Is Delta Air Lines status worth it? What this disappointed soon-to-be-Diamond thinks

05.10.2023 - 19:19 / thepointsguy.com / Diamond / Delta

Call me a disgruntled Delta Diamond ... well, almost a Diamond.

For the first time this year, I've stretched to make Delta's top-tier published status level. I've been doing irrational things like old-school mileage runs and buying upgrades on routes I normally wouldn't just so I could, for the first time in my life, make it to Diamond. And I'm close. I expect to achieve my dream and enter the Diamond ranks by mid-November.

But now I feel like the rug was pulled out from under me, and I'm not happy. In fact, it has made me wonder if pursuing any kind of status with Delta Air Lines is worth it anymore, given how dramatically and quickly the rule book changes.

The huge new restrictions on club access and the increased status requirements — coming on top of dramatic negative changes to SkyMiles over the years, have me rethinking my Delta loyalty altogether.

As you have undoubtedly heard, Delta announced some brutal changes to several aspects of its program and partners last month. It will no longer be about how much you fly but rather all about how much you spend.

First, Delta is making status much harder to achieve.

Starting in 2024, you'll need to earn 6,000 Medallion Qualification Dollars just to reach the lowest Silver tier. That's about the same as spending $6,000 with the program. It's a whopping 35,000 in MQDs for Diamond status. Just to give you an idea of how much that has increased in just a few years, it was just $12,500 in spend to reach Diamond status when Delta first rolled out spending requirements in 2014.

All in all, Delta is making achieving status almost impossible for most of us mere mortals. SkyMiles is now for the truly wealthy or those who can put business expenses (and a whole lot of them) on one of Delta's credit cards.

Now, there will be ways to spend your way to status on cobranded credit cards. However, it's so much spend that you'll need to be wealthy to achieve status that way — or at least have a small business with a lot of charges to put on Delta credit cards.

You'd need to charge $350,000 in a year on your Delta credit card to get Diamond status, and that's only if you hold The Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card or the business version of that card. If you have the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, you'd need to spend a whopping $750,000.

Platinum cardholders will also no longer get any club access, so that card is not really the right one if you continue to be serious about sticking with Delta.

Related: TPG's guide to getting started with points, miles and credit cards

There's an opportunity cost to consider, too, even if you could make that spending work. Most spend on those cards gives you just one mile for each dollar you spend. That's a