This week Delta announced major changes to how SkyMiles elite status is earned, and to how people can access their club lounges.
The requirements for earning status were massively increased. For instance, a top tier Diamond needs 20,000 qualifying dollars this year to earn status. Going forward they’ll need 35,000 and there’s only qualifying dollars, no miles or segments as part of calculating status.
People with the $550 annual fee Delta Reserve credit card will no longer receive unlimited lounge access. Instead, unless they spend at least $75,000 a year on the card, they’ll be limited to 10 visits per year (so they’re paying up front for $55 per visit fees). And cardmembers will no longer be able to use lounges when flying basic economy. The least expensive SkyMiles award tickets are often basic economy.
There are consumer movements on Flyertalk and on Reddit to try to get Delta to reverse these changes.
So it’s worth noting that two decades ago Delta made major changes to how elite status was earned. For instance they decided to count only full fare tickets towards status-earning. It took two years, but the “Save SkyMiles” movement got those changes reversed.
- They signed petitions
- They took out ads, including in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- They hired a truck to drive a sign around outside at the airline’s annual shareholders meeting
In fact, leading up to 2008 it was fairly common to see negative frequent flyer program changes reversed.
- United required a Saturday stay on a roundtrip ticket in order to redeem a saver award. They rolled back the change amidst consumer backlash (while Northwest slipped in their own version of the change – which stuck for many years).
- United made systemwide upgrades redeemable only on nearly full fare (H and above) tickets in 2003. There was enough of an uproar that they even issued additional sweet spot certificates valid on nearly any fare for the same year, and had less restrictive international upgrades the following year (that still excluded the cheapest fares).
- US Airways planned to count only full fare tickets towards elite status. The public face of the airline explaining this change later became the CEO of Spirit Airlines. At the time he described customers buying the inexpensive tickets they offered as not having the kind of loyalty they were interested in. Later, as head of Spirit, he only wanted the highest fee ones!
- US Airways announced the end to flight bonuses for elite members in 2008 and reversed course. And they even did so retroactively. At the end of 2008 elites all received the flight bonuses they would have earned while the change was in place (May 1 – November 19, 2008).
The wins were happening in the early 2000s, following 9/11 and a recession, and around 2008 as the Great Recession was taking hold. Airlines were weak. Loyalty programs weren’t making big changes to their programs from 2009 through 2012.
What’s different now is that airlines are stronger.
- The federal government handed $59 billion in direct subsidies to airlines, and made another $25 billion available in subsidized loans. That’s on top of tax relief and Fed-induced low cost debt that was available broadly throughout the pandemic.
- Airlines are now making money. Demand for their product is strong, and airline co-brand deals are more lucrative. Delta will receive nearly $7 billion from American Express this year alone.
Delta has leverage. They’re tough negotiators, with suppliers, partners, and also with customers. That’s why they didn’t even feel the need to throw in any sweeteners when they devalued their premium co-brand card’s lounge access and told customers they needed to pay up a lot more or lose status.
So while consumer campaigns against negative changes to frequent flyer programs have worked before, they haven’t worked in recent times, and aren’t likely to work here. Delta will only reverse course if they see reduced spend on their co-brand card portfolio, which hits their bottom line.
What’s also changed — beyond a lot more market concentration/consolidation due to being allowed such the by the government — is that the US federal courts are now even more stacked with corporate apologist judges than before. And so even if the DOJ were to take a stand on behalf of consumers in this market, the US federal courts will tend to support the big companies’ litigation against the government anyway.
there were a half dozen legacy airlines just 20 years ago; today there are 3.
Not only will Delta not back down but American and Delta will follow.
Loyalty programs cost money. The days of very generous loyalty benefits are coming to an end; the highest revenue customers – by passenger ticket and credit card revenue will get bennies but they will be far less generous in the past.
Somehow people forget that Delta initiated the end of travel agent commissions and it wasn’t long before everyone else matched.
Delta just has the revenue and data to know what they can do; others will follow.
with that reality and given it is Saturday, break out another 5th of whiskey
The worse are not the announced changes but the ungodly 6 figure miles needed for even an economy class International one way ticket. They lost my loyalty in 2016 and I collect points only because it’s there.
Gary, spend aside, whose bottom line gets affected if we downgrade or cancel cards (for those with multiple)? (Is it Amex rather than DL?)
