For years, I’ve maintained Delta elite status but with the changes just announced this week, I think it’s finally time to rethink my airline loyalty.

What I look for with airline elite status

There are a variety of reasons someone would be interested in elite status with an airline, but for me, the equation boils down to a few reasons:

• Better customer service — There have been a number of times where trips have gone wrong, either due to weather, crews that have timed out, or mechanical failure. I’ve found having elite status helps bring resolution to these issues a bit faster with less disruption by better trained agents, as opposed to when I traveled without elite status. I can easily and confidently state that having elite status has saved some of our trips. On top of that, there are generally shorter waits to get in touch with customer service when dialing in. Being able to spend more time doing what I want to do and less time waiting to get in touch with someone to move me on my way is a perk.
• Domestic upgrades — I certainly do not expect to be upgraded every flight, but when I do get into the front cabin, it’s appreciated. It gives me more room to be productive while on the flight and having better service is again great to have while inflight. I don’t generally look forward to meals on domestic flights as airlines here don’t invest in it, but it’s better to have the option than to not.
• Access to extra legroom seating when booking — it’s not truly an upgrade to a better cabin but airlines have done a better job lately at offering some extra perks like free alcohol and better snacks to go along with more space. Being able to choose these seats for free at booking is a plus but requires higher than the base level of elite status.
• Lounge access — This is a bit of a mixed bag, as the US programs have generally disallowed their own elite members from gaining access to lounges unless traveling internationally, but it also helps to gain access to partner or alliance lounges when outside the US. Of course, the entry level of elite status generally doesn’t include access, so this means I need at least the second level of status
• Reciprocity with partner airlines — It’s hard to fly a single airline, so it helps to have airline status count for its partners. While we generally try to fly longhaul flights in business class, we typically take short hops in economy and having status helps.
• Free same-day change — This could be potentially exploited by buying the cheapest ticket for that day and then changing to the flight you want that was more expensive, but since flights are generally full these days, this is not as reliable as it had been in the past. Again, this is a benefit that generally doesn’t exist on the entry level status.

Other reasons why elite status may matter to others include extra bonus points, earlier boarding, extra luggage allotments, but I don’t place any value in those (aside from potential lengthy trips where we are flying with a lot of luggage). I also am separating this discussion from the value of the miles. While that can be a factor for some people, I’m trying to solve for just the elite status portion of the conversation, assuming everything else is equal.

Is it sad that the thing I value most is the better customer service when you could make the argument that it should be provided to everyone? Perhaps, but I also acknowledge the same great service can’t be provided to everyone and there are limited seats available on planes, so prioritization of customers must come from somewhere and having elite status then becomes relevant.

The old Delta elite structure

Delta has four levels of elite status, with different levels of elite status based on how far you travel (MQMs, or Medallion Qualification Miles), how many flights you take (MQSs, or Medallion Qualification Segments), and how much you spend (MQDs, or Medallion Qualification Dollars). For simplicity, ignore the MQSs as it’s hard to fly that many segments and get a meaningful level of status. So instead, we just focus on MQM and MQD.

Despite the travel I do annually, I earned elite status mostly through credit card spend. With Delta, if I spent $25,000 annually on their credit cards, I could get an MQD waiver that would allow me to ignore the MQD component on Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Diamond required $250,000 in credit card spend for that waiver and that’s just not going to happen. And every $30,000 spent on the Delta Reserve card meant 15,000 MQMs are deposited into my account. Note there was a limit on how many MQMs you could earn with one card (capped at four MQM deposits per card). Yes, there is a Delta Platinum credit card, but the earn rate is much better on the Delta Reserve and so I am only going to focus on that.

