Delta Leaves SkyMiles Status Requirements Unchanged For 2026 — But Tweaks Choice Benefits For Diamonds And Platinums

Delta is leaving SkyMiles status qualification criteria unchanged for next year, and tweaking benefits that Platinum and Diamond members can choose from. They first announced that qualification criteria would not change for next year back in August.

Three of the four choice benefits that are changing are improving, while the American Express statement credit option drops from $700 to $500 for Diamonds and to $250 from $400 for Platinums.

Their recently-installed head of loyalty said “Earning and keeping the trust of our Members means being transparent about changes and continually investing in the experiences that matter most.”

Of course they aren’t exactly being transparent – they say clearly where a benefit is improved, but do not do the same for the American Express statement credit which is being devalued. Delta was first among U.S. carriers to eliminate award charts to mask their devaluation of miles.

The Atlanta-based carrier announced huge changes two years ago that would have meant a requirement to spend $35,000 qualifying dollars to hit Diamond status and new limits on accessing Sky Clubs. And they even warned that they weren’t done making changes and planned to go further.

The backlash was swift! While normally executives might stick to their guns, thinking the ‘noise around the edges’ would pass, the carrier surely saw data along with their co-brand credit card partner American Express that genuinely scared them – because they swiftly reversed course,

• Moderating the increased requirements for status
• While keeping the ability to earn qualifying dollars through non-flight activity (like card spend and booking non-flight travel through Delta)
• Raising the annual limits they were imposing on lounge access via credit card
• And introducing a new sweetener of improved lifetime elite benefits.

Was this just a temporary measure, to ease everone more slowly into the changes a little bit at a time? Delta’s CEO suggested that their mistake was going too fast rather than making the changes at all. However,

• They didn’t come back with these changes in 2024
• And they haven’t come back with them in 2025, either.

		Planned		Rolled Back To
2023		2024		2024		2026
3,000		6,000		5,000		5,000
8,000		12,000		10,000		10,000
12,000		18,000		15,000		15,000
20,000		35,000		28,000		28,000

Delta wanted to push customers to spend more money – on tickets, with their credit card partnership (where they claim ‘roughly’ 1% of GDP) and through other partnershps that drive higher margin revenue than flights. They’re still doing that – but they aren’t demanding as much from customers as they’d planned to two years ago.