It used to make sense to spend on multiple Delta cards for the MQM bonuses and so forth, even if I decide to spend towards status there’s no point in having more than one card now.
@MP – if you cancel a more or less dormant card that isn’t going to harm either party financially. if you stop spending on a card, that hurts both.
I recently hit the 25K waiver number in the Reserve card. With these changes, it won’t see another dollar until I cancel it next year.
@Tim Dunn “Loyalty programs cost money. ”
Airline loyalty programs make money. Delta earned $2.2 billion from SkyMiles in 2022, and less than $1 billion flying.
“Somehow people forget that Delta initiated the end of travel agent commissions and it wasn’t long before everyone else matched.”
Irrelevant to this, here Delta is copying pieces of things American and United have already done on the elite qualification side.
Don’t forget that last year Delta walked back the plan to stop allowing Sky Club access upon arrival. So, at least there’s some hope that they’ll tweak things based on customer feedback.
What surprises me is the conventional wisdom was (and is) that the Amex Plats were crowding the SC’s. UA & AA doesnt have the same problem because there is only one premium card that comes with total access. But we THOUGHT DL couldn’t do anything to combat the overcrowding issue due to the Amex relationship. So, someone please tell me how all of a sudden they can limit the Plats to 6 visits and then render their own co-branded Reserve card useless by setting a 10 visit limit? I’m certainly not keeping that card under those conditions.
@TravelWarr – (1) Delta wears the pants in the relationship, (2) They are making program changes that incentivize spend, so Amex gets something in this trade.
Amex’s involvement just meant it took longer to address than with Delta’s own lounge members.
@Gary In the general case, I would agree BUT to collect MQMs you needed a high-AF card ($250/$550). Even if closed two of the three, and put all the same spend on the remaining one — I’m not saying I will do that, but just for illustrative purposes — that’s atleast $500 less in annual fees that go to someone’s bottom line. In my case, I rarely used the companion passes so it was basically free money for one of them.
of course loyalty programs make money. Delta gets more from its than any other airline’s in the world
but the “reward” side still costs money and Delta, just like every other sponsor of a loyalty program is going to do all it can to reduce the “reward” costs.
And it is precisely because Delta isn’t really inventing anything new with these changes but rather doing the same thing others have – just to a deeper degree.
And it is relevant that Delta led the industry on making dramatic changes to travel agent commissions – and are the most profitable airline in the world.
You yourself accurately note that Delta is a very tough negotiator – they somehow think they should be given maintenance overhaul rights on the Rolls Royce engine that powers the A350-1000 and won’t order as much as they previously said – and maybe none at all – even though no other party has the maintenance rights that Delta wants.
Delta IS a shrewd negotiator which is why the people that think THEY are going to harm Delta by walking away is laughably naive.
@Gary: I get it…but w/o the spend waiver, why would anyone bother? I’m keeping the card till next year since the SC benefit remains and I’ve already locked in my status. But, I will not be putting s dime on the card if I can help it.
A different take.
https://www.godsavethepoints.com/the-multi-year-master-stroke-behind-deltas-skymiles-changes/
Only if ppl take a stance, cancel cards and fly other airlines – you will see some delta execs getting fired and programs getting restructured!
It’s all up to market dynamics and how we react. True there’s a monopoly by the big 3, but you can always sign up for European program even if you fly domestically one of the big 3. And once you try international with Asian, Middle Eastern or European carriers, you will regret ever spending a penny on D1!
Tim Dunn comment 1: “Loyalty programs cost money”
Tim Dunn comment 2 (when called out on the nonsense of comment 1): “of course loyalty programs make money”
@Tim Dunn Do you ever get dizzy pirouetting around like that?
DL was the posterchild of the late teens turn of of the 20s zero interest rate culture that wasn’t sustainable.
Too much liquidity in both the club and elite qualification systems (which lagged too much liquidity in the earned mile system) from the dual Amex Plat and Delta Amex routes for both club and elite qualification.
People who wouldn’t have otherwise qualified on another airline were able to qualify on Delta.
Shortages ensued with too much demand, and quality suffered (lines – in person and on the phone with unreliable hold times) – Delta vapor ware.
Now they’ve stopped the ‘easy money’ policy and are raising the price for lounge access and status to see if they can match what they can reliably supply.
Challenge for them is how much of their recent profit was driven by these perverse incentives they don’t fully understand. i was shocked senior execs said they were ‘confused’ by the MQM + MQD combo status earning methods. If they didn’t understand that, they have no understanding of the complexities of Amex + Delta consumer behavior, and that could bite them.
