD waiver that you get for spending money on their credit card right? It's not the actual spending requirement for Diamond status. As you seem to completely misunderstand, I'm going to suggest deletion.

Actually, I think the OP got it right.

"They are now increasing the credit card only spend to $250,000 per year starting 2018!"

For status in CY 2019. MQD waiver for CY 2018 is unchanged.

klakzky123 wrote:

Frankly, the MQD waiver meant less money spent directly with DL so maybe they just had enough of that. Seems like this is more of a crackdown on people who do mileage runs for status than anything else.

Why would they want to discourage a paying customer? I have never run into anyone questioning your reason to fly.

TVNWZ wrote:

klakzky123 wrote:

Frankly, the MQD waiver meant less money spent directly with DL so maybe they just had enough of that. Seems like this is more of a crackdown on people who do mileage runs for status than anything else.

Why would they want to discourage a paying customer? I have never run into anyone questioning your reason to fly.

Well if the value of the status as intended was diluted by people who spent $25k on an AMEX but, say, $5k on Delta on super creative mileage runs, well I could see their rationale for doing so.

Although how people can fly 125k miles without spending $15k is beyond me.

Its actually quite easy to fly 125K miles per year and not spend $15K. A person could (as I did for years) go back and forth from the Northeast to California every other week and hit 125K. If you figure the person knows about the trips well in advance they could easily buy tix for $300/rt. (easily could be less). A $300 ticket, twenty-five times, would total out to $7,500.

It may just be time for Delta to admit that top status isn't about flying but its about profitability of the passenger.... Why have the distance requirements...just make it $. Why not? If you spend $15,000 on 50 tickets or 1, you're still really valuable to the airline.

jetero wrote:

TVNWZ wrote:

klakzky123 wrote:

Frankly, the MQD waiver meant less money spent directly with DL so maybe they just had enough of that. Seems like this is more of a crackdown on people who do mileage runs for status than anything else.

Why would they want to discourage a paying customer? I have never run into anyone questioning your reason to fly.

Well if the value of the status as intended was diluted by people who spent $25k on an AMEX but, say, $5k on Delta on super creative mileage runs, well I could see their rationale for doing so.

Although how people can fly 125k miles without spending $15k is beyond me.

And if I put my mileage run on the AMEX? The bottom line is they don't care about mileage runs. They discourage cheap tickets. They do that with E fares hoping that the nickle and dimeing that comes with them passengers will just opt for the next highest fare.

TVNWZ wrote:

jetero wrote:

TVNWZ wrote:

Why would they want to discourage a paying customer? I have never run into anyone questioning your reason to fly.

Well if the value of the status as intended was diluted by people who spent $25k on an AMEX but, say, $5k on Delta on super creative mileage runs, well I could see their rationale for doing so.

Although how people can fly 125k miles without spending $15k is beyond me.

And if I put my mileage run on the AMEX? The bottom line is they don't care about mileage runs. They discourage cheap tickets. They do that with E fares hoping that the nickle and dimeing that comes with them passengers will just opt for the next highest fare.

Well as someone who spent more than $12k to go 50k miles on tickets with less than 1 week notice (I'll get 100k soon enough), I don't understand why the airline would value someone who spent less to go 100k just for the sake of doing so, booking far out in advance and often blocking higher value passengers from upgrading or getting E+ seats who actually do have to travel. I don't call that "nickel and diming" in the least.

The airline doesn't know--nor care--about why you flew. If you took advantage of their cheapest CPM trip they are pretty happy about that. They are also happy about your spend too. Very happy.