Elite Status	Credit Card Spend Required (on the Delta Reserve)
Silver	$60,000 (with 5,000 MQMs in the bank)
Gold	$90,000 (with 10,000 MQMs in the bank)
Platinum	$150,000 (Requires two Reserve cards)
Diamond	$240,000 (Requires two Reserve cards plus flying at least 5,000 miles)

It’s not exactly fair to say I have to stick to the above amounts because I do earn MQMs via flying as well. In the past year, I’ve earned 30,000 MQMs via flying. If I assume that amount of flying remains consistent annually, the actual credit card spend needed to maintain status would be shown in the following table, and earning better status via credit card spend doesn’t look as intimidating, assuming I continue to ignore Diamond status. With being a full-time parent, I don’t have any desire to engage in status runs (finding lengthy, cheap flights simply for the purpose of acquiring MQMs and MQDs for a low price).

Elite Status	Credit Card Spend Required (on the Delta Reserve)
Silver	None, as I would naturally qualify
Gold	$60,000 (with 10,000 MQMs in the bank)
Platinum	$90,000
Diamond	$250,000 (Still need that MQD waiver)

Two other relevant items to consider with the old structure:

• Rollover MQM — If you earn more MQMs than are needed to maintain your status, you get to keep your excess for use in future years. With Delta deciding to rollover MQMs during the pandemic, I have 170,000 MQMs in the bank.
• Lifetime status — Today, MQMs are the metric used to determine lifetime status. I have roughly 350,000 lifetime MQMs with Delta but won’t get anything until reaching 1 million miles (Silver status).

How Delta now defines loyalty

Throw away the concept of MQMs and MQSs as they will only go with MQDs going forward. On top of that, they’re heavily increasing the MQD requirements under the new scheme. They’re leaning heavily into big credit card spenders with these changes. If you’re looking to earn status by butt-in-seat flying, you’re probably best served by ditching all US airlines and opting for a foreign program.

So let’s go back to the examples of pure credit card spend. How much do we now need? Well, Delta says the Delta Reserve earns 1 MQD for every $10 spent on the Delta Reserve. The Delta Platinum card is even worse, earning 1 MQD for every $20 spent on that credit card, and offering practically no value now in the Delta Amex portfolio of cards. So again let’s assume we’re talking about spend on the Delta Reserve.

Elite Status	Credit Card Spend Required (on the Delta Reserve)
Silver	$60,000
Gold	$120,000
Platinum	$180,000
Diamond	$350,000

These are a bit painful. But let’s also go back to my own travel patterns. Those 30,000 MQMs in the past year have only accrued about $4,000 in MQDs.

Elite Status	Credit Card Spend Required (on the Delta Reserve)
Silver	$20,000
Gold	$80,000
Platinum	$140,000
Diamond	$310,000

During the pandemic, my status naturally ended up inflating to Platinum level and I’ve found the level of service there good to serve my needs. Under the old scheme, I would only have needed to spend $90,000 to incrementally earn Platinum status and I felt that was achievable. But the new structure forces me to spend over 50% more on Delta cards (an extra $50,000 annually) to maintain the same level of service. While airline flyers tend to skew to higher incomes than the general public, asking someone to spend an extra $50,000 to maintain their status is a huge ask. I stated before that I’m not looking to take status runs and that will continue to be the case.

Even worse, Delta eliminated Rollover MQMs. Yes, the system blew up a bit during the pandemic, but prior to the pandemic, it allowed me some extra flexibility that if travel slowed for one year, I wouldn’t be penalized for it. Removing it means having to maintain my current level of flying or make it up by spending more on the credit card. Also, since Delta removed all MQMs, it means lifetime status is now only earned by butt-in-seat flying. Perhaps it’s best to recognize loyalty that way, but it means my hope of hitting that first level of lifetime status is now unattainable (would require more than 20 years of flying at the rate I’m going) and is no longer a motivator for what I do.

The competition

I’m going to focus on the Big Three in the US (Delta, AA, and United) as they’ve all structured their elite programs to reward credit card spending. Foreign programs haven’t generally followed along the US trend with rewarding credit card spend. If you aren’t anticipating spending on credit cards much, it might be worth it to review foreign programs.

Let’s start with United Airlines. Their program considers either a combination of flights (PQF) and elite points (PQP) or strictly elite points. While the flight counts here are more reasonable than Delta’s old requirements, I’d still be looking at a minimum of 12-18 roundtrip flights to earn either Gold or Platinum status. While I could opt to transit hubs to pad the number of flights taken, I don’t exactly want to depend on that as unnecessary connections just add time and increase the chance of encountering a delay. So I will focus on the PQP component.