Time will tell – I don’t have access to the data to say, but based on 2 senior execs at the Morgan Stanley conference saying they didn’t understand MQM + MQD qualification metrics, those with the data – Delta’s management team – don’t fully understand their program either.
Serious question: I’m a DL Million Miler w/5 AmEx Cards. I’m going to start flying United and cancel 4 of the AmEx cards. What the heck is Delta thinking? That the masses are going to be OK with them royally screwing up the Sky Miles program? Why did their “brain trust” (What an oxymoron) initiate a Bud Light time for Delta, when there are so many airline choices? #Stupid
@GUWonder +1
@Gary – You yourself pointed out yesterday that Delta is not even pretending that they’re not screwing everyone else over with no tradeoff as a fig leaf by pretending to offset the big middle finger they’re giving everyone. Unless Delta feels real financial pain there’s just no way they’re going to reverse these moves and even then they may apportion blame to something other than their own shortsighted decisions.
The federal government should take back those subsidies and refund the taxpayers.
I absolutely hate the new Delta changes to Skymiles, as I will no longer be able to maintain my Diamond status.
But as much as I hate to admit it – I can’t blame Delta.
They have a solid brand, popular with enough big spenders who are willing to chip in whatever it takes to maintain the status – and they are thrilled that there will be much less competition in the future.
If everyone has status – noone has status.
Waaaaaaaaah
@Per Clausen – What good does that status do you? I’m EXP with American and I get upgraded about 2/3 of the time. If Delta doesn’t have the seats to upgrade you what are you striving for? More Skymiles?
There’s an interesting article on “God Save the Points”, titled “The Multi-Year Master Stroke Behind Delta’s SkyMiles Changes”, that I found interesting. For some reason Gary won’t postthe link.. Maybe he doesn’t want the competition. Whatever!
James N.
the article should be required reading and it echoes many of the comments I have been saying
a few excerpts
“I really believe it is for Delta and what the airline just pulled off may be one of the master strokes of the decade in air travel.”
“What I believe Delta has proven, which I believe is the crux of this master stroke I speak of, is that building something superior does not need loyalty. If you have the best of the best with your products, loyalty is an icing and cherry on top of a Michelin starred dessert.”
“I am not even a Delta loyalist or regular…Delta has done is to use it’s entire business to create a product people won’t leave. Not easily! Let me lay out why I think Delta is the best airline in the US right now:
truly good free WiFi on all flights for simply joining Delta SkyMiles
typically the best on-time performance of any US airline
currently the best business class experience among US airlines
world leading in-app capabilities for flight changes, upgrades and more
most choice in SkyClubs for personalizing experience (premium options)
competitive credit card program driving butt in seat benefits
economy offerings that don’t feel degrading or cheap
staff that feel empowered thanks to profit sharing
CLEAR airport security benefits for top tier elites.”
“What I’m saying is that if every “big time” DYKWIA road warrior who thinks Delta is giving them the middle finger wants to leave, they can — but they’ve gotta check their ego versus what they’ll experience with other airlines.”
“The master stroke played by Delta here was putting years of product and tech work into creating the best product and sharing that vision with their loyalty and co-brand card teams. Once the flying side of the business was at optimal competitive advantage, Delta hit “go” on a loyalty program that won’t please everyone, but will almost certainly bring in more money which can be reinvested in richer benefits for those who Delta thinks deserves them.”
there you have it. the only thing he didn’t mention is the significant increases in market share in several of the top revenue markets in the country and added on even more small and medium sized cities where they will continue to grow which American cannot match because they do not have the planes coming in to do so.
Delta knows what it is doing, studied lots of data, and will make more money while other airlines drop further and further behind Delta
@Tim Dunn. Amen. I just flew Delta this week from SAN to EWR via DTW. There wasn’t one Sky Club ambassador, staff or crew member that didn’t put on a great face for DL. A PDB was offered on both flights. All the clubs were well staffed and NOT crowded. The new Sky Club in EWR was a WOW! A beautiful food selection with Smoked Salmon…my favorite. Delta is climbing to the top of the domestic market…if they aren’t already there.
Yes, shouldn’t blame a business for being a business. A business doesn’t deserve your loyalty – only those that will go to jail for you – meaning only your mom and maybe your spouse lol – deserve your loyalty. Chasing status with these businesses is not a fruitful pursuit for most people.
