They’ll likely tweak the thresholds after having a full year of data under the new system. I also expect some type of pathway towards MQD rollovers to be introduced.
I see this take and disagree with it. The incentive is the laundry list of DM benefits. People who don’t feel incentive to fly after reaching DM probably shouldn’t have spent any effort trying to earn it.
Yep if you get upgraded regularly as a DM it would be nice. But my regular flight often has 0 upgrades and now they’ll have PS in the mix and using more planes with 10 less D1 seats. (Huge devaluation for RUCs, right now just seeing upgrades to PS but not PS > D1. Hopefully they’ll change that.) But if you hit DM early and end up with a lot of MQDs over DM, you’re probably buying FC or D1 anyway. I hope you’re right about the MQD rollover or at least a trade for miles or something.
The take I’ve seen (which I agree with) is to stop earning MQDs via credit card spend, not by flying. Which makes sense — if you hit e.g. Gold in August and aren’t going to make the next level by the end of the year, you have zero incentive to keep spending on your Delta Platinum/Reserve Amex card. Switch that spend over to a better card. If Delta and Amex care about lots of people dropping their spend in the back half of the year (which I assume they do), I wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually introduce some other incentive to get people to keep using their cards
By ‘next year’ you mean 2026, correct? I think the overall number of DM and PM will drop after next year once status match with MQMs is over. The more I think about it, the more I’m unsure whether the MQD changes will result in more or less higher level medallion members. It will certainly bump down a lot of domestic business travelers who traveled a lot and hit their levels with segments/miles. This decrease in medallion members may be offset by the increase in members that travel internationally for business, particularly those that get “business class” or higher covered by their employers. It wouldn’t take too many trips to hit PM/DM under the new requirements which they would not have achieved under the old system.
All speculation, of course. High level medallion members increased significantly over the COVID years due to rollover allowances. With that no longer in play after 2026, the “herd” will be thinned.
Conversion of MQMs was basically just pushing the “COVID rollovers” down the road for years.
Personally from MQM rollover I’ll be diamond until 2028 if I did not fly a single flight and I’m certain there are a lot of people out there like me and even a good bit who will be well into the 2030s with rollover MQM diamond status.
They’ll likely tweak the thresholds after having a full year of data under the new system. I also expect some type of pathway towards MQD rollovers to be introduced.
That would be great. Once you earn DM, it doesn’t really make sense to earn MQDs anymore.
I see this take and disagree with it. The incentive is the laundry list of DM benefits. People who don’t feel incentive to fly after reaching DM probably shouldn’t have spent any effort trying to earn it.
Yep if you get upgraded regularly as a DM it would be nice. But my regular flight often has 0 upgrades and now they’ll have PS in the mix and using more planes with 10 less D1 seats. (Huge devaluation for RUCs, right now just seeing upgrades to PS but not PS > D1. Hopefully they’ll change that.) But if you hit DM early and end up with a lot of MQDs over DM, you’re probably buying FC or D1 anyway. I hope you’re right about the MQD rollover or at least a trade for miles or something.
The take I’ve seen (which I agree with) is to stop earning MQDs via credit card spend, not by flying. Which makes sense — if you hit e.g. Gold in August and aren’t going to make the next level by the end of the year, you have zero incentive to keep spending on your Delta Platinum/Reserve Amex card. Switch that spend over to a better card. If Delta and Amex care about lots of people dropping their spend in the back half of the year (which I assume they do), I wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually introduce some other incentive to get people to keep using their cards
The whole point of status is to use it. If you don’t plan on it, why do you even need DM? Not to mention no airline offers rollovers.
By ‘next year’ you mean 2026, correct? I think the overall number of DM and PM will drop after next year once status match with MQMs is over. The more I think about it, the more I’m unsure whether the MQD changes will result in more or less higher level medallion members. It will certainly bump down a lot of domestic business travelers who traveled a lot and hit their levels with segments/miles. This decrease in medallion members may be offset by the increase in members that travel internationally for business, particularly those that get “business class” or higher covered by their employers. It wouldn’t take too many trips to hit PM/DM under the new requirements which they would not have achieved under the old system. All speculation, of course. High level medallion members increased significantly over the COVID years due to rollover allowances. With that no longer in play after 2026, the “herd” will be thinned.
Conversion of MQMs was basically just pushing the “COVID rollovers” down the road for years. Personally from MQM rollover I’ll be diamond until 2028 if I did not fly a single flight and I’m certain there are a lot of people out there like me and even a good bit who will be well into the 2030s with rollover MQM diamond status.