United Airlines offers 500 PQP for every $12,000 in credit card spend, with varying caps on each flavor of card. So let’s get back to calculating spend for each level. Note that earning any status requires a minimum of four flights on United, but that’s negligible here–why earn a status you’ll never use?

Elite Status	Credit Card Spend Required
Silver	$120,000
Gold	$240,000
Platinum	$360,000
Diamond	$576,000

United’s program just isn’t realistically attainable to be purely earned from credit card spend, but what about my travel patterns? I’m going to assume Delta’s MQD is roughly equivalent to United’s PQP based on the descriptions, so I am expected to naturally earn about 4,000 PQP over the course of flying.

Elite Status	Credit Card Spend Required
Silver	$24,000
Gold	$144,000
Platinum	$264,000
Diamond	$480,000

Based on my objective, I shouldn’t bother with United as roughly the same credit card spend to earn Gold with United would earn Platinum with Delta. This suggests I shouldn’t bother switching.

Let’s instead look at American. Their program is simple, based on Loyalty Points, where any dollar spent on flights or their partners (including each dollar spent on credit cards) earns 1 LP. That makes it easy to calculate how much credit card spend is needed.

However, note that Delta’s MQD are not directly translatable to AA’s LP. That’s because AA’s LP earning structure on flights gives bonuses based on your status. So that makes it a little tricky to calculate but also makes it marginally easier to requalify. I’m going to assume my status will remain constant (if I am Platinum one year, I will strive for Platinum the next) and I will take a long-term view (rather than starting as a member, then scaling up based on each new status earned through the year). Thus, my $4,000 in Delta MQDs should roughly mean:

AA Status	LP Earn Rate	My Expected LP (Flights)
Member	5 LP/$	20,000 LP
Gold	7 LP/$	28,000 LP
Platinum	8 LP/$	32,000 LP
Platinum Pro	9 LP/$	36,000 LP
Executive Platinum	11 LP/$	44,000 LP

On top of this, AA awards LP bonuses if you have the right credit cards. The AA Citi / AAdvantage Executive Card gives LP bonuses if you reach certain LP thresholds within the AA program (doesn’t require any spend on that particular card). And the Barclays Aviator Silver Card earns an extra 15,000 LP for $50,000 in spend on that card.

That means I’m looking at the following, assuming I hold both those cards and put all spending on the Barclays Aviator Silver Card and taking a long-term view of my LP earning:

Elite Status	Credit Card Spend Required
Gold	$12,000
Platinum	$28,000
Platinum Pro	$54,000
Executive Platinum	$121,000

Switching to AA for me seems to make too much sense, at least purely from a credit card spend perspective. I can achieve comparable Platinum Pro status for less or even strive for Executive Platinum for less than it would cost me to get Delta’s Platinum status. This doesn’t consider the quality of the airline or the operation, but living near an airport hub for all three airlines (LAX) makes it easy for me to switch loyalty.

You should do a similar analysis for yourself before making a switch in loyalty since everyone’s situation could be a bit different, especially as it relates to living near an airline hub.

Final Thoughts

Delta has offered to convert existing Rollover MQM to MQD, but at an abysmal 20:1 ratio. That won’t offer significant progress to status and so I’m not going to consider it. It’s a bit ridiculous they are offering a terrible rate. I know some people who have hundreds of thousands of MQM and perhaps Delta just didn’t want to offer those people an easy path to Diamond, but it makes my decision to leave them easier.

You might ask why didn’t I consider switching my loyalty sooner, but it’s really the Rollover MQM that kept me around. American didn’t start this new scheme until recently and at that point, I had a large amount of MQM carried over from years past with Delta. I was banking on a couple of years of Platinum with Delta but now that Delta has changed their mind on who they want to reward, I’m also changing my mind on where I spend my money. I’m ready to move on to AA.

If you’re a Delta loyalist, have you also decided enough is enough with the recent changes to the program?