I am experiencing schadenfreude over all of this because there is a certain smugness to the DAL obsession. But I also can’t honestly tell you how much of my self worth is tied up in being EXP, so if this happened to me I don’t know how I would feel. I can see this from all angles.
Yikes…get a grip here…wow smoked salmon? Who cares? This is about a company throwing the dice that they are so good at what they do that they can tighten the clamps on the program. If they succeed…good on them. But as a betting man….and a DL loyalist (till this week ) I can honestly tell u they were always just the least suckiest of the big 3. Now…IMO…they just moved to #1 suckiest. It hurts…but I’m a big boy and I can move on!
Some of these comments are funny….. so people fly Delta just to see the smiling faces of crew members lol
Flying is about getting from point A to point B as efficiently and comfortably as possible. People don’t fly just so they can have a great lounge experience, no airport lounge is a Michelin quality restaurant, period. $30k in airfare spend just for top status with the only real “perk” a decent lounge experience? Come on. Best of luck to them if they pull their changes off, I however will wait a few years before calling them a rousing success.
I hold Delta’s platinum card, and have Silver status, which gets my wife and me upgraded to premium economy about 1/2 the time we fly. We save a few hundred hundred bucks more than the card fee on the companion ticket. We fly Delta whenever we can unless their fares were way more expensive than United’s, but still need the 25K spend and associated 10K MQMs to maintain status. Now, I’ll probably keep the Platinum card for the companion fare, but won’t go out my way to fly Delta, and will only spend what I need to fly on the card. I don’t need more devalued Skymiles and spending for Delta status is now out of the question. So that $20K+ spend will now go to Capital One/Visa to earn 40+ K of transferrable points.
I don’t chase miles using a credit card because of a cost benefit analysis many years ago (I prefer cash back on credit cards). The only mileage program I truly liked was WorldPerks. When it was dismantled by Delta buying NWA, I used up the miles I had, even buying a few miles to get what I wanted, and let the account go dormant. I prefer to use the miles as a discount on the next ticket but you have to be careful about that because the airlines sometimes jack up the price of the tickets to get even more of your money when you use miles.
Get rid of the little people/bottom feeders who don’t spend enough
Delta wants the high rev folks
All others move to the back of the bus!
See y’all at the back of the bus and gate area the new vip area!
If United makes a similar change I think a lawsuit for Anticompetitive practices may be in order.
@ Gary — Starting next year, Miles & More SEN can be earned for 25 domestic United J segments (ANY J fare class) plus ~2 M&M group (Swiss, Lufthansa, Austrian, Brussels, etc.) US-EUR J roundtrips (ANY J fare class). SEN status comes with F check-in, extra baggage allowance, free seat assignments, 2 evoucher upgrades, additional mileage earning, access to LH F awards in advance, additional award availability, 50% off companion awards, and Star Alliance lounge access globally, including United Clubs on domestic trips. If you buy cheap tickets, this should be attainable for around $8k-$12k spend. More awards can be earned for more travel, including more evouchers, bonus award miles, Frequent Traveller status for a friend/spouse/family member, and SEN status for a friend/spouse/family member.
No revenue to keep track of, just good old-fashioned segments, and free lounge access without a credit card annual fee. I dont know about you, but I know what status I will be earning next year instead of Delta and United.
Was I totally crazy chasing Diamond (just to have it). by charging over $1 million over 6 DL AX cards? They really do convince you that you are getting something, but you really aren’t. I pay First class anyway and I really don’t even fly this fake airline much. I could have earned a minimum of 1 million more miles on my AX PLT, CSR, VentureX and my BOA Premier gives me 2.625% cash back. I pissed away alot of money and points over emotion and Keeping up with Joneses.
This change was a wake up call to stop doing stupid stuff by enriching an evil corporation. Not saying UA or AA are any better, but I would have been better off putting the $1 million on their cards.
What a fool I have been!! $2700 worth of annual fees will go away and I can buy alot of tickets with my BOA rebate of $26250. I can buy their crappy lounge outright (but I won’t because it sucks).
Delta and AX will still have fools that put their charges on those cards thinking they are actually getting something for it. But let’s hope other people like me put aside the ego and foolishness and make decisions without emotion. Cut up those cards!
@ZTravel:
“Only if ppl take a stance, cancel cards and fly other airlines – you will see some delta execs getting fired and programs getting restructured!
It’s all up to market dynamics and how we react”
I’m always amused by the brave talk and chest beating about doing this or doing that when something negative like this happens – fact of the matter is that most of the talkers will do nothing and there aren’t enough of the doers to have an effect on the change.
The hard truth is that, much more so than sellers cartels, buyers cartels never work because there are a lot more cheaters.
When I’m aggravated with a corporation, I always remember Edward, Lord Thurlow’s pearl of wisdom:
“Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned, they therefore do as they like”
And you’re absolutely right about flying foreign carriers and I’ll add that the same goes for foreign hotels and guesthouses, which is why I’ve re-thought my retirement plans to completely ignore the U.S. for travel. I’ll grudgingly fly a domestic carrier for a positioning flight but beyond that, it’s foreign carriers all the way and foreign countries for my leisure and tourism spend; won’t make a shred of difference to anyone but me but I’ll be happy.
The only people who will qualify for benefits with these changes are those who already have the benefits due to the type of tickets they are buying.
I am done with loyalty programs – no more chasing “status”. I’m Gold with a Reserve Card now. I’ll keep those benefits next year, but after that no and after that I’ll just be buying the best tickets for my needs regardless of carrier.
Yes, you were unquestionably crazy to charge over $1 million over 6 DL AX cards just to have the Diamond status, especially if you purchased First class tickets that automatically gave you most, if not all, the benefits of a Diamond status. In fact, it was worse than “crazy”. It was utterly boneheaded considering the exorbitantly — in fact, prohibitively — high “opportunity cost” of spending that kind of money on cards that got you a mile per buck…
It’s folks like you who have emboldened DL into thinking that their blatantly anti-loyalty schemes are a winning formula, leading them to simply double down, as reflected in their latest programmatic changes.
No person that plays the miles/points game with “full deck” would patronize SkyMiles — it’s anathema to the whole concept of the loyalty game.
As a Platinum flyer out of BNA, I will be cancelling my DL AmEx due to these changes. I have dialed back my DL flying due to a SWA companion pass and the availability of so many direct flights in Nashville. I do admit DL is the better of the big four, but they were already charging for that. My loyalty will go to SWA somewhat, but it will mostly go to whoever has the best flight schedules to get me where I am going.
The only way to get DL to modify skypesos is to cancel your Amex cards. DL does not care about customer feedback because they have too many hub captives and corporate contracts. But they do care about the billions they receive from Amex. Tell everyone you know to cancel their cards and to tell Amex why they are cancelling.
It would probably also help if UA and AA ran ad campaigns touting how much better their programs are but lounge access affects a very small # of customers so I see that as unlikely.
Seems as though there’s a lot of talk about cancelling Amex cards at the start of next year. Perhaps some of you could start a Dump Delta Day (which would actually be Dump Amex day) and watch the impact of 1000’s accounts being discontinued in hours. Just wondering out loud. I have an Amex card too but it is nothing of value. I would still discontinue it if a day is organized.
When i became a million miler a few years and lifetime silver with it, I started choosing flights for convenience and cost. I have had an AmEx Platinum for years and charge everything possible on it, but usually not enough to get gold because you still need 50,000 MQMs, not 25,000 on top of the lifetime silver. Ain’t no way now. No real reason to pay for the AmEx card. Should have cancelled it when I became a million miler.
I typically pay for premium seats anyway. Wonder why you aren’t getting as many upgrades? Have you noticed they will offer you more premium seats shortly before your flight for far less than they would have cost when you booked? They are filling a lot of those seats for dollars instead of free upgrades.
Now there is only one reason for me to get on a Delta plane, cost and convenience departure time and total travel time. It’s only a few hours and my object is point A to point B then have fun.
I’m tired of playing the Skymiles game. You need a bazillion to go anywhere anyway. Plus getting my AnEx turned down. What good is it?
Modern life:
Bennies flow to the top
You get less for more
I think some people are forgetting that the reserve card gets you a free companion first class lower 48 ticket. That in itself is more than the cost of the annual fee of the reserve card. So, delta can keep devaluing points, limiting club access, etc, but the reserve card is still worth it even without all that, and without spending a dime on the card. I can definitely see them raising the fee again soon though….and then the value proposition can be revisited.
That’s a bummer, because just three weeks ago I decided to switch from United to Delta, so I no longer have to schlep myself to EWR when flying anywhere, when JFK is just 20 minutes away. I flew Delta for the first time in 20 years, used my Platinum Amex to access the lounge and was impressed about the service. As a 30 year loyal United flyer I never used the Delta perks that come with the card, and my proximity to JFK made me decide to switch airlines.
I guess I will still continue to fly Delta though, because JFK is still much closer than EWR – even if I can’t get into the lounge anymore, unless I pay up.
Lee:
Props to you for ‘fessing up to your prior unthinking status chasing. Countless others do the same, but most aren’t honest or self-aware enough to admit it. Hopefully your example will help some of these folks reach the same realization.
All those considering cancelling your cards:
Remember, you have the option also to downgrade from the Platinum or Reserve Amex cards to the Gold. That preserves your 15% delta metal redemption bonus, your credit line, and your age of account with a much lower AF. AND, Amex will almost surely offer you a nice upgrade bonus at some point.
The word LOYALTY means nothing to Delta – they don’t care. Interesting I saw an article sent by the CEO of Amex Mr Steve Squeri when he contacted Warren Buffet and told him that Amex was having a problem with their profitability and he wanted to warn Warren Buffet, who is a 20% shareholder in Amex. Reply from Warren Buffet – one of the smartest men in the world
replied “the most important thing is to take care of your customers and your brand. It’s hard to get customers back and once you damage the brand it is damaged. Just put customers first”.
But will Delta care – they don’t live for today – they live for yesterday
Shame – the poor ostriches in the boardrooms don’t realize what is coming down the pike. This time next year the airline industry is going to be fiercely on fire. Too late – they don’t care – it always dangerous to think you
are smarter than others. CEO of Delta and his team are in for a shock
Thank goodness there are other loyalty programs around
Amex should warn Delta they are in for a hiding.
Why ruin such a good product. This is blatant stupidity and greed.
Michael Menof
Tim Dunn believes a lot of these things make people fly Delta. Which they did. And now they don’t. I am a 20 year loyal Delta flyer. I have a Delta Reserve credit card to get myself (and to pay for my wife) to get into the Sky Club when we travel. I also have a business Platinum card both of which I will now cancel because they are pretty much useless. The big benefit was the MQMs received with them (and the SkyClub access with the Reserve card) and now both of those are essentially being taken away. I spend almost $1,000 just on the fees and well over $100k on purchases that will get me 10,000 MQDs. Wow. Your analysis is so far off the mark, it is ridiculous
“I really believe it is for Delta and what the airline just pulled off may be one of the master strokes of the decade in air travel.”
See below
“What I believe Delta has proven, which I believe is the crux of this master stroke I speak of, is that building something superior does not need loyalty. If you have the best of the best with your products, loyalty is an icing and cherry on top of a Michelin starred dessert.”
See below
“I am not even a Delta loyalist or regular…Delta has done is to use it’s entire business to create a product people won’t leave. Not easily! Let me lay out why I think Delta is the best airline in the US right now:
truly good free WiFi on all flights for simply joining Delta SkyMiles
– The Wifi has been and still is awful, despite it being “free”. I am an IT professional and cannot count how many times I cannot connect. I do not even try now, so that surely is not an advantage..
typically the best on-time performance of any US airline
– That is good. But can people really graviate to that? There are so many reasons, you would take a different airline. Is $50 fare difference enough to keep you on one airline? Probably. But if that airline just destroyed your allegiance to them as Delta just did, then no.
currently the best business class experience among US airlines
– Debateable.
world leading in-app capabilities for flight changes, upgrades and more
– Again, maybe something that would make a difference for a loyal traveler, but not someone that is not
most choice in SkyClubs for personalizing experience (premium options)
– Not if you cannot go to them unless you are Diamond which is almost unattainable except for the most frequent travelers
competitive credit card program driving butt in seat benefits
– Absolutely not anymore. I will cancel both of my cards once they change the benefits.
economy offerings that don’t feel degrading or cheap
– OK
staff that feel empowered thanks to profit sharing
-Yes the staff is great. Will they be when they have a bunch of non loyal customers that don’t have benefits filling their planes?
CLEAR airport security benefits for top tier elites.”
– Useless and available with many other credit cards. TSA Precheck is worth it, but Clear is not
Want lounge access, cancel your high fee Amex card and buy a Sky Clubs membership. However, I think the better path is cancel all Delta Amex cards and shift loyalty to